POLICY CHALLENGES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PERFORMING ARTS: A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF NIGERIA’S CULTURAL POLICY AND THE COPYRIGHT LAW

Abstract

The need to critically evaluate policy challenges as they affect the development of the performing arts as encapsulated in the Nigeria
Cultural Policy and the Copyright Law gave impetus to this study. Policies are made by the government or its agencies to ease administration as well as clarify functions and avoid clashes between different agencies of government. However, some policies if not well articulated, may become clogs in the progress of the organization it is meant to assist. The study adopted the content analysis approach of the qualitative research methodology which involves critically analyzing the Nigeria Cultural Policy and Copyright Law to point out some challenges which may hinder the full implementation of the policy. It was discovered that though the cultural policy was drafted in good faith, it contains many superfluous, unnecessary and phoney directions aimed at passing responsibility to nobody. Again, the multifaceted nature of arts, demands that arts should be given detailed attention in the cultural policy, specifically with modalities for funding. Furthermore, the most debilitating challenge is the lack of willpower to fully interpret and implement the policy as spelt out in the document. On the other hand, piracy poses a very devastating challenge towards the welfare of performing artists and the implementation of the copyright law. In addition, lack of funds and a database of artistsare some of the challenges unearthed that may hinder the realization of the copyright law and cultural policy. The study recommends adequate funding, training and retraining of officials saddled with the implementation of the policies as well as adherence to modern trends of technology to fasttrack the development of performing arts.