MINISTER SEEKS STRONGER TIES WITH SUDAN IN AREAS OF CULTURE, DIGITAL ECONOMY

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has

called for the strengthening of bilateral ties between Nigeria and

Sudan in the areas of cultural/creative industry and digital economy

in order to boost the efforts of the two countries to diversify their

economies away from oil.

The Minister made the call in Abuja on Tuesday when he received the

Sudanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Ibrahim Bushra, on a courtesy

visit to his office. “Let’s take the opportunity to look at two areas where the two

countries can work together. One is the area of creative and cultural

industry; another is the area of digital economy. Today any country

that does not see and recognize digital economy is like a man winking

in the dark….. Today if you have an identity and a name and you have

no digital identity it’s as if you do not exist. So we want to see how

the two countries can cooperate in both the cultural/creative industry

and also the digital economy,” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed described cultural/creative industry as the economy of

the future because of its huge potential to create wealth, generate

employment, especially for the youth, and foster cooperation among the

nations of the world. “To me the economy of the future is the creative and cultural industry

which does not come with the headache of oil. I can say this because

my country and your country have suffered from the same problems

related to oil production. On the contrary, when an economy is built

on the creative and cultural industry, it engenders more

understanding, breeds cooperation and friendship and at the same time

brings in more money,” he said.

The Minister therefore stressed the need to expand the frontiers of

economic cooperation beyond buying and selling of commodities and

machinery to the broader aspect of creative and cultural exchanges for

citizens’ empowerment and economic recovery, particularly among

countries suffering from the crash in the price of crude oil. “I think it’s about time we changed the concept of economic

cooperation and stop restricting economic cooperation to just buying

of oil and selling of machinery. We should look today at a broader

interpretation and meaning of economic cooperation and I am talking

about the cultural and creative industry.  This is one area where

Sudan and Nigeria can really improve their relations and at the same

time make up for what is being seen as lack of economic cooperation,”

he said. Alhaji Mohammed offered to partner with Sudan in the area of capacity

building in the film industry, especially Kannywood where there are

cultural similarities between the two countries, music as well as

arts.

In his remarks, Ambassador Bushra said in spite of the geographical

distance, the two countries enjoy a long history of kinship and blood

relationship, saying there are about five million Nigerians currently

residing in Sudan. “I always cite a very good example which is a Sudanese Singer, Aisha

Musa, In Sudan she is known as Aisha elFelelatiya. She was born from

Nigerian parents in 1917 and she was one of the most famous singers in

the music history of Sudan. There are many Sudanese of Nigerian

origin. They are ministers, governors and businessmen and they are

contributing with their brothers in building Sudan,” he said.

He said despite the historic relationship between Nigeria and Sudan,

more needs to be done in the area of economic cooperation for the

benefits of the two countries.

The Ambassador expressed his willingness, if invited, to bring a Sudanese

Musical Group to participate in the 2016 Abuja Carnival