5th March, 2013
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called on Africans to guide their cultures jealously.
Addressing participants at the regional summit on “Women and Youth in the Promotion of Cultural Security and Development in Africa,” a programme organised as part of activities marking his 76th birthday, Obasanjo described culture as the identity of the people which should be protected, adding that it is dynamic and progressive.
Obasanjo also called for the empowerment of women and youths, describing them as great contributors to the Gross Domestic Product of the nation.
“I have always in a very succinct way referred to culture as the totality of ways of life of any people and if you then say like a Nigerian social critic that some people have no culture, how dare you say that? Because what you are saying is that these people have no way of life. Does it mean they have no language, does it mean they have no food, clothing, dances and other things; in totality that makes a way of life of a people?
“Beyond that, culture is also central to our identity and if you want to suppress and dominate people, destroy their culture, eliminate their culture and that is why you now have people, black people who have been taken away from Africa who are now Mr. Stone.
“In most African countries, names mean something and you don’t just give a child a name. Culture tells us where we are coming from, where we are and to plot where we are going to. To me, culture is like history, if you have no history, you have no memory and if you say you have no culture, you have no past, may be you have no present and I wonder how you will have a future,” the former Head of State said.
—Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta