Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, the Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) says he will lead a team to China, to promote cultural commerce strategy in the country.
Runsewe made the disclosure on Thursday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He said: “ Chinese are one of the most developed industrial nations in the whole world. When you say why did I chose China?
“Since the current Chinese Ambassador came to Nigeria, he has been working hard to see how China and Nigeria can work together that is why I took interest.
“Now, what I want to do, I want to take all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to China. Let every state chose an aspect of commerce which will become cultural commerce strategy.
“For instance, if a state wants to reproduce buttons, do you know that even toothpick we import. What am I trying to do this time?
The director-general said that he spoke with the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Cui Jianchun, and he had agreed that each state would chose a brand or a product.
“Do you want to believe with me today that even sweet we are taking, the raw materials are from Nigeria; we take them abroad, they repackage and come to sell to us.
“So, what I want to do is to open a new brand on how to develop a nation. If Taraba state takes toothpick now, we will buy the machine during that trip to China and bring to Taraba.
“At the end of the day, Nigeria will be richer with 37 brands that we don’t need to import again.’’
The director-general recalled that when he took all the state commissioners for culture and tourism to South Africa, the idea was to build a brand of cultural tourism.
He added that he took all his management to Dubai in 2019.
“All my team to Dubai I said to them that that witchcraft that is in Dubai we have to unfold it. We visited a place where human beings communicated with fish.
“Dubai turned nonsense to some things. We have the research document ready. There is no way this industry can be at home all the time, we need to go out and learn from others.
“The idea of a trip to China is a plan but when we finish, Nigeria will be celebrated because we are going to be having 37 brands and products,’’ Runsewe said. (NAN)
