How can Ekiti State explore the socio-economic benefits of heritage sites such as Olosunta, Ikogosi warm springs and Ipole Iloro water-falls? The Director-General of CBAAC, Prof Tunde Babawale provided the answer at the last Ekiti Festival of Culture and Art Expo.
It is a great honour to be invited to deliver a paper on his important subject geared towards finding means of generating capital from our cultural resources; festivals and heritage sites. This revenue drive has become necessary in order to cushion the effects of dwindling earnings from the conventional sources of income; federation accounts and income taxes. Among other unpleasant effects of the diminishing and unstable revenue accruing from these sources and the attendant economic crises are youth unemployment and restiveness. It is against the backdrop of efforts geared towards complementing Ekiti State public sector financing capacity as well as the expansion of the frontiers of employment generation capacity of government and the private sector that this intervention must be seen as a right step in the right direction.
It is a well established fact attested to by scholars, anthropologists, ethnographers, archeologists and other cultural workers and enthusiasts that when world culture is considered, art and heritage have undoubtedly been Nigeria’s most important assets, for it is through her art and other elements of her cultural endowment that Nigeria’s culture first became internationally recognized and famous. These elements have not only served to show that Nigeria has a cultural heritage that can compare favourably with that of any other country of the world, but dating back several hundreds of years as many of them do, they also reveal vital aspects of her history.
When we talk of festivals and heritage sites in Ekiti state within this context, we imply those action-packed occasions of celebration of cultural legacies; commemorative monuments and natural endowments in the state. In specific terms, these include festivals such as Udiroko in Ado, Olosunta in Ikere, Egungun and Ijesu (New yam) festivals in most towns in the state, Ogun in Ire, Ladunwo in Okemesi, Okiti agba, Iyo, Okoya and Ina Olua festivals in Ayedun Ekiti, Aeregbe in Afao, Okorobo in Ifaki among others and monuments such as the Adekunle Fajuyi and Funmi Olayinka parks in Ado, Ule Alayegbe: first iron roofed and glass house in Ekiti, built in 1924 and heritage sites such as the ubiquitous rolling hills (Okiti) from which Ekiti derived its collective cognomen, the Ikogosi warm springs, Ipole Iloro waterfalls, Ogun Onire groove, Okuta gbokuta leri in Ado, Gbonyin/Ise Emure forest reserves, among numerous others. All these are capable of attracting visitors and investors to Ekiti as envisioned and pursued by the Ekiti State government to make the state “a most attractive destination for relaxation and holidays by building a heliport, world class hotel and accommodation facilities; developing Efon, Okemesi, Ikogosi, Ipole Iloro tourism corridor…”
Public–Private Partnership (PPP) is a venture jointly funded and operated by government and the private sector’s companies, institutions and or individuals. It involves a contract between a public sector authority and a private party, in which the private party provides a public service or project and assumes substantial financial, technical and operational risk in the project. PPP confers a number of advantages on governance and administrative processes. Such benefits include:
•Speedy, efficient and cost effective delivery of projects.
•Value for money for the taxpayer through optimal risk transfer and risk management.
•Efficiency from integrating design and construction of public infrastructure with financing, operation and maintenance/upgrading.
•Creation of added value through synergies between public authorities and the private sector on the one hand and through the integration and cross transfer of public and private sector skills, knowledge and expertise on the other hand.
•Alleviation of capacity constraints and bottlenecks in the economy through higher productivity of labour and capital resources in the delivery of projects.
•Competition and greater construction capacity (including the participation of overseas firms, especially in joint ventures and partnering arrangements.)
•Accountability in the provision and delivery of quality public services through enhanced performance incentive management/regulatory regime.
•Innovation and diversity in the provision of public services.
•Effective utilisation of state resources to the benefit of all users of public services.
•Opportunity for government to effectively prioritise its limited resources and focus on critical infrastructural development.
These are the benefits that are derivable generally from most Public–Private Partnerships. Despite these advantages, PPP are fraught with challenges. This brings us to the theme of this lecture; Branding and Promotion of Festivals and Heritage Sites through Public-Private Partnership. In other words, how can we market (brand) and encourage (promote) the cultural products of Ekiti State via public private partnership for the benefit of the people?
In answering this question, it may be more enlightening to take a holistic view and examine the impediments militating against deriving maximum benefits from cultural endowments in Nigeria before the recent interventions as seen in the Argungu festival in Kebbi State, the annual Cross River State’s carnival, Ojude Oba festival in Ogun State, The Osun Osogbo festival in Oshogbo, Eyo and the Black Heritage Festivals in Lagos and the Ekiti State Festival of Culture and Arts, among other initiatives.
Promotion and branding of festivals and heritage sites: Limitations and possibilities
First on my list is the undermining stance of Christianity and Islam. There is no gainsaying the fact that these two imported religions have caused more damage to our traditional arts, culture and religions than can be imagined. “To conquer a people, says Karl Marx, you just have to block the transfer of values, morals and beliefs between generations.” This is exactly what Christianity and Islam have done. On conversion to any of these two religions, one of the things expected of a convert is to renounce his or her link with traditional religions, arts and culture. Some converts even go to the extreme of destroying icons of these traditional religions and what are these icons? Sculptural pieces such as we are presently trying to generate money from. By this practice, many valuable sculptural pieces in wood, stone, ivory etc which could be yielding revenue to the people have been ignorantly destroyed. That more people are presently advocating a return to certain traditional religious and social practices like oath – taking for public office holders in order to curb corruption and bring sanity and accountability to the polity is a testimony to the efficacy of some aspects of our long abandoned heritage.
Closely related to the above is the double standard of the West. To get Christianity entrenched in Nigeria/Africa, the West disparaged African sculptural pieces as; heathen, fetish and primitive amongst others, this they did to make Africans discard the pieces, but it is amazing that many of these same “heathen” and “fetish” pieces have been stolen by these same Westerners with new “shrines” now built for them in their various museums and homes.
Another factor militating against public-private partnership for cultural development is complacency, both on the side of successive governments and the people. The spirit of enterprise is at the lowest ebb. Nigerians are a people spoilt by the discovery and exploitation of oil. Nigerians before the discovery of oil were resourceful people. We can still recollect the groundnut pyramids, cocoa dome, rubber, coffee, palm oil, cotton and other agricultural products which provided Nigeria with funds long before the discovery of oil. But all of a sudden, everything disappeared with the discovery of oil, we depended so much on oil that if oil price crashed today in the world market we catch cold and lose our sleep here in Nigeria whereas there are other viable alternative sources of income such as the cultural festivals, the monuments, the natural endowments and others. So how do we exploit this resource?
There are so many ways of promoting tourism to generate funds. Tourism is a worldwide veritable source of income. There are countries whose main source of income is tourism and some of these countries do not have half of what we have but take for granted in Nigeria.
Generally, the first condition for a thriving tourism industry is peace, by this I mean the absence of war, violent conflicts, bloodshed etc. And to the best of my knowledge and the glory of God, Ekiti State particularly is peaceful and conducive for the flourishing of tourism. So the first condition is present in Ekiti State.
The second condition is availability of a good product or products to sell to the world, by this I mean something appealing, of great interest and very attractive. Good enough Ekiti State has a number of world class products in the hills, mountains, vegetation and general topography of the state. The attractiveness of some of these natural endowments is heightened by the fact of their mysterious origin, for example, the Ikogosi warm springs. These endowments can be repackaged through public-private partnership to attract greater national and international interest and patronage. How?
It is important that relevant agencies of the state government, community associations, traditional institutions and the media should organise and promote cultural festivals and foster cultural expressions at the local level on regular basis. This will go a long way in promoting cultural practices of the people.
There must be conscious effort at disabusing the minds of the people that entrenchment of cultural practices is not the same thing as paganism. Many people as a result of the preaching of Christianity and Islam are wont to confuse traditional cultural practices with paganism, which is erroneous. It is important to enlighten the populace that indigenous festivals are not heathen practices but celebration of the people’s heritage which are also capable of fetching them some income.
Closely related to the above is the need to ensure that indigenous cultural practices and languages are taught in schools; primary, secondary and tertiary. This is an investment that will go a long way in preserving traditional cultural practices as many more people will become cultural enthusiasts, activists, patrons and ambassadors from the local to global level.
As a step towards enhancing public-private partnership, I am also proposing the institution of the element of trust in government. By this, I mean, putting in place structures that the generality of the people could relate to on a sustainable basis. This would require that the government becomes business like by instituting mechanisms for guaranteeing an atmosphere for good returns on investments.
