Despite the promises by the Federal Government that it would support the arts industry in 2011, nothing much has been achieved in this regards,

but the New Year gives government another opportunity to fulfill its promises to the sector. Adewale Oshodi reports.

When arts practitioners gathered at the Expo Hall of the Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos on March 21, 2011, for a parley with the president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, on how to solve the problems facing the sector, most stakeholders felt the time had come for all the challenges facing the sector to be addressed once and for all.

The fact that Dr Jonathan requested to meet with stakeholders meant a lot, since he is the first president to have held such a meeting, and for that opportunity, practitioners tabled before him most of the challenges facing the sector.

Top of the problems that the sector is facing is the issue of piracy, and this was echoed in the submission of popular producer, Amaka Igwe, who said pirates were feeding on the creativity of arts practitioners. Other stakeholders who spoke at the parley include Admiral Dele Abiodun, Victor Asaolu, Segun Arinze, Zeb Ejiro, Tony Okoroji, Ali Baba, and many others.

They all called on the president to strengthen the anti-piracy law in the country, so that pirates could be given more severe punishment in order to curtail their activities.
Apart from piracy, the issue of shipping of jobs meant for Nigerian professionals overseas, especially South Africa, also came to the fore, with Mr Busola Holloway, a television producer, frowning at the way television commercials are being taken away by foreigners.

According to Mr Holloway, “television adverts are being taken outside the country for production. Those who are involved in this act use people who look like Nigerians, and they
pay them heavily. The crews for the production are also sourced from abroad, and the multinational companies are mostly guilty of this act.

“Nigerian producers are one of the best professionals in the world, and it beats one’s imagination that such jobs are being outsourced to producers in other countries, when such companies make their money from Nigerians”, Mr Holloway said.

The security situation in the country, according to Mr Greg Odutayo, the president of the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP), should also be looked into, so that the theatre culture could be revived.

Mr Odutayo also wants the National Theatre to be used only for what it was established for, that is, staging of cultural performances, instead of what it is being used mostly for, like church activities and Annual General Meetings (AGMs) of organisations.

For Alhaji Sani Muazu, a popular Kannywood producer, the government should make practitioners have easy access to the $200million the president approved for practitioners in the sector to embark on their creative projects, while the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), called on the president to assist the literary body in completing the Writers Village in Abuja.

According to Dr Sunday Odogo, an ANA scribe, the land that was given to the literary body in 1985, if completed, would make Abuja the capital of African writing.

Even, those in Nigeria’s football community were not  left out, with former Under 23 coach, Austin Eguavoen, calling on the president to look into the issue of the promises government made to footballers who won the 1994 African Nations Cup in Tunisia, most of which were yet to be fulfilled.

Eguavoen also said government should institute a kind of pension scheme for retired sportsmen, since they have very short careers. Other footballers who graced the event were Austin Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu,Victor Ikpeba, Peter Rufai, among others.

The president, who took notes all through the parley, said he was ready to help the sector overcome most of the challenges facing it.

Dr Jonathan also promised that he would, from time to time, meet with the stakeholders, to discuss the progress that has been made.