Segun Runsewe: The Tourism Czar Who Dared to Make a Difference 

At the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, fans could sample Nigerian food, fashion, and music in a Nigerian Tourism Village. Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, then Director-General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), spearheaded it and repeated it in Russia in 2018. Morale of these doings: making a country visible takes daring.

From 2006 to 2013, Runsewe’s “Tourism is Life” campaign put a Nigerian pavilion at the big travel fairs every year: FITUR in Madrid, ITB Berlin, the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, and the World Travel Market in London. His office also introduced satellite mapping to help visitors find attractions.

At the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), where he served from 2017 to 2024, he restructured the National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST) into a competition that state governors bid to host, with free medical outreach, youth skills training, and waste-to-wealth workshops added.

He also upgraded the African Arts and Crafts Expo into the International Arts and Crafts Expo, where embassies and Nigerian artisans exhibit and trade. A N300 million agreement with the Bank of Industry opened affordable loans to young creatives and craftmakers.

The daring part came with the Abuja Cultural Market. Runsewe fought off land grabbers to reclaim the 2.5-hectare site and restore it as a tourism hub.

Today, he is President of the World Crafts Council (Africa Region), and in Kuwait in February 2026 he won an Icon of Crafts, Culture, and Hospitality in Africa award. As President of the Nigeria Golf Federation(NGF), he is reviving the Nigeria Open, absent for two decades, to draw high-spending visitors.

Analysts say he excelled at visibility, branding and events, while Nigeria still lacks hospitality data, smooth visa-on-arrival, and tourism infrastructure. Runsewe himself noted in late 2025 that Nigeria remains outside Africa’s top 10 destinations, trailing South Africa, Kenya, and The Gambia, a gap tied to inconsistent continuity after leadership changes. In other words, there is much work to be done.

In the, the Nigeria Open is slated for November 2027.