BY FUNMI OLASUPO

Federal Government, last week said the rich cultural heritage of Nigeria, is strong enough to foster peace and unity among student populations, if properly harnessed.

The Minister of Education Prof. Ruqayyat Ahmed Rufa’I stated this at the flag off ceremony of the Nigerian Universities Arts and Culture Festival (NUACFEST) Patron in Abuja.

According to her; “Nigerian Universities have competitive platform for students to express themselves culturally and artistically with a view to promoting creativity and character in learning.”

The Minister also noted that “it is time to reawaken our universities to their unique role as breeding ground for Nigeria’s leaders-of-tomorrow, whose sacred duty it is to build on the current efforts of government and ultimately drive the nation to her manifest destiny.

“I urge the host and all participating Universities to take due advantage of NUACFEST by mobilizing their students in the spirit of true sportsmanship, as the event proper get underway. I will also like to call on all stakeholders to massively support their brilliant initiative as it guarantees in the conduct of the competition so as to gain the confidence of the public”. She advised.

The Executive Secretary, National University Commission (NUC), Prof. Julius Okojie in his remark explained that the festival is designed to foster unity and to provide platform for students to learn from each other.

“The festival is born out of the need to foster unity as well as rekindle the spirit of competitiveness among university students is a platform that is designed to offer participants the opportunity of learning from one another.

“NUACFEST therefore is expected to create the avenue for students to showcase Nigerian cultural heritage with the intention of celebrating creativity and character in learning. To sustain an environment whereby students from varied social cultural background would survive and have a sense of belonging rather than feeling the need to be assimilated into more dominant cultural setting” He said.

Responding on behalf of all the recipients, the Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswan said the cultural value in the country is gradually eroding away, because of the influx of western culture and if care is not taken the country will lose its identity.

Suswan therefore insisted “It is time to re-ignite the consciousness of Nigerian citizens that whatever culture the country have, its people must value it adding that“When the cultures of people have gone, they don’t have identity, so we need to re-awaken our culture by taking pride in our culture, character and identity”.