No fewer than 16 states are currently participating in the 34th edition of the National Festival for Arts and Culture (NAFEST) which kicked off on Monday.
The festival, with the theme “Celebrating National Unity in Diversity”, took off with a command parade and the official opening ceremony. It will end on Saturday.
The participating states are : Borno, Ogun, Ondo, Bayelsa, Rivers, Kogi, Lagos, Osun, Benue, Delta, Imo, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Zamfara, Yobe and Jigawa states.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the festival had spurred economic activities in Ado Ekiti as commercial motorcyclists witnessed increased sales as large numbers of visitors converged on the state capital.
Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), organiser of the annual festival, said that the 34th NAFEST was a period of cultural integration with the people of Ekiti.
Runsewe said that the states would be participating in 12 events and competitions, including children’s tales by moonlight, drama, traditional board game, children’s drawing and painting.
Others are children’s essay writing, traditional cuisines, archery, indigenous fabric and fashion as well as cultural market and colorful displays.
He noted that the festival was a post-civil war cultural creation meant to heal the wounds occasioned by Nigeria’s three years war which ended in 1970.
The DG stressed the need to engage culture and come together in unison to fight every form of separatist agitations and security challenges facing the nation.
According to him, the theme of the festival is apt and timely as its choice was informed by current happenings in the country.
“We need to remind ourselves now and again that in spite of tribes or tongues, religions or creeds, political or cultural affiliations, Nigeria has been destined to be one nation under God, not even the 30 months civil war could dismember our country.
“There are more things that unite us than those that separate us, it is therefore our collective responsibility to continually emphasize those things that unite us and to constantly enrich and build on them,” he said.
Runsewe commended Gov. Kayode Fayemi for hosting the 34th edition of the festival, adding that he had shown uncommon political will and commitment.
” Indeed the governor has demonstrated uncommon political will and commitment in the hosting of this edition of the festival,” he said (NAN)
