Lai Mohammed lists achievement as minister of information, culture
Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, claims that returning stolen artifacts and treasures to their rightful owners has been his greatest accomplishment since taking office.
On Tuesday in Abuja, Mr. Mohammed made this announcement during the 26th annual President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) Administration Scorecard Series (2015–2023).
“Efforts to repatriate artifacts plundered from Nigeria, which we initiated on November 28th 2019, paid off handsomely during the time under review, with a total of 1,130 Benin Bronzes returning home from Germany alone.
“On July 7, 2022, a legal agreement was reached transferring to Nigeria all 1,130 Benin Bronzes that were housed in public German museums.
The physical repatriation has subsequently started, with the German Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Culture leading an entourage of 80 senior government and museum officials to Nigeria in December 2022 with the first batch.
“Nigeria is at the forefront of international efforts to return antiquities to their nations of origin right now.”
In October 2020, Mr. Mohammed claimed that his government also had a 600-year-old Ife Terracotta returned to Nigeria from the Netherlands.
He continued by saying that the Metropolitan Museum in New York as well as the Universities of Aberdeen and Cambridge’s Jesus College have also returned Benin Bronzes to their own country.
He said that the legal transfer of 72 Benin bronzes would be signed by the Horniman Museums and Gardens in London in October 2022.
Mohammed claimed that his ministry has advanced in its efforts to secure the return of hundreds of artifacts from the Ashmolean and Pitt Rivers Museums of the University of Oxford.
Hundreds of artifacts, he added, would also be returned from the National Museums of Scotland, Glasgow City Council in Scotland, and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge.
The minister revealed that the National Museum in Benin City was being expanded by the federal government to accommodate some of the artifacts.
He continued by saying that the federal government was constructing a Royal Benin Museum.
