Akinsanya, the Chief Executive Officer, African Art Collection, in an interview said ``it is a platform to appreciate one another and connect together”.
He described arts and culture as a way of life of a people, adding that Nigeria with diverse cultures should use this to its advantage for the development of the country.
``Arts and culture is something we can use easily to forge a sense of cohesion as a people if valued by different ethnic groups.
``I think it is fair to say that as Nigerians we have tended to focus on and place emphasis on the things that divide us.
``Whereas, if you look at most of the country’s art works, they depict all sections of the Nigerian society. I think also, if we focus on this, it can take us back to our heritage as a nation.
``It shows also that we are all descendants of a people who really achieved very high success in terms of skills in the traditional African forms, that made our forefathers unite,” Akinsanya said.
He emphasised that many Nigerian arts, culture and crafts, indicate that they could not have been made by mediocres.
According to him, the craftsmen are people who have great imagination and skills and projected Nigerian and African arts and culture to the world.
He stressed the need for the country to develop along these lines to bring about lasting unity.
``We need to go back, study these works, and begin to see them as part of us and not to discriminate and apportion each to different ethnic groups.
``I would suggest that black people everywhere should focus more and know more about our arts, crafts, culture and artifacts,” Adesanya said.
He canvassed for proper documentation of the country’s arts, crafts, cultural dances and artifacts to enable easy access to information on the peoples’ heritage.
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