Ambode receives Lai Mohammed, promises to transform National Museum to world standard
Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode on
Thursday vowed to transform the National Museum in Lagos to a modern-day
cultural edifice which would be of international standard, just as he pledged
to partner with the Federal Government to give facelift to federal infrastructures
in the state. Governor Ambode, who spoke
at the Lagos House, Ikeja when the Minister of Information, Culture and
Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, paid him a courtesy visit, said he would
collaborate with the Federal Government to ensure the speedy completion of the
project which he said will enhance the cultural heritage of Nigeria. He said
considering the strategic importance of culture and tourism to the identity of
people, there was no better time for Lagos and the Federal Government to
collaborate in driving the essence of culture with the view to improving on the
situation on ground and thereby improve on the economy and develop the nation.
“Just the same way we have collaborated with
the police, we will collaborate with you and ensure that whatever we can do to
create a facelift to the infrastructure of the Federal Government in Lagos, we
will do it because it will eventually be to the benefit of Lagosians and
eventually aid the economic growth of Lagos. “Talking precisely about the
National Museum at Onikan, we will go straight with the commissioners here to see
how we can put up a modern-day museum of international standard and see how
that can work towards our Lagos@50 Celebration next year
.
“We are not only doing it for Nigeria, but
also for the future of our cultural heritage. We believe strongly that the axis
around Onikan and Marina is actually the melting port of our cultural heritage
and we must start to recreate the monument in that area to be able to say a whole
lot about the history of Lagos and more importantly, a whole lot about the
history of Nigeria and so we would see how we can run as fast as possible on
that,” the Governor said. The Governor, who lamented that some Nigerian
languages are gradually going into extinction due to lack of preservation of
cultural values, said that with the renewed commitment of the federal and state
governments, issues of youth unemployment could be adequately addressed using
culture, tourism, arts, sports and entertainment. “That is why we are committed
to the Employment Trust Fund. We are just about to inaugurate it and every year
for the next four years, we will be putting N6.25 billion, totaling N25
billion.
Using that fund, we will be creating arts and
recording studios and business incubators because we don’t longer want our
artistes to be recording their works outside Nigeria. We can do it and that is
where we are going. That will create a lot of energy among our younger ones and
before you know it, they are on track and we too are on track as a very viable
economy,” Governor Ambode said. Earlier, Mohammed said he was in Lagos to
solicit the support of the Governor and State Government to collaborate in
jointly moving the state and indeed the country forward in areas of culture and
tourism. He said Lagos remains the economic and financial hub of Nigeria, and
that it was worthy to underscore the fact that the state is thriving under
Governor Ambode, who he said is not only doing well but has greatly improved on
all he met on ground.
Read
the Vanguard newspaper for the full story.
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