The Guardian learnt from a government source that creatives would need to wait a little longer as government currently cannot fund the package.
Already, government had put in place measures to tackle the impact, which include different financial intervention including a N50 billion targeted at households and micro and small enterprises. The interest rate was also cut and a moratorium announced on principal repayments for CBN intervention facilities.
Mohammed said because of the challenge, “we have, therefore, decided that instead of addressing this problem piecemeal, we should do so holistically for a more positive outcome,” noting that the creative industry is a very critical sector of the nation’s economy. Following the submission of the committee’s report, the Minister gave an assurance, noting, “we will study the report and commence its implementation in earnest.”
However, Professor Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, Department of Theatre Arts, University of Africa Toru-Orua , Bayelsa State, is not surprised at the manner the creative sector has been left out, saying, “it is one of the multifarious, inundating signposts of the lip service hovering around the culture industry.”The theatre teacher said the creative industry palliatives committee “might be rightly likened to a labourer given an assignment to cut a lawn without any implement to work with.
According to him, “government sees practitioners as jokers, whereas in the advanced world their governments know the values of performing arts and would do all in their capacity to motivate them, especially now that performance is low.”