ADVERTISEMENT
The Sun Nigeria
  • Home
  • National
  • Columns
    • Broken Tongues
    • Capital Matters
    • Diabetes Corner
    • Duro Onabule
    • Femi Adesina
    • Frank Talk
    • Funke Egbemode
    • Insights
    • Kalu Leadership Series
    • Kunle Solaja
    • Offside Musings
    • PressClips
    • Public Sphere
    • Ralph Egbu
    • Shola Oshunkeye
    • Sideview
    • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
    • Tola Adeniyi
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • The Sun TV
  • Sporting Sun
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • National
  • Columns
    • Broken Tongues
    • Capital Matters
    • Diabetes Corner
    • Duro Onabule
    • Femi Adesina
    • Frank Talk
    • Funke Egbemode
    • Insights
    • Kalu Leadership Series
    • Kunle Solaja
    • Offside Musings
    • PressClips
    • Public Sphere
    • Ralph Egbu
    • Shola Oshunkeye
    • Sideview
    • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
    • Tola Adeniyi
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • The Sun TV
  • Sporting Sun
No Result
View All Result
The Sun Nigeria
No Result
View All Result
Home Arts

Oshodi Paul: Festivals are catalyst for economic growth

24th May 2019
in Arts, Literary Review
0
Oshodi Paul: Festivals are catalyst for economic growth
0
SHARES
140
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Damiete Braide

Annual festivals play a key role to Nigeria’s economy as a non-oil revenue generator, as such, will do the same for Ondo State with the Ondo Arts Festival Summit (ONDOFEST), which provided employment, business opportunities, infrastructural development, marketing Ondo State to the world and providing food security for families across the state high patronage of small scale businesses. Truly, the theme of the festival, “Togetherness”, really brought indigenes far and wide to celebrate eight days of cultural extravaganza.

Some of the programmes that took place during the festival included Ondo Ethnotourism Carnival, Arts and Cultural Carnival Parade, Music Concerts, Fashion Culture Festival, Face Painting Fest, Food & Drink exhibition, Agrotourism Carnival, Boat Regatta, Photo Arts Exhibition, Books & Literature, Tourist Site Seeing, Open Air Film Show, Agrotourism Carnival, among others.

Co-organiser of Ondo ArtFest, Oshodi Seyi Paul, in his address of welcome, said, “Festivals promote cultural diversity. They are catalysts for intercultural dialogue, and they reach out to people from different backgrounds and across generations.”
Oshodi, founder of Oshodi Art Gallery in Ikorodu, Lagos State, added that festivals were engines for economic growth by creating jobs in our regions and cities, and attracting visitors from across Nigeria, Africa and world.

“All of these enrich our lives and allow us to enjoy a diverse range of cultural art forms. In many ways, our festivals are the embodiment of the Nigeria’s motto – united in diversity,” he said.

“Nowhere is this diversity better shown than through our cultural heritage. Our literature, films, art, music and, of course, festivals reflect the extraordinary cultural wealth of our state, yet none of these artistic forms has developed in a vacuum. The development of cultural heritage has always crossed Nigerian borders and being shared by Ondo State citizens.

Continuing he said, “Festivals bring people together in shared experiences at local, state and national levels. Festival is a perfect example of a small town attracting world-class musicians and visitors from all over Europe and the world. On a much larger scale, Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival sold a staggering 2.6 million tickets last year.

“Ondoartsfest will also travel beyond Africa, making our rich and unique cultural productions available to the rest of the world. “This global reach is essential to our international cultural relations, the value of which should not be underestimated.

Seasoned art critic, dramatist, playwright and folk musician, Ben Tomoloju, in his lecture entitled “Forging a New Economic Route for Ondo State through Culture, Tourism”, stated that the “Nigerian economic reality is not that rosy. Yet we should not allow our distressed economy to be an inhibition to noble aspirations. Rather, it should be seen as a challenge and a stimulant towards attaining higher goals.
“The Americans, during the Great Depression of the 1930s-40s, had their incomes subsidised in a programme called the ‘New Deal’ as implemented by the then President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. The President was so determined to keep Americans working that creative individuals were paid simply to create.
“Ondo State can explore such value orientation through art and tourism for sustainable economic growth, because the creative industry is so resilient that, once it is set in motion, it will continue to absorb the shocks of the job-market and advance into prosperity.

“The Nollywood phenomenon, which has become a multi-billion naira industry in Nigeria, began in the years of the Structural Adjustment Policy (SAP) in the 1980s. The Nollywood breakthrough should clear all the doubts about the viability of the creative industry and encourage government and the private sector to invest in this sector.

“This should take place simultaneously with a strategy in social re-orientation through formal and informal education. For instance, such stars as are listed above can periodically be invited by the relevant agencies of the Ondo State government and non-governmental stakeholders to mentor the young ones on so many vital subjects in the area of art and tourism.”

