OYASAF founder seeks arts growth in Nigeria

Yemisi Shyllon, founder, Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF), has urged the the Federal and State Governments to create incentives for the rapid growth of arts in the country. Shyllon said  in Lagos on Sunday that with serious interventions from the government, Nigerian arts could be the most cherished in the world.

"We have been talking and governments have been promising but the mechanism of government works very slowly. If we all aimed at growing the Nigerian arts, putting in more effort and letting the world know what we have, it will be significant.We need to showcase our arts and culture to the people of the world and it will make us more pertinent,” he said.

The arts’ enthusiast said that Nigerian arts are raw and it would be well appreciated and only when we do that we are contributing to civilisation. "We have lots of talented youths in Nigeria, the only thing needed is to create a platform for them and that is what we want government to do. The youth and some other artists are ready to go and create a lot in the area of arts and they are committed in doing that. We do not want the present generation to be a wasted one, that is why I am calling on government at all levels to quicken their action in providing structures to help arts growth,” he said. 

Shyllon, however, said that the country’s economy needed to be diversified, noting that this could be achieved through the arts. "We should be striving until we achieve what we want, even when we are not getting it right, we should not relent. It is a long road but we are ready to travel that road to get it right. I want to help to develop this culture of creativity for the country and in young ones; we have to catch them young,’’ he said.