By PRISCA SAM-DURU & ELIZABETH UWANDU

Dubbed ‘Africa’s Biggest Culture Picnic’, the 17th Lagos Book & Art Festival, LABAF 2015, which held at the Freedom Park, Lagos came to a close, with the Committee for Relevant Art, CORA Art Stampede. The festival featured days of creative fair, inspiring conversations , glitz and glamour and then the bombshell at the Art Stampede.

To the consternation of many, critics showed support for President Mohammadu Buhari’s exclusion of  Minister of Culture and Tourism in the present administration saying that potents well for the industry. The stampede was themed, “Fate & Fortune of Culture Sector in the regime of ‘change’. A parliamentary gathering of artists, culture workers, arts advocates and bureaucrats examined the position and status of culture sector under the current dispensation of change.

On the panel were; Ugoma Adegoke, Co-founder/Director, Lifehouse- film and visual arts promoter; Bolanle Austen Peters, MD, Terra Culture, Azafi Omoluabi-Ogosi, CEO, Paressia Publishers, Femi Odugbemi, MD/CEO DvWorx; Co-founder/Executive Director IREP International FilmForum/ Festival, and Lanre Shasore, CEO of Quramo publishers while Culture communicator, Ben Tomoju,  moderated.

The panellists, except, Mrs Omoluabi-Ogosi, unanimously agreed that culture industry will fare well in the absence of a minister. Their reasons were premised on the fact that previous ministers didn’t do much to promote the industry, but through their activities, impeded the growth of the culture industry.

They further cited instance of the past  administration, where artists had interactions with government on the guise of representing the entertainment industry, only for the so called representatives to enrich their coffers and leave the industry worse, but for the intervention of the corporate industry.

Mrs Austen-Peters said the role culture plays in the economic life of any nation is very significant. Citing countries that do not have natural resources but depend on their creative industry to boost their economy, are doing better than most countries with natural resources. She added that culture said if the present administration refused to create a ministry of culture now,they will have to beg in future to be allowed to participate in it.

For Odugbemi, the emphasis on role government play in the industry is over hyped. He said,what the industry needs do is to fashion a way to make writers understand the tenets of writing; the need for convergence in the industry via technological innovations such as facebook, twitter, will play an important role in enhancing the role culture play.

The CEO of Paressia Publisher, Mrs Omoluabi-Ogosi, however disagreed to support the exclusion of a culture minister noting that “We need government in the industry to use their power to address issues of paper prints, tariff on the publishing materials and accessibility of published works via transportation.”

She also added, that government’s involvement will increase literacy level when books are made affordable and available, which will in turn create job opportunities thereby increasing the revenue of the country. The moderator, Ben Tomoloju on his own part, said, literacy which is vital to civilization in all dimension needed to be taken seriously, especially improving the readership culture of the people.

Reading the submission of the panellists, he said culture which plays a lot of role in the growth and development of a country needs the input of the government so long as creative people pay tax to the government. Also,  LABAF Cordinator, Jahman Anikulapo, noted that irrespective of corporate involvement in the culture industry, the industry needs a voice in the government and that voice can be through a ministry and a minster.

Anikulapo insisted that the culture industry is one of the biggest employer of labour and should have a voice. He, therefore urged everyone present to use any means available to demand for the ministry of culture and its minister.

Other issues raised by the discussants included transliteration of literature into drama, movie and classic, like the Chimamanda Adichie’s book, “ Half of a Yellow Sun that was adapted into film.” Interestingly, the writers further observed that the media has largely contributed down playing the relevance of the sector by reducing the number of pages allocated to Arts Columns. Also observed was the issue of knowing and creating market for the diversities of cultural content, and the decline in the teachings of history to young ones.

And on that note, Director of IREP, Odugbemi , one method to increase works of culture is transliteration of literary works into films and movie, and documentaries.

According to him,” utilization of books is beyond print,” and the need to bring convergence into the media industry through technology.