Tourism: Group calls on FG to invest in Arts

Suleiman made the call in an interview on Saturday in Abuja. He said the initiative would make the country assume the status of a world class gallery and tourist destination.

The president said tourist destinations simply means “developing your structure first, before others will look into cultural tourism and arts”

“It is important to look at the site when you prefer to begin. You will want to know if it has a shift of adding history to arts” he said.

“Then you would   decide to develop on  arts to the  level that people will be able to look at it differently from what it used to be  in the past,”he added.

” They would be able to key into it and learn from that, because tourism is about learning new things, new ideas and visitation of historical sites and places ,” he said.

The president urged the government to involve and encourage private organisation, institutions of learning in order to help the arts to thrive for the betterment of the country.

He added that arts had helped to shape societies by providing platforms for creativity and solidarity to thrive.

Suleiman appealed to the government to ensure that arts receive the deserving attention by  introducing  art education, as well as provision of grants to the artists.

“Government should encourage private sector participation and institutions of learning by ensuring that art was given priority attention,”he said.

“Artists should be encouraged with some funds that would be accessible to them to achieve their profession,”he added.