Tomoloju recommend that the Ondo State Government should use the arts as a mobilising agent in all areas of development, tap into the abundant human resources of indigenes at home and in the diaspora to grow the local economy.
“Establish Cottage Theatres and Cultural Centres in major towns – with all the advantages of subsidiary industries cropping up – for job and wealth creation, take a holistic approach to training in all the disciplines within the tourism sub-sector for even and comprehensive development of human capacity and renovate and repackage all Heritage Sites to optimise their economic value,” he said.

Rapheal

Rapheal

Related Posts

Finishing well: X-raying Africa’s  leadership question
Arts

Finishing well: X-raying Africa’s leadership question

26th February 2021
Yusuf Ali funds ANA’s 2021 reading campaign
Arts

Yusuf Ali funds ANA’s 2021 reading campaign

26th February 2021
James Useghan presents The Competent Youth
Arts

James Useghan presents The Competent Youth

26th February 2021
Next Post
NPFL-LaLiga U-15 tournament set to kick off

Niger FA Chairmanship Why I am going for the 5th time –Ahmed Fresh

Kanu Nwankwo thumbs up Monimichelle

Kanu Nwankwo thumbs up Monimichelle

Zenith Bank/Ikoyi Club Tennis tourney starts in Lagos

Zenith Bank/Ikoyi Club Tennis tourney starts in Lagos

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Highlights

First AFN evaluation meet for Tokyo Olympics holds in Akure

Nigeria: Sad Tale of Insecurity

The revolution has unraveled

Nigeria welcomes COVID-19 vaccine

Evercare commences operation in Lagos

COVID-19: FDNL manufactures carrier to meet vaccines distribution challenge

Trending

Man Utd triggers £43m Lukaku debt clause
Sporting Sun

Man Utd triggers £43m Lukaku debt clause

4th March 2021
0

Manchester United have reportedly triggered a clause in the deal that saw Romelu Lukaku move to Inter...

Bale expects Real  to honour £600k wages

Bale expects Real to honour £600k wages

4th March 2021
Omeruo, Troost- Ekong glad to reunite with teammates

2021 AFCON qualifier: NFF confirms date, venue for Nigeria vs Lesotho

4th March 2021
Tokyo 2020 consultancy firm “paid $370,000” to Diack

First AFN evaluation meet for Tokyo Olympics holds in Akure

4th March 2021
Nigeria: How did we get here? (1)

Nigeria: Sad Tale of Insecurity

4th March 2021

Follow us on social media:

Categories

  • Abuja Metro
  • Arts
  • Broken Tongues
  • Business
  • Business Week
  • Cartoons
  • Citizen Joe
  • Columns
  • Cover
  • Culture
  • Duro Onabule
  • Editorial
  • Education Review
  • Effect
  • Elections
  • Entertainment
  • Events
  • Features
  • Femi Adesina
  • Food & Drinks
  • Frank Talk
  • Funke Egbemode
  • Gallery
  • Global Square by Kenneth Okonkwo
  • Health
  • Insights
  • Kalu Leadership Series
  • Kunle Solaja
  • Kunle Solaja
  • Letters
  • Lifeline
  • Lifestyle
  • Literary Review
  • Marketing Matters
  • Muiz Banire
  • National
  • News
  • Offside Musings
  • Opinion
  • oriental news
  • Politics
  • Press Release
  • PressClips
  • Public Sphere
  • Ralph Egbu
  • Shola Oshunkeye
  • Sideview
  • South-west Magazine
  • Sponsored Post
  • Sporting Sun
  • Sports
  • Sun Girl
  • Tea Time
  • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
  • The Sun Awards Live
  • The Sun TV
  • Thoughts & Talks
  • Time Out
  • Today's cover
  • Tola Adeniyi
  • Travel
  • Travel & Tourism
  • Trending
  • TSWeekend
  • Turf Game
  • Uncategorized
  • Updates
  • Views from Abroad
  • Voices
  • World
  • World News
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Paper Ad Rate
  • Online Ad Rate
  • The Team
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy

© 2019 The Sun Nigeria - Managed by Netsera.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • National
  • Columns
    • Broken Tongues
    • Capital Matters
    • Diabetes Corner
    • Duro Onabule
    • Femi Adesina
    • Frank Talk
    • Funke Egbemode
    • Insights
    • Kalu Leadership Series
    • Kunle Solaja
    • Offside Musings
    • PressClips
    • Public Sphere
    • Ralph Egbu
    • Shola Oshunkeye
    • Sideview
    • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
    • Tola Adeniyi
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • The Sun TV
  • Sporting Sun

© 2019 The Sun Nigeria - Managed by Netsera.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist