By Correspondent in Lokoja
The Director-General, National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), Prof. Armstrong Idachaba,has called on the Federal Government to come up with a structured policy framework, with clearly articulated vision for the creative industry.
Idachaba made the call in his keynote address at a three-day TMJ Live Events Creative Conversation with the theme: “The Creative, His Productivity and the Economy” which ended on Sunday in Lokoja..
He said that that such policy should be able to quantify, in material economic terms, those benefits or the actual derivables and positively affect the economic well-being of the nation.
The NBC Director General suggested that alongside the policy, there was “strong” need for institutional collaborations between the Government, Private sector, Academia among others, to converse on the creative industry issues and bring them to the front burner.
“Serious countries deliberately create creative youth policies, creating avenues for them to experiment positively, to reconstruct some of their dreams and express themselves in very constructive manner.
“That way, they more or less re-identify some of their own personal aspirations and they are also more able to articulate what their value should be in the society as a culture generally,”he said.
Also in his keynote address, Dr Kashim Akor, Director-General, National Productivity Centre, called for participation of the Organised Private Sector in the promotion and sustenance of the creative industry in Nigeria.
Akor,in his address entitled, “The Creative Industry and Productivity: Implications for National Economy”, said talents for creative industry must be harnessed to create productivity as a way of addressing social vices adding, “If you create jobs and people are engaged, the vices will fizzle.
He maintained that stakeholders in the Creative Industry should make concerted efforts to promote not only productivity and self-reliance but also advance Corporate Social Responsibility and exploiting the avenue to reach the general public.
Dr Babatunde Irukera, Director- General, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), urged youths to discover their talents and pursue their aim, be passionate about it and display acceptable character.
He said that the Commission was working with other regulators like the NBC to provide level playing ground and ensure that all entertainers who had content to air it on pay-television stations and to protect their intellectual properties.
The Convener, Thompson Makolo Jr (TMJ), a creative artist who used the occasion to launch the Makolo Talents Foundation, said the effort was aimed at providing a platform for the Youth in creative industry to maximise their potentialities.
Makolo, who centred his conversation on “Talent, Passion and Character”, said without the right attitude, creative efforts would only amount to a waste.
He said that Nigeria was blessed with abundant human resources which could enable youths hold their heads high anywhere in the world but that they lacked the appropriate attitude to launch them to success and rise to stardom.
The movie actor, however, appealed to the government, corporate organisations and individuals to invest in the creative industry saying that it had the potential to generate “huge employment” to reduce youth indulgence in vices.
The Reporters reports that Abdulrahman Khalifa Okene was the Chairman of the occasion, graced by Commissioner for Culture and Tourism,some former Commissioners in the state and youths from all walks of life.
