Prof Ebun Clark, the widow of the late renowned poet, Prof J.P. Clark, has called on the Federal Government to invest more in the creative arts industry.
She made this known at a public book presentation titled, “Emerging Perspectives on J.P. Clark and His Works” held at the University of Lagos on Tuesday.
The book was edited by Hope Eghagha and Solomon Azumurana.
Clark specifically noted that the National Council of Arts should be a funding agency and not a competitive one.
She said, “I have been saying this since the 60s that the Arts Council should be a funding agency and not a performing council. By being a performing agency, it is in competition with the people it should be funding, and therefore increasing the value and the possibilities of more artistes coming into prominence.
“The problem they have is funding. They don’t have the funding. Who buys poetry? Who buys play? Most of the time, they (artists) have to do other things besides art in order to survive and feed their children. The British Art Council is funded not only by the government but also by lottery. The money taken from the lottery, some of it goes into the British Council to fund arts.
“There was a time the repertory theatre, which exists in every city in England, went down because of lack of funds. But when the art council was endowed with more money, they came back. I think the sooner the Nigerian government can have a funding agency for the totality of creative arts, the better. For Instance, Lagos has only one museum; it is ridiculous. A big city like that should have like up to 20 different museums with different galleries.”
She said her late husband was celebrated in his lifetime despite not being a publicity person.
“My husband was celebrated in his lifetime. He was not a publicity person. He believes that his work would speak for him and he did not believe in pushing. Most people don’t know that in 2002, he was a London underground poet of Great Britain. They have this programme of beaming poets all over the world. He was the first Nigerian to be selected to be one of the poets. His poetry – Ibadan – was put into London troupes. Nobody knew about it because he never publicised anything. So, people thought he was not known abroad. All these awards that we have are only for fiction. That is why we get to know the novelist Chinua Achebe, who is mainly a novelist. He was an adviser to UNESCO in the fight against apartheid but nobody knew it. He is not a good publicity person just like some of us who do that occasionally.”
