The NAFEST Colloquium, an academic exercise which is a very crucial and important segment of the festival held on the 17th October, 2012 at the Royal Shekinah Hall, Ilorin the Kwara State capital. It is part of activities lined up for the 26th edition of the National festival ‘NAFEST 2012’.
In his welcome address at the opening ceremony of NAFEST 2012 colloquium, the Executive Director, National Council for Arts and Culture, Mr. Malgwi Maidugu, emphasized the need for the intellectual component of the festival, stressing that the colloquium is organized to “generate materials for publication and through such leave a far lasting legacy of the festival to the present generation and those yet unborn.”
As a very important part of the festival, the organizers assembled an array of experts in the fields of arts, culture and conflict resolution that discussed the theme of this year’s national unity forum ‘Culture, Peace & Economic Empowerment’. Five well researched papers were presented during the 2012 colloquium.
Meanwhile, notable stakeholders in the culture sector gave their remarks about the need to leverage NAFEST for peace, unity and national integration. The deputy chairman, House Committee on Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Abdurrahman Badamasu, who represented the Chairman, enjoined culture stakeholders to emulate other African countries like Nairobi, Gambia which generate their annual income from the industry. He also disclosed that the National Assembly presently is making effort to include in the Nigerian constitution, the unique roles and responsibility of the traditional rulers who are the custodian of our diverse culture in Nigeria.
The Senior Special Adviser to the President on Ethics and Values, Mrs. Sarah Jibril, in her remarks appreciated the beautiful colours exhibited during the festival, stressing that those beautiful colours should not just be an outward thing but an inward colour of good quality of consciences that will project the image of our country in good light anywhere we find ourselves.
A compendium of NAFEST colloquium 2010-2011 was presented which was dedicated to late Chief Ambassador Olusegun Olusola fondly called Baba Culture who died in June, 2012 after a brief illness. Five papers were presented during the NAFEST 2012 Colloquium in Ilorin, Kwara State.
Njideka Dimgba
Corporate Affairs