The National Commission for UNESCO (NATCOM-UNESCO) has tasked the newly constituted Nigerian National Committee on Memory of the World (MoW) on prompt recovery of the country’s documentary heritages across the world.
Mr Idowu Olagunju, the Secretary-General, NATCOM-UNESCO made this known in Abuja on Tuesday at a one-day capacity building workshop for the Nigerian Memory of the World Committee (MoW).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that members of the committee are drawn from different government agencies to help in ensuring the preservation of the country’s heritages.
Olagunju said that there was the need for the country to protect and preserve its heritages so that the upcoming generation would able to appreciate the country more.
He also tasked the committee on correcting the mistakes of the past through bringing together all documentaries that were damaged and putting them in a digitalised manner.
According to him, the capacity building workshop is meant for the committee which is one of the international committees set up by UNESCO to protect some of the endangered documentaries so that the history of a people can be preserved.
“This is one of the ways of making human beings important on their own so that when their history is protected and preserved, they will know where they are coming from and they will be able to identify with the other nations of the world.
“It further engendered peace which UNESCO stands for. So this workshop is apt because over the years many of the CEOs that belong to this committee have changed so this has to be organised for the new CEOs who are coming on board.
“This will help to get a voice for Nigeria in the UNESCO family for the memory of the world and also get all our documentaries together and have a national register of memory of the world and how we can preserve the items already going into extinction.
“The committee should see themselves as working for Nigeria and living a legacy for the upcoming generation so that all the children are never aware of and they should be able to know where we are coming from,” he said.
The secretary-general said that there were ongoing moves by UNESCO to ensure the preservation of the country’s heritages.
He said that the committee were usually attached to the international wings to make it very easy in retrieving heritages from outside the country.
“There are ongoing moves by UNESCO on how to recover some of the heritage materials that are outside and there are processes that are being followed.
“If you remember recently, there were some that were brought back from Germany to the Benin Kingdom, those were the ones taken away hundreds of years ago.
“So, that tells you that the process is ongoing, the committees are to ensure these are done as long as we are together speaking one language, building our capacities and bringing ideas together and liaising with the international communities through UNESCO,” he added.
Also, Mr Lamine Mamadou Sow, the Senior Programme Specialist, Education, UNESCO Regional Office said the sole responsibility of the committee was to make the government aware of the need to protect its documentary heritages both tangible and intangible.
Sow charged the committee to support the activities of professional at the local and international organisations to stimulate activities on recovery of the heritages.
“Unfortunately, we have not done much in this regard. About 426 documentary heritages are being included in the register.
“Among them are recordings of folk music, ancient languages and phonetics, aged remnants of religious and secular manuscripts, collective lifetime works of renowned giants of literature, science and music, copies of landmark motion pictures and short films, and accounts documenting changes in the world’s political, economic and social stage.
“Of these 23 property, were nominated by countries from the region of Africa, with just one mention of Nigeria. I said this is unfortunate because of the ocean of talents in all the mentioned fields in Nigeria.
“However, this can be overturned, UNESCO believes that as an autonomous entity with its terms of reference and rules of membership and succession, an empowered and equipped National Mow Committee can be effective in achieving the strategic goal of the Memory of the World Programme nationally,” he said. (NAN)