Appraisal of the 1988 National Policy for Culture Within the Purview of Economic Diversification in Nigeria

Abstract

Culture is a peculiar pattern of a people’s behaviour, which includes their socio-economic life. Thus, government takes it as a responsibility to formulate and implement a policy known as Cultural Policy to guide and provide directions in the sector in order to harness its inherent potentials. Like other nations of the world, Nigeria has a very rich cultural policy which its implementation has been faced with certain challenges and prospects over the years. Consequently, this study appraises the 1988 Policy for culture and economic diversification. In other words, the objectives of the study are to assess the extent of implementation of the 1998 National Policy for Culture, identify the potentials and the bottlenecks for its full economic optimization as well as advocate measures for strict compliance/implementation for maximum productivity. The study adopted descriptive and prescriptive research design with the use of questionnaire instrument for data collection, and statistic tables for data analysis. The modern portfolio theory propounded by Harry Markowitz in 1950 was employed, as well as relevant literatures: books, paper presentations, cultural policies (in force and draft), journals, internet sources were used to substantiate the study as secondary sources. The findings reveal that 1988 National Policy for culture is an invaluable document with respect to economic diversification in Nigeria; and that, cultural industries contribute significantly to Nigeria’s economy; that the cultural sector has potential to become the mainstay of the nation’s economy, if given adequate attention. The study recommended that Cultural Policy for Nigeria 1988 should be reviewed to accommodate current trends in the global cultural industries. Indeed, cultural policy provides a platform for harnessing enormous potentials offered by culture for economic vibrancy. The study concluded that if Nigeria’s economy must be viable enough to fund our national budget as opposed to the current habit of financing it through external borrowing, the cultural industries must be given adequate attention by the government in this trajectory.