Culture worker urges Adenuga, Elumelu Dangote, Ovia, others to set up Nigerian culture centres abroad

* Urges Minister Hannatu Musawa to convene Business-Meets-Culture confab

By Godwin Okondo

JOURNALIST and author of children’s book Igho Goes to Farm and poetry collection Libations for Africa Mr. Anote Ajeluorou has called on Nigerians with immense financial resources not only to take Nigerian culture seriously but to export it outside the country. He made this assertion at the library of Alliance Francaise (Mike Adenuga Centre), Ikoyi, Lagos at the recent launch of Ndidi Chiazor-Enenmor’s new novel, See Morocco See Spain while reviewing the book. See Morocco See Spain spans Africa and Europe and expouses the japa syndrome at its most extreme, with the travellers taking daunting risks.

Chiazor-Enenmor’s See Morocco See Spain is a fictional tour de force that promises a paradigm shift with its lucid and searing narrative of the odyssey of desperate young Africans who embark on the perilous journey across the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea just to get to Europe and presumed better life. While some die along the treacherous desert and sea routes, those who manage to arrive find that Europe is not exactly a glittering experience.

While commending Alliance Francaise for hosting the book launch and other cultural offerings by Nigerian creatives, Ajeluorou wondered why there were no such Nigerian cultural facilities abroad to also reciprocate similar cultural offerings and gestures both to Nigerians and local artists alike. Although he praised the foresight of these foreign culture organisations that keep energising Nigeria’s cultural landscape, he get said he couldn’t understand why Nigeria and African countries do not have similar culture centres in Europe and elsewhere to also propagate their cultures, cuisines and languages.

While Alliance Francaise (France), Goethe Institut (German’s Cultural Centre), British Council (Britain), Korea Culture Centre (Korea), Italian Language and Culture (Italy), etc promote local arts and culture, Ajeluorou, however, said at the heart of their operations is language imperialism, as they all have strong language programmes where they teach their mother tongues to willing Nigerian and African youths. The aim, he argues, is to encourage these young Africans to travel to their respective countries, either to study or work, a situation that fuels brain-drain. The unintended consequence of these centres is the japa syndrome that has equally drawn a strong backlash with anti-immigration crackdowns across Europe and America. Yet, he said, Nigerians continue to patronise these language centres.

Anote Ajeluorou

Ajeluorou said Alliance Francaise (Mike Adenuga Centre), built by a Nigerian businessman with money he made from Nigerians and named after himself, is a great cultural idea that deserves being emulated and replicated outside the shores of Nigeria. He said the likes of Messrs Adenuga, Dangote, Elumelu, Ovia and other rich Nigerians should similarly built such culture centres across European, American and South American cities to export Nigerian creatives and their works to these places for exchange programmes. The writer said borrowing from the language teaching models of these foreign culture centres, the ones he’s canvassing should also teach Nigerian languages to both Nigerian children living abroad and other locals willing to learn Nigerian languages.

Mr. Ajeluorou proposed that since Chiazor-Enenmor’s novel See Morocco See Spain is a cross-continental offering with settings spanning African cities like Benin City, Lagos, Kano in Nigeria, Agadez in Niger Republic and Sabha and Sabratha in Libya, on the one hand, and Lampedusa in Italy, Andalusa in Spain and Milan in Italy, all in Europe, it would be a delight to see her also read and have discussions on the book in those European cities the book is set to promote it. He said the book’s advocacy message against illegal migration through uncertain routes would promote avoidance of such perilous journeys. He noted that Chiazor-Enenmor’s apt dedication of her novel to a cousin who left more than 26 years ago, and whose return is still being awaited, is instructive of its timeliness and relevance, and points to the uncertainty of such trips.

In a chat after the launch, Mr. Ajeluorou said like the European languages and cultural centres spread across Africa and designed to wean Africa’s young people away from their mother tongues and encourage their exodus abroad, Nigeria should take the lead with the example Mr. Adenuga has set with the Mike Adenuga Centre. He added that perhaps Mr. Adenuga should start with building a Nigerian Culture Centre in Paris as a reciprocal gesture, to break the ice. He argued if Mr. Adenuga should build such centre in Paris, it would certainly spur other business moguls to toe his path, and quickly spread the gospel of Nigerian culture in cities of the global North.

He therefore called on the Minister of Art, Culture and Creative Economy Hannatu Musawa to immediately convene a Business-Meets-Culture Conference on establishing Nigeria’s Culture Centres abroad. Ajeluorou said the minister should ask corporate bodies to volunteer to build thees centres, fund them with trustees as governing boards, with the Nigerian government granting tax waivers to such bodies to incentivise the projects. Ajeluorou said it should not be cool that former colonial powers continue to propagate their languages among our youths and wean them from their tongues while we just watch without reciprocating, as the language of diplomacy demands. With the high level of Nigerians migrating outside the country for better economic wellbeing, whether through regular or irregular means, aka japa, he noted that Nigerian children being born abroad risked not being able to speak or understand any Nigerian language, a grim prospect that should concern the government and every cultural revivalist.

Ndidi Chiazor-Enenmor