Buzz by Olumide Iyanda
Email: oiyanda@yahoo.com Twitter: @mightyng
I wrote the article below in 2013. We are obviously back to the same point with Mulk Holdings, a United Arab Emirates-based conglomerate, said to be investing $40 million to develop a duty free shopping centre at the National Theatre. Enjoy
When the Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke, said in May 2012, that “in the Nigeria of today, we can no longer manage the theatre so we are looking for international investment partners,” many who are used to how the art sector fared in the past feared something ominous was about to happen.
The statement was made at a programme in Abuja designed to showcase the achievements of ministries in one year of President Goodluck Jonathan administration.
He even added then that “I want to say that within the next 60 days maximum, there will be a very interesting news coming out of the National Theatre.’’
A lot of news have come out of the nation’s premier cultural centre since Duke made that statement but none has caused as much stir among practitioners as the recent revelation that the Federal Government plans to build a five-star hotel, shopping mall, multi-level car park, land and water restaurant, among others around the place. This development, according to the minister, is in accordance with the original masterplan of the 37-year-old edifice.
To achieve its objective, Abuja has directed that agencies like the National Council for Arts and Culture, Nigeria Gallery of Arts and the National Troupe of Nigeria should vacate their offices in two weeks. They are expected to operate from Abuja while the construction goes on.
With art and cultural activities on a low swing for the best part of the last two decades, the place can rightfully lay claim to have become a theatre of the absurd. The 5000-seater main bowl was last used in 1994 for the screening of late Hubert Ogunde’s Ayanmo.
Completed in 1976 by the military regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo in preparation for the Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in 1977, the monument almost came under the auctioneer’s hammer in 2001 when the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) sought to privatise it. Interestingly, it was under the same Obasanjo, who had then returned as a civilian President, that the sale was proposed.
Among those who kicked against the plan back then was Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, who staged his new play, King Baabu, at the theatre in August 2001. In his words: “You can liken this to a horrendous fate suffered by the black race, pauperised and victimised by public office holders who transform power into an instrument of repression and oppression.” He then stated in very clear terms that the “privatisation of the theatre can go haywire and I’m totally against it.”
The general consensus was that instead of privatisation, the government should consider other options. The option of raising money for the running of the theatre may have come to Jonathan’s administration in the form of going back to the masterplan.
General Manager and CEO of the Theatre, Kabir Yusuf, who some have accused of not attracting enough patronage to the place in spite of the modest renovation done by his predecessor, Ahmed Yerima, argues that the proposed five-star treatment is a win-win for all. He does not see the reason for apprehension or protest by stakeholders.
Hear him: “There is no issue of touching the National Theatre. What government is doing is to lease the landed properties surrounding the edifice to investors to develop. This is a way to save the theatre instead of outright sale. The facilities earmarked for the business phase of the complex, which is in tandem with the masterplan of the theatre include a five-star hotel, shopping mall, multi-level car park, land and water restaurants as well as offices. Serious businessmen are showing strong interest in the land and we can’t leave it to miscreants. The current facilities on ground around the theatre cannot support the growth of the theatre. And we are sitting on gold.”
Those who agree with him say government should allow the art sector to make money for itself instead of the usual subvention coming from Abuja. Culture, in the words of a ministry official “should be seen as productive.” The man who spoke to us off record added that “this will be like the MMA2 experience at the Lagos Airport.”
But a government which has thrown money at the art sector instead of building proper structures has won very few hearts outside official circle. First, there are those who believe that having a five-star hotel as part of the masterplan was unnecessary after the FESTAC 77 for which the idea was originally mooted. They point to FESTAC 77 Hotel, which has since become Golden Tulip Hotel close to FESTAC Town, as providing complementary services for the theatre in those days.
Critics of the new hotel say it will not serve the art community when completed. They fear it will run on its own while the theatre suffers because it appears the government is more interested in building hotels, shopping malls and casinos. Surely, Nigerian artistes who can barely afford the current rates charged at the theatre will think twice about five-star hotel accommodation.
One of the criticisms against the current management led by Yusuf is that it seeks to charge artistes the same rate as those charged by private event centres for their presentations. Some of the rebates they used to get in the past are no longer readily available, a situation that has seen church activities taking centre stage in place of art programmes.
If Duke and others, who unearthed the original masterplan thought there would not be any resistance from critical stakeholders over the proposal, then they did not read the handover notes of their successors. They should know that having seen how art merchandisers were written off the agenda after the renovation of Ikoyi Hotel (now Southern Sun) and Federal Palace Hotel, Nigerian artistes will not just pack their drums, paintings and costumes, and go home without a fight.
Yusuf’s promise that the theatre would be left alone has not pacified many. Those who operate from the Artiste Village are convinced that the curtain will fall on them when the five-star structures are put in place. And they are not ready to go into the hospitality business or buying and selling.
