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Charles Ajunwa
Former Director General, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Segun Runsewe, has revealed how Nigeria lost $300 million from the Chinese government meant for the Abuja Cultural Market Development.
Speaking at the 2025 Association of Nigerian Journalists and Writers of Tourism (ANJET) Award ceremony held recently in Lagos, he argued that Nigeria’s tourism sector was lagging.
He explained: “I want to be quoted. One project we did, and you will be shocked to hear today, is our cultural market in Abuja. The Chinese government gave us $300 million as a grant to develop the place. They started saying, How do we collect the money?
“When I heard what was going on, I took a flight from Nigeria to China. And I went to see the Chinese Minister of Culture and Tourism. He said, Otunba, sit down. This money has been kept there for six years, Nigeria didn’t utilise it. We have taken it to Uganda. Yes, quote me. I almost collapsed in his office. Why are we wicked to ourselves?
“We need to also ask another question: Before I left office as Director General, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), some of you reported that story too. I found out that the whole world is moving to the next level. What’s Nigeria doing?
“I approached the Chinese ambassador. He said, ‘what do you want? I said, I want you to help me train some Nigerians who want to be big brands. And the ambassador gave me a ticket and everything I needed to visit China.
“I went and sat down with the officials. From the whole country, we were to take 100 youths from each state of Nigeria, making 3,700 with other officials totalling 4,000. Chinese government was to give us accommodation free and they are going to support us with some utilities. But the governors of each of these youths will only pay for their tickets. And because somebody is not going to benefit from it, they made sure it didn’t happen,” he revealed.
Runsewe, who sat together with former Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ambassador Frank Ogbuewu; and Director General, National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism, Dr. Abisoye Fagade, said: “For me, I’m almost tired of talking because there’s no action. Our country is not taking tourism seriously.”
He added: “People think tourism is only moving from one place to the other. I will just reveal a few things. How many of you know Pastor TB Joshua? TB Joshua was selling religious tourism, and nobody keyed into it. When TB Joshua is having his conference in Lagos, there were over 20 private jets packed at the airport.
“There is religious tourism and we have not tapped into it. We see them as pastors. Yes, pastors doing their job. But there is a content of tourism in what they are doing. If this country gets tourism right, we shouldn’t have a single child looking for job. After agriculture, tourism is the biggest employer of labour.
But we are still playing games, we are still telling ourselves stories. We are still giving the boys jobs to come and learn on the field.
“There is no way you can play Arsenal or Manchester United and carry players who just started yesterday. They will beat you silly. You won’t even see the ball for 90 minutes.
“Let’s look at medical tourism. Egypt and India are now taking over medical tourism and they have turned their hotels to hospital beds. Same after 9-11, I went to America, they told me, if I want to know how the plane entered the building, it’s $100. They turned tragedy into tourism brand. What are we doing in Nigeria? We are still wasting time. Someone will come up with a good brand, and the only thing some people want to do is to kill that brand.
“Look, we have killed our best in this sector. And I want to beg everybody here, enough of this fighting among ourselves. It won’t take us anywhere. I don’t fight anybody. We must change our attitude to building a big brand. The only secret remaining to developing Nigeria, in extension, Africa, is culture and tourism.”
