The United Kingdom (UK) Government has been said to have lauded the Nigerian railway heritage in Lagos as a major landmark showcasing the progress of ongoing promotion of UK-Nigeria shared heritage in the railway sector.
The Vanguard reported that an exhibition of photographs from The Heritage Project which held on January 31 and was declared open by the Nigeria Railway Corporations (NRC) Managing Director, Mr Fidet Okhiria, featured a workshop hosted by the UK British Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, Ben Llewellyn-Jones, for the transport and the heritage sector stakeholders including mobile operators, academics, policy makers and UK British business groups in Nigeria.
Llewellyn-Jones was reported to have said in a statement that the programme was meant to showcase the collaborative project between the NRC, Oxford University and Heritage Group Legacy 1995, which runs the railway museum at Jaekel House, Ebute-Metta. The statement reads partly as follows:
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“I am delighted to be here with other distinguished speakers, participants and volunteers to strengthen the discourse on the UK-Nigeria heritage collaboration project.
“To also discuss on how this rich history of British-Nigerian heritage can be approached collaboratively in parallel projects and arenas.
“The digital heritage project which has used UK research funding to work with partners in Nigeria is designed to document and record railway history in ways which are local to each area of Nigeria.
“We are glad this is happening at a time when Nigeria is redeveloping its rail networks.”
Llewellyn-Jones who described the programme as a means of discussing and exploring opportunities in the railway and transport sector as well as promoting stories of interests for social impact and economic development noted that the project leveraged UK research funding to work with partners in Nigeria who were interested in depicting their own heritage in the digital era.
”You can see the NRC, Non-governmental organisations, academics and the public collaborating to really localize the international story of the railways in their own communities, Llewellyn-Jones said.
According to the Vanguard, the UK-Nigeria heritage rail project collaboration which was highly praised by a cross-section of dignitaries at the programme was reported by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) to be funded by an Impact Acceleration Account from the UKs Economic and Social Research Council, through Oxford Universitys Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology.
“Impact acceleration funding allows UK research institutions to work with partners from all sectors to apply social sciences knowledge to challenges in the industry.”