Director General of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Otunba Segun Runsewe, has been recognized with a life – size sculpted statue of his image created in his honour by a cultural troupe in Etiti village, Igboukwu, the ancestral home of the igbo nation in Anambra State.
The status was formally unveiled last month. Heralding the annual celebration of New Yam festival by the people, the statue was inaugurated by MBIDO Igbo Association, an inter agency Committee on Culture, Arts and Tourism in the south East of Nigeria. A tribute penned by the Igbo cultural body noted that Runsewe will forever be remembered for constructing the biggest Yam House in Igbo land and for listing the New Yam festival on national and global cultural festival calendars during his time at Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) in 2007.
Words inscribed on the six feet status reads: “This statue of Otunba Segun Runsewe, OON, the indefatigable icon of culture in Nigeria and tourism dynamo of our time, stands as testimony of a detribalised Nigerian who gave the Igbo race the deserved voice in cultural tourism world.”
National Chairman, MBIDO Igbo Association, Chief Okafouzu Ugochuchukwu, disclosed that Runsewe is so honoured for his enduring practical statement in the erection of the first national Yam House in Nigeria in 2007. “Runsewe stood with the Igbo cultural tourism history and tradition as an Iroko tree and Zuma rock in a dogged effort, not only putting a national structure in recognition of the Igbo traditional hold as producers of yam but also in ensuring that the New Yam festival is listed in the national cultural calendar which has helped the festival to gain international influence and sustainable prominence.”
