The rich cultural heritage of the Edo people will be exhibited from the 17th of December during the Edo festival of Arts and Culture, EDOFEST taking place in Benin City the Edo state capital.

The stage was set for the annual festival when the state Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki inaugurated the 16-man planning committee to midwife the EDOFEST 2018, last week in at the Government House.

With this, it is expected that the rich and colourful cultural heritage of the people of Edo State will be on display and the talented and creative people efforts will be synergized, encouraged and empowered, just as new ones will be discovered and identified.

This years festival, tagged EDOFEST 2018: Our Heritage, Our Pride is a product of the Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Diaspora Affairs, with the public private partnership initiative.

The committee made up of more members from the private sector, from their deliberations in their inaugural meeting immediately after the inauguration is poised to organize and execute a week long fiesta featuring exciting cultural activities with the sole aim of presenting to the world the great history and culture of Edo State.

The Commissioner for Arts, Culture, Tourism and Diaspora Affairs, Hon. Osaze Osemwegie-Ero in an interview with newsmen called on everybody irrespective of political affiliations to come out and celebrate the forth coming EDOFEST.

Speaking shortly after the inauguration of the planning committee inaugural meeting Mr. Osemwegie-Ero said this is not APC, PDP or any political party affairs, rather it is for every proud Edo sons and daughters to make this their own event, by supporting it.

In his words, “the festival is the celebration of our culture with the support from the Governor Mr. Godwin Obaseki and our Royal Majesty Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II.

He assured that the event will be very big and everybody both at home and diaspora will have something to look forward to. “I am happy the governor, who is excited about the event approved the planning committee. I am glad especially with the caliber of the people who are members of the committee. They are resourceful people from different part of the world who want to make this year’s festival a successful event.

“Last year, we did it, we tried and I am excited that this year, it is going to be better. Like the governor said during the inauguration of the committee, we are starting early enough, four months to December unlike last year when we started a bit late.

At the inaugural meeting, the committee discussed amongst other issues about the theme of the event which will be unveiled at a press briefing.

“We already have the dates fixed and we are going to develop the content for those five days event. We want to make Edo people appreciate our culture which God has blessed us with. Like I keep saying, Edo State is richly blessed with a lot of cultural heritage and we want to thank God first of all for giving this opportunity and privilege to do this and to appreciate His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki, the Executive Governor of Edo State for giving us the opportunity and for believing in us to run the event and because of his believe in Arts and Culture he made it one of the key anchor of the administration’s thematic pillars.

A member of the 16 man committee, Ehi Braimoh, disclosed that Edo is a home of culture and they want to tell the world that our heritage, our culture, Arts and culture is our pride as well.

“We are looking forward to a wonderful EDOFEST in December, we have just finished our first meeting, there is so much work to be done, to build a world class event that will become an event everybody will be looking forward to in the future.

In his comment, renowned Actor, Producer, Lancelot Oduwa, urged the world to get ready to come to Benin for the event.

The Culture Ambassador of the Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Diaspora Affairs, Princess Asha Osazuwa said she is happy to be part of the committee to work towards the successful hosting of the event.

“As a cultural Ambassador, for me it is an honour to be back home. People like myself in the Diaspora are looking forward to be part of this great event in December” she added.

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Eubaldus Enahoro is Deputy Editor with the Nigerian Observer Newspaper.