The Federal Government says the British authority has taken care of its looted artefacts for so long and it is time for the cultural and historical works of art to return home.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated this in London during a working visit to the British Museum.
Speaking after a meeting with officials of the museum, Mohammed, who was taken round the gallery and strong room, thanked them for their passion and for taking care of the artefacts for so long.
The minister met with Sam Nixon, Curator and Head of Africa Section, British Museum and Lissan Bolton, Keeper of the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas in the Museum.
“Before now, they said we did not make a demand, but in October last year, almost nine months ago, we made a formal request for the return of the artefacts especially the Benin bronzes for which we have not got any response.
“We made them understand that our quest and clamour is for the return of the Benin bronzes and all other artefacts that were stolen and looted to their origin.
“I said they should take a cue from Germany which was neither our coloniser nor the one that looted the artefacts but which has yielded to pressure and signed an agreement to return 1,130 Benin bronzes to us.
“We also made it clear to them that they cannot hide under legislation and no Act of Parliament will make what you have stolen to become yours,” he said.
Mohammed said he reminded the officials that Universities of Aberdeen, and Cambridge had respectively returned the looted artefacts in their custody.
He added that all over the world, countries like France, Belgium, Germany were returning the artefacts in their countries while Canada had also made the promise to do so.
According to the minister, the officials who listened to him with rapt attention did not make any comment because the matter was beyond them.
Mohammed, however, said they would not rest until Britain do the right thing by returning what they looted from the country a century back.
The artefacts, mostly Benin bronzes, were looted by British soldiers when they occupied Benin city in 1887, while some were stolen by explorers.
Jesus College at the University of Cambridge was the first UK institution to restitute a Benin bronze to Nigeria,
After 124 years, bronze cockerel, known as Okukor, that had been donated to the college by the father of a student in 1905, was returned to the country last year.
This was followed by the University of Aberdeen which restituted a bronze sculpture, which depicts the head of an Oba (king).
The artefact, one of thousands of religious and cultural artefacts looted by British forces in 1897, was purchased by the University at an auction in 1957.
Lai Mohammed also restated his appeal to states to cooperate in ensuring that herders embrace ranching in ending the perennial Farmers-herdsmen clashes.
Speaking on the outcome of his respective engagements with “Reuters”, “The Economist” and “Times of London”, the minister said issues on security, economy, fighting corruption and power sector took the centre stage.
Mohammed said the President Muhammadu Buhari administration had been able to find workable solutions to the perennial farmers-herdsmen conflicts worsened by climate change, forest desertification and demographic growth.
“Our solutions which can be found in National Livestock Transformation Plan has ranching at its core.
“All we are asking for is for states to cooperate more with the federal government to ensure that ranching take place in their states.
“Evidence has shown that in the states where ranching has been put in place, have less conflicts than the others,” he said.
Still on security, the minister told the media houses that the government is leaving no stone unturned to address the challenges and the efforts were yielding results.
“The success of our gallant military has resulted in about 51,000 insurgents surrendering between January and March this year alone.
“We have also been able to reintegrate about 1600 former fighters who had been able to learn one trade or the other,” he said.
The minister said the administration had taken very bold transformation steps to open up the economy.
He said they massively invested in infrastructure development as key to unleash growth, connect communities and help in breaching the gap between the have and have not.
Mohammed said the signing of the Petroleum Industry Bill into law after twenty years of failures by previous administrations was another success story of the administration.
“With the Petroleum Industry Act, we have completely open up the oil and gas sector to investors.
“Importantly, we are now running NNPC as a commercial venture and we are going to be judged the way any other private company will be judged.
“This is already yielding dividends because a Canadian Trade Commission has already indicated interest to participate in the industry.
“Even oil giants like Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell have indicated interest also to come and invest in the oil and gas industry.
“We hope that certain decisions being taken by investing countries and the EU will not negate the gains of PIA,” he said.
The minister added that the 4000km sub Saharan gas line which will deliver our gas to Europe via Morocco is also a giant stride.
