Prof Wole Soyinka
In view of one or two comments in the media about the misleading scope in the media, about the scope of the event of the celebration in the media. As I said during the ‘Vision of the Child’ programme and it seems to think that one of the paid advertisement referring to something which I said at that meeting, but very cleverly ignoring other far more interesting, far more useful kind of detail information there; for me, it is a very dangerous trend because people used that kind of distortion to set to create a mood of objection, a negative mood towards an event like this. I am referring, for instance, to that commentary in that paid advert which said something like a whole year celebration while people are starving. Nobody has said at any time this is going to be a year-long celebration. I refer to this advert, this commentary specifically because at that same event, I corrected that misconception; in fact, I think the words I used were that ‘if Governor Ambode wanted to celebrate a whole year round, I would carry placard and asked for him to be impeached.’ That should have been more than sufficient to indicate the nature of this festival and yet, it will take the trouble to try to create public disaffection. These people, with sudden interest in the welfare of the workers, they want to teach me or teach us here about the welfare of the workers, they want to teach us, including myself, who called for an economic summit involving everybody, they want to tell me that I don’t know that the economy is in a parlous condition.
This is a very intelligent, very informative, scion of the soil. It is very tendentious when people do that kind of thing, it is dishonest and I think it is very unfair to those who despite difficulties, want to create something worthwhile for the public. At no time has there been any statement by anybody that this committee is going to create an event every day of the year. You can start something and then leapfrog to the end; you can say, that is it, we are starting here and this is where we are headed and that is where we are going.
However, we are also trying to create things in between. Yet, when some of the members of the committee move among people, they get questioned and not always questions, sort of insinuations that there is a pot of gold to celebrate available to celebrate the all year round, that is what they are expecting. I think, let’s be practical and let’s learn to wait until events are actually proposed and advertised and brought before the public. I have here, there is no question at all, we have a master plan and there is a budget, but the budget is meaningless until it is accented to and accepted. If you don’t believe it, go and ask the House of Assembly and the Senate and the president. Anything can be projected and we have done our projection and we have said to the government, tell us what we can do out of it. So, please, let the committee do its work and don’t keep pouncing on them and saying where is the return for our money, what money? We haven’t smelt money yet.
In fact, one of their first jobs they have embarked upon was to try and raise fund for this marvelous, ambitious masterplan. I can guarantee you sitting here that not one member of the committee has smelt one naira of the fund which is expected. Only what has been spent so far, which was to inaugurate it, that is the only money which has been supplied; and so everybody is waiting and if you are not careful, we will rob you before you leave this hall so that we can continue; that is how desperate we are to start work.
The first of the IBILE month, they presented a marvelous programme, when I saw it, I laughed and said where do they think they are getting the money from? But they have worked and they have presented the programme. I met the representative from Badagry and he said to me, they are ready, we are prepared and we are waiting for you and I said good, keep being ready. That is the way these things happened, so, don’t place expectations where nothing yet has been provided for those expectations to be fulfilled. I repeat, the funds are not yet in and one of the hardest working sub-committees, in fact, will be the fund raising committee.
I want to add also this detail in the plan to involve as many people as possible. We have been receiving naturally bombardment, general bombardments-writers, musicians, exhibitors, expositors etc, we received all those all the time and they are all considered, but you shouldn’t worry if for instance, something which has been accepted under one canopy and is not fulfill, it doesn’t mean it is abandoned. I’ll explain, suppose somebody is from Ikeja, has a cultural event and wants animation from Ikeja to present as part of their divisional event, if it cannot accommodate it, it doesn’t mean it is thereby abandoned. That proposition and proposal can still find space under, for example, the thematic month, let’s say under music, under lecture or under whatever. So, don’t think that they are necessarily abandoned. It is possible that they can be fitted under thematic canopies of the entire festival.
We plan for instance, this is where technology comes in which I have mentioned before. If we receive, let’s say for instance, olowogbowo, let’s say a school choir and our scout goes there and they like it, we can invite them to come and perform under the umbrella of this festival without them leaving their schools because we will send one of those mobile billboards as they are called, to film them, to cover them while they are performing and that performance will be simulcast as we did for the commencing programme. Simulcast, where those tents are-Epe, Ikorodu, Central, Ikeja etc. We experimented with it at the very beginning and it was a huge success in terms of reaching people, passers-by and those who saw these and stopped to actually watch what was going on. We intend to deploy technology as much as possible.
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