By Hajia Halima Idris
Nigeria is a country filled with talented people, in addition to rich cultural heritage and exotic historical sites. It is a country with so much to offer the world. Little wonder, we have reached a stage where India’s Bollywood features Nigerians in their movies, and it is imperative to mention that the country gets a mention in movies to typify Africa for the right reasons. Creativity has helped to change the negative narrative of the standard of living in the country. It must be noted that prior to the advent of our local movies, popularly called home video, as well as other cultural displays, the world thought we were wretched and lived in slums. The creative industry and creativity changed all that, and presented a different side of us they never knew existed. Today, people have come to agree that there is money and opportunities in the country, but has been underexplored.
With the efforts so far made to rebrand Nigeria, it’s obvious that time is now to give more attention to the creative and tourism sectors. It is on record that creativity branded countries such as India, Dubai, China, America, and many others. Through Bollywood, India has succeeded in attracting the attention of world showcasing their rich cultural and tourism potential. India so packaged Bollywood that no one ever believed that there was poverty in the country. This was until Hollywood produced a movie called Slumdog millionaire to tell the world the rate of poverty in India. I’m sure those that have been to India believe indeed there is poverty in there yet, tourists will still go to Taj Mahal to have a feel of love. The USA was also branded by creativity, and they have managed to sell their supremacy to other nations in the world.
With creativity, any country can be rebranded and promoted to attract anyone. The more content is produced about a country, the higher the number of investors willing to invest and the more tourists you attract to spend more money in that country.
The East, West, North and Southern parts of Nigeria each have diverse cultural endowments, historical sites, and creative ingenuity to promote Nigeria. It is not hard to see that most Africans love to dress like Nigerians; they love to have a taste of our food, especially our jollof rice. They also want to speak our pidgin English in a bid to sound like us.
Generally, the world is driven by creativity and innovation to promote sectors like Agriculture, Science and Technology, Arts, Tourism, Engineering, Journalism, Education, Trade and Investments, Sports, Culture, Fashion, and many others. The following Ministries can be partnered to promoted creativity and tourism:
Ministry of Agriculture
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Youths and sports
Ministry of Industry, Trade, and investment
Ministry of Science and Technology
Ministry of women affairs
Ministry of Information and culture
Ministry of Communication
Labour and Employment and many others.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Environment:
The Government must provide an enabling environment for creativity and tourism to excel. Both the artists and the tourists need to move within urban and rural areas but with the negative security information, no one feels safe to do so.
Media propaganda:
Using creative platforms like music and movies, the negative stories about Nigeria will change within a short period. The more creative content is disseminated outside the more the positive narration about our dear country. Despite the creativity especially in the entertainment and sports sectors, the world still believes Nigerians are scammers, therefore, should not be trusted. They also have the belief that we are the most corrupt nation with the most selfish leaders despite all the intervention programs by the Government and infrastructural developments.
Internally Generated Revenue:
Promoting, empowering, and supporting the creative industry will automatically boost our IGR. Taxes will be paid by the members of the industry just like how the Bollywood industry in India contributed 9.4% of the country’s GDP and Dubai made 13 4% of its GDP all in 2016. This sector is the fastest revenue generation avenue because it’s also youth-friendly.
Tourism Wealth:
It will automatically promote tourism and the wealth associated with it. Our rich cultural sites are losing their value, some monuments are missing because we have ignored what we can generate from them.
Job Creation:
We are in a time the Government can no longer provide jobs for people especially its youths whose population is over 70%. But the youths are attracted to creativity and will be engaged very well in this sector is supported. Remember, creative minds work 24/7 and must be engaged with positively if not they will transfer their thoughts into negative courses like robbery, banditry, ethnic clashes, etc.
Reducing social and community problems:
When the youth get busy creating content and promoting tourism, they won’t have time to be scheming how to bring unrest and disrupt the peace of both the Government and its people.
Kindly note that the #ENDSARS protest is an example of what creative youths can do. The protest was mostly driven by our artists who were supported by millions of loyal followers across the globe. Because they understand their strengths and how to manipulate the mind of their supporters, they used their creative impact through the fastest media platforms to attract the attention of the Nigerian Government even to the event where most respected nations queried the government.
But, at the same time, we have also watched the same creative youths make the country proud in sports and entertainment. Davido, Burna Boy, Wizkid, Psquare, Genevive, Ahmed Musa, Mikel Obi, RMD, and many others are celebrated across the globe.
We must give the creative and tourism sectors a little more attention and watch them change Nigeria economically, socially and politically, within a short period.
Hajia Halima Idris (Queen) writes from Abuja
