Tourism promoter and a former Senior Special Assistant on Tourism Development to former Gov. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, Wale Ojo-Lanre, has provided another perspective on the controversial depiction of the Eyo heritage in Jade Osiberu’s new movie, ‘Gangs of Lagos’.
According to him, there is a gap in the knowledge being bequeathed to younger Nigerians who are, as a result, unable to appreciate the essence of the country’s cultural institution.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, Ojo-Lanre said, based on the vacuum, an agency such as the National Films and Videos Censors Board could only achieve a little in sanitising the industry.
He said, ”This will not help to mitigate, prevent, defend, protect and preserve cultural sensibility from being abused, misinterpreted and raped vicariously by the people.
“I agree that it will go a short way at protecting and safeguarding reckless abuse, as depicted in the said movie, but it will not go a long desirable way.
“For providing and arming an institution to protect a value without a critical awareness, creation and value enhancement platforms for the objects, will only be cosmetic and decorative.
“The rules will be observed just to fulfill the immediate righteousness. The fact is that Nigeria as a country, is culturally defective and we are culturally bankrupt,” he said.
Ojo-Lanre, therefore, called for a cultural rebirth and creation of a tourism and culture ministry, for what he described as ‘a surgical re-engineering of our cultural values’.
“I don’t blame those who perpetrated the cultural mess in that film. Firstly, we collectively through deliberate policy maladministration or conceptualisation, killed History as a subject in our educational procedure.
“It was from History as a subject that I learnt of Igbo Ukwu Culture, the Nok Culture, the Bini Culture, the Hausa/Fulani culture and Yoruba Culture.
“I was able to appreciate cultural diversity and need to respect the values, culture and tradition of others.
“We have no cultural platforms. So, Eyo to some, is not a cultural symbol and representation of a tradition, but a festival of rogues, miscreants and social irritants. You don’t blame them,” he said. (
