A year of boom for culture

• Published date: 08 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

From all indication, the culture sector will boom and blossom this year more than ever before. Edozie Udeze writes on some of the major programmes lined up by stakeholders and artists to keep the sector busy and exciting.

ARTISTS and culture administrators are always roaring to go. The culture sector in Nigeria is one sector that has never lacked ideas or plausible programmes that excite the society. The year 2023 will not be an exception. There are signs in place already to indicate that, more than the previous years, the sector will boom and bloom. Exciting events are underway, indicating that, in all intents and purposes, artists are ready to keep creating works in the areas of visual arts, dance, writing, drumming, songs, entertainment and more.

This is so because this is one sector that never slumbers nor sleeps. By April, for instance, ArtMiabo will be in town to host the Afrobeats Arts Festival. This will involve most of the artists that designed Fela's album covers while the Afrobeat king reigned supreme with his Afrobeats renditions. Miabo Enyadike who runs the international festival is based in South Africa. Her love for African arts has enabled her to overcome the world in the use of discarded materials to produce amazing pieces of arts. In this vein, Miabo has been able to gather lots of artists from all over the globe to join in her infectious belief that art can be done from any type of waste materials. As it is now, she has many apostles of the waste to wealth, who will also be in Nigeria for the Afrobeats festival come April.

Besides this, the doors of National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, will be opened to the public in April. According to its general manager, Professor Sunday Ododo who is also an artiste, President Muhammadu Buhari will declare the apex culture edifice open in April. 'By then', Ododo revealed in an earlier interview, 'the place would have been ready and we will hand it over to the president to declare it open. You will recall that the president made the renovations possible by releasing enough funds for the overall renovations'.

When this is done, the Theatre will be fully opened to the public. In addition, all the dilapidated departments and halls in the Theatre which have now been put back to use, will be ready for use again. Film shows will be back. The main bowl long discarded, will be fully used to host artists for total entertainment.

It will be the old National Theatre once again where thespians, artists, culture lovers...