Edo State will be receiving a considerable number of its looted belongings from Germany. The gesture is coming due to the agreement the Nigerian Government had reached with its German Counterparts.
Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that in October 2021, Germany would return no fewer than 7,000 artifacts taken from the ancient Benin Kingdom.
Ambassador Gabriel Aduda, the Permanent Secretary of, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who passed the message, noted that both nations are at an advanced stage of discussions to achieve a mutually favorable arrangement in transporting the artifacts down to Nigeria.
The Perm. Sec. said this during the Inaugural Nigerian Cultural Show portraying the nation’s diverse cultural heritage, including sites and traditional festivals, which took place at the Cultural Centre, Nigeria House in New York City.
To top it all, he revealed that there would be the construction of an ultra-modern museum in Edo State, with the sole purpose of encouraging tourism in the region.
With the building of a museum, Aduda also disclosed that there would be training of twenty-five curators that would coordinate tourists’ attraction activities.
Following the attempts to retrieve the thousands of ancient Benin artifacts from Germany, the Ministry’s official said Government had been at the forefront alongside relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs.
“There are over 7,000 different pieces of artifacts that Republic of Germany wants to give back to Nigeria. We are hoping it will be a window to reach out to other European countries to return to us what was taken from us years back,” he said.
The permanent secretary commended the Consulate-General in New York for inaugurating in April a Culture Centre and Library equipped with books, cultural artifacts, research materials and historical documents on Nigeria for public use.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the African Tourism Board, Amb. Cuthbert Ncube noted Culture was a viable tool for development, adding that no individual should undermine it as the colonial masters did.
Ncube said the board was open to engaging like-minded stakeholders as Africa re-writes its narratives and identifies the capacities God deposited in its citizens.
He said culture is a veritable social capital deployed for growth and development and can translate to economic and technological capital.