By Anote Ajeluorou
WITH the promise of change sweeping across the political and
economic spheres of the country occasioned by the new leadership, one of Nigeria’s
foremost culture workers Mahmood Ali-Balogun has called on President Muhammadu
Buhari to cause change to also happen in the culture sector. Specifically,
Ali-Balogun has asked for the immediate removal of current General Manager of
the country’s heritage symbol, the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, Mr. Kabir
Yusuf. Ali-Balogun accused Yusuf of mismanaging the fortunes of the culture
edifice, as cultural activities in the prime venue have since grounded to a
halt. Rather than the theatre generating income for government, he said, the
structure has become a drainpipe on government’s purse.
The first national president of National Association of
Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) also signaled irregularities in
the concession process of the National Theatre and called for its cancellation
for a transparent process. Ali-Balogun, who spoke to journalists recently at
Freedom Park, Lagos, said he’d refrained from speaking about the culture
edifice since the sad and controversial removal of then Dr. Ahmed Yerima (now
professor of Drama), as General Manager, whose tenure he termed the golden era
of the theatre in recent memory. Since Yerima’s removal and the appointment of
Yusuf, he said, the fortunes of the once respected culture centre has been on
the downward slide such that those who used to patronize the theatre for
non-cultural purposes like weddings and other social events no longer do so on
account of poor management of the place.
According to Ali-Balogun, “Some of us have not commented on
the National Theatre for years. The worse management we’ve had so far is Kabir
Yusuf’s, who is the cousin of former President Musa Yar’Adua (now late),
somebody brought in from Estate Department. When he saw artists for the first
time he was so excited. But over the years and because of incompetence, the
place has become sordid. Even Prof. Femi Osofisan contributed to the rot in the
place as General Manager. Yerima came and did a lot to uplift the place, but he
was thrown out. After him, there was infighting among Assistant Managers until
Yusuf was brought in.
“But we knew from the beginning what Yusuf’s end would be.
The reengineering that was beginning to happen under Yerima was shut down.
Today, the place is just there; nothing is happening. In other spheres, the National
Theatre would be Nigeria’s symbol. Today, what is there? Nothing! Since Yusuf
has been there as General Manager for eight years, what has he done to add
value to the National Theatre?”
Ali-Balogun also said when the concession started some of them
in the culture sector decided to endorse it to see how it would go, with the
hope that the concession would help improve the place. But he expressed his
dismay at its outcome, as discordant tunes emanated from among those involved
in the process, which he said was not transparent. He said this was especially
so as the bidder Yusuf prefers would not make any commitment to refurbish the
National Theatre to the tune of N12 billion agreed precondition apart from
developing the fallow land space around the complex. This, Ali-Balogun said,
would be a violation of the conditions for the concession process.
Also, Ali-Balogun said his main grouse for asking Yusuf to be
thrown out from the culture complex was his incompetence and mismanagement, a
situation that has driven Nigeria’s proven culture workers out of their
original home of culture. As he put it, “Maybe we’re not politically savvy
enough otherwise we should be pushing one of our own into the centre of things
and not always be outsiders in things that concern us. Yusuf has done more
disservice to the National Theatre than anybody else. During Yerima’s time
things were beginning to get better until this joker came. I had my 50th
birthday there to showcase what good Yerima was doing there.
“Take a look at abegi,
the spot just across from Yusuf’s office; it’s the only place bubbling with
activities, but it’s more of a brothel and a homosexual joint”.
The National Theatre management’s incompetence, according to
Ali-Balogun, is also manifest in its inability to access funding from world
bodies like UNESCO, Ford Foundation and other bodies to revamp the edifice so
it could be put to effective use by culture stakeholders in the country. This
situation, he argued, was no longer tolerable to culture workers, especially as
the theatre no longer enjoy prime status for cultural productions.
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