Prof. Sunday Ododo, General Manager/CEO, National Arts Theatre, has called on the Lagos State government to assist in providing security to check the activities of miscreants within the complex.
Ododo, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday, said checking the activities of miscreants around the theatre complex would be most effective with the support of the state government.
“From the Ijora end, to enter into the National Arts Theatre is notorious for activities of miscreant like rape, and even sometimes we see corpses there.
“Miscreants do all sorts of criminal things there and also deface the canal with feces.
“Being a connecting route to the theatre, the contribution of the Lagos government to secure that end will greatly help to secure our environment.
“Mounting security personnel sponsored by the Lagos government will also curtail the entrance of these miscreants into the theatre,” he said.
The general manager also said increased funding was paramount to improve the service delivery potential of the National Arts Theatre and also help to improve security.
Ododo told NAN that the success of its event, the Festival of National Unity, was due to the collaboration of stakeholders.
NAN reports that the Festival of Unity, tagged: “Healing Nigeria’” was a three-day event held between Dec. 18 and Dec. 20, 2020.
“Our budget for the Unity Festival ran into N25 million, but for the collaboration of stakeholders we achieved it under N10 million.
“The private sector and all the different artistic associations’ collaboration with us have been to our glory and they are still doing enough to improve our growth,” he said.
Ododo, a professor of performance aesthetics and theatre technology, said the establishment of an arts academy would go a long way to advance the National Theatre’s global relevance.
Similarly, Mr Biodun Abe, Director of Production and Technical Theatre Services, said the support of stakeholders had been highly rewarding to the growth of the institution.
He also said the sustenance of the policy to innovate the operations of the complex required increased collaboration by all stakeholders.
“Our theatre should be able to attract the talented young people out there in the streets in search of a viable platform to project their talents.
“University graduates and students of artistic works need to also feel welcome to the theatre to showcase their talents,” he said.
(NAN)
