IMPLICATIONS OF MORTIFICATION OF MUSEUMS IN NIGERIA: FOCUS ON MUSEUMS IN PORT HARCOURT

Abstract

The central focus of this paper was on the total neglect of museums in Nigeria. The study examined the current conditions of three museums in Port Harcourt as a case study. These museums are owned by the federal government, state government, and a private tourist practitioner. Predicated on the nature of the research, the qualitative method was adopted. Participant observation and interviews were employed as primary sources. Purposive sampling was adopted, with three museums selected for study. Staff from the three museums were interviewed, and the data collected were analysed. The secondary sources included textbooks, magazines, journals, periodicals, and internet sources. The population of the study comprised staff from the three museums. Symbolic interactionism was adopted as the theoretical framework of the research. The findings revealed that Nigerians were unable to improve on the colonial collections of cultural heritage and other ethnographic materials, and were yet to appreciate the impact of museums on national development. The paper concluded that religious extremism was a factor that had affected the growth and development of museums in Nigeria. Successive governments in Nigeria ignored museums. The paper recommended the inclusion of museums and cultural heritage in the educational curriculum, visits to museums by school pupils and government officials.