USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: National Theatre Sold to UAE Company to be Used as Shopping Mall

At the outset, in case I am accused of anything as ridiculous as "Ethnic bias" or skulduggery by some nincompoops let me say that the Efik Gold series 1-9 by Chief Inyang Henshaw   (and the Akaso Culture Society  recordings ( extraordinary Kalabari ) add to the cream of my music collection.....

Nigerian Minister of Culture Edem Duke Secretly Sells off National Theatre to United Arab Emirates Company:

"The interior of the National Theatre will be redesigned and renovated into a modern duty-free and retail shopping mall. The project will convert approximately 30,000m2 of the existing space in two 15,000m2 phases," said Kabir Yaradua, CEO of the National theatre."

How Nigeria's pride, National Theatre, was sold off to UAE company as Shopping Mall

My initial reaction was unprintable so I'll just dress up that reaction in the mild words of Lakunle the village schoolteacher:

"For that, what is a jewel to pigs?
If now I am misunderstood by you
And your race of savages, I rise above taunts
And remain unruffled"

It's not only the friends of Ola Rotimi and Hubert Ogunde  and  our very contemporary John Pepper Clark that are grieving.

Exceeding, I am seething with anger but leaving it to Nigeria and the Black World's premier theatre man, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, to blast Edem Duke's seditious decision to hammer him on his head and finish him off with some thunderbolts of lightning from Ogun. If he so wishes ( and I'm fervently expecting it, that  Pius Adesanmi delivers the coup de grâce

It's devastating news to come at the cusp of the year that we're leaving behind us - A.D.  Anno Domini calendric , such an arbitrary division of cosmic time in our part of the  Imperial (imperialism's) Western Hemisphere by which time module Nigeria, Africa's  sleeping giant, still leaking oil, is being consumed. But there's another time-telling (and at this very moment I'm thinking of the subject of this posting, the impy Edem Duke. The forum moderator I'm sure would take no offence if I called Mr. Duke Nigeria's Culture icon ( when irony is laid to rest)  or "His Imperial Majesty " ( when hyperbole has lost all significance) in just one line of exquisite poetry  - but prose is the standard fare in this forum  - and so the  moderator of moderation can take "excessive" poetry invisibly by the scruff of  his neck  - and reject  his posting as three of my postings have been rejected in just one week – and I thought that I had a thing or two to say  - but that is also the lot of the Muslim , "saber"  they say to him  -  be patient  -  the bomb is mightier than the sword , as if every time he takes up a pen  they think he is about to blow himself and everyone else up  to the  blissful Heavenly Kingdom Come, even out here in cyberspace.

 Ah time and circumstances - as I said I'm thinking of the enemy of the National Theatre, still thinking about him, that theatrical , Shakespearean scoundrel Edem Duke

 

"Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?"

 

The insight and questions are all mine:  I, the Carnival Clown ask :  Is that what happens  when you get a commercially successful carnival king from Calabar and appoint him Federal  Minister of Culture,  that the next thing he does is to erect in Yoruba land, a commercial skyscraper on the carcass of what was once Nigeria's pride : The National Theatre in Lagos ?

 Is there no other place in which to build a shopping mall?

It wouldn't hurt so much if Edem first announced that a New National Theatre  was going to be built (at a cost of slightly less than the missing $20 billion from oil proceeds)...

Last word

On Tuesday, 30 December 2014 22:10:16 UTC+1, Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:

This Minister for Culture and Tourism, Edem Duke, is he one of President Goodluck Jonathan's Federal Ministers or is he a State of Minister? One has to know before one passes judgment ruthlessly....

On Tuesday, 30 December 2014 21:07:45 UTC+1, Kola Fabiyi wrote:

National Theatre sold for $40million ( N7.5Billion) To Dubai Based Company For Shopping Mall

By Eagle Eye Report Worldwide / 2014-12-30

National Theatre Sold to UAE Company to be Used as Shopping Mall

Minister for Culture and Tourism, Edem Duke started his career as a hospitality entrepreneur. He managed a very successful hotel, The Mirage and opened a spin off ethnic restaurant, 'Dukes' where ethic cuisine is served in an ancient African themed restaurant complete with all the decor and ambiance that takes the diner on an exotic and adventurous journey through the very goodness and richness of our African culture.

This confirms him to be a man who is committed to preserving Nigeria's culture in all its originality...a quality which easily won him the position of our culture minister.Mr. Duke secretly flew out of the country to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to sell off The National Theatre to Mulk Holdings, a diversified UAE-based business conglomerate based in Sharjah. The National Theatre was reportedly sold for $40million (abut N7.5Billion) and will be converted to a duty-free shopping mall.

The Nigeria Political Economist reports:
"The secret deal which was successfully shielded from the Nigerian media, in spite of a subsisting concessioning arrangement with the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, was signed and sealed in December , 2014 between a delegation led by Duke, the General Manager of the National Theatre, Kabiru Yar'Adua and representatives of Mulk Holding, said to be ploughing the sum of $40 million (about N7.5 billion) counterpart fund into the project."

The website went on to quote from the  December 10, 2014 edition of GulfAfrica Review, which wrote that Kabir Yaradua, CEO of the National Theatre said:
"The interior of the National Theatre will be redesigned and renovated into a modern duty-free and retail shopping mall. The project will convert approximately 30,000m2 of the existing space in two 15,000m2 phases."
The report also quoted Ambassador of Nigeria to the UAE, His Excellency Bashir Yuguda, as saying:
"The National Theatre has been the hub of cultural activities in Nigeria since its establishment in 1976, and this development will compliment and kick-start a master re-development programme designed for this area."
Minister of Tourism, HE Edem Duke, noted:
"As part of the continuous drive to promote culture and tourism, the federal government is making necessary arrangements to transform the land into a modern mixed-use commercial and business hub of global standards."

The National Arts Theatre was originally built for the Festival of Arts and Culture in 1977, and later underwent a controversial privatisation after 2001 under President Olusegun Obasanjo. Fresh plans further anticipate leasing the land around the theatre in a 30-year concession.

My questions are these:
1. What has a duty-free shopping mall got to do with the promotion and preservation of Nigerian arts and culture? Is the memory of the National Theatre as a Nigerian cultural hub to be erased forever?

2. if the federal government is leasing the running and management of the National Theatre to the private sector, why must it be to a foreign company? The influx of foreign investors taking over the business opportunities of indigenous entrepreneurs is further increasing unemployment and hardship for millions of Nigerians.

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