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Tag: National Council for Arts and Culture

  • Runsewe urges monarchs to preserve culture for unity

    National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) Director-General Otunba Segun Runsewe has urged monarchs to  support and preserve cultures across the country in a bid to promote national unity and development.

    He spoke in Abuja during the flag-off of the campaign for National Festival of Arts and Culture tagged EDO NAFEST 2019.

    He said this year’s festival holding in Benin, the Edo State capital  will be done in collaboration with the Oba of Benin’s palace.

    He noted that this is ‘’in furtherance of the centrality of Benin Monarchy to the socio-cultural activities of the state’’.

    He said: “As the custodians of our culture, the traditional institution has the responsibility to preserve our rich cultural heritage and propagate our cherished values, such as love, respect for elders, constituted authorities and for the sanity of the human life, honesty, discipline, work ethics, neighbourliness, community spirit among others. It is our conviction that the progressive deterioration of these values over the years is partly responsible for the crisis of national unity and the under-development our nation is currently facing.

    “It is in the light of the above that we have incorporated Royalty Day as one of the components of this year’s edition of the festival. Accordingly, representatives of the contingents from all the participating states shall be paying homage to His Royal Majesty in the course of the festival. In addition to this, a special royal exhibition depicting the grandeur of Benin Royalty will be mounted throughout the period of the festival to reflect the richness and glamour of the Benin traditional institution.”

    Runsewe said the mandate of NCAC is to preserve, promote and market the country’s arts and culture, stressing: “We cannot effectively do this without active and sustained engagement with our royal fathers who are the custodians of our culture. It stands to reason, therefore, that we must begin to work in close collaboration with the traditional institutions in Nigeria.’’

    He pleaded with monarchs to collaborate with the council in the task of “reviving the nation’s cherished cultural heritage and using our culture as a springboard for driving the process of national development. It was Marcus Garvey who once said that a people without the knowledge of their culture are like a tree without roots. Our culture is inevitably the building blocks for our national development”.

    Reviewing the success of past events, Runsewe said: “Since my assumption of office at the council, I have made concerted efforts in repositioning NAFEST, not only as a platform for propagating peace and national cohesion, but also as a means of impacting on the life of the people. This, I have done by expanding the scope, content and reach of the festival. For example, Free Skill Acquisition training, Waste to Wealth and Free Medical Screening are some of the new components I have introduced to the festival to add value to NAFEST and empower the people, while fulfilling our corporate social responsibility.

    “The popularity and patronage of the festival have also significantly improved. In the 2017 edition held in Kaduna, Kaduna State, a spectacular Durbar Show was staged at the instance of the Emir of Zauzzau, who was present at the opening ceremony along with a retinue of chiefs from the Zauzzau Emirate Council. Rivers 2018 NAFEST witnessed unprecedented participation of three sitting governors. These were the host governor, the governor of Abia State as well as the governor of Ebonyi State.”

    He expressed the confidence that Edo NAFEST 2019 won’t be an exception. “I am confident and happy to remark that we are determined to build on the gains of the last two years.

    Edo State Governor Mr. Godwin Obaseki has affirmed his commitment towards making EDO NAFEST 2019 a most historic moment.

    He said: “Indeed, Edo NAFEST 2019 promises to be unique in all respect. Edo State has a very rich and diverse cultural heritage dating back to several centuries. As one of the most celebrated destinations for arts and culture, Edo State is reputed to be the cultural hub of Nigeria and Africa at large. The ancient Benin kingdom, with its distinctive arts and crafts products, rich festivals rendered in songs, poetry, incantations, royal dances and so on, has remained a cultural base and reference point of culture all over the world.”

  • Abuja craft village for transformation

    The Director–General (DG) of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Otunba Segun Runsewe, has said the Abuja Arts and Craft Village will soon be transformed into a modern, state-of-the-art cultural market.

    The DG made this known while conducting some journalists around the facility which had been under lock and key for some time.

    He added that upon the completion of the rehabilitation work currently ongoing, the cultural market would be ready for good business and open to Nigerians to take full advantage.

    Rolling out some of the innovations and ideas to reposition the place, Otunba Runsewe said there would be a functional information centre at the entrance of the market, a reputable bank with three ATM machines, a pharmacy, mini- children’s park, restaurants, amphitheatre and a skill acquisition centre, among many other facilities.

    Speaking to press men, the NCAC boss said when the renovation is concluded, eligible Nigerians will be allocated shops after profiling to ensure credibility and fairness.

    He said the present management had planned to make the market a fully cultural market which would be anchored purely on handicrafts and culture-related items.

    Fielding questions from journalists, Runsewe explained that the market would comprise several sections, a car park area, investment forum section and the main cultural market section which would boast no less than 165 shops that would in turn provide jobs for at least a thousand Nigerians.

    The DG  hinted there would be provision for night market which would be done every last Friday of the month, maintaining that the general idea is to retain the cultural aesthetics of the market while fully exploring the economic potentials to empower Nigerians.

  • Lagosians flood NCAC’s skill acquisition centre

    It was a good outing for the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) at the 2018 AKWAABA Travel Market which opened in Lagos on Sunday, September 9, as hundreds of Nigerians trooped to the Council’s Skill Acquisition Centre for training.

    Some of the skills imparted to trainees at the expo which was held at the Eko Hotel and Suites from September 9 to 12, included soap making, bead making, pomade making, painting, Antiseptic and AOG Design.

