From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
United States Government, yesterday, said it has expended $1.5 million in the area of cultural preservation in the country.
The amount, the United States stated, was expended on 14 projects across 21 states in Nigeria since 2001.
Charge d’Affaires, Embassy of the United States, Abuja, David Greene, made the disclosure during the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation Grant Signing ceremony for Sukur cultural site in Adamawa State.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), according to Greene, is for the implementation of “our most recent Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) grant.
“We awarded this AFCP grant to the International Council on Monuments and Sites in Nigeria, or ICOMOS-Nigeria. Its purpose is to document, conserve and improve the cultural heritage of the Sukur UNESCO World Heritage Site in Adamawa State,” Greene said.
Recalling the history of the United State’s collaboration with Nigeria in the area of cultural collaboration, Greene said: “The history centres around the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, from which we have provided $1.5 million for 14 projects across 21 states since 2001. We are so proud that, with our Nigerian partners, we have been able to preserve culturally significant art, sites, and other heritage items.
“I will give just one outstanding example: in 2020, we awarded the US non-profit organisation CyArk a $125,000 grant to digitally survey and document the Busanyin Shrine within the Osun Osogbo sacred grove. “That effort created a digital record of the shrine to use in planning future projects and preservation initiatives, and at the same time provided training in digital tools and cultural heritage management for local professionals.
“Greene also said building on 20 years of AFCP grants, in 2021, the United States and Nigeria signed the bilateral Cultural Property Agreement.”
“With that, we intensified joint efforts to identify, intercept, and repatriate looted, or other displaced cultural property and related heritage works. These efforts paved the way for the official transfer in October 2022 of 22 Benin Bronzes back to Nigeria.
“I am pleased to report that since 2022, the number has grown, and now a total of 66 Benin Bronzes have been successfully repatriated to Nigeria.
“That brings us up to today. Our latest AFCP grant will support ICOMOS-Nigeria and its local partners to help preserve Sukur cultural heritage through infrastructure enhancements, revival of threatened traditional crafts, and documentation and preservation of the Sakun language.
“This will require a collaborative effort among each of your organisations, so I am proud and pleased to witness your signing today of the MoU covering the planned project. We truly appreciate your unwavering dedication to conserve, protect, and preserve Nigeria’s cultural heritage. My government and I eagerly anticipate building upon this partnership in the years to come, and I can tell you that I personally hope to have an opportunity to visit the Sukur site,” Greene also said.
In her remarks, the Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, said the event will usher in profound development to one of Nigeria’s UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Sukur Cultural Landscape through funding provided by the ever supportive US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation.
Musawa recalled the existing cordial relations between the United States embassy in Nigeria, and in particular, its Cultural Affairs Section, through the Ministry of Information and Culture, recently designated as the Federal Ministry of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy.
“Remarkably, the USA has consistently supported cultural projects in Nigeria. One of the means through which the United States deploys its supports for culture, is the veritable Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. It is worthwhile to state that the USA has graciously and bountifully extended its friendship towards Nigeria through this Fund,” Musawa said.