NIGERIA CAN BE BETTER JETTISONING FOREIGN CULTURES – DON
The Dean Faculty of Arts, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof. Abubakar Aliyu Liman, has advocated the adoption of African cultures and indigenous ideals as best solutions to all Nigerian and African problems instead of seeking for foreign interventions. He stated this while delivering his paper, titled, “As the Past Hunts the Future: Literature, Popular Culture and the Cultural Logic of Digital Humanities”, at a maiden International Conference organized by Literary Scholars Association (LSA), hosted by Federal University Birnin Kebbi on Tuesday October 29, 2024.
The maiden edition of the international conference was tagged, “Imagine the Future: African Literature, Popular Culture and the Digital Humanities”. Liman, in his keynote lecture, noted that Nigeria could be moved away from its current crisis if the nation emulated Chinese model of development. According to him, “to illustrate, the Chinese development model has indeed showcased how arts and culture are deployed to shape the Chinese model of civilizational and technological progress. Through their unique system of education, the Chinese nation has been able to demonstrate that the interaction of nature and culture is what gives uniqueness to social environment”.
He emphasized that culture is the most significant ingredient with which to energize the motion of society towards achieving development goals. This is the sense in which it can be conjectured that the technological development of China cannot be separated from the cultural orientation, peculiarities and specificities of Sino-Asiatic civilization. But despite this truism, the fallacy of the dictum that promotes the irrelevance of the humanities is relentlessly pursued with vigor by the purveyors of neoliberal capitalism. The idea is to pursue indiscriminately the commodification, marketization and commercialization of both tangible and intangible values without let, and without any form of ideologically opposition from any quarters.
While challenging Authors, Literature Teachers and University Lecturers to proffer solutions to the nation’s crisis, Liman said that the entire world are eagerly waiting for them, leading them out of lingering crisis.
In his address, the Vice Chancellor of FUBK, Professor Muhammad Zaiyan Umar, who commended Professor Liman and others for the provoked lectures, enthused that if the country is determined, it could achieve a lot within its resources and cultures.
In her remarks, NOC chairperson and convener, Prof.Asabe Kabir Usman, explained that, the association is open to scholars, teachers and students of literature, as well as film producers, literary aficionados, writers, and artists with interest in the fields of creative/literary arts and culture as well as scholarly producers of literature, from Nigeria and beyond. She said the overall motivation is the development of scholarship and knowledge of literature as well as individuals who subscribe to the goals of the association. Today, LSA has almost 200 paying members.
She maintained that the Conference is timely and relevant to national and global literary trends as they affect our various societies, adding that the conference theme is futuristic, focusing on paradigm shifts in the literary world.
In his remarks, Waziri Gwandu, Alhaji Umar Waziri, represented by former Head of Service, Alhaji Abubakar Udu Idris, commended the organizers of the program, and stressed that Nigeria and Nigerias still have wide opportunities to rebuild the country.
Others scholar who presented papers at the maiden edition of the conference of the LSA includes, Dr. Saeedat Aliyu, from Department of English and Literary Studies, Kwara State University, Malete who presented her paper, virtually on “African Literature and New Form Literary Act”, and Dr. Jonas Akung, from the department of English and Literary Studies, University of Calabar, Cross River state on “Migration in the Annal of Human History”.