The Chairman, Okemesi Cultural Heritage and Tourism Committee, Prince Kayode Oni, has said that the annual Ekiti Parapo Festival is now a national celebration as the Ekiti State Government would soon make it a cultural tourism product.
The 2019 edition of the festival, a memorial package of events to honour Ijesha and Ekiti warlords, especially Fabumbi and Ogedengbe, will hold between October 2 and 5, 2019 at Okemesi Ekiti.
Speaking with Journalists in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday, Oni said the importance of the celebration is to celebrate heroism and supreme sacrifice for freedom. He added that if not for these virtues exhibited by the warriors during the Ekiti Parapo War, the Ekiti nation would not have been sustained.
He stated that the essence of the event is to rejuvenate those virtues ” with the view to evolving a society of courageous and selfless people”.
According to the Chairman, this year’s celebration would feature awards, lectures, fund-raising, symposium/quiz competition, exhibition, fashion and other social events.
”Some on those to be honoured with the Ekiti Parapo Patriots Awards at the festival are His Excellency, Dr Kayode Fayemi and his wife, Her Excellency, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, Aare Afe Babalola, Chief Deji Fasuan, Dr Akintunde Ayeni, Chief Samuel Bolarinde, General Gabriel Kayode Olonisakin, Late Chief Oduola Osuntokun, Late Major General Adeyinka Adebayo, Late Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi,” he said.
In his remarks, Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Hon Funminiyi Afuye, said the festival is reminder that History should be reintroduced to Nigerian schools.
Afuye maintained that the military government of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida that expunged History from the curriculum did that out of ignorance and wrong impression that the uniformed men would continually dominate the country’s politics.
He added that this lacuna shows that the struggle for the restructuring of Nigeria continues because each state should be able to legislate on its own educational policy.
“History must be brought back. We did not create ourselves and it is right for us to know our links and Nigerians must tell the National Assembly as representatives of the people to rework the constitution to bring it back,” he said.
The Speaker described Okemesi town as the link between Yoruba nation and Ekiti, saying the Ekiti Parapo war fought in the town between Ibadan and Ekiti warriors was the longest civil war in history.
Director General, Ekiti State Council of Art and Culture, Mr. Wale Ojo-Lanre, said Governor Kayode Fayemi is committed to revamping the arts and culture through supports for town’s festivals.
“Okemesi represents a town where Ekiti’s unity, freedom and patriotism began with Ekiti Parapo War. The peace treaty of 1886 was instructive that we must remember our dead heroes.”