NTDC SETS A LANDMARK RECORD IN 2014 OSUN OSOGBO FESTIVAL

By NTDC PRO

As part of the efforts to promote domestic tourism, the Director-General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) Mrs. Sally Mbanefo has included the Osun Children’s Cultural Fiesta as a major component of the annual Osun Osogbo Festival.

At the just concluded Osun Osogbo Festival in Osun State, Mrs. Mbanefo noted that there must be an inclusion of culture/tourism in the school curriculum to enable children grasps the basics of same as they grow.

“The children’s cultural fiesta has come to stay as part of NTDC’s promotion of the cultural festival; according to her, we are reaching out to schools and talking to them to make tourism part of their curriculum. As part of subjects that they must pass, let the children grow with the culture, proud to speak their languages anywhere in the world. if you are fluent in  English and unable to speak your mother tongue, you seem lost”.

The NTDC boss made these comments in a speech delivered at  the Osun Children Cultural Fiesta held at the Ataoja’s palace in Osogbo on the 21^st day of August, 2014.

She extolled the rich Yoruba culture saying that the Corporation is determined to ensure that all the cultural festivals in Nigeria would be promoted and marketed to the outside world as part of Federal Government’s effort to make tourism a major revenue spinner for the Nigerian economy.

On the children’s fiesta, NTDC organized competitions to encourage the children. They came in four category viz drumming, dancing, cultural fashion parade and Yoruba spelling and a total sum of two hundred thousand naira only (N200,000.00) was expended as prize money to the winners of the various competitions. She said the festival is a veritable platform for cultural exchange in the country.

“It is a channel at which culture is being exhibited and exchanged to the world”

“South West Culture is the richest because civilization came early and was properly documented and handed down to generations”

“Osogbo Festival is unique to the Corporation and included in our calendar of cultural events. Osun cultural festival is very unique to NTDC because it is one of the numerous festivals of international recognition, enlisted as the World Heritage Site by UNESCO including Sango Festival that has been exported to over forty countries of the world, she said.