The Director, Arts and Culture, DAC, was educated at the Prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile- Ife where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in History in 1989; he also studied for his Advanced Diploma in Management at the University of Lagos in 1993 as well as a Post-graduate Diploma in Management from the University of Calabar in 2001 respectively.
PGD in Theater Management 2004 from U.I.
Post Graduate Diploma in Cultural Studies from Nassarawa State University,Lafia 2021
Johnson who joined the Lagos State Public Service in December 1993 as a Traffic Operations Officer with the defunct Ministry of Public Transportation moved to the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA in July 2000 as the Team Lead who formulated the traffic redirection chart on the Victoria Island axis, he also headed the Operations team in Zone 7,Ejigbo while providing technical support for conflict resolution.
He changed cadre in 2001 to a Cultural Officer working assiduously and moving up the career ladder, in August 2003, as the Head of Unit while in the then Ministry of Home Affairs, he was in charge of matters affecting the Nigerian Legion, coordinating major State events and diverse Cultural organizations State – wide.
From August 2015 till early August 2022 at the Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, MTAC, Mr, Johnson was Head of the Creative Arts Department ; where he led the Policy Development of the Creative Department in line with the government agenda, formulated and advised on matters relating to the execution of Cultural Policies and Programmes among other duties.
The newly-deployed Head of Agency,’ a round peg in a round hole’ was Head of facility for the memorable ‘One Lagos Fiesta’ for Agege zone from 2015- 2018. He provided the core content for the ‘Greater Lagos Fiesta’ 2019. As a member of the Planning Committee for the Lagos Tourism Master plan, Mr. Johnson produced the brief on the ‘Culture and Heritage’ pillar.
Idowu Johnson is an enthusiastic member of the Lagos State Creative Industry Initiative, LACI, a training platform for practitioners working to make the state a destination for a skilled workforce for the creative sector , he is also member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria, CIPM apart from being an active Rotarian.
The optimistic believer of ‘Culture drives Tourism’ brings his vast 27years of experience in the public service to further strengthen the operations of the Lagos State Council for Arts and culture to improve its mandate to present, promote, propagate and preserve the cultural heritage of the people of Lagos State in the fifth pillar of the ‘Themes’ agenda, ‘Entertainment and Tourism’.
His deployment follows the statutory retirement of erstwhile Chief Executive Officer, Oladusi Komolafe, who served between March 2021- August 14th 2022.
