Cont.: WOLE SOYINKA CULTURE AND ART CENTRE, A CARDOSO’S EXTENDED EMPIRE – By Adeniran Makinde, President of NANTAP.
…a failure exists in what is presently happening with the Wole Soyinka Centre (WSC).
I’m deliberate in using WSC and not National Theatre, because from the onset for the Bankers Committee, this renovation was not their main target but a bait for the bigger picture – the development of the fallow surroundings.
If the agreement signed during Buhari’s administration was strictly adhered to, we won’t be having this debate. The National Theatre as a cultural centre with attendant support, was envisioned in that agreement, but the present administration succumbed to the pressure from the bankers to side track that agreement, signed by Lai Mohammed!
They are NOT meant to be seeking recoupment from this renovation of just the theatre alone, because this part was to be a CSR project!
The Bankers Committee SIGNED to this, during Buhari’s time! However, things changed – delays, costs and you-know-what.
So, they strongly pushed for its alteration with the present administration. It is not impossible that the success of that push, is what is responsible for the confusion we have today. Unfortunately, the prime mover of this entire National Theatre “renovation”, under Godwin Emefiele, was Herbert Wigwe; and he is no more, may his soul rest in peace.
Bottomline, there is no blueprint on what’s happening presently or what is next. The entire project is on trial run!
