Federal Government of Nigeria has made plans in embarking on infrastructural development around the National Museum in Benin City to contain the returned bronzes around the world.
Information and Culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed who made the announcement in his welcome address at the official handover of repatriated Benin Bronzes by Germany to Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said this development will be in addition to infrastructural developments that are being initiated by other stakeholders in Nigeria and the immense support of foreign partners, particularly Germany. “Making Benin city to become cultural hub for Africa”.
The Minister recalled on July 7, 2022,
with the eyes of the whole world glued to their television screens, Germany signed the declaration with Nigeria to release all 1,130 Benin Bronzes in Germany public museums.
Prior to this declaration, Alhaji Mohammed had at a World Press Conference in Lagos on 28th November, 2019, launched National Campaign for the Restitution/Return of Nigeria’s antiquities from all parts of the world.
According to him, “Twenty years ago, even ten years ago, nobody could have anticipated these bronzes returning to Nigeria, because the obstacles to achieving repatriation were seemingly insurmountable. But today, with the pioneering gesture of a friendly nation, Germany, the story has changed.
“The negotiations were not as easy as things look today. They were stormy at times. But the sincerity of the Germans played a big role in resolving knotty issues. In this regard, my special gratitude goes to Andreas Gorgen and the Directors of the various museums for their patience and understanding”.
Alhaji Mohammed on behalf of the Government thanked the Federal Government of Germany and its
officials for these unprecedented moves that culminated in this event.
“In particular, we want to thank the heads of government and govts of the various German regions and their officials, as well as administrators of the regional museums in Hamburg, Cologne, Stuttgart, Leipzig and Berlin and all the other museums that have made repatriation possible.
“We understand that Germany, like Nigeria, practises a federal system of government, hence we know that it must. Also thanking other persons and groups that had struggled over the years in the cause of pursuing this dream”, he said.
The Minister called on all other nations, institutions, museums and private collectors still holding on to Nigerian antiquities to release them. “Particularly, we call on the British Museum to release the more than 900 Benin Bronzes in its hold.
“A year has rolled by since Nigeria
submitted an official letter to the British Museum demanding the return of Nigerian antiquities in this museum. Yet there has been no reply of any kind.
“I visited in July this year hoping that the success recorded with the Germans will nudge the British Museum to do what is right. But I met a brick wall. The British Museum and all those holding on to our artefacts must understand that repatriation is a cause which time has come.
“They must also understand that many of these cultural objects are not mere art to us but the true essence of our being. They are not mere decorative works but our culture and heritage. They belong here, not anywhere else”, he said.
Alhaji Mohammed seized the opportunity provided by this epochal event to thank the Netherlands, which in October 2020 returned a 600-year-old Ife Terracotta; the University of Aberdeen, and
Jesus College of the University of Cambridge, for returning the Benin Bronzes in their holding; the Metropolitan Museum in New York which returned Ife and Benin Bronzes; the Horniman Museums and Gardens in London which in October, 2022 signed the legal transfer of 72 Benin Bronzes.
He also want to thank the Smithsonian in Washington, the National Gallery of Art of the United States and the Rhodes Island School of Design for releasing the Benin Bronzes in their holdings.
The Minister commended the Pitt Rivers Museum of the University of Oxford; the Ashmolean Museum of the University of Oxford and the Museum of Archaeology.
“Anthropology of the University of Cambridge; Glasgow City Council in Scotland, National Museums of Scotland and other institutions like them that are working assiduously towards repatriating the Benin Bronzes in their possession”.
Alhaji Mohammed announced that Nigeria is not only seeking the return of Benin Bronzes but all Nigerian antiquities that were illegally or illicitly exported. “It is upon returning these artefacts that true justice will be seen to have been done”, he said.