From John Adams, Minna
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said various Nigerian development plans since independent failed because cultural dimension was ignored.
The minister, who spoke in Minna, the Niger state capital, when he declared open a two-day national workshop on Nigerian dress culture and sustainable economic development, stated that culture has been recognised globally as a driver of sustainable development.
According to the minister, who was represented by a director in the ministry, Mr. Jerry Adewale, every development plan and strategy is hinged on the people’s culture.
“We can not seriously talk about sustainable development without culture,” he said.
The two-day workshop, which was organised by the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) had as its theme, “Nigerian dress culture and sustainable economic development.”
“It is, therefore, gratifying that our focus in this workshop, “promotion of Nigerian dress culture”, would engender enormous socio-political and economic benefits to the nation, apart from serving as a veritable tool for identity, integration, unity and cultural diplomacy,” Mohammed said.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Executive Secretary, National Institute for Cultural Orientation, Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, regretted that the patronage of foreign dress culture, especially by our teeming youths have contributed to the moribund state of the textile industry in Nigeria.
Barclays, however, expressed optimism that if the citizenry is re-oriented on the need to place value on our indigenous style of dressing, it will not only contribute to reviving the country’s textile industry, but, also, contribute to the economic development of the nation.