He is huge and elegant. His sky blue babariga flows all out. He burrows his face into a handkerchief and slumps into an easy chair. He tries to blend into the background.
HE is huge and elegant. His sky blue babariga flows all out. He burrows his face into a handkerchief and slumps into an easy chair. He tries to blend into the background. It works — He actually manages not to draw attention to himself. But stands up.
He sits again.
He points to a middle aged woman down front, and she doesn’t hesitate, she instantly shifts into a prolonged speech mode, telling everybody how she hopes to one day “make Nigerians leisure tourists, not luxury visitors”, and all that, blah blah.
There are over three-dozen others in the hall, and one by one, they follow her lead, serving up their micro memoirs, their dream for Nigerian culture tourism. Each tossing the microphone to the next speaker… and the next… and the next.
He watches them closely, listens carefully, as all sector heads around speak. The invisible baton of attention, wending its way around the room. And then it happens. Everybody is finished speaking and the hall is churchly quiet. And he’s up. He addresses them. He tells them about the new cultural product of NCAC.
“Everywhere you go in the world, the tourism sector is doing very well. What is wrong with us? Today, we must find a solution to the problem in Nigeria. Programs like this begin with a vision of one man. And every one of us has a role to play in achieving this vision,” he says.
Slowly and slowly, the three-dozen participants listen with rapt attention to Otunba Segun Runsewe, Director General of National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC).
The footprints of Runsewe are indelible in the country’s cultural kaleidoscope. More often than not, the mention of his name in polite company triggers one of a spectrum of deeply conditioned responses. Mr. Tourism. Crafts master. Anyone. But definitely not guttural groan or exaggerated eye roll. He, however, inspires a scintilla of goodwill, which follows him around like a nuclear cloud.
And yet, if words have not been his friend, they’ve often been his accomplices. But no matter where you come out on him, he likes to use anecdotes to explain challenges. There’s one fact nobody can deny — The moment Runsewe became NCAC’S boss, he avoided settling into a sick rhythm, which has characterised the sector.
For him, it is of utmost importance to reposition and re-brand the culture and tourism sector in Nigeria to ensure a shift from the total focus on oil as the major source of revenue to the government.
To kick-start what he calls rebranding mission, Runsewe ensured that the NCAC management took a familiarisation trip to Dubai to understudy the city’s tourism with a view to adapting lessons learnt.
He explains, “the objective of the trip to Dubai is to expose the management team of NCAC to cultural tourism management using the Dubai model as focus, who, in return, are now well equipped to share and brainstorm with major players in the sector who have pledged their commitment towards actualising the NCAC vision and goals.”
According to him, “this trip is a great opportunity to reschedule our approach
to culture and tourism in Nigeria. It is the beginning of this big secret in Africa to be starting from the sight seeing of Dubai Global Village, Dolphin, Miracle Garden and so many places we visited. It tells the story that this is the sector that will save the economy of so many African countries.”
In what he terms the second phase of the project, Runsewe explains the same gesture will be extended to all the 36 states commissioners of Culture and Tourism, top players and stakeholders in the culture and tourism with a view to helping them develop their states’ tourism potentials.
He says, “the next logical step in the commitment of NCAC towards the making of Destination Nigeria a reality through rebranding and reinvigorating our potentials, is through an expanded familiarisation trip for States Commissioners for Culture of the Federation (SCCF). Their buy in as critical agents of change is imperative for meaningful national dialogue on prospects, possibilities, sponsorships and investments that will bring governmental structure and executive will power to the implementation and realisation of this desire.”
He says, “for Project Destination Nigeria to succeed at all levels, different tiers of managers, policy makers and investors in Nigerian culture sector have to first be sensitised to the vision, then exposed to the cultural reality of other nations that have successfully embarked on cultural transformation and finally, become disciples and knowledgeable drivers through application and implementation.”
To Runsewe, “this is a call to a new beginning to Africa, and Nigeria must take the challenge first. We are a people that believe we can do things first and I believe, if they can do it here, we can do it even better. The time is now, as we cannot afford to wait any longer. The unborn Nigerians, the future generation of this country will not forgive us. Posterity will not forgive us if we do not make amend and effect the changes now.”
He believes that Nigeria has cultural products to sell: “Art is everywhere. Culture is everywhere, nothing is plastic or artificial,” he reveals. “Everything in the public domain has been created by someone for something. When we go out for entertainment, films, music, theatre, comedy, history, food — it’s all an art-form created by someone with a passion. Any public space has been carefully designed to be at once functional and beautiful. Museums and galleries share incredible artworks created by infamous artists. No matter where you look, there is art and culture in Nigeria that could be marketed. It’s a part of what makes us human – a form of expression.”
For the DG, life without the collective resources of arts and culture — libraries, museums, theatres and galleries, or without the personal expression of literature, music and art, would be static and sterile – no creative arguments about the past, no diverse and stimulating present and no dreams of the future.
In the UK, in 2011, the art and culture industries created £12.4 billion in aggregate turnover; in 2015 the arts contributed £27 billion to the economy. As of November 2017, the creative industries are worth £92 billion and account for 14.2% of Gross Value Added (GVA) in the UK. The arts contribute to our economy by attracting tourists and businesses, developing skills and talents and generating new employment opportunities. According to the Nation Brands Index, the UK is fourth out of 50 nations for having an enticing cultural experience; the arts attracted 42 per cent of all tourism related revenue generated in the UK in 2011. These are impressive fig