Adebayo Adenrele
The Ekiti State Ministry for Arts, Culture and Creative Economy has said security measures have been put in place to protect tourists during Ekiti Festival (EKIFEST) scheduled between 6th and 10th August, 2024.
This was revealed on Friday by Professor Rasaki Ojo-Bakare, the commissioner of the ministry at a press conference held in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.
The commissioner said EKIFEST, which is an annual flagship festival organized to stun the cultural values and heritage of Ekiti people, was established to project the exhibits of talented individuals at the grassroots, in a bid to bring Ekiti on the map of global culture.
His words, “We are here to tell you that Governor Biodun Oyebanji has given us marching order to host EKIFEST beginning from 6th of August to 10th, 2024 and it has to be the best EKIFEST ever.
“EKIFEST started because of the need to create a platform for the local government to bring what they have to the center for the purpose of exposure, exhibitions and marketing.
“EKIFEST was established to project talented people at the grassroots and expose them to the world.
“We are inviting visitors from all over Africa and beyond. This fellows are not just coming as tourists but to see what our people are capable of doing with their talents so that they can invest and take the products beyond the border of Ekiti and Nigeria”.
While reeling out activities designed for the festival, he said “For this year, competitive events like fashion, creative art, traditional sports such as wrestling, street carnival, among others will be involved.
“We are working towards not having any breach of security before, during and after the event. We have reached out to virtually all the security agents in the state”.
He urged traders in the state to reduce the prices of their products before, during and after the festival so that they can generate more income for themselves and the state.
“Price control is not what we can actually control by fiat but we are sensitizing our people to make them understand the danger of capital flight.
“We are already talking to them during festivals. If you make prices of your items too expensive, they will buy their things in their home countries and bring them here.
“Some of their members will still be in our planning committee in order to have successful festival this year.”
Recall that the Ekiti State Ministry of art, culture and creative economy was among the four ministries honoured by the National Assembly as the best performing MDAs in the state.