Funmi Olaitan, Ibadan

Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, on Monday, said his administration would leave the culture sector with tangible projects towards ensuring the revitalization of cultural tourism sector in the state.

He said this at the Government House Ibadan during activities marking 2018 World Culture Day and the official launch of the state’s quarterly cultural magazine tagged Dundun produced by Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism to promote and document culture, values and historical places among others.

The governor said Ibadan is the melting point of Yoruba Culture, saying that the promotion and preservation of our culture and heritage is one of the legacy pillars of his administration.

He explained that the other legacy pillars are education, technology, agriculture and health, stressing that his administration will strive hard to ensure the revival of the cultural tourism sector of the state economy which he said can be easily modeled after the Californian economy given the inherent similarities.

Ajimobi stressed that his administration had embarked on the establishment of Ibadan Media City as a first step in the realization of this objective pointing out that the facilities of Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State(BCOS) would serve as its launch pad.

He pointed out that Yoruba culture is centred on godliness, integrity, morality and good value system which are the Omoluabi ethos, adding “it is unfortunate that we are losing this ethos. People no longer have respect for our culture, fear of God is missing, there is disrespect for people and people no longer value integrity."

“There should be fear of God in what we do, integrity and morality should be part of our life and this is why we must use our culture to reclaim the Omoluabi ethos. We will ensure that we leave a formidable legacy in the cultural tourism sector of the state,” he added.

The state Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr. Toye Arulogun, urged that culture should be used to propagate peace and unity among different tribes in the country, saying “we should always remember our culture. A wise man once said ‘a people without culture is like a tree without root.’ And therefore, like you all know that culture is the way of life. We must always remember our way of life."

He said, “If you look at the insecurity that we have, if you look at all the disturbances here and there, they are also related to culture. Our understanding and appreciation of it is crucial, because culture is not just related to the way we do things, there is also religion. We have religions and our culture to shape our life.

“United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) set May 21 aside for people all over the world to remember their culture, to celebrate their culture and to promote their culture. But more importantly for us here, it is to preserve our culture, because if you notice you will see that our culture is going into extinction.

“So today is a day of celebration. And that is why you would see that the students have gone to school today in their traditional attires and will be engaged in cultural activities. If you go to offices, you will see that everybody is dressed in traditional outfits.

“It is a way of remembering where we came from, the way we do our things and one of the ways you can distinguish people is the way of their culture. We have gathered people from diverse cultures at cultural center and we are having a cultural rendezvous. Everybody is going to be there, the local food, music, dance, arts and craft and everything that is related to culture will be exhibited there today. We will be showcasing the culture of Oyo State."