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AESTHETIC AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA FOR NATIONAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT – A HISTORICAL SURVEY By NUKUEYE JOHN EDEKI Department of History, College of Education, Agbor, Delta State. And REV. F. C. EMENI Department of History, College Of Education, Agbor, Delta State. Abstract Nigeria has a vast and rich aesthetic and cultural potentials which can be harnessed for national development. This discourse therefore focused on the historical survey of the aesthetic and cultural development in Nigeria which can greatly accelerate her national growth and development. The paper looked at the potentials, prospect and challenges of aesthetic and cultural development in the country within the context of its strategic importance to national development. Nigeria, being a plural society with diversities of cultural activities or practices including works of arts, it discussed the various important cultural activities from their different backgrounds and aesthetic values. Finally, the discourse further looked at the role of the government in the development of the aesthetic and cultural resources of the country; and the revenue and other benefits that these contribute to national development. Journal of Pristine, Volume 15 No. 1, July, 2019. ISSN 2250 - 9593 1 Pristine Key words: aesthetics, values, potentials, culture, national growth and development, historical survey. Nigeria is a plural society which has diverse ethnic nationalities with different cultural backgrounds. By virtue of this diversity of people, the country is blessed with a variety of aesthetic and cultural activities if properly managed, can add value to the peoples’ lives in terms of job creation, income generation, entertainment, tourist attraction, just to mention but a few. All these have the capacity of enhancing the country’s national development. It is within the scope of this discourse to ascertain how far and well this dormant “goldmine” that is the various aesthetic cultural resources of this country, has been developed over the years. According to Onobrakpeya (2015), “arts and culture are spring boards which propel society to greater heights and Nigeria’s case should not be different.” It is against this background that the writers are carrying out a historical survey of the country’s aesthetic and cultural development in Nigeria with a view to highlighting its significant benefits to national development. This historical survey of the country’s aesthetic and cultural development includes her important aesthetic artworks, drama, films, music, dances, festivals, antiquities, museums and monuments and so on. Conceptual Meaning of Aesthetic and Culture For the proper understanding of the main theme of this discourse, a brief conceptual framework of aesthetics and culture is carried out here. Aesthetics The terms aesthetics can simply be defined as an integral part of science or study that deals with the appreciation of beauty of work of arts or nature. Merriam (2012) defined it as a section of philosophy which deals with the nature of art, beauty, taste; the creation and appreciation of beauty. In other words, it is the study of the sensory emotional values or appreciation or judgment of sentiment and taste associated with beauty. A more concise definition of aesthetics was proffered by Abram in Duvwarovwo (2012) when he asserted that it is a “systematic study of all the fine arts as well as of the nature of beauty in any object, whether natural or artificial.” According to Duvwarovwo (2012), aesthetics can be referred to as the critical reflection on art, culture and nature, especially the appreciation of the outward appearance of things; the way they look, particularly in terms of how pleasing they are. From the preceding discussion, the term aesthetics can be used to refer to the study or art of appreciation of the beauty, taste and value of the works of art either artificially or naturally created. Since all works of art are products of the culture of a people, the concept of aesthetics therefore implies the appreciation of the beauty, value, taste, quality and all the emotions or sentiments attached to the culture of the society. In a nutshell, aesthetics connotes the intrinsic quality or beauty or value of the culture or Journal of Pristine, Volume 15 No. 1, July, 2019. ISSN 2250 - 9593 2 Nukueye John Edeki and Rev. F. C. Emeni products of the culture of the people that is appreciated. This includes various works of art such as drama, films, music, dance, visual arts (painting, sculpture), fashion, designs and textile works, antiquities (monuments) and other relics of the society. Hence Umukoro (2012) opined that “African aesthetics are those symbols which Africans find pleasing to behold within moral consideration which like African art are deemed to be functional” (Duvwarovwo 2012). All of these form part of the discussion of this work on aesthetic and cultural potentials for the development of this country. Culture Due to the wide scope of the subject matter of culture, various definitions of the term have been offered by different scholars in order to capture its concise meaning. To Fagan in Wikipedia (2018), culture is an entirely theoretical concept employed by anthropologists to describe the distinctive adaptive system adopted by human beings. In his view, culture is the primary means by which human beings adapt to their environment. Prior to the origin of humanity, all animals are said to have adapted to their environment through biological evolution. If a particular animal was well adapted to its environment, it survived and prospered, if not, it either evolved into a new species, moved away, or become extinct. For instance, the forces of biological evolution gave the polar bear a thick coat and layers of fat to protect it from the Arctic cold. On the other hand, the Eskimo, the human inhabitants of the Arctic, do not possess layers of furs. They make and wear warm clothing, and build snow houses to protect themselves from the environment. Their tools and dwellings are parts of their culture, their adaptive system which coincides with the polar bear’s fur. Unlike biological adaption, culture is monogenetic. It provides a much quicker and easier ways to share ideas which help people to cope with their environment (Wikipedia, 2018). Culture is a complex system, a set of interacting variables such as tools, burial customs, traditions, ways of getting food, religious beliefs, social organizations, arts and crafts and so on, which function to keep a community or society in a state of equilibrium with its environment. Once one element in the system changes, other reacting adjustments will occur in many other elements, so that the system stays in a state as closely approximately the original system as possible. This is why it is said that culture is not static but dynamic; it is always changing in big and small ways that can be studied in time perspective by archaeologists and historians. The salient point about culture from the above discussion is that it is a primary artificial mechanism created by man in order to adapt to his environment for survival. This is why Raph in Karl (2017) defined culture as the way of life of members of a society which includes their ideas, habits, beliefs, arts and crafts that are capable of being learned, shared and transmitted from one generation to another. In a similar vein, Aziken (2010) noted that culture is “the totality of the way of life evolved by a people in their attempts to meet the challenges of living in their environment.” He further argued that culture assigns order and meaning to the socio-political, economic, aesthetic, Journal of Pristine, Volume 15 No. 1, July, 2019. ISSN 2250 - 9593 3 Pristine religious beliefs, value system of the people, and therefore, differentiates them from other groups of people and species. Thus, the culture of the Nigerian peoples includes their aesthetic arts, crafts, music, drama, dances, festivals, traditional dwellings, dresses and other ideas documented as monuments and relics of the society. This discourse, therefore, looked at the aesthetics and cultural development of the Nigerian Peoples from the perspective herein encapsulated. The Prospects and Potentials of Nigeria’s Aesthetic and Cultural Development From the beginning of the 21 st century, it can be said that there has been some tremendous improvements in the development of the country’s aesthetic and cultural potentials, especially on the part of private initiatives. This is largely true to the Nigerian theatre art and home video industry, woven mainly around the country’s beautiful diverse cultural backgrounds. Since the steady and overwhelming influence of this industry as from 2003 organized by private concerns under a registered name, Nollywood, Nigeria has received a great boost in her cultural development both nationally and internationally. The home videos which originated from the traditional dramatic experiences of the people in community theatre, have taken the country’s traditional drama and culture to a higher level. A level where the country’s rich aesthetic and cultural heritage is showcased through the motion pictures or movies; where people of Nigeria henceforth spend their leisure time being entertained by these movies instead of foreign ones; where thousands of employment opportunities are created for the unemployed youths and others; and where huge incomes and revenues are generated to keep the country’s economy buoyant. Supporting the above view, Muyiwa (2016) argued that theatre art including home videos can boost the country’s economy through employments generation, revenue generation, educational development, social engineering and political socialization. Iyama (2013) also made the same submission when he opined that the entertainment industry in the country is only second to the oil industry in terms of foreign exchange generation, which has greatly helped to build up the national economy as both oil and cultural arts through dramas and films are now exported.

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