| Nigeria Museums: Before
the relics hops away
By Sun News Publishing
Saturday, April
12, 2008
That lizards and cockroaches have taken over our museums
is no longer news, therefore there is an urgent need to arrest
the decay before the remaining relics hops away writes Frank
Meke.
This is a season of mind bulging revelations in all areas
of our national life. In reality, some of us are already deadened
to these scams. The only thing that would really bring us
back to life is when we see or hear about these thieves heading
to the jail house where they rightly belong.
In fact, our museums are better jail house. Since these places
of research can no longer live up to expectations, what we
need to do is to hand them over to the SSS or military intelligence
or at worst to EFCC to be used as a dungeon
From Jos to Kano and from Calabar to Nassarrawa, the state
of our museums leaves much to be desired. The decays are entrenched
and a cabal sitting over its affairs have refused to let go.
These museum “Lords” and their collaborators within
and without seem to be proving difficult to be removed. This
is no longer denying the fact these buccaneers still call
the shoots.
Let no one deceive us, the real stakeholders are these cabals
and their agents in the Ministry of Tourism and Culture.
From the revelations elsewhere so far, we can pin down the
manipulative tendencies currently playing at the museums.
The truth remains that Nigeria has no “living”
but only dead museums.
Even though we could salvage these “relics cabins”
from the wicked “inn keepers” popularly called
curators, their destructives oversight functions are inimical
to any conservation strategies to make the museums bounce
back to life.
Today, we only have a management team with mandate to write
off welfare package for over seventy percent support staff,
while real professionals were asked to go and sit at home.
The museum professionals wish to work but the cabals would
not let go. At the just concluded ITB Berlin in Germany, the
Egyptians who have made fortunes out of the preservation and
promotion of their “mummies” and other relics
of history came showcasing their strength; even Britain put
their museum on showcase.
Agreed, a lot went wrong in keeping our relics under check
before and after the British left our shores, Nigeria however,
has no business today crying over our “lost” antiquities
and objects of history. These things can be recovered if only
we show the right spirit and take the right steps. Objects
of national history are not only subjected to intensive diplomatic
war-fare but costs thousands of dollars in dealers market.
Recent research has proven that Nigerian objects of history
scattered all over the world and freely traded, are not tracked
by our relevant government agencies.
Back home, every minister of Tourism or Director General of
the Museums mourns the loss of these antiquities and blows
their nose in a nearby bush as a sign of heaviness of heart.
I was told by top United States government official recently
that even the details of a mere phone call made within the
United States are stored in an archive. Does Nigeria even
have a national archive?
A situation in which the museum leadership is judged to be
“working” by just paying workers emolument is
not only laughable but a far cry from the expectation of those
who should know and those in the know of how museums should
be run. Is it not a shame that at this time and age, Nigeria
has no national museum of unity in Abuja? To those who move
around, Nigeria cannot boast of any standard museum in any
state today.
A tourism cash cow, the funding mechanism for the museum has
only being seen from prism of “Garangegate”. Honestly,
I wonder what mandate Akingun Roberts, the acting DG at NCMM
seems to be pursuing. Robert can never make impact except
the same cabals that up staged Joe Eborieme are lined up at
the stake and exposed.
NCMM, is not just a home for historical relics/objects but
a research centre worthy of presidential intervention, support
and encouragement. A nation without archives of history and
tradition can’t be reckoned with in today’s global
economic and political trade off.
Time has come for NCMM to return to winning ways. Except for
Nana’s Koko Museum in Delta State, I wonder if Nigeria
really knows what she wants to do with veritable research
places such as museums. To gather rented crowds as “stakeholders”
to pass judgement of competence or incompetence on institutions
which should be helped to their feet cannot stand the test
of time. NCMM should not be allowed to rot and hop away.
Last line: Late Mattew Da’silver popularly known as
Nigeria’s tourism voice left behind secrets of how to
uproot the evils behind the poor gains of tourism in Nigeria.
Soon, we shall reveal the contents of this secret tourism
manual. |
