The traditional ruler of Otumara community in Lagos Mainland of Lagos State, High Chief Kehinde Kalejaiye commended the Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Hajia Hannatu Musawa for aiming to position Nigeria as the world’s culture, creative and entertainment capital.

Kalejaiye also applauded the Minister on her road map which, according to him, is targeted at creating jobs and skills training programs for millions of Nigerians and turning the country to global arts, culture and creativity hubs.

Earlier, during the unveiling of the Ministry’s economic plan at the maiden edition of Creative Economy Roundtable held at the Banquet Hall, State House, Abuja, the Minister stated that her objective is to contribute 10 per cent to the Nation’s GDP while also striving to expand sectorial GDP to a remarkable $100 billion by the year 2030.

Reacting to the proposed economic plan, Kalejaiye expressed high hopes in the capacity of the Minister to turnaround the Arts, Culture and Creative Economy for the betterment of Nigerians especially the talented unemployed youths.

He described the Minister’s economic plan as expedient to taking millions of youths out of the unemployment market.

Quoting from statistics by the National Bureau of Statistics, he disclosed that about 53.40 per cent of youths in Nigeria are unemployed

He said, “We believe in the capacity of the new Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa to repositioning the country’s creative economy. We have incredible talents who are eagerly waiting for the creation of enabling environment for them to showcase their talents and flourish.

However, better days are ahead for the youths of the country as with this road map, the economy is sure to rebound while many of our youths will be productively engaged. I must commend President Bola Tinubu for making the right choice and putting a round peg in a round hole.”

Continuing, the traditional ruler urged the Minister to beam her searchlight on the operations of management and personnel of National Theatre.

According to him, the parastatal has been engulfed in corruption and intimidation of staff and union leaders by the management.

If this is left unchecked, Kalejaiye said, it will have an adverse effect on the productivity of the workers and the country will lost all historic edifice that are housed in the parastatal.

He added, “The management of the National Theatre has been in the news for obviously the wrong reasons ranging from alleged corruption and intimidation of staff and union leaders using the police.

This is unhealthy for the workforce who now go about their daily activities in fear. There have been allegations of looting of historic artefacts and misappropriation of the funds of the parastatal. There are petitions before the ICPC, DSS and the Honourable Minister against the management of the parastatal written by interest groups and the union.

These and more are what we want the Minister to investigate and bring the culprits to justice.

Once again, I congratulate the new Minister on her well-deserve appointment while looking forward to a probe of the allegation levelled against the management of the parastatal.”

While reacting to allegations of corruption levelled against him, General Manager of the parastatal, Prof Sunny Ododo debunked the allegations of corruption and mismanagement of funds levelled against him as fallacy, saying they are lacking in merit.