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Tag: Otunba Segun Runsewe

  • NCAC boss condemns Lekki naked dance show

    Director General National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Otunba Segun Runsewe, has thrown his weight behind  the Lagos State government’s decision to prosecute the  brains behind the Lekki public naked dance, saying the show negates the beauty of Nigerian culture and way of life.

    Runsewe, who has zero tolerance for attitude and culture unbecoming of well- brought up Nigerian young persons, described the Lekki public show as unacceptable, Jezebelistic and a sin against Nigerian culture which must be condemned, ridiculed and rejected by Nigerians from all works of life.

    The NCAC boss, whose major forte is to reposition the true gains and pictures of Nigeria’s diverse cultural history and impact, noted that the Lekki debacle must be used as an example to officially clamp down on promoters and influencers of strange entertainment from the pit of hell, adding that Nigeria will never succumb to imported cultural pastime or to blackmail, tailored to destroy centuries old and rich Nigerian culture.

    Runsewe said:”This dizzying madness can’t and would not be allowed to turn Nigeria to destination for sex and illegal drugs tourism. Enough is enough, and for God sake, where is this coming from?”

    Alluding to various reports and calls to his office on certain alleged offences against Nigerian culture promoted by a pay TV station, the hardworking culture exponent, who also doubles as African president of the World Craft Council, disclosed that his office is investigating the allegation against the   TV company and would work with other relevant government agencies to find lasting solutions to any foreign cultural infractions and  subtle attempts to colonize the minds of the Nigerian young persons.

    He called on traditional rulers to join hands with the government to check the open rage and rape against Nigerian culture with possible consequences of the unimaginable.

    “In Nigeria, we love and respect our mothers and sisters, women in general, and, therefore, will not condone deliberate acts or actions that would betray the values of our culture and make our heroes past to turn angrily in their graves”, Runsewe said.

    Runsewe sent a strong message to state governors to create and empower agencies and departments of culture to arrest the organised assult against established and respected the Nigerian way of life, adding that we must be proudly Nigerian and resist vigorously attempts to insult the Nigerian women.

  • Runsewe decries narrative of Nigeria as fraud destination

    Worried by the growing narrative of Nigeria as a fraud destination, Director-General National Council for Arts and Culture, OtunbaSegunRunsewe has condemned the emerging global outcry about Nigerians caught and paraded abroad for drug related offences and internet fraud in the past three weeks.

    Otunba Runsewe who described the disturbing trend as locust attack on the image of Nigeria and Nigerians, called for a national probe to truly ascertain the true identity of the alleged offenders to determine if the Nigerian passports in their possession were genuine and the holders truly Nigerians.

    According to him, ‘the coincidence and the space of time within which these negative occurrences happened were very suspicious, as the events came barely a week after the other and Nigeriais branded as a nation of desperate and fraudulent people despite attempts at home to discourage sundry crime and corruption’.

    He added that time has come to properly investigate the true identity of the so called paraded Nigerians caught for drugs in Saudi Arabia and those busted in Dubai and recently in United States.

    Otunba who applauded FCT Minister last week for the raid of Abuja night clubs where youngNigerian were lured into nude shows, expressed regrets about these trends and suggested a thorough investigation of the background of the culprits to truly ascertain if they are Nigerians. He pleaded that the ugly development should not tear asunder the fabric of Nigerian cultural unity.

    “As Yoruba and Southwesterner, proudly Nigerian, the mere mention of any Nigerian caught in this act and truly found to be a Nigerian should be seen as damaging to our image and the Nigerian passport, hence all hands must be on deck to curb the development as none of our diverse cultural expectations, approves and encourages defiant behaviours of any kind, he noted.

    The NCAC boss wondered at the ‘silence’ of all the major stakeholders of the Nigerian nation, describing it as suspicious since our leaders are known to openly condemn and proffer solutions to this type of malaise,  which could set the country’s social and economic prospects backwards.

    He promised to reach out to the Minister of Foreign Affairs with suggestions and recommendations on how to curb the rising disgusting national embarrassment.  “Though the trend is unbecoming, but the ease at which other African persons access our national passports despite the hard work of the Nigerian Immigration Service to improve on features of our passports against illegal duplication beats the mind, hence the need to properly ascertain the originality of any Nigerian passport holder on such escapade,” he added.

  • 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.

  • Why I declared state of emergency in tourism Lalong

    Plateau State governor  Mr. Solomon Lalong, has said his administration is working hard to re-establish the state as one of the foremost tourist destinations in the country. In the light of this, the governor said his government is adopting tourism as mainstay of the state’s economy. He made the remark during the tourism summit held recently in the state. At the summit, Lalong declared a state of emergency on tourism in a bid to fast-track the development efforts.

