History was made recently when Arts and Culture Stakeholders from Ekiti State converged in Ado Ekiti to discuss and fashion out means and ways of improving the recognition usually accorded them by the public.
The stakeholders, comprised of different groups such as the Theatre Arts Practitioners, local Musicians, Cultural Troupes, different species of talents and programme presenters embraced the idea with their presence at the meeting.
The 1st Ekiti Arts and Culture Day revealed the hidden values embedded in the cultural values of Ekiti people. The Arts and Cultural Stakeholders’ day organised by the Ekiti State Council for Arts and Culture witnessed display and performances by different cultural troupes across the state.
Welcoming participants to the 1st Ekiti State Arts and Culture Stakeholders’ Forum, Ambassador Wale Ojo Lanre, the Director General at the Ekiti State Arts and Culture Council expressed his joy and happiness at the presence of the stakeholders in the industry at the event.
Ojo Lanre expressed his regrets on the neglects and poor treatment of experts and professionals in the Arts and Culture Industry as very worrisome and a major setback.
He commended Dr. Kayode Fayemi who, according to him, is the only Governor in the history of Ekiti State who has deemed it fit to recognise its culture/arts practitioners while urging him to endeavour to do more for them so that the disdain the practitioners have suffered in the past will come to an end.
The Hon. Commissioner for Information, Tourism and Value Orientation, Aare Muyiwa Olomilua while giving his goodwill message commended the efforts of the organisers of the event. He charged the participants not to forget their mother languages.
In her goodwill message, the Convener of the Ekiti Youth Agenda, Mrs. Bimbo Aladejare expressed her joy to be part of the event. She counseled parents to return to the old cultural heritage of the Yoruba race by teaching their wards on how to greet and dress well. She submitted and pledged that the youths of Ekiti State will not forget their culture.
In her keynote address, the wife of the Governor of Ekiti State and the Chairman of the occasion, Her Excellency, Erelu Bisi Fayemi expressed her disappointment in the immediate past administration of Governor Ayodele Fayose in the state who was on sabbatical leave for four years and could not sustain the Ekiti Arts and Culture programmes initiated by her husband, Dr. Kayode Fayemi during his first term in office.
Erelu Bisi Fayemi maintained that the Ekiti State Festival of Arts and Culture is back in place and that another edition is expected to take place in the month of December, 2019. She used the Arts and Culture Stakeholders meeting to pledge her continuous support for Arts and Culture in the State. She expressed optimism that more job opportunities will be created for the teeming unemployed youths in the state through the coming event.
Bisi Fayemi went on to charge those who will handle the technical sessions at the 1st Ekiti State Arts and Culture Stakeholders’ Forum by coming up with new strategies, ways to record and keep records so that the state will not lose track of its culture.
She announced at the event that the Ekiti Arts and Crafts Village will be created adding that capacity building would also be provided.
Declaring the event opened on behalf of Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the Governor of Ekiti State, the state’s Head of Service (HOS), Mr. Ayodeji Ajayi announced that it is henceforth an offence to speak in English during the celebration of Arts and Culture in the state instead of Ekiti dialect. The Governor used the forum to call on private establishments to bring investments that will create employment opportunities into the state.
At the event, Governor Fayemi equally said that a new edifice would soon be built and established for the Ekiti State Council of Obas in the State to enhance their regular meetings and participation in the governance of the state.
He advised and counseled Arts and Cultural practitioners in Ekiti State not to forget themselves. He noted that Pa Kola Ogunmola must be honoured and cultural people like Fadeyi Oloro must be remembered for good and not allowed to suffer unnecessarily while they should be well taken care of.
Other dignitaries at the event included Professor Ojo Bakare, a renowned scholar of Arts and Culture from the Federal University of Oye Ekiti (FUOYE); Professor Isola Olomola, a Lecturer at the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile Ife, Osun State; Baba Jimoh Aliu, an Arts and Culture practitioner of high repute; Mr. Kayode Fasae, the Director General, Ekiti State Micro – Credit Agency and Mr. Femi Ariyo, the Ekiti dialect musician among others.
Packaged by Emmanuel Adeniran
