Accomplish Magazine January 2024

INTERVIEW
economy. These three
are inseparable, mutually
supportive, administratively
convenient and more
than anything else, bear
much more economic
fruits when allowed to stay
merged. My thoughts on
this are elaborately shared
in Harnessing Cultour for
Economic Growth, and I
challenge scholars to
vacate my thesis.
Accomplish Magazine:
Wow! That’s quite
a bold declaration
to make! In your
book, you stated that
Nigeria’s 35-yearold
cultural policy
is unsuitable for real
progress. Our readers
would like to know why.
The reason is simple: the
document is no longer
suitable. It might have made
a lot of sense in the military
era, but I can assure you that
having read it cover to cover
countless times, the policy
didn’t have in contemplation
the rapidly growing economic
prominence of cultour, nor did
it envisage the dramatic twist
that is being experienced in
the cultour sector on account
of robotics and artificial
intelligence. Moreover, the
competition in the global
economic firmament has also
become much fiercer to the
point that nations are now
concentrating more on where
they have comparative and
competitive advantage.
Accomplish Magazine:
You practically stated
that some people in the
tourism and culture industry
have contributed to the
stagnancy in the industry.
Can you explain that?
Oh yes! The guilds in the
industry and their leaders are
Let
me, at this
point, pause to
give the immediate
past government a
pat on the back for
making the Nigerian
Development Tourism
Authority (NTDA)
Act 2022 come
through.
actually part of the problem
assailing the industry
today. That much I used my
personal experience at PMAN
to illustrate. People have to
read the book to see what I
mean in detail.
Accomplish Magazine: You
wrote about your rejection
of the call for a National
Endowment for the Arts and
stated your preference for
full commercialisation of
the arts through “cultural
entrepreneurship”? Like
‘cultour’, is this also your
original idea?
Cultural entrepreneurship
is, unlike cultour, not my
brainchild. But I seem to be
swimming against the tide
by arguing that the arts
subsidy called “National
Endowment for the Arts”
should be jettisoned for full
commercialisation of the
arts by means of promoting
‘Cultural Entrepreneurship’.
I personally think that
that advocacy had since
become wrong-headed and
unsuitable for the dire straits
Nigeria has found herself in at
present.
Accomplish Magazine:
Looking at Nigeria’s
economy, what
can respective
governments do
to boost the local
economy and foreign
exchange earnings
besides cultour?
My answer would be
culture, tourism and
creative industry; the product
(not sum) of which would still
be cultour! (Laughs heartily).
DIIYI
WILLIAM-WEST
AUTHOR’S BIO
More fondly known as DDWEST,
he has several years of media
practice experience spanning
magazines, newspapers, television
and radio; laying emphasis
on maintaining standards in
media practice. He practised
and lectured Public Relations for
nearly a decade before going into
leadership consulting and real
estate consultancy.
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