Onyebuchi Ezigbo
29 August 2007
Abuja — The Federal Government has solicited assistance of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), in the development of relevant capacities in the country's cultural sector.
Minister for Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, said government required assistance of the UN agency in training and capacity build-up of its personnel, to adequately take responsibilities in the emerging cultural revolution.
"We need this training, because we are trying to develop a whole body of capacities and man-power development. We need training for up to 50 persons to assist in handling the programme," he said.
The training programme is in line with an earlier agreement between the Federal Government and UNESCO in May this year and for which Nigeria is to provide $3million for the development of the cultural sector.
For instance, he said in the next two months, we shall be rolling out our cultural calendar for 2008, to capture all prominent cultural festivals in the country.
"We are proposing to have about 12 cultural festivals on a national level by next year," he said.He said the cultural project is being packaged as a stand-alone project and the Ministry will need personnel with relevant capacities to handle the various aspects of the project.
According to him, though Nigeria may not at present be the cultural centre of the world but that its potentials in the field of cultural heritage is about the best in the whole world.The Minister expressed optimism that with the approach being adopted by the present administration, Nigeria will certainly become the cultural hub of the world in the next 4 years."We want to work in the next 4 years to develop our culture and take it beyond the level it is right to a level where it can be able to not only lift the image of this country but also be a veritable revenue earner", he said.
Representative of UNESCO in Nigeria, Mr. Abhimanyu Singh, while accepting to collaborate in the capacity build-up, suggested that an evaluation study be carried out to find out what kinds of skills are needed before the actual training commences.
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