The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Mrs. Nkechi Ejele, has said the deliberate efforts by the ministry to make school children the focus of activities for the 2014 National Creativity Week is to nurture young ones by exposing them as well as use the opportunity to unlock their creative potentials.

Ejele made this known in a welcome address at the opening ceremony of the Creativity Week, organized by the ministry in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Information at the Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, on Tuesday, 22nd April, 2014, with the theme, “Creativity: A Panacea for Transforming Nigeria’s Economy and Job Creation.”

Her words: “The reason is because we have realized that for Nigeria to take its pride of place in the creative world, we need to nurture our young ones by catching them young and expose them and use the opportunity to unlock their creative potentials.”

According to her, the importance of the creativity week is underscored by the accession of the United Nation’s Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that creativity, if adequately nurtured, will not only enhance human development and the key ingredients for job creation, but also celebrate the unlimited potentials of creativity, raise awareness that all people by nature are creative, as well as encourage people to use their creative potentials maximally.

The PS, who said the Federal Government, through its Transformation Agenda, is committed towards making the creative sector the cornerstone of national development, maintained that especially in today’s era of globalization and technological advancement, creativity has continued to form the core activity of a growing sector of the global economy and Nigeria cannot afford to be a failure in taking the advantages that the sector offers.

Further describing the creative sector as a multi-sectoral area which includes creative professions like writing, arts, advertising, architecture, design, fashion, film, theatre, television, radio, motion picture, music, photography, computer, and so on, Ejele said a high level injection of private-public investments and development of the right skills and entrepreneurships is most appropriate to make the sector a vibrant vessel for sustainable socio-economic development.

Also in a goodwill message, the Executive Secretary of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, regretted that while Nigeria is talking about transformation and job creation, Nigerians are yet to look the way of culture and creativity to solve some of the problems bedeviling the country.

Stressing that as the training arm in the culture sector, the ES said NICO which is into capacity building and training in cultural administration as well as Nigerian indigenous languages, maintaining that, “If we are talking about creativity, we need indigenous knowledge and indigenous knowledge only comes from the understanding of our indigenous languages.”

IMG 0188While pledging on behalf of the management and staff of the Institute to continually support programmes aimed at nurturing the creative potentials of the youths, Ayakoroma said for Nigeria to go forward as a nation, there is every need to understand that the country needs such programmes targeted at the children, stressing that once our youths develop their creative abilities in life, they can stand on their own and say, indeed, they are true Nigerians.

The 2014 National Creativity Week, which has as its theme, “Creativity: A Panacea for Transforming Nigeria’s Economy and Job Creation,” is the 3rd edition and dignitaries in attendance were the Honourable Minister of Culture, Tourism & National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke; Honourable Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku who was represented by Mr. Charles Ojugbana of the Ministry; the Permanent Secretary of the Minister of Culture, Tourism & National Orientation, Mrs. Nkechi Ejele; Executive Secretary of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation, Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma; Director Orientation and Cultural Affair, NICO, Mr. Alex Omijie; Director of External Cultural Relations in the Ministry, Mr. George Ufot; his Entertainment and Creative  Services counterpart, Ms. Grace Gekpe, and a host of other dignitaries.

Caleb Nor

Corporate Affairs

NICO, Abuja