FG Embarks On Moves To Retrieve Nigeria’s Stolen Artefacts

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has launched the campaign for the return of Nigeria’s stolen Artifacts from around the world.

The campaign was launched during a press conference in Lagos on Thursday, November 28.

Mohammed stressed that the government is set to hunt for those holding on to the cultural property, using legal and diplomatic instruments available.

He said that Nigeria cannot imagine a situation whereby Ife Bronze or a Benin Bronze or a Nok Terracotta can belong to any other part of the globe except to the people of Nigeria, whose ancestors made them.

“We have never laid claim to the Mona Lisa or a Rembrandt. Those who looted our heritage resources, especially during the 19th century wars, or those who smuggled them out of the country for pecuniary reasons, have simply encouraged the impoverishment of our heritage and stealing of our past,” he said..

According to him, the pieces of work are an important part of the nation’s past, its history, and heritage resource, and that allowing them to sit in the museums of other nations robs Nigeria of our history.

Mohammed said the campaign is emboldened by Article 4 of the UNESCO 1970 Convention, to which most nations subscribe, which identifies the categories of cultural property that form part of the cultural heritage of each member state, thereby belonging to that State.

The Minister also said the Heads of State and Government of the ECOWAS Region met in December 2018 in Abuja and adopted a Political Declaration on the return of cultural property to their countries of origin, adding: ”We are bound by this Declaration, which has further brought discussions towards a Plan of Action.”

He said the government will kick-start the campaign with a quest to retrieve the Ife Broze Head, which was one of the items stolen in 1987 when one of the country’s national museums was broken into.

”After it was brought to an auction in London two years ago, the auction house observed that it was an Ife Bronze Head which belongs to the ICOM (International Council of Museums) Red List of cultural goods that are deemed to be the most vulnerable to illicit traffic.

”Now, the London Metropolitan police has seized the object, and it has invited Nigeria to make a claim, otherwise they will have to return it to the fellow claiming ownership. We have now started work on the return of the Ife Bronze head to Nigeria.,” the Minister said.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has expressed delight at the decision of the Cambridge University’s Jesus College to repatriate a Benin Bronze Cockerel, known as ”okukor”, to Nigeria.

”Considering the hundreds of Benin Bronzes looted during that occupation, the decision to return the cockerel is like a drop in the ocean, but it is an important drop and we welcome it,” the Minister said.