    Speaking  on the security challenges in the state vis-à-vis his tourism vision, Lalong said: “ I want to give credit to the first governor of the state, who in his wisdom saw the need to create and put lots of potential on

    tourism in the state. I think he brought the first museum, zoo and a lot of things because the potentials are all there and after that Plateau was nicknamed ‘the home of peace and tourism because of the weather and the people’s hospitality.  So, we kept on calling it home of peace and tourism until when we started having some crisis in the state. But even after that crisis, we still use the same slogan for

    the state. Plateau is the only place where people are running when they have crisis and where people will run to when they look for cool place for their holidays. Eventually because we have the crisis. But

    for that long period, we wanted to pay attention to tourism. We need to develop some policy frame work to guide the process that unfortunately we have not done, all we always mention about tourism we have not done. But this time, even with the presentation and conference I was touched and that was why we decided that we would invoke state of emergency on tourism. By that, it means that we are going to focus and put more attention on tourism as a source of great revenue  not only for  Plateau State but also for Nigeria, because instead of running to Kenya or UK because of the weather, what we just need to do is to develop that in Plateau State and people will find a much more better holiday resort for themselves.”

    Lalong said he decided to declare a state of emergency  to explain that his government would pay full attention to tourism. His words: “When I mentioned state of emergency, I mean full attention will be placed and focused on tourism in Plateau State, because we know many sources of revenue in the state. We have agriculture, which we are developing right away, we have minerals that are already there and we have also made tourism part of our five policy thrust. First of all, we are working on peace and security. You cannot introduce tourism without peace at the same time if you have peace what do you do? You must enjoy it. So tourism and peace go together. So,  by the term state of emergency, I mean practical attention on tourism.”

    The governor lamented that sometimes, the wrong impression is given about the state, saying: “Let me say that sometimes  seeing is  believing, because the impression given outside not only on Plateau but sometimes when a visitor  is coming to Nigeria, people will tell you at the airport that you have to be very careful. Also what the international community say about this country is unfortunate. I like the way, my friend, the Director-General, Otunba Segun Runsewe gave it out  at the conference telling them that the western stereotypes were figment of their imagination because they tell a wrong story about Nigeria and it is high time we gave them the right perspective through our rich culture and right narratives. And again the impressions given about Jos outside are different from the reality. when you came to the state, you saw a lot of traffic  right from the entrance of the state to the city. You will see a lot of traffic, virtually every week.  Recently I had a meeting with the business community and they were telling me that hotels are now too few to accommodate visitors in the state  and that they were looking for opportunity to build more hotels to accommodate people during the weekends. They even lamented about scarcity of accommodation during holidays.

    “So when I hear people saying that there is no peace in Plateau, I wondered which part of Plateau they are referring to. At least most of you have been in Jos the past 48 hours and up to a week, you can see that there were no crises anywhere unlike the sentiments by some media and social media platforms  that Plateau State is a no go area.

  • NAFEST 2018: NCAC, Rivers State good to go

    Arrangements are in top gear to ensure a historic hosting of the 2018 edition of National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST) in Rivers State, South-South, Nigeria.

    The Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture, Otunba Segun Runsewe, in a chat with The Nation said the council is fully prepared to showcase the glamour of Nigeria’s diverse cultures to the world during the festival which is billed to hold  from October 21 to 28.

    Runsewe was upbeat that 2018 NAFEST will be the best ever following the massive mobilisation of equipments and facilities including the mass exodus of stakeholders from all parts of Nigeria to Rivers State for the one-week fanfare.

    “A lot of visitors both from within and outside Nigeria are on their way to Rivers State and I can confirm to you that reports reaching us from the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) indicate that hotels are in for good business,” he stated.

    “This is a major boost and it is good for the economy of Rivers State and by extension, Nigeria because the massive participation and influx of people from all works of life will ensure very high commercial activities in the state.”

    During  the chat, Otunba Runsewe expressed his excitement particularly about the level of involvement by Rivers youths who are set to take full advantage of NAFEST 2018 in not only showcasing Rivers culture, but by also benefitting  from the numerous youth empowerment components of NAFEST initiated by the NCAC.

    He enjoined all stakeholders and indeed Nigerians to support NAFEST 2018 as a unifying force for cultural integration and harmony just as he affirmed the NCAC’s total commitment in projecting Nigeria’s rich culture throughout the fiesta.

    Runsewe concluded the statement by thanking the Executive Governor of Rivers State, his Excellency, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike and the good people of the state for aligning with NCAC in its drive towards a successful hosting of NAFEST which according to the NCAC chief is a reaffirmation of the governor’s commitment towards hosting the best NAFEST ever.