Lagos moves towards making Ikorodu a tourist destination

By Eunice Olile

The Lagos State Government has reiterated it’s commitment to tourism development in Ikorodu area of the state and making it a tourist attraction site by developing the tourists sites through public private partnership.

The State’s Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mrs. Toke Benson-Awoyinka, made this known while on tour to Ayangburen Palace, the nine days market, Igboshi Shrine and the ancient palace of Ikorodu.

Mrs. Toke Benson- Awoyinka who stressed the need to showcase Ikorodu heritage, by making it a monument and documenting historical events for younger generations to learn from, said it’s partnering the Federal Government, French government and other private sectors to boost tourism in the area.

” We are going to do a Compedium of all the heritage sites, the monuments, all festivals that happen ishan Ikorodu. Our main aim as a government and as a ministry is to calendarize our tourism events and in calendadizing the events, we need to know when those festivals would be, we need to know those trails registered with international organizations and let the whole world know what we really are and we want to sell that to the world.

“Normally we read about this things in books, we want to capture it, so that we can teach our children, we want to let our children know what our heritage is, what our culture is, and if not now, when then”

While explaining the need to preserve the rich cutures in Ikorodu and Lagos State at large by creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive, the Commissioner of Tourism said the state is planning to host the Lagos heritage week, where every Lagos indigene would display their cultures to pave way for continued progress and development.

” The House of Assembly passed a law for the Yoruba heritage week, which we are going to assign, devote and dedicate one week of the year to celebrate the Yoruba culture, Yoruba heritage, Yoruba as a people, Yoruba as a nation, what we stand for, what we eat, our food, our music, our clothing, our fashion, everything that makes us Yoruba. We want to celebrate it in Lagos because we want to have that notion to let the whole world know that Lagos is where we are from, we don’t have any other place but Lagos and people need to realize that some people are from here”

The Oba Ayangburen of Ikorodu, Oba Adewale Shotobi who was represented by High Chief Adewunmi Ogunsanya, the Odofin Of Ikorodu, commended the State government for the initiative and putting Ikorodu at the forefront of its projects.

” It’s a long awaited decision. We are waiting, we are ready, and we are going to some of the sites very soon, it’s very timely, exceedingly encouraging “

Present at the event were, representative from French government, Obas from Idmota, Igbogbo, Egbim, Ipakodo, Agura Kingdom, members of Council of Chiefs, representatives from each communities and local government all in Ikorodu and directors from the Ministry of Tourism.