    Explaining the objective of the programme to the dignitaries that visited the centre, Director General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe,  said that it was aimed at equipping unemployed Nigerians, especially youths and women, with the required skills to be self-employed and to be employers of labour.

    He noted that there was a high rate of crime and criminality in Nigeria as a result of unemployment, leading to mass poverty.

    He said the skills, which could be acquired within 48 hours, could take away the youths from the streets and put food on their tables.

  • ‘Parents, teach your children Nigerian culture’

    There is a correlation between a country’s development profile and its language and culture.

    That seems to be the position of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC).

    The council has advised Nigerian parents to lay the foundation for national greatness by teaching their children the Nigerian language and culture.

    Director-General of NCAC Otunba Olusegun Runsewe said a people without a culture can never make progress because they are like a people without identity.

    Runsewe was speaking in Abuja at a children’s quiz and essay competition on Nigerian culture featuring about 100 pupils drawn from different primary and secondary schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    Runsewe said it is unfortunate that some schools don’t have culture clubs.

    He added that Edo State has insisted that every school must have a culture club which the agency has recommended to other states.

    He said, “There is no child that is not good at something, the child might be good in one area and not in the other, so we must check our strength in whatever we do with the youths.

    “I was very impressed on how our children were speaking their dialects today, which we know is not easy in our Nigeria of today.

    “Do you know before, if two Hausa men were having an argument and a traditional ruler passes, the quarrel ends because they will listen to the traditional ruler. These are our cultural values which we are losing. It is unfortunate that some schools don’t have cultural clubs. Edo state recently insisted that every school must have a cultural club which we are recommending to other states.

    “One thing you can never leave behind is your culture, a people without a culture can never make progress, it is like a people without identity. People talk of corruption and I have a solution, we went to visit EFCC with the management and I told the chairman that one of the reasons is when somebody steals money in our society, they call him and give him a title, are we not encouraging criminality?

    “This country used to be one of the greatest countries with no criminality and living together as one but now tribalism has changed it, we need to give orientation to our children when they are young. We need to build a better today for a greater tomorrow.”

    At the event, 14-year-old Lawrence Rita from Junior Secondary School Tudun Wada, Wuse Zone 4, said, “I started learning to speak my language from my mum at age eight and now I speak very well. To me, it is very good to speak your language because you might have a visitor at home and your mother wants to say something to you, in order for the visitor not to know what she is saying, she will use your dialect which is better.”

    Ten-year-old Egbuobi Lancelot, a Basic Five pupil of Solid Rock Academy Kubwa, Abuja told The Nation: “I learnt to speak Igbo from my mother, I love my culture, if you see an Igbo man walk pass, you will know because of the dressing, the way they speak, dance and eat. My school encourages me to speak my language a lot especially on cultural days.”

    Another student from Kubwa, 13-year-old Ahmadu Victor from Government Secondary School Kubwa said, “I speak my language fluently and I learned it from my mom, she always speaks it to us, now because of that, I am able to communicate with people of the same ethnic group and I like it because when I go to a new place and speak my language, I might find a person that speaks my language, identify with the person and make a new friend.

    “Although it is good to speak English since it is the official language of Nigeria which will be helpful when you go out but we need to preserve our own culture because whatever you do not preserve will go into extinction. To prevent it, kids need to be taught their languages. They could speak the language at home and learn English in school.”

  • Effective propagation of Nigerian culture, a revenue earner -Expert

    Effective propagation of Nigerian culture, a revenue earner -Expert

    Princess Ebun Oladunni, Managing Director, Starcrest Investment on Monday said that the positive propagation of Nigeria’s cultural heritage was capable of generating huge revenue for the country.

    Oladunni, a culture aficionado in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja said the saleable point of the culture depended on the positive propagation.

    “There are Nigerian paintings, pottery, music, dance and many others that if given proper attention, encouragement and publicity would create employment for the youth.

    “In addition, it will also give the artistes sense of pride in the nature of their works.

    “I want to commend the National Council for Arts and Culture and the Bank of Industry for signing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to provide funds for artistes in the country to boost their productivity.’’

    According to her, the efforts were bound to transform the sector through empowering the artists, craftsmen and craftswomen to improve and sale their works within and out of the country.

    Oladunni also called for the improvement of the heterogeneity prevailing among the more than 250 ethnic groups in the country and not just the predominant ones.

    She said given audience to all ethnic culture in the country would allow for consensus via the exhibition of our cultural heritage across board thus improving political tolerance, social and economic development.

    She urged Nigerians to be proud of their cultural heritage by displaying it anywhere they found themselves.

    She stressed: “God has blessed Nigeria; it is a land flowing with milk and honey; it for everyone to tap into the heritage.

    She said the government should not be left alone in the propagation and promotion of our cultural heritage, adding that the people also have a huge role to play.

    “Since I was made the queen mother of my place in Ekiti State in 1994, which made me changed my hair style to what I am currently wearing.

    “This hair style goes with whatever am wearing either suit or traditional attire and when people see me, they know where I come from.

    “We are all responsible for to propagate and promotion of our great culture,’’ she said.

    The princess added that when one looked through the window, the grasses from the other side always look greener and verse versa.

    “Your own side is always greener to other people too.’’

    “Foreigners come to Nigeria and make money from us and take back to their countries and we go there to be slaves to them.’’

    Oladunni urged Nigerians to be proud of their culture and showcase it at any given opportunity.