The Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, has called on parents to instill African cultures and values in their children and wards so that they will grow to be responsible adults.
Runsewe said this Sunday, Feb 7, while speaking with correspondents of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He admonished parents to always provide guidance to their children to make sure they won’t live lifestyles that would negate African cultures and values in marriage, procreation, moral decency and respect for elders.
Runsewe, who cited the lifestyle of Okuneye Idris Olarenwaju, known popularly as Bobrisky, a Lagos based cross-dresser, said that Bobrisky had constituted a nuisance to Nigerian and African values while misleading other youths, due to a lack of true African values in him.
According to Runsewe, the 29-year-old social media personality is nothing but a disgrace and disgust to Nigeria, and should not be allowed to continue with his fake life.
He said: “Do you know that the so-called Bobrisky was going to set up the African Chapter of Gay and LGBT or whatever they call it in Nigeria during his recently aborted birthday party? People from over 70 countries arrived in Lagos for the event.
“They were all at Ikoyi, preparing to launch it. We got a hint of it and had to put a stop to the event. I seized all the food and gave them to IDPs. If they had launched that thing, Nigeria would have been destroyed by now.
“That was how the insurgency started and because it was not nipped in the bud, today we are facing the consequences of our inaction then.
“People said the man called Bobrisky is powerful and that anytime he comes to Abuja, he lodges in a presidential suite on the tenth floor of Transcorp Hilton Hotel.
“But I will not stand and see such a character perpetrate a culture that does not conform to our African values and norms.
“If he wants to continue with that way of life, then he should leave Nigeria. Our culture does not allow such personality in our society. So he should leave Nigeria.”
Runsewe reiterated that parents should not allow their children to be influenced by characters like Bobrisky.
“Bobrisky started by saying he sells body creams and later he went further that he got boobs. He went into many areas. He insults Nigerian women, claiming he is prettier than them. This is not African.
“On his father’s birthday, he dressed like a man. So you can see the deception by a fake personality living a fake life and deceiving Nigerian youths.”
Runsewe continued: “That man is destroying Nigerian children. If we are not careful, in the next few years women will no longer have boyfriends or husbands again.
“This is because man to man is becoming the order of the day. In Abuja today, men stand on the streets waiting to be patronised by other men.”
Runsewe said that NCAC and the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs would soon meet to continue deliberations to seek the way forward in sensitizing the public on the ‘menace.”