HOW much can the products of culture be used as tools to addressing the challenges of the time? Is it possible to use arts and culture in providing solutions to the prevailing social problems of unemployment, youth restiveness, poverty, national integration and unity in diversity? Does the greatest challenge facing the Nigerian nation today transcend that of maintenance of territorial integrity to contending with the monstrous activities of the present day youths? If so, what has been the position of government in addressing these issues?
These were some of the thought-provoking questions that participants attempted to provide answers to at the colloquium organized as part of activities that marked this year’s National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST), which rounded off in Makurdi, Benue State, last week. Given the theme of this year’s festival, which revolved around “Culture, Job Creation and Youth Empowerment,” the question of using culture as a means to addressing certain national malaises was brought to the fore. And of course, the various papers presented at the forum apart from critically re-examining the imperative role culture plays in any society, also provided useful insights into what could be done to jumpstart job creation and empowerment of the youths in Nigeria.
As expressed by the Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, from the outset, the colloquium was not just conceived to address such challenges of developing our cultural industries to dovetail into the present administration's developmental pursuits, but more importantly to see how government can empower the youths economically as a way of dousing the resurgence of violence and restiveness that have become the order of the day in the country.
Among the various papers delivered at the forum, Professor Pita Ejiofor’s presentation aptly addressed the subject matter of the conference. In his paper titled, Job Creation and Youth Empowerment, Prof. Ejiofor, who is the immediate past vice-chancellor, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka decried the increasing rate at which unemployment and poverty are threatening to destroy the well-being of the entire citizenry and, therefore, called on government to declare unemployment a national disaster. He said, “the greatest challenge facing the Nigerian nation today is no more the maintenance of territorial integrity as in the late sixties or the production of high level manpower as before the eighties or overcoming her pariah status and being reintegrated into the comity of nations as in the late nineties. It is not even the still deplorable road network or epileptic power. It is youth unemployment.”
Continuing, Prof. Ejiofor added, “while the average unemployment rate in developed countries in 2003 was 2.15 per cent with countries like the United Kingdom and USA recording as low as 1.2 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively, the UNDP conservatively puts the unemployment rate in Nigeria at 47-48 per cent of the labour force.” The magnitude, according to him, appears so overwhelming that it requires the government to declare unemployment a “national disaster.” For the lecturer, the social consequences of the disaster are all over the place as can been seen in; “increasing number of women of easy virtue, sex trade, prostitution and the rising incidence of AIDS, youths violence, armed robbery and so on.”
While arguing that government’s youth employment programme has not been a protective clothing against the institutional problems of business management in Nigeria, the former UNIZIK vice-chancellor underscored the various efforts made by the government to tackle the problem of unemployment in the country, describing such efforts as being “too feeble and peripheral, nibbling the problem instead of confronting it.”
Noting that his presentation attempts to caution against the dangers of theatricals, sloganeering, peripheral treatment, a self-deluding approach to a problem as explosive and hydra-headed as present day employment, Prof. Ejiofor further asserted that the root cause of unemployment in Nigeria ought to have been sought out and tackled ever before now. He reasoned, “to create jobs and empower youths, policy makers in Nigeria have to ask themselves the question, why are there no more jobs for the youth?”
To tackle the problem of unemployment in Nigeria, Professor Ejiofor reasoned that there is need for government to embark on a massive campaign for the patronage of locally made goods as well as steeped endeavour towards re-invigorating skill acquisition centres across the country and entrepreneurial training programmes in addition to the setting up in the Presidency, a bureau for patronage of locally made products to check the influx of foreign made goods into the country as another way of encouraging the growth of local industries.
Other eminent scholars that spoke at the forum includes Professor Akinwumi Isola, Professor Ben Ekanem of the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, and Dr. Armstrong Matiu Adejo whose presentation advocated the need for the re-orientation of the people on the nation’s value system as the pillar from which, “we shall change our paradigm, improve our thought pattern and ensure a wealth creation mindset.”
While Professor Akinwumi Isola’s presentation entitled Cultural Education and Development, explored the role culture plays in society, Professor Ekanem’s Craft Development, Youth Empowerment and Tourism Promotion: The Road Not Taken, not only appraised the various factors affecting craft promotion in Nigeria, but importantly established a strong link between craft, skill acquisition, generation of employment and youth empowerment in addition to positioning tourism promotion in relation to youth empowerment.
Professor Isola, in his presentation frowned at the neglect of indigenous languages in Nigeria, attributing this pitfall to the fatal effects of interventions like the slave trade, colonialism and the advent of two foreign religions which according to him overwhelmingly undermined the development and progressive capacities of African culture. According to him, while colonialism completely took over the minds and hearts of Africans through an unsuitable system of education, this lack of competence in the mother tongue has, according to him, led to the loss of some valuable literary genres and other precious ‘souvenirs” of language.
He says, “the mother tongue was enthusiastically degraded and English was moved to the centre stage. It became the price of anyone who could stammer some innocuous phrase to the entry of the stupefied illiterate.” Though accusing government of its inability to enforce the provisions of its policy on Education, Professor Isola, however, noted that the problem of cultural imperialism has made the elites in society and government to continue to tolerate the aggressive literary colonization of our educational system. “The tragedy is that there is now hardly any solid culture to go back to.
The long neglect of culture by the elite always ready to tolerate cultural bastardization has taken its toll. The illiterate masses possess respectable repertoire of English words and phrases with which they spice their speech in the mother tongue. Very few Nigerian men and women can now sustain two minutes of conversation without careless code-mixing and code-switching,” stressed the erudite Professor.
As the first Professor of Yoruba Language in Nigeria, Professor Isola argued that the cultural education of the child cannot succeed in a culturally hostile environment. Rather, he posited that “we must therefore adopt a holistic approach to cultural re-orientation in the society to create a friendly atmosphere for the child to internalize the humane virtues in our cultural heritage.”
