Mohammed stated this at the Quarterly Public Lecture of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) held in Abuja.

The minister, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Festival and Carnivals in the Ministry of Information and Culture, Mrs. Memunat Idu-lah,  said the theme of the program aligned with the government’s desire to reposition the economy and uplift the living standard of Nigerians through the non-oil sector.

He said President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is determined to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years.

In his remarks, the acting Executive Secretary of NICO, Mr. Louis Eriomala, said the theme of the lecture was chosen to underscore the critical relationship between culture and development.

He said: “The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was conceived at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2012.”

He added that the objective of the Rio conference was to produce a set of universal goals that would meet the urgent environmental, political, and economic challenges facing the world.