Nigeria Can Be Better Jettisoning Foreign Cultures- Dean ABU Zaria

The Dean Faculty of Arts, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Professor Abubakar Aliyu Liman, has advocated for the adoption of African cultures and indigenous ideals as best solutions to all Nigerian and African problems instead of seeking for foreign interventions.

Liman, from the Department of English and Literary Studies, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, stated this while delivering his paper, titled, “As the Past Hunts the Future: Literature, Popular Culture and the Cultural Logic of Digital Humanities”, at a maiden International Conference organized by Literary Scholars Association (LSA), held at the Federal University Birnin Kebbi (FUBK).

The maiden edition of the international conference was tagged, “Imagine the Future: African Literature, Popular Culture and the Digital Humanities”.

Liman, in his keynote lecture, noted that Nigeria could be moved away from its current crisis if the nation emulated Chinese model of development.

According to him, “to illustrate, the Chinese development model has indeed showcased how arts and culture are deployed to shape the Chinese model of civilizational and technological progress. Through their unique system of education, the Chinese nation has been able to demonstrate that the interaction of nature and culture is what gives uniqueness to social environment”.

“In fact, culture is the most significant ingredient with which to energize the motion of society towards achieving development goals. This is the sense in which it can be conjectured that the technological development of China cannot be separated from the cultural orientation, peculiarities and specificities of Sino-Asiatic civilization. But despite this truism, the fallacy of the dictum that promotes the irrelevance of the humanities is relentlessly pursued with vigor by the purveyors of neoliberal capitalism. The idea is to pursue indiscriminately the commodification, marketization and commercialization of both tangible and intangible values without let, and without any form of ideologically opposition from any quarters”.

While challenging Authors, Literature Teachers and University Lecturers to proffer solutions to the nation’s crisis, Liman said that the entire world are eagerly waiting for them, leading them out of lingering crisis.

“The growing culture industry promises to be a gold mine for the teeming unemployed graduates of English and Literary Studies. The world is eagerly waiting for our intervention, by tell our own stories through the most popular media of the day, the digital media. As teachers we need to reflect over the profound technological changes that are taking place, not only here in Nigeria but all over the world. In particular, we need to investigate literary and cultural renaissance and the robust experiments with culture happening in Nigeria via ubiquitous technological medialization and mediation”.

“For students, researchers and scholars, to borrow Marx insights above, we need to creatively and innovatively define the ways in which we can turn the challenges faced by disciplines in the humanities into opportunities for wealth creation and the very survival of our professional callings as well”.

In his remark, the Vice-Chancellor of FUBK, Professor Muhammad Zayyanu Umar, who commended Professor Liman and others for the provoked lectures, described it as a naked truth reality on ground, and stressed that, it’s shown that if the country is determined, they could achieve a lot within their resources and cultures.

In her remark, NOC chairperson and convener, Professor Asabe Kabir Usman, explained that, the association is open to scholars, teachers and students of literature, as well as film producers, literary aficionados, writers, and artists with interest in the fields of creative/literary arts and culture as well as scholarly producers of literature, from Nigeria and beyond.

“The overall motivation is the development of scholarship and knowledge of literature as well as individuals who subscribe to the goals of the association. Today, LSA has almost 200 paying members.

“The theme of this maiden conference: “imagining the future: African Literature, Popular Culture, and Digital Humanities”, is timely and relevant to national and global literary trends as they affect our various societies. The theme is futuristic and projective, focusing on the various paradigm shifts in the literary world.

In his remark, Waziri Gwandu, Alhaji Umar Waziri, represented by former Head of Service, Alhaji Abubakar Udu Idris, commended the organizer of the program, and stressed that Nigeria still have enough honest Civil Servants who are not corrupt.

Others who presented papers at the maiden edition of the conference of the LSA includes, Dr. Saeedat Aliyu, from Department of English and Literary Studies, Kwara State University, Malete who presented her paper Virtually on “African Literature and New Form Literary Act”, and Dr. Jonas Akung, from the department of English and Literary Studies, University of Calabar, Cross River state on “Migration in the Annal of Human History”.

By Ola Lawal