Director -general of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, has said arts, crafts and culture and pivotal to building Nigeria’s creative economy.
Runsewe , spoke during a diplomatic tour of the recently reopened Arts and Crafts Village in Abuja.
In the past five years, the NCAC had to shut down operations in the village after investigations proved that the arena has been a den for armed robbers, kidnappers and auto theft hideaways. Runsewe’s administration further had to go the courts to recover and preserve the land allocated to the culture/arts from hostile takeover by a foreign organisation and overturn fake landlords exploiting shop renters in the village.
Post the settlement of the village’s land in court in its favour, the NCAC reopened its gates to the public, spotting a new face, and at affordable prices to the Nigerian public, alongside a non-parking ticket and an offer of a free shop to the diplomatic communities in Nigeria to display their cultural products and services.
Speaking at the event, Runsewe stressed, “Culture is a very strong content for celebrating a people. There are no people without culture. Art, crafts and culture are essential to building the creative economy. When these three arms are built upon and domiciled in the creative economy, we then, present it to the tourism sector to market and promote our country. This is what other nations are deliberately doing to market their strengths and opportunities to the world.”
Expressing their delight with the space and its capacities, Ambassador of the Republic of Bulgaria to Nigeria, Mr. Yanko V Yordanov hoped the space will not enable the international community experience more of Nigeria’s art, culture and tradition, but further unearth the similarities between Bulgaria and Nigerian culture, with additional and deliberate research.
“I see a lot of similarities in our folklores, painting techniques and I am sure if we dig down further, we will find more that we have in common. I am sure that by the end of my tenure in a year and a half, we will be celebrating a Bulgarian Corner here (in the village). I am sure,” averred Yordanov.
A resident of Nigeria for a decade and seven years, Spanish Embassy, Cultural Adviser, Eva Barta was thrilled to witness the reopening of the space.
“I believe I have been here long enough to know how this place operated in the past. I am really glad to see it open up again, Congratulations for all you have been doing for the Nigerian culture, and for being an ambassador for the Nigerian culture.”
Over ten countries were present at the tour including United State, China, Bulgaria, Cuba, Spain, North Korea, Botswana, Jamaica, Bangladesh, Cameroon, etc.
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