By Collins Yakubu-Hammer,
Dr Paul Dike, the former Director-General, National Gallery of Arts recently observed that the country’s museums and monuments had suffered neglect.
At a meeting on preserving tangible cultural heritage in Nigeria in Abuja organised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), he noted that museums in Nigeria were faced with financial crunch and low patronage for several years.
“More than 60 monuments in Nigeria, including Sukur in Adamawa, Kano City Wall, Benin Molds and Uhafia buildings, among others, are falling apart due to neglect. The museums do not earn a lot and were poorly funded,’’ he said.
Stakeholders, therefore, advise that as oil price continues to drop in the international market, there is the need to revolutionise the state of the museums in the country and give them the power to generate revenue.
According to them, countries such as South Africa, South Korea and others, generate revenues from visitors and tourists to their museums and monuments.
They note that since a museum is a place where the history of a people is preserved for posterity, learning and education, it ought to be repositioned to attract tourists and generate more revenue.
In view this, Malam Yusuf Usman, the Director-General, National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), said government establishments, corporate bodies and individuals had cultivated the habit of setting up museums.
At the inauguration of the commission’s committee on private museums and gallery recently in Abuja, he said: “Some agencies of the Federal Government such as Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service and Federal Inland Revenue Services, among others, have started the process of owning museum.’’
Usman said that for a private museum to be established the first thing was to fill a form with the NCMM and the process will begin.
In spite of this policy, Dr Carol Okeke, the Curator, Owerri National Museum said that there were more than 48 museums across the country.
The national museums are located in Lagos, Jos, Umuahia, Benin City, Kaduna, National Museum Owerri and Aba, among others.
Most of these museums have notables and remarkable collections of Nigerian arts, culture, artifacts, archeological and ethnographic features.
For instance, the War Museum at Umuahia, Abia, has armed forces gallery, the civil war gallery, traditional warfare gallery and Ojukwu Bunker, used during the civil war.
Okeke observed that in spite of their rich gallery, it was unfortunate that Nigerian museums did not earn revenue in the tourism sector.
She noted that the Act that established the museum did not give it power to generate revenue but it could collaborate with other organisation to carrying out activities.
Corroborating Okeke, Usman said at a meeting of Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria in Abuja in 2015 that museums were not managed well to generate revenue.
“When tourists come to the country; they pay for taxes, hotels and flight, but when they come to museum and attend festivals it is free,’’ he said.
To reposition museums in the country, Dike called for awareness and sensitisation of Nigerians to the importance of regular visits to museums.
In his opinion, Mr Seyi Womiloju, Director of Cultural Industries and Heritage in the Ministry of Information and Culture, suggested that Nigeria ought to emulate South Korea, China and other countries in Europe that displayed souvenirs for sale at their museums and monuments.
“I visited a museum in Singapore; you will pay before you enter; once you enter, it is a delight.
“It will tell you the history of Singapore; from how the country started, the fishermen and when the people went to Malaysia to learn how things are being done.
“It will also tell you about the founder of Malaysia. By the time you are coming out of the museum, there are souvenirs for you to buy,’’ Womiloju said.
The need for revenue generation from museums has, nonetheless, motivated NCMM and Diasfunds Africa Ltd. to establish African Heritage Digital Museum (AHDM).
During the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding in Abuja, the founder of Diasfunds, Mr Obinali Egele, said Nigerian could generate more than 3 million dollars annually from AHDM.
He explained that the NCMM would provide picture images of artifacts and other items that would be uploaded in the AHDM portal.
According to him people from any part of the world can access the museum via the internet and such people would want to come to Nigeria and visit the actual museums.
Usman said the AHDM would be ready for inauguration on May 18, 2016 which is the International Museum Day.
“Users of the images in the museum shall pay by per click. With users from the entire globe, foreign countries will start paying us for they allegedly looted previously.
“This has shown that museums have the potential to contribute positively to the Gross Domestic Product of the country.
“AHDM only requires constant awareness by the NCMM and collaboration with private sector to encourage Nigerians to visit the museum across the country.
“For instance, if 70 million people out of more than 170 million Nigerians visit museums twice in a month and each person paysN200 to enter, the government would make approximately N1.4 trillion monthly.
“With such earning from the museums alone, the Federal Government would have more than enough funds to provide social amenities and improve the living standard of its people,’’ he said.
All in all, stakeholders insist that the government needs to provide more funding for NCMM to maintain museums and sensitise Nigerians to the need to visit them to generate more revenue.(NANFeatures)