Franca Ochigbo, Abuja
The ANISZA Foundation has decried the loss of 80 percent historical facts from the national archives. Even in the National Library of Nigeria, the only information you can see are old newspapers but not with all the information intact, as for pictures telling the stories they are no more.
That is why ANISZA is doing all to ensure the little left of Nigerian history is sustained for the youth of the nation. “We are appealing to all Nigerians to join in preserving our history for the younger generations to have some memories of their fore fathers, let us not leave it to the government alone.”
The founder ANISZA, Mrs. Novo Ishioro, a visual communication strategist, said the Nigerian history was gradually being eroded, most of the pictures that were needed for ANISZA gallery exhibition were got from London. She lamented that the foundation could not pick any reasonable picture from the Nigerian archive even the national library.
Mrs. Ishioro disclosed this during a celebration in Abuja, with the theme, ‘The strength in our diversity’ stating that ANISZA hopes to address the history of Nigerians great grandfathers, where they were, their legacies and so many others, which is the uniqueness ANISZA hopes to address.
She said, “If we leave it to the government alone to do, it will totally vanish, we got a few of the pictures we were looking for but not from Nigeria but from London. If this historical pictures exist in Nigeria I would really like to access them. This initiative has to be sustained by whoever cares for Nigeria at some point or love for their children understanding these things.
“The youths of today work with what they see, not what they hear. That is why ANISZA Foundation came with a unique angle of using pictures to communicate to the youths. We cannot allow our youths to get lost by embracing other nationality cultures, so we will push this as far as we can go and even use advocacy group until we begin to see results.
“There is the issue of our national archives that is not in existence in Nigeria right now. When we need to get historical materials for our galleries we could not find, it was a tough journey. We ask that Nigerians should come forth and be a part of this journey because we need to build institutions to protect and preserve our archives.
Novo asked what should be left behind for next generation, houses, cars, there is something very unique about our culture that should be passed on, I am so passionate about this topic that I weep. We had about 16-20 schools from all parts of the country in 2018. Our plan was to have 36 schools at that time. This year 2019 we decided to make it an FCT project. We have about 22 schools represented here. About 10 clubs have been established in some of the schools. It is not just them coming to this place we intend to take it to their schools.
The executive director of YIAGA Africa, Samson Itodo said, The future of this country will be determined by the kind of values that the youths imbibe. For Nigeria to make progress the value of integrity the value of trust and the value of volunteerism must be upheld by all. We’re not happy with where Nigeria is as a country but a new Nigeria needs to emerge, and that can only happen if we rise up and perform our civic duty and responsibility. It is only then can a new Nigeria emerge.
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