N190m artefacts' debt raises dust

ARTEFACTS Rescuers Association of Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation, has petitioned the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Chief Edem Duke over a N190 million debt owed it by the National Commission for Museums andMonuments.Meanwhile, the South-South zonal president of National Association of Proprietorsof Private Schools (NAPPS), Dr. Edwin A. Edwin has charged students and pupils in the country not to see museums as fetish institutions as such was the deceitful thinking of our early missionaries.As the commission marked the World Museums Day last Friday, the bodyurged Duke, to intervene as the matter has been subsisting since October 2009. According to a statement made available to journalists, the non-governmental organisation is spread all over Nigeria 'primarily to partner with the National Commission for Museums and Monuments as their vendors in rescuing the nation's artefacts and cultural heritage for the country's museums'.Signed by its national President, GeorgeAgbo, the statement indicates that the Commission started defaulting in payment after the NGO 'supplied over 5,000 artifacts from across Nigeria to the Commission worth N190 million'.Describing the NGO's operational thrust as that of cultural ambassadors, the body noted that owing it such huge sum of money had not only brought unmitigated hardship on its members and their families, the shrewd attitude of the Commission was capable of worsening the activities of pirates and smugglers that have for long been the bane of the sub-sector. The NGO however called on the federal Government to 'find a way to halt illegal trafficking of the country's artifacts by unpatriotic citizens.'Rather, he advised all in the country to see museums as an entertainment, educational and informative centres where the past ofour forebears are preserved for posterity.He made these observations during the 2012 International Museums Daycelebrations held at Oron Museum in Akwa Ibom state at the weekend.Edwin who was the chairman on the occasion observed that, the federal institution had been neglected for too long and stressed that,the Oron Museum was established in 1957 as one of the oldest in the country, yet the facilities in the place did not befit its long existence.
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