CULTURAL AND CREATIVE ARTS PROGRAMME IN NIGERIA: INDIGENOUS INSTRUMENTS AS PANACEA

Résumé

In the predominantly Western-oriented academic circles, the Nigerian indigenous musical instruments are often ignored or suppressed as teaching tools. Cultural and creative arts (CCA) education has been a source of grave concern since its inception. Though the aim was to cater for varying talents of the children thereby boosting creativity but this has been a herculean task because the quality of the CCA curriculum in Nigeria has not derived from the theoretical content and performance principles of traditional arts education. This paper is aimed at portraying the Nigerian indigenous instruments as a major strategy for buttressing the teaching and learning of music up till junior secondary school three. The paper argues that for Nigerian music education to be meaningful and empowering to the students, the teachers should deemphasize the use of Western musical instruments which are not even readily and sufficiently available and make do with our rich locally available instruments in the classroom implementation. The paper adopts survey and library sources as its methodology. It concludes by recommending that pedagogical tools for the teaching of music as an aspect of cultural and creative arts should be founded on authentic Nigerian musical instruments while accruing intercultural sensibilities that would enhance modern interaction.