In a bid to support Nigeria to position culture at the centre of its development strategies, UNESCO Regional Office, Abuja in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture organized a workshop on “The Draft Reviewed National Policy on Culture” in July 2018. The workshop, which aimed at supporting the country to expedite the adoption, approval and implementation of the draft culture Policy, brought together stakeholders from relevant organizations and the government of Rivers State.
The Regional Director emphasized that culture can only play its role effectively if governments make deliberate and conscious efforts to meet cultural needs by making use of institutional resources available and ensures that the nation’s cultural policy is approved and implemented to the letter.
He further described as imperative the need to update and validate the pre-existing National Culture Policy for Nigeria in view of the fact that it was produced since 1988. The Director urged the responsible stakeholders to do the needful to expedite the passage process of the Culture Policy by the Federal Executive Council, as this would go a long way in ensuring that the policy becomes a living, operational document, rather than mere words on paper.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Culture, Deaconess Grace Gekpe, represented by Mr. Sallau Makan acknowledged the tremendous efforts UNESCO had exhibited to support the Culture sector in Nigeria. He informed the stakeholders that Nigeria’s reviewed draft National policy on culture was at the verge of conclusion, as the policy document was ready for the approval of the Federal Executive Council.
The highpoint of the programme was the presentation of the broad overview of the draft National Culture policy on Culture by a top management officer in the Ministry, Mr. Ralph Fubara Wilcox. This paved way for the stakeholders’ discussion on the implementation strategy of the culture policy and subsequent production of a communique on the effective implementation of the reviewed draft National Policy on culture when approved and adopted by the nation’s Federal Executive Council. The communique, which detailed the proposed steps to achieve full adoption and implementation of the reviewed and updated National Policy on Culture for Nigeria, was shared with relevant stakeholders and partners including but not limited to ECOWAS, UNDP, AFDB etc.