Steve Ayorinde: living the art dream in Lagos

…speaks on the Lagos State government effort in bringing art and tourism closer to the people.
Steve Oluseyi Ayorinde, Lagos commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture is no doubt one of the astute believers in ‘Lagos is working’ agenda in Governor Ambode’s cabinet set up. The former commissioner for information took over the tourism ministry and has continued with his sterling performance as a public office holder.

The Honourable Commissioner was one of the special guests during the Annual Conference of Association of Nigerian Authors ‘ANA 2018’ held recently in Lagos.

Speaking with Daily Times reporter at the event, Ayorinde narrates how his ministry is living the arts dream in Lagos, taking it closer to the people.

I may start by saying Lagos State and especially the Ministry of Tourism, Art and Culture has been playing a huge and significant role in elevating art and tourism industry in the country.

Within the spec of time I took over the ministry, there’s been visible impact in repositioning the sector.

For the first time, we had a world class president, one of the top five biggest countries in the world, President Macron of France choosing not to have his reception at the Eko hotels or at the state house but the African Shrine here in Ikeja when he visited the country.

Do you know how iconic that has become? After he left, Christiana Amanpour was on a private visit to Lagos and part and detail of what she posited was ‘don’t leave Lagos without visiting the shrine.’

The Nigerian British born soul singer, Seal was in Lagos also in august, the first place he went was the African shrine.

That shows we are having iconic centers that the world stars will say, ‘have you seen this? The CNN some time ago did a special report on theatres and its significance in the country,

if we have been unsuccessful to have the national theatre and national stadium ceded to us in Lagos state, at least,

the government has been proactive in building its own new theaters which will serve as homes not only to people in Ikeja or Lagos Island axis but to those in other parts Lagos cities.

That’s the whole essence of bringing the arts to the people and bringing the people closer to the art.

For me, the gains are there. When you talk about tourism in the state, I can say it is booming.

An online platform Jumia that does a lot of monitoring on tourism visits to Lagos Island reveals that Mondays to Thursdays records the highest number of people that visits the place.

We may always think that tourism is about seeing white faces, but it is not.

I was in Kenya some time ago on official trip, if I would have been counted as one of the tourists that went there, the amount of money I would have spent on hotels and other things is the same way it works when people come from Rwanda or Mozambique to Nigeria.

Have you also taught about the fact that after the end session of every Big Brother Africa reality show, Nigeria is the next destination that either the winner or participants chose to visit, especially Lagos. It is because that there is something that attracts them to Lagos.

The famous celebrity model, Naomi Campbell came to Lagos some time ago on a fashion show, including other international magazines that came alongside with her.

After three days, they said, they never experienced the kind of energy that happens in Lagos anywhere in the world. They were going from one club to other endearing hubs experiencing the beauty and splendour of the city.

Sometimes, we live in a mega city and are removed from the splendour of the city because we are too busy with other things. When visitors come, they actually explore and see what we have been missing within.

Another international model, Lupitan Oyongo was in Lagos for a film shoot of Chimamanda’s ‘Americana’ some time ago. Not many people were aware of her presence in Lagos.

She went around the city to see pretty things that fascinated her, the same thing for John Boyega, the Hollywood actor.

He came, stayed at the Eko Atlantic city and has already gotten funding for his next project which will be shot in Lagos state. All these are happening because Lagos is living the dream.

Speaking about what the Lagos State government are doing and the uncomely criticism that greeted some of the public art installations in Lagos cities, The honourable commissioner noted: “Things are happening and it is the responsibility of the art journalist to show some of the aspect of what is happening around.

There has been criticism of some of the art installations that we have done, but what we are saying is that in the history of Nigeria, no government has approved any art installation like we have done in Lagos State that is now redefining the beauty of the state.

And guess what, the production of these art and installations are all locally sourced. Talking about criticism, yes, you may not agree that some places in the world, public installations were not gotten right in the first time,

just like when an artist want to do Ronaldo statue in Portugal, he has to do it three times to perfect it.

But if we have about 20 installations and you are debating about 2 or 3, that’s okay with me.

But let us consider the fact that there is a governor that is saying; let us change the profile of the state with art installations. Things will always be better because we are no longer where we use to be.

On the issue of security and tourism in Lagos, the honourable commissioner reiterated that Lagos has remained the safest tourism site in Nigeria now.

“You may say that there are security challenges in some parts of Nigeria, yes, but we equally have security challenges all over the world. Las Vegas in the United States is one of the most important destinations in the world but a mad man brought out a gun and shot about 60 people in a hotel.

Would you say, because of that, people will no longer go to Las Vegas, No! There will always be issues, but I think that with the level of investment in Lagos state alone coupled with security apparatus that this government has invested in Lagos, security challenges was reduced to barest minimum.