THE Director-General, National Commission for Museum and Monuments (NCMM), Mallam Yusuf Abdallah, has once again, underscored the necessity of establishing the Museum of National Unity in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.He made the appeal recently when he received a group of journalists from China, who had come to the Museum Headquarters in Abuja for information about the country's historical and natural heritage as well as antiquity.Although, there were lots of antiquities deposited in the commission's outstations across the country, Abdallah decried the limitation of his agency in satisfying the guests, who had less than two days to spend in Nigeria, as they declined the offer to visit one or two of the outstations located in other states of the country, due to the constraint of time.Led by an official of Chinese Ministry of Culture, Mr. Shu Jianping and a member of the department of Centre of International Culture Exchange, the team comprised representatives of various media organisations in China such as China & Africa Magazine, China Radio International, China Central Television, People's Daily as well as Xinhua News Agency.Briefing Abdallah on the team's mission to the NCMM's head-office, Mr. Shu Jianping said the tour of some culture agencies in select African countries, was part of local media's preparation for the coverage of the 5th Ministerial Conference of China and Africa Cooperation holding this year in China.Underscoring the significance of the conference to China, the visit, he added, would further aid the journalists to have deeper knowledge of the existing relationship between Nigeria and China as well as enhance their understanding of socio-cultural history of Nigeria and its people.'The visit is to help us discover interesting stories of friendship and relationship between China and African people and to have interviews with authorities as well as the President of the country, to know everything about Africa, especially in culture fields.'Jianping was delighted however that after spending one and an half days in Nigeria, the group was able to gather enough information about the country through interviews with some personalities in the country. Yet, he expressed the team's desire to interact with the custodian of Nigeria's monuments and antiquities.'We have learnt about the country. We know now that Nigeria is big, and has good relationship with China. I think it is also good to have this interview with the Director-General of Museum and Monuments to know more about the culture of Nigerian people.'Welcoming his guests, Abdallah gave a brief socio-cultural and historical account of the country. He informed his visitors that although Nigeria is made up distinct ethnic and religious groups, the people are bound by their cultures, which sometimes, share lots of similarities. These natural and cultural elements, he stated, are displayed in the museums across the country.'Unfortunately, we do not have a museum in Abuja, what we have is this small gallery, which is a stop gap measure before a bigger and more elaborate museum is built here, in the capital city. That is why I am not happy that you will not have time to visit places outside Abuja, where you will see big museums and feel the culture of the people of Nigeria.'The Museum boss agreed that Nigeria and China have come a long way in cultural relationship and used the occasion to commend Chinese government for all their supports to the Commission, especially through exchange programmes.'Indeed, Nigeria and China have come a very long way in terms of their relations. In the field that I supervise, there are quite a number of interactions with China. In the last few years, the Chinese government has trained some members of our staff in China. Right now, one of our staff is undergoing two-year training in China and it is completely sponsored by the Chinese Embassy. Recently, a staff returned from a four-week training in tourism and hospitality industry.'Adding: 'We have also enjoyed other forms of assistance from the Chinese Embassy. When we wanted to organise a programme on how to rescue one important monument in the country and to develop a management plan for the preservation and protection of that particular monument, we invited our friends from Chinese Embassy, part of the programme was an exhibition, they came and made financial donation to the project to the tune of about N1million ($10,000).'Abdalla said the NCMM would be looking forward to a closer tie with China, especially in the area of protecting cultural heritage. 'We hope that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which is the supervising Ministry, will sign certain agreements that will facilitate our work in protecting our cultural heritage with particular reference to illicit trafficking of our cultural objects so that we can collaborate in stopping illicit traffic and devastation of our monuments and sites', he said.
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