From Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
Senator Smart Adeyemi (APC-Kogi West) with other eminent personalities are billed to attend the colourful Iyara Cultural Day festival.
The annual Iyara Cultural Day festival is scheduled to hold on Saturday October 16, the country home of senator Smart Adeyemi. Iyara is also the headquarters of the Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State.
In a joint statement signed by the President of Iyara Development Association, Alhaji Aliyu Badaki and the Director General of Iyara Day 21, Mr Samuel Olorundare, stakeholders were urged to contribute their quota to a successful hosting of the event.
It would be recalled that the 2020 Iyara Day could not hold as expected due to the ravaging COVID-19 that prevented the organisers from hosting the event.
Badaki and Olorundare added in the statement that the event is the opportunity the people of the town have ‘to showcase our culture, traditions and our community Iyara. It’s equally an avenue to mobilise funds for community development.
‘We did it in 2019 and we trust we can do it again. Iyara Day has become the most veritable source of raising funds for community development.
‘Today, we are even faced with a bigger problem of insecurity and the government cannot be relied upon alone to secure our community. Therefore, apart from infrastructure, we need funds for security and to mobilise funds from outside the community.
‘We the sons and daughters of Iyara must show the way by organising a befitting day for our community. So this is a clarion call to be counted. We appreciate you all.
‘The funds realised in 2019 was deployed to the water project, but available funds couldn’t complete the project. Hence, the funds from this year Iyara Day will be utilised to complete the water project as water is a major problem facing our community. You need to be home during the dry season to appreciate the depth of the problem,’ the statement added
It was added that another major issue in the town is the deplorable conditions of the schools there, where most of the indigenes graduated from.
‘This requires our immediate attention as the government is overwhelmed and has abandoned the schools completely. Only Ijumu Anglican Secondary School looks like a school, courtesy of the Alumni of the School.
‘Finally, the national problem of insecurity which every community has taken up as a challenge equally needs our attention,’ the statement concluded