Legendary filmmaker, Amb. Lancelot Oduwarene Imasuen; The DG, NCAC, Otunba Segun Runsewe; Nigeria’s youngest photographer, Ikemsinachi James; and Nigeria’s celebrated akara fryer, Mrs. Florence Robinson, at the 2019 NAFEST Roundtable on entrepreneurship held at the Oba Akenzua II Cultural Centre, Benin City, Edo State.
Part of the activities scheduled for Tuesday October 22 at EDO NAFEST 2019 was a roundtable on entrepreneurship designed to connect with young ones as early as possible. It was put together by Dr. Elizabeth Ben-Iheanacho, Director, Research and Communication, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC).
The hall was filled to the brim by invited school children in school uniforms, journalists across all media, and important dignitaries such as Otunba Segun Runsewe, DG, NCAC; Legendary filmmaker, content developer and culture activist, Amb. Lancelot Oduwarene Imasuen; PR and Event Management consultant, Hon. Agharese Idubor, and many others.
Lancelot Imasuen was invited as a special guest of honour to come and speak and motivate young people to take bold steps in life that will lead to success. Two other persons were also specially invited as live examples of how tenacious efforts do lead to success. One of them was Mrs. Florence Robinson who trained all her children up to university levels of education with her trade of akara (beans cake) frying. The other was 12 year-old Ikemsinachi James, Nigeria’s youngest photographer. Dr. Elizabeth said she came across them from Facebook, “the media and medium of this generation” and invited them to come and share their experiences with young people.
Mrs. Robinson narrated how she started frying akara (with only N5, 000) from Zaria to Benin and along the line tried few other trades before finally settling for the trade with which God blessed her. She gave an important advice to young people and all those who want to succeed in any business: “When you go to the market to buy things, buy only what you really need.” That is focus.
Ikemsinachi James also spoke, sharing his experience on how he started handling cameras at the age of five. He made a PowerPoint presentation, sketching the history and development of the camera technology.
Finally, Amb. Lancelot Oduwarene Imasuen, also using PowerPoint in a presentation titled “The Creative Industry as Catalyst for Solving Nigeria’s Unemployment Crises”, said the social media has made it possible for everyone to be an ‘actor’, ‘producer’, ‘narrator’, etc. He cited as example, how Jude Idada, winner of 2019 NLNG Prize for Literature, used the social media to popularize his writings. “It is no longer arts for art’s sake; it is now arts for existence…once you become a brand, you fix your price”, said the film industry mogul.
