From: WOLE BALOGUN, Ado-Ekiti

Former Director of the Abuja Carnival and first Nigeria Professor of Dance , Prof. Bakare Ojo-Rasaki, has urged politicians and leaders in the country to stop playing politics with the soul of the nation, saying that such negligence has been responsible for backwardness in virtually all sectors of the nation.

He also regretted the failure of a world class Film Village planned to be sited in Ekiti during former Governor Kayode Fayemi’s administration and which would have served as a virile income generating platform for the state and Nigeria at large..

The university don, who has directed several cultural festivals in Nigeria and  across the globe, however said he is working towards realising the dream by rebranding and remodeling  a cultural festival of  his country home, Aramoko-Ekiti in Ekiti West Local Government Area of Ekiti State.

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Bakare, who has been appointed as the Festival Director of the Aramoko community cultural festival 2017, tagged Arahfest 2017 sheduled to hold from November 9 to 11 , urged politicians to stop playing politics with the soul of the nation by prompting bringing good governance to the people after they have been elected.

Lamenting that the attitude of politicians in this regard has been responsible for the comatose nature of several sectors of the nation such as economy, industry, culture/tourism education and agriculture among others, Bakare said the nation could develop the huge cultural endowments deposited by nature to such a level that it would become an alternative source of revenue to crude oil.

He was speaking yesterday during the press briefing on the yearly cultural festival of his hometown, Aramoko-Ekiti, now to be  re-designed, rebranded, remodeled as Arah fest Day.

Said he: ” I want to urge our politicians to stop playing with the soul of the nation. Politics should end with the campaign period, the moment you finish the campaigns come to leadership proper. But it is not so in Nigeria and that is why our cultural tourism is being killed. Tourism is a very technical area that needs an expertise to run it. It is also an investment that would not generate immediate income, you may invest for 10 years but when the income comes, it will be so numerous. It is human development. Mistake government make is that they look at tourism like it oil that they export and generate quick money from.”