The Rector, Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, Alhaji Mas’ud Elelu, has commended National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), for its proactive activities and taking a bold initiative to restore the glory of our past, saying that for any country to achieve its desired developmental goals, culture must be at the centre as obtains in developed and developing countries of the world, which gave priority to their culture.

Alhaji Elelu made the recommendation, while playing host to the NICO North-Central Zonal Head, Mr. Ibrahim Lawal, who paid him a courtesy visit, saying the programmes of NICO clearly show that Nigerians can still hope for a better future, where life could be meaningful than what we are experiencing today.

According to him, if the Institute had been established long before now, it would have protected the country from the present cultural decay and deterioration of moral values, and called on the Federal Government to give the Institute the moral and financial support it deserves, to strengthen it to bring back the country’s cultural glory and emancipate the future generation from mental slavery.

The Rector told his guests that the Executive Secretary, Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, must be serious minded and focused to have gone this far in harnessing our cultural heritage, and praised the sincere efforts of the Zonal Head, Mr. Lawal, who came right on time, especially now that students of various tertiary Institutions are involved in cult activities, which negate our culture.

Alhaji Elelu informed that the school had just introduced two courses, Tourism and Leisure Studies, and hoped that the Institute will play a significant role in brewing the department housing the courses.

He added that the school tourism village under construction will soon be completed for commissioning and said that NICO should not hesitate to respond to the management’s invitation for assistance during the school orientation of new intakes, pledging the readiness of management to collaborate with the Institute on programmes that can help the students grow in the right direction.

Alhaji Elelu said as a son of the soil, the Zonal Head should know much about the cultural heritage in his constituency and should strive hard to fill the vacuum created by the Western culture, and that by so doing, the society will be redirected for the better.

Earlier in his address, the Zonal Head, Mr. Ibrahim Lawal, gave a brief on the Institute’s programmes, which includes a programme on culture and morality for tertiary Institutions, and called on the school authority to collaborate with the Institute to organise the workshop, which is aimed at revamping the our culture in tertiary institutions, promising to take this campaign to all tertiary institutions within the zone.

The Zonal Head further said, corruption, thuggery, cultism, and all other forms of social vices that are detrimental to the development of our society and human mind, are eating gradually into the fabrics of our society and unless the future leaders are shown their enviable past, they would not have a bright future.

He also intimated his host on the mandate of the Institute, which includes being the apex and leading cultural training Institute in Nigeria, using culture as a vector for national integration and development, and harnessing culture for national development, adding that the Institute’s Training School in Lagos runs diploma and postgraduate programmes in cultural administration to equip cultural officers with the knowledge to emancipate our society from the present garb of western cultural imperialism.

In appreciating the warm reception accorded him, Mr. Lawal said, he was like a child that had returned home, as he was a lecturer with the Polytechnic, and that he had chosen his former constituency to start the war against the moral and mental enslavement of our youths and the deterioration of our cultural heritage to ameliorate the situation.

Corporate Affairs
NICO North Central Zone