Invest in Tourism, Culture — Ife Museum Curator urges FG

By Jeleel Olawale

The Federal Government of Nigeria has been urged to invest in tourism and cultural industry to increase the internally generated revenue of the government and rejuvenate the cultural heritage of the country.

Mr Ogunmola Dada made the call in Ile-Ife while speaking with Nigerian NewsDirect, he said federal government needs to diversify and make the sector a core revenue generation sector, saying culture and tourism is an area where government should invest to attract foreign investors to boost the economy of the country. Government will get more fund if it funded our tourism and culture sectors.

According to him, government needs to fund the sector because funding is very important. Tourism budget in foreign countries is very high but reverse is the case in Nigeria. There is need to increase budget of culture and tourism to further boost the sector.

“Government can bring foreign investors to invest in tourism and cultural sector to boost the government internally generated revenue and end over reliance on oil. The security and infrastructure must be improved to boost tourism development in the country.

“Tourism is one of the sectors the East African countries depended on, as major source of revenue generation. It is also a source of revenue for Caribbean. The insecurity in Nigeria has reduced level of people visiting the tourism sites in the country. Road also affecting the sector which could make people access the heritage sites.

“Our people go to DUBAI because of the tourism attraction there but we have the tourism attraction that is better than the United Arab Emirate,” he said.

Ogunmola noted that the contribution of Museum to the development of culture is enormous, it cannot be quantified either financially or otherwise, adding that in the area of education, museum has been put in a lot of exhibition to educate public about social ills and the best way to correct them. It is also a way of impacting knowledge to school age. People need education on the usefulness of museum collections, the artifacts kept in museum.

Ogunmola who is the curator of Ife National Museum said, people do not understand importance of each object in the museum but a lot was embedded in it. He averred that museum gives more information on the usefulness of each object to the existence of man.

“Many do not understand functions perform by each object. Some of the objects revealed significant historical event that happened in the past for people to know. The museum is trying in the publication of our historical facts, cultural festivals, and event.

“The European wrote our history but all they wrote were not correct about us. They described most of our museum connections as idols, they were not idols but they were part and parcel of our history. It is like when you keep books in the library. They are aspects of our history that inform us what happened at a particular time.

“Our people have been brainwashed, the British missionary that painted museum connections as idols, they were still same persons that took away most of our museum connections. They kept them in their museums which served source of income for them.

“When it is on their soil, they were no longer idols because it brings them income. These objects remind people who they are. All these objects were not idols but ways of how things were in the past.”

He stated that the global economy is affecting the museum industry, adding that the finance is not adequate for museum. It may not be adequate because there are a lot of things that are done in the museum that gulp fund.

“Museum financing should not be left for government alone but private sector, local government, community, where the museum is located should be responsible.”

The curator believes that it is only in Nigeria that government finance museum. The limited fund has to be distributed into different sections of the museum which is affecting the sector. Exhibition involves huge amount of money, and maintaining all monument and heritage requires a lot of money. The NGOs, communities, and stakeholders need to come together to rescue the sector.

He noted that technology has immensely helped expanding the scope of museum operations in terms of collections and programme. So, internet is a plus to museum development in Nigeria.

“People are not visiting the museum as it obtained in the past as a result of insecurity which is one of the obstacles that is hindering museum patronage. Foreigners and local tourists are afraid of visiting the sector due to insecurity that has enveloped the country. This has reduced revenue generation because tourists do not visit the museum as against the past,” he declared.

He called on government to continue to support tourism and cultural heritage so that our past would not be easily forgetting.