We need strong institutions in Nigerian politics. We also need strong institutions in Nigerian culture. Perhaps above all, we need institutional memory. What did our founding fathers say? What did our culture creators say in the 1970s? What did our commentators and critics say?

What did they say to each other: the creators and the critics, the policy makers and the commentators, the founding fathers and the media? Are those often oblique conversations lost forever?

Wouldn't it be nice to know the nature of criticism levelled at Azikiwe? Wouldn't it be enlightening to know what mainstream media said about Soyinka's first play and Achebe's first novel? Closer in time, how was Chimamanda Adichie's first and second novel reviewed by her people?

Fela's multitude of songs have survived (mostly by the efforts and actions of the west); you can find how he was received and critiqued by the west. But what exactly did Nigerian critics and the media from the period say about those powerful songs and albums? What about KSA?

You'll find an event review of Shina Peters in the NYT but did anyone review those 2 SSP records that swept the country in the 1990s and try to explain why a Yoruba artist had such an effect even in my largely non-Yoruba speaking household? Where can those reviews be read today?

Who reviewed the first Living in Bondage? Where can anyone find it? Do you see how it would have been useful to read and consider such a review when the sequel was released last year? All of those classic Yoruba films; did anyone at the time think and write about their impact?

History is not merely about the cultural works themselves. History should provide a context, a window into how an earlier generation of Nigerians thought about the work of their artists and their political leaders. We know some of what they produced. But how did they think?

I see #WizkidAt30 trending. Wizkid's first major single, "Holla at your Boy", was 10 years old earlier this year. A decade(!) has passed...

May we not make the mistake of not seeking ways to store the art/thought/critique of our generation. It's a way of building a civilisation.