•Ola Balogun’s story highlights the need for an all-encompassing culture policy
A thought-provoking lamentation by 70-year-old filmmaker Ola Balogun, once again, highlighted an undesirable state of affairs in the country’s culture sector. Balogun’s account of his hellish experience following a fire that destroyed his Lagos residence a year ago was an unmistakable and undeniable evidence of the need to rethink the culture sphere.
Balogun said: “The fire to which I fell victim at my former residence in Yaba (Lagos) a year ago destroyed virtually all my belongings – books, musical collections and film equipment – leaving me penniless and homeless, and forcing me to relocate to Cotonou in Benin Republic to try and eke out a living as best as I could.”
He painted an unimaginable picture, saying that he endured “several months of great suffering, hunger and loneliness, culminating in a harrowing period during which I ate no food whatsoever for one entire month due to extreme poverty, barely surviving on occasional sips of tap water…”
It is sad that Balogun, a prominent pioneer of Nigerian filmmaking in the early 1970s, could not benefit from any culture-related cushion in his own country because there was none. A culture-friendly country should have structures that can provide succour to cultural workers, especially outstanding ones, in times of difficulty.
It is time for the government to formulate a well-thought-out cultural policy. Balogun’s damning remark that “Nigeria is a country with no cultural policies” reflected the frustration of an enlightened cultural personality. He added: “…no serious attempt has ever been made to support the arts since our supposed emergence as an independent nation half a century ago!”
It is heartwarming that Balogun, by his own account, has bounced back. But it is a discredit to Nigeria’s culture sector that his creative resurgence is happening in a neighbouring country. He said: “I am also immensely happy to be able to testify that…I have been working in collaboration with a wonderful Beninoise architect to design and build an African cultural centre that has been conceived to serve the needs of the entire African continent. This amazingly gifted gentleman and I have now completed the preliminary drawings of the envisaged African Cultural Centre, and I am hoping to be able to buy enough land to host the actual building from my current earnings within the next few months, in the fond hope that I will somehow manage to live long enough to see this dream come true for the greater benefit of the entire youths of black Africa…”
The vision that inspired Balogun’s ambitious cultural project would serve his country well. It is food for thought that his forced relocation failed to weaken his cultural vibrancy.
It is noteworthy that the Federal Government in March announced plans to establish the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said:”We are forwarding a copy of the draft bill on the establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts to the Ministry of Justice. My plan is to fast-track the realisation of the NEA in order to guarantee sustainable development of the creative sector.” It is hoped that this process would be taken to a logical conclusion.
However, it should be stressed that while funding for cultural production is important, the authorities also need to appreciate that cultural producers can suffer personal disasters requiring official assistance. It is, therefore, useful to formalise the availability of help for cases that deserve help. Whether the need for aid is prompted by an inferno or grave ill-health, for instance, it should be possible for cultural workers to get succour from official structures set up for that specific purpose.
It is a cultural minus when a country neglects its cultural stars at the time they are in dire need of help. Balogun’s case should help to reinforce the necessity for culture-friendly policies and practices at the country’s various levels of government.