By Olawale Lamina
The Federal Government has expressed its desire to list the annual Ojude Oba festival, as one of the of the festivals recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.
Making the disclosure on Tuesday at the annual Ojude Oba festival, held at Awujale’s pavilion, Ijebu-Ode, the Minister of Culture, Art and Creative Economy, Barrister Hannatu Musa-Musawa, noted that the annual festival is in tune with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu-led administration for the ministry, with plans to scale up the revenue generation for the tourism sector to over $100bn by 2030.
The well recognized annual festival parades the rich cultural heritage of Ijebuland and comes up every third day of Eid-el-Adha, otherwise known as Ileya among the people.
This year’s celebrations came under the theme, “Ojude Oba: Unity and Harmony, Our Gift.”
Giving his impression, Minister of Culture likened the annual festival to a channel that that promotes the unity of the country in diversity. He acknowledged the fiesta as one of the country’s tourism potentials that can be harnessed to diversify the economy from oil and generate more resources for development and total well being of the people.
Barrister Musa-Musawa explained that, “in line with the President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, the Ministry will always collaborate with stakeholders to promote, preserve and protect the rich cultural heritage of our nation to ensure it reaches its enviable height according to our vision for the Ministry called destination 2030.
“This vision considers the potentials in arts, culture and creative economy in terms of its ability to create economic expansion. Our ambitious goals is predicated on this drive which is capable of yielding over $100bn, an increase in the gross domestic product by the year 2030.”
The minister said that the Presidential Renewed Hope Agenda, especially for the ministry demonstrated unwavering commitment to diversify the economy and looking beyond over dependence on oil revenue in Nigeria.
She facilitated with the indigenes of Ijebuland over the successful hosting of the festival and for boosting of the good image of the country over the year.
The minister emphasized that she had also observed that the festival has not gotten the elements of UNESCO approval as one of its approved festival.
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