The Federal Government has taken a bold step to introduce the Nigerian Academy for Cultural Studies (NACUS) as a specialized institution to train individuals for innovative studies and the development of Nigeria’s culture and history.
Executive Secretary of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) Otunba Biodun Ajiboye, made this known in a statement on Sunday in Abuja by his Media Assistant, Mr Caleb Nor.
According to the statement, the specialized academy which is the nation’s citadel of cultural training has the approval of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and accreditation to run the programme leading to the award of the National Diploma in Cultural Administration & Human Resources (NDCAHR) while its Postgraduate Diploma programme is affiliated with the Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK).
It added that already, the accreditation and affiliation has provided an opportunity for certification of individuals who have obtained the Diploma to proceed for higher education in cultural studies while using the Academy’s Postgraduate Diploma in Cultural Administration to enrol for their Master’s degree.
“With the rebranding and elevation of the institution which was hitherto, known as the Training School of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) to a full-fledged higher institution for cultural education and training, there is a clear indication that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda has come to fully recognize the culture and the need for cultural renaissance to takes center stage in its policy-making processes,” it stated.
According to the Executive Secretary of NICO, Otunba Biodun Ajiboye, the development is a pointer to the fact that Nigeria under the present administration has seen the need to embrace culture at “its highest level such that our cultural antecedents, understanding and appreciation will reflect in our overall policy-making processes such that the nation will begin to stem the tide of imbalanced national behaviour and character by emphasizing and re-enacting our cultural values.
“The nation has seen the need to incorporate adequate cultural content in our school curriculum both in the primary, secondary and tertiary education systems.
“What this means is that once we are able to shed off the foreign cultural antecedents, that we have inadvertently imbibed over the years, we will then begin to realize the importance of our innate cultural essentialities which will confer on us as a people, a great dose of originality, thereby paving way for adequate cultural identity,” he stated.
Ajiboye stressed further that no nation could attain a state of National identity without a cultural identity.
He said: “This first specialized institution to teach culture; the Nigerian Academy for Cultural Studies (NACUS) is a bold step and innovation of the Tinubu administration.
“With the approval of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the consent of the Federal Ministry of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy, it is here on a note that the government of Nigeria will begin to view culture as an important element in our day to day life,” he said.
He disclosed that according to the Minister of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy, Barr. Hannatu Musa Musawa, the institution would be situated in four geographical locations of Nigeria with campuses in Abuja, Northern Zone, Southern Zone and Eastern Zone.
Ajiboye said the process is currently ongoing to sensitize the Head of Service of the Federation to ensure that such certificates emanating from the academy are employable in the civil service and beyond for cultural workers, entrepreneurs, hotels and tourism agencies among others to benefit from.
He maintained that the move to rebrand the institution is one of the biggest efforts by the Tinubu-led administration to ensure that Nigerian youths are not only made proficient and prominent in issues of entertainment and fintech but to ensure that “we create a lot of job opportunities through our cultural heritage, thereby putting our cultural heritage on the pedestal of global recognition and huge foreign exchange generation for Nigeria.”
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