Segun Akanni, Toronto, Canada 
Prompted by the growing concerns about breaches of COVID-19 protocols, especially the use of facemasks and sanitizers, the management of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) has produced medical and conventional facemasks made from local adire and ankara fabrics as part of intervention.
The face masks are embossed with NCAC logo and also to showcase home grown solutions to demands for the kits. Likewise, sanitisers exclusively made from local natural resources will also be part of the intervention.
“We shall be targeting the culture tourism community, the media, the security agencies at the frontline of the battle to the successful and full compliance of the lockdown and also the medical professionals,” he said.
Describing the initiative as a necessity and response to exploit the huge cultural resources in Nigeria, Otunba Runsewe noted that COVID-19 pandemic has provided Nigeria a great opportunity to look inwards for the production of relevant kits and accessories made exclusively in Nigeria and which will meet with export standard and health protocols.
“We cannot just sit down and expect help from outside the country all the time. We should respond to this challenge by looking inwards and creatively discover certain benefits in our cultural endowment, support the process of indigenous response to all health challenges not just COVID-19 pandemic, Runsewe said, adding that necessity is the mother of all inventions around the world.
Continuing, he said: “Ours is not only to support government directives that Nigerians should wear facemasks in public places, but to develop a determined basic cultural socioeconomic baseline to the effective use and engagement of local fabrics and natural resources to which Nigeria is well blessed.”
Under Runsewe the Council has made use of local fabrics, arts and crafts as fulcrum of a new and emerging cultural economy. It has also promoted proudly and exclusively Nigerian cultural products since the advent of Buhari administration.
