Nigerians are friendly, energetic and enterprising people – British Council Director

Nigerians are friendly, energetic and enterprising people – British Council Director

Connie Price is the Country Director of British Council Nigeria, she has spent half of her career in Africa, in this interview with Adeola Ogunrinde, Price spoke on culture as key to national development;

Excerpt

You have been a culture person over the years before coming to Nigeria , what has been your experience?

I have been a culture person for over thirty years, that is a lot of experience, my experience has been that culture is  for everyone and sometimes in countries that it is not recognise , one of the things I have always worked on is how you give access to culture to  the person on the streets, that for me is important because your culture defines you as a society and  as a nation and it tells other people who you are so if you allow too few people to define who you are to others , they will just think , all Nigerians are very rich or all Nigerians come from Lagos just like people think everyone in the United Kingdom lives in London , and everyone in the United Kingdom is very rich .

Since you assumed the post of Country Director British Council in Nigeria, what has been the experience for you?

It has been fabulous , I really wanted to come here, I have spent over half my career in Africa, South Africa , the whole of Southern Africa , I have also worked in North Africa that was the first thing . My experience here is Nigerians are very friendly, they are very energetic, they have great ideas, they perhaps don’t think too much on how they can persuade other people, what a great place Nigeria is, Nigerians  tend to not spend enough energy really showcasing Nigeria outside, and the thing I love  is that Nigerians in the UK are really friendly, everyone want to work with you , I have been in places where people don’t want to work with you. I will say Nigerians are probably the most entrepreneural people I have ever met. They are really creative.

What was the brain behind the Journalist workshop you created for culture Journalist in Nigeria ?

We are about culture and how people relate to each other across countries , and a really important part where people get their information from is through their journalist , through the news. First of all it is really important to support Journalist, to understand how to work better, to look at things like where they get their sources from , to how they frame their stories  more than that to understand they have a responsibility on  how they communicate. One of the things we do work on in Nigeria is to work with Journalist, on how they write, which can either support or resolve conflict , for me Journalist are really critical connector between the people and  society and that is why we are so interested in  working with Journalist in the Culture sector.

NANTAP ,Lagos State chapter recently celebrated World Theatre Day, how do you think theatre as a form of communication can bridge many gaps between the people of the world?

It is probably one of the most powerfully, when  I first studied,  I studied Ancient History  and Archaeology , digging up old things and I think the earliest signs of man had creativity , culture and Theatre. I think that theatre is a great method of communicating because you don’t need to speak the same language , it is all about creating understanding. The thing that I feel more in Nigeria is theatre in schools , showing children  how to play ,how to act so that they can express themselves. For me theatre is fundamental even in my office when I want to tell somebody that they have done something wrong, I use theatre, I don’t shout at them.

What can Nigeria learn about Theatre  in the United Kingdom?

What the UK can support Nigeria is around production , it is obvious Nigeria don’t have many theatres, production isn’t great in terms of lighting , sounds ,that is something we certainly  bring to your table but what we find in our work , in our collaboration, whoever comes here from the UK learns a lot and our Nigerian partners learn a lot , it works both ways. I think for Nigerians when they travel to the UK and other countries  they get to see, they get other examples and when we bring our collaborators here they also learn a lot , I think it is really important to understand that learning is two ways, it is not you know everything.

What is your best Nigerian food since you came here?

I will say probably groundnut stew, I love plantains , I don’t like the beans but I like doughnut , Nigerians like sweet things  and spinach dishes I like that too.