Nigeria, South Sudan to develop bilateral agreement on creative industry

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed (21stcenturychronicle.com)

Republics of Nigeria and South Sudan have agreed to pursue a common goal in the development and sustenance of the cultural and creative industries of both countries.

This decision was reached at a bilateral meeting between the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and his South Sudan counterpart, Minister of Culture, Museums and National Heritage, Nadia-Arop Mayom, in Edinburgh, Scotland

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the meeting was on the sidelines of the ongoing Sixth International Culture Summit going on in Edinburgh.

At an interview they granted to newsmen after the meeting, the two ministers said Nigeria and South Sudan shared common natural endowments, rich and diverse cultures and they can learn from each other.

The transcript of the interview was made available to NAN on Sunday in Abuja by Mr Segun Adeyemi, Special Assistant to the President (Media).

Adeyemi is attached to the Office of the Minister of Information and Culture.

“We both agreed that we have similar challenges in terms of insecurity and we have similar fortunes in terms of being blessed with oil and gas.

“Oil and gas are assets that will finish, so, we agreed to concentrate more on our creative industry, our history our culture, film and music,” Mohammed was quoted as saying.

The minister also told newsmen that they agreed to form a bloc where both countries could better negotiate in terms of their artifacts and work together as governments to give a pride of place to their creative industry.

For her part, the South Sudanese minister told newsmen that her country was willing to learn from the Nigeria’s rich and developed culture and creative industry.

“We know that Nigeria is a developed country in terns of culture and creative industry and it is very important to us to learn from Nigeria how we can develop our own cultural industry

“South Sudan like Nigeria has a rich and diverse cultural heritage and people and we want to learn from Nigeria how they raised up their cultural and creative industry,” Mayom was quoted as having said. The minister also told newsmen that they discussed the need for African countries to come together to discuss issues relating to the reawakening of their culture eroded by colonial incursion.