Runsewe urges Tinubu to create sole ministries for tourism, culture

The National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) has called on President Bola Tinubu to make the establishment of a sole ministry for tourism and culture a priority, for the advancement of the industries.

Chief Olusegun Runsewe, Director-General, NCAC, made the call during a training session organised by the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) for the Association of Nigerian Journalists and Travel Writers (ANJET), in Abuja on Friday.

Runsewe said that a stand-alone ministry for tourism and culture was needed to ensure the obvious tourism communication gap between the private and public sectors was bridged.

He noted that the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, as presently constituted, was too large as tourism and culture lacked proper attention.

According to him, managing public information in a large and complex nation like Nigeria is too ennormous to combine with providing leadership in the culture sector that is very sensitive to national integration, peace and development.

“The federal government should therefore see to the possibility of creating a stand-alone Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

“This has been a recurring demand anywhere the issues of moving the tourism and culture sector is being discussed by professionals in the last couple of years.

“It is my conviction that a stand-alone Ministry of Culture and Tourism is an idea whose time has come,” he said.

Runsewe noted that to further bridge the tourism communication gap between the private and public sectors, it was sacrosanct to establish platforms for regular interactions among tourism stakeholders.