Nigerian Folklore Society (NFS) has urged Federal Government to include folklore and folktales in the curriculum of educational institutions in the country as a way of creating jobs and preserving the cultural heritage of the Nigerian people.
President of the Society, Dr. Bukar Usman, made the call in Abuja at the annual conference of the society, which had as its theme, “Resilience and Dynamism in Folklore in the 21st Century”. Usman, who defined folklore as the expressive body of culture shared by a particular group of people, stated that it encompasses the traditions common to that culture.
According to him, the conference is focusing on preservation and promotion of folklore in Nigeria.
“I am particularly concerned with how our children who now watch television with rapt attention to stories largely based on foreign culture, could be redirected to a culture which they are or should be much more familiar with.”
The president emphasised that folklore’s inclusion in the curriculum would enable Nigerians to acquire skills to create folklore or folktales based on our local environment as against the trend of foreign cartoons in the modern media.
He stressed the need for attention to be focused on production of dramas, motion cartoons and animation to educate the children on our local culture aimed at character building as well as instilling in them diverse cultural heritage.
Usman frowned at presentation of foreign cartoons, animations among other tales like Nickelodeon, Tom and Jerry in the media that attract children attention for many hours undermining other activities including food.
He emphasised that majority of these cartoons portray western or foreign culture at the detriment of the indigenous ones blaming these on lack of manpower development or skills in our society to produce such dramas.
“Our emphasis at the conference is folklore and social media. How we can present our folklore in our modern media games like Tom and Jerry, Nickelodeon and other cartoons which we find our children preoccupied with undermining their studies, these are tales of foreign culture yet we have stories locally which can be reflected in the modern media.
“If we can get our children involved in it, it will not only preserve our culture but it will also create a lot of jobs all over the world. Folklore and folktales among others could be reflected on social media through media games. We are not only advocating for folklore inclusion in our curriculum but also professionalism which embodies the skills for the professionals in the field to be able to create motion cartoons, animations among others.
“You must acquire the skills and in order to achieve these our tertiary institutions must include it in their curriculum such as engineering profession among others. Through this measure, as soon as they finished their programmes they can create films or cartoons carrying the background of our culture.
“It is time for the National University Commission (NUC) and our tertiary institutions to give serious and urgent attention to developing curricular for study to produce the required professionals who will get Nigeria to realise those potentials,” he said.
