If you think heading a museum is a tea party, you may be making a serious mistake as Mr Frank Uluigbe, curator, Osogbo Museum said a museum worker is at greater risk than many security personnel that engage in gun duel with criminals.

The risk
It is more risky to protect a museum than to protect a bank. Since antiquities are in various sizes, those who specialized in stealing such works could pick and hide them. You have to check the works constantly. You have to notice if some of them are missing from where they were kept the previous day or in the past one hour. This is called proper monitoring.

In fact, guarding other things could be easier because you cannot go to where they are kept and pick them. For instance, you need a cheque before withdrawing money from a bank. Even armed robbers have to be violent before robbing a bank. But in a museum, somebody may steal an antiquity and lie that one traditional ruler gave it to him.

Power to release antiquity
These monuments are national property. They are the nation’s treasures. Only museums are empowered to release any of them. But our royal fathers also have traditional authority and we can only seek their cooperation and assistance to preserve and protect our antiquities. It has to be done in such a way that we don’t denigrate the royal fathers. Traditional rulers are highly respected because they are the custodians of people’s heritage. They should, however, allow the museums to do their best to preserve this heritage.

Every Museum worker is a security man
That is the essence of working in a museum. We are all security men by training. In fact, our job requires specialized training. For instance, an average security personnel may not know the importance of archeological materials. A carved wood may have no meaning to him, but a museum worker will identify it and know that proper permission has to be taken before such an object could be released.

Religion and museum
Museums are created to protect our national patrimony. Religion is a personal belief. If you are in the museum you must have passion for everything kept in it. You must cherish the culture, but if you think you are now a born-again Christian, you have no business earning salary from what you regard as sins. However, museum is about cultural values and has nothing to do with anybody’s faith.

Osun Osogbo as world heritage site
The fact that UNESCO has listed Osun Osgbo as one of the world heritage sites does not automatically translate to monetary gains. The essence is cultural recognition that the place has been in existence and could favourably rank among old historical monuments around the world.

The gods are not angry
Asked whether there was any spiritual problem at the National Commission for Museum and Movements; especially in view of the death of some members of staff, the curator said it was a kind of coincidence that the deaths of those who headed the place in the past came when it did. His words: "People also die outside the organization. But we know that what our leaders do is to assist the nation, to preserve our heritage. And doing such job could not have warranted anger from any quarters"