The National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) has welcomed the clamour for local production of face masks to combat the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.
The Nigeria premier culture agency said that it would roll out both medical and conventional facemasks made from local adire and ankara fabrics embossed with NCAC logo to check imitation and also to showcase home grown solutions to demands for the kits.
Likewise, sanitizers exclusively made from local natural resources will also be part of the intervention.
Otunba Segun Runsewe, the DG NCAC, in a stated that the measures were part of well thought out interventions that would help bridge the gap in the demands and needs to ensure no one finds excuse to breach the COVID-19 protocols.
“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,” Runsewe explained.
Describing the initiative as a necessity and response to exploit the huge cultural resources in Nigeria, 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 further clarified, adding that necessity is the mother of all inventions around the world.
“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,” Runsewe stated.
It will be recalled that NCAC under Runsewe has made the use of local fabrics, arts and crafts as the fulcrum of a new and emerging cultural economy.
Indeed, NCAC has promoted a proudly and exclusively Nigerian cultural products since the advent of Buhari administration.
