Literature

Patrick-Jude Oteh - 'There?ll be more theatre outfits in the North' (interview)

A conference aimed at raising awareness on how to harness the untapped resources in the arts, culture and heritage areas of our national life was held from 13th to 16th November, 2007, by the Development Alternative Resource Centre in collaboration with Ford Foundation. The conference, which took place in Abuja, had in attendance arts practitioners, including Mr. Patrick-Jude Oteh, Artistic Director of Jos Repertory Theatre. In this interview with Sumaila Umaisha, he speaks about the conference and how it will impact on his flourishing theatre outfit and others.

NNW: How did you get involved in the conference?

Patrick-Jude Oteh: We got involved through the invitation of Ford Foundation. And a further invitation was extended to us by the Development Alternative Resource Centre, DARC, who facilitated the workshop.

What is the aim of the conference?

The main aim is to highlight the fact that there are untapped resources in this country that are begging to be harnessed and one of them is culture, another is heritage and the other one is art. It is also aimed at finding a meeting ground between all of these areas of our daily lives; how they tie into the economy and how all of us can make maximum gains from this kind of resource. The resources all over the entire country that are yet to be tapped are huge, and art, culture and heritage is definitely among them. So that is the principal aim of the conference.

What?s your assessment of the conference?

It is been very successful, extremely successful. Who is who as far as culture policy and administration is concerned were there either as a speaker, facilitator, keynote speaker or a leader of plenary. So I think it?s been extremely successful. We might not see the immediate ripples right now but if it is followed up and one begins to see even 60 per cent of the effect of what has been discussed at the conference in the next two or three years, I think culture will come to play a dominant role in the economic activities that have been going on in this country. I think also part of the ripple affect will be in form of more appreciation of our of heritage from the grassroots level up to the corridors of power.

In specific terms, how is the conference going to impact on your theatre outfit?

Basically, for us, this kind of conference has given us added value and greater visibility. And also within the days of the conference we had the opportunity of mixing and interacting with people that we didn?t know were out there. We?ve been able to learn from each other. And above all, we have developed relationships that will go beyond the conference, relationship that you know that if you look in this direction there is a resource waiting for you there to tap or collaborate with. So, all of these are going to tap into our work. I think on the long run, as an organization we are better off. This kind of opportunities are very rare. We are grateful to the Ford Foundation and DARC that we are part and parcel of this. It will go a long way in giving our organization better capacity and better resources on the long run. It might not be material but it is there and we appreciate this.

Since your outfit was established you have been organizing theatre festival every year. Are we expecting anyone next year?

God willing, yes. Right now we are still consulting. But all things been well, by March next year I?m sure the fourth edition of the festival will come on stream.

It looks as if the entire northern landscape is dominated by your outfit. And your being invited to this kind of conference seems to confirm the fact. How do you see the future of the outfit?

Well, thank you very much for this huge compliment. I believe the future is very bright. But I think we need to do a lot more in the area of human development in terms of more training for our artists, so that they will be able to compete with the best in the world. I also believe that in the next few years, more theatre outfits will spring up in the North. So it will not be as if we are the only one out there. There are a lot of others out there, it is just that what most of them lack is organization or the capacity to be able to break forth into the national scene. But it is only a matter of time. And we are also hoping that the crop of people we are working with now will eventually move out to form their own career since many of them are graduates. One of them is already working on a dance festival which has had its first edition. So these are the kind of things we are going to be seeing in the next couple of years to come. The future is very bright.

What would you like to say on a final note?

First of all, thank you, Malam Umaisha, because you have also supported our work consistently in the last two years by making sure that you let your readers out there know the little efforts we?ve been putting in. And also, I think your own work too is beginning to get greater visibility. Congratulations for winning the literary journalist of the your award. It is something that we are extremely proud of. And to the Ford Foundation, DARC and other organizations like these out there, we say please keep on assisting us, don?t get tired, the future is entirely very, very bright.

(c) Interview by Sumaila Umaisha, published in the 15th December, 2007, edition of New Nigerian newspaper.

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