Also essential is constant engagement between the government and the people for cultural rebirth in Ekiti and environs. Fortunately, some of Nigeria’s best cultural icons are from Ekiti State. They could be constantly engaged in drawing up action plan and modalities for effective partnership. They can also help in repackaging some of the existing traditional festivals to engender public confidence, trust and goodwill.
Festivals by their nature are loved by people because they are periods of reunion, great merriments, appraisal and renewal of strength. The Eyo festival in Lagos, the Ojude Oba festival in Ijebu Ode, the Oshun Oshogbo Festival and many more, yearly attract corporate sponsors, indigenes, their friends and tourists from all over the world. Future festivals in Ekiti should be publicized to attract indigenes, friends, tourists and possibly corporate sponsors, and should be given incentives to include more exhibitors in different categories. These have the potentials of attracting people to the state. These festivals, like every great venture that must start small, must be sustained to attain the envisioned greatness. This is where the State government, local government, organisations, foundations and public spirited individuals should be contacted to form a partnership around these festivals as being done elsewhere.
Existing monuments and sites across the state should be given a facelift to meet contemporary standards. A publicity drive should be embarked upon by respective agencies of government part of which may include printing of handbills with briefs about the facilities, which should be distributed far and wide, particularly in primary and secondary schools in Nigeria. This may be done state by state, according to availability of resources, so that the schools can visit and a token as decided charged per school or student. Also the hand bills should be taken to multinational companies to draw the attention of the staff mainly the expatriates to the state.
Art and culture agencies of the state in collaboration with the respective communities can also feature on local and network Television and radio programmes periodically to enlighten the people not only about the cultural sites and festivals, but also of the new government development plans in this direction. The print media should also be considered. All these will certainly draw attention to Ekiti State. However, the point should be explicitly made that the yearly festivals are not in the service of any deity but a celebration of the artistic sophistication and cultural heritage of the Ekiti people and a means of opening up the locality. This is to make the initiative attractive to Christian and Muslim brothers who may erroneously confuse it with fetishism.
Also, this scheme should take advantage of global technological breakthroughs in information dissemination such as the internet. It is advised that a website should be created for the state cultural products detailing the history, features and attractions. Internet advert spaces can also be procured to give the initiative the widest reach possible.
In addition to this, postcards with pictures of selected sites and other cultural items of attraction in Ekiti can be printed as mementoes. These will be available for sale to be sent to loved ones by indigenes and tourists. This will go far and wide to publicise the state and the country.
As a first step towards realising all these lofty goals, a fundraising dinner should be organised to generate funds for the initiative. This is a call to all stakeholders to come together to pool resources to ensure the realisation of this dream.
Conclusion
Tourism globally is not an isolated venture that can be pursued just on its own and for its own sake. It is operated as a composite package. We have mentioned peace as a requisite; other necessities for the smooth running of a tourism industry apart from the major attraction include having good restaurants, rest houses, fun spots, hotels and security to ensure the safety of tourists. The tourism industry usually has multiplying benefits for all. Everybody, from the Okada or taxi drivers in the community, to the pure or bottled water sellers, the restaurant owners, hoteliers, artists, farmers etc enjoy increased patronage which will eventually translate to more employment, improved earnings and standard of living for the people in the state.
I am happy that the popular Ikogosi Warm Springs resort has been given a new lease of life. I am also aware that the budgetary allocation to the sector has improved considerably and a Tourism Development Fund has been instituted. These are signs of commitment to breathing life into the sector. Despite these commendable efforts, more needs to be done to get tourism to the Promised Land. As a stakeholder, I must acknowledge the myriad of challenges we need to face before a robust tourism industry in Ekiti State and even in Nigeria as a whole can be attained. May I seize this opportunity to appeal to the Ekiti State government ably led by Dr Kayode Fayemi, to sustain the tempo of infrastructure development in the state (roads, schools, health centers, electricity, potable water, security etc) to make the lofty dreams possible.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, what I have attempted to do in this paper is not to give a complete, faultless blueprint for the realisation of this lofty dream of realising greater benefits from the public-private partnership, but to set the tone for the cross fertilistion of ideas. Two good heads, it is said, are better than one. There are other areas which I have definitely not mentioned but which are relevant to the realization of this dream. As we forge ahead in our interaction, we will be able to harness and accommodate more good ideas in this direction that could facilitate a total package which we will implement and sell to the world to boost tourism in Ekiti State and Nigeria as a whole.
