Otunba Segun Runsewe: Man With Midas Touch

Director General of the National Council for Arts and Culture [NCAC], Otunba Olusegun Runsewe

In recent years, Nigerians have become more aware and appreciative of the country’s arts and crafts. This is most likely the first time since the late ’90s that folks are turning to native artworks and seeing beauty and glory instead of second-rate imitation. This change in perspective is one of the many contributions of Otunba Segun Runsewe.

Since becoming the Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), an agency under the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Otunba Runsewe has worked to put things in proper perspective for Nigerians. As he noted during those earlier meetings in 2017, his foremost objective is to wake Nigerians from all walks of life and at various socio-economic levels to the wonders of local arts and culture. One might say that this dream is closer to completion now than when it was first imagined.

The fact that Otunba Runsewe was reappointed to the NCAC DG position in 2021 speaks volumes of his merits. Who else has managed to marry the Nigerian Culture and Tourism industries together, creating a spicy amalgamation that foreigners cannot refuse and natives cannot reduce? In the Real Estate world, the guiding principle is location, location and location. In Arts and Culture, it is all about packaging. Well, that is the case with everybody else—just not Runsewe. He has opted for truth and facts over everything else, bringing Nigerian arts and crafts, cultures, and historical consciousness to the limelight. Talk about a pristine approach.

On this basis, such events as the National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST), International Arts and Crafts Expo (INAC), and many others are getting the accolades they deserve from Ghana around the corner and faraway Russia. It is on this basis youths are getting gainful employment, the culture and arts industry is getting recognised, and the entire economy of Nigeria is growing in leaps and bounds. But that is the work of a man with a Midas touch for you: impossible, impressive, and impactful.