Nasarawa Govt harps on culture to boost revenue, employment

The Nasarawa State Government has urged Nigerians to promote their culture in order to generate employment opportunities and boost Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for national development.
Mr Allahnana Attah, the Permanent Secretary, state Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, made the call on Thursday in Lafia while playing host to the state’s Local Government Cultural Officers Forum.
Attah said that promoting cultural activities by various ethnic nationalities would not only promote peace and unity but would also generate employment and boost the revenue base of the country.
“Let’s promote culture by producing our cultural wears, attires, clothes, hand bangles and beats, among others. This is one of the ways of encouraging employment and boosting the revenue base of the individual and government.
“This will also go a long way in boosting the socio-economic activities and standard of living of our people if culture is been promoted.
“I want to commend you for forming this forum aimed at promoting the various cultural heritages of our people across the state.
“The culture of our people are at the local and community levels, without you people our culture will die and so I urge you to ensure that our cultural values and tradition did not die.
“Our traditions are gradually fading out. We want to see people promoting their culture as a community or person without culture is as good as no person,’’ he said.
Attah called on Nigerians to protect and preserve their cultural heritage in the interest of younger generation and for the overall development of the country.
“If we did not protect our culture, our children will be in generation without culture and that will be a terrible thing, I pray that it did not happen,’’ he added.
He commended Gov. Abdullahi Sule for giving attention to the promotion of cultural activities in the state and called for its sustenance.
The permanent secretary called on local government council chairmen to support their cultural officers toward promoting cultural activities in the state.
Mrs Gloria Ashikeni, the ministry’s Director of Culture, also urged the cultural officers to work in unity toward promoting cultural activities in the state.
Earlier, Mr Saidu Turaki, the Chairman of the forum, said that the visit was to have a good working relationship with the ministry for the purpose of promoting cultural activities at the grassroots.
He identified some of the challenges facing the forum to include lack of government attention on local government cultural activities, absence of organising cultural workshops, seminars and conferences with the local government stakeholders on cultural activities. (NAN)