The Federal Government of Nigeria is looking to speed up the construction of the Royal Palace Museum in Benin, which is also known as King Toffa’s Palace and more recently Musée Honmé according to Prof. Abba Tijani, the Director-General, National, Commission for Museums and Monuments.
This comes after President Muhammadu Buhari handed artifacts worth close to US$ 3.4M to Oba of Benin, approximately 125 years after the artifacts were stolen by British troops when they invaded the Benin kingdom. So far a cockerel (okpa) has been repatriated from Cambridge University and the Oba head (Uhunwun Elao) from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
Prof. Tijani urged the stakeholders to cooperate towards the retrieval of more artifacts adding that for the artifacts to survive when they are brought in, they will need to construct solid structures like the royal palace museum in both Abuja and Benin City. The Prof. went on to encourage everyone to visit museums, especially the youth so that they learn their pasts and also understand their culture.
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Benefits of the Royal Palace Museum in Benin
According to the Director-General, National, Commission for Museums and Monuments the display of the artifacts in the royal palace museum of Benin will boost both local and foreign tourism.
He said that there are more than 5000 artifacts scattered all over the world and that they were able to negotiate with the German government to retrieve not less than 1000 in their country. He also urged private sectors and tourism agencies to cooperate with the Federal Government towards the retrieval of artifacts.
