Mrs Rifkatu Chidawa, the Niger State Commissioner for Tourism, made this known in an interview with newsmen shortly after the screening exercise of the 2022 budget proposal of the ministry in Minna.

She explained that the state government is interested in bringing development and investors to the state through the development of its tourist sites.

“We have a lot of tourist sites in the state and the governor is working hard to develop them to generate revenue.

“Already, Murtal park and Gurara waterfall are already generating revenues to the state and with the remodeling of the Ladi Kwali Pottery centre, more investors will come into the state,” he said.

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The commissioner said that the centre which was sold off at about N6 million was retrieved by the present administration at the sum of N45 million.

She said the centre would be reconstructed with modern technology to train women and youths on various skills.

“The Ladi Kwali pottery centre is our cultural heritage and we cannot allow the place to die like that,” she said.

The suspects who were linked to the outage of power within a short space of time of lighting up roads, reportedly pretend to be technicians while carrying out the illegal act.

“The electricity board said in a statement:
One of the numerous challenges we face with sustaining the provision of street lights in some areas in Lagos is the vandilisation of cables and equipments. We often realize there’s outage of power within a short space of time of lighting up roads

“These cable vandals operate mostly at midnight and sometimes pretend to be technicians. We urge Lagosians to be conscious and vigilant. It is a collective responsibility to ensure sustainability of government property.”

Ohikere said this can be seen in the flurry of press releases issued by the PDP on virtually everything that happens in the state, whether it is on internal APC issues or the election. Ohikere stated this when he spoke to journalists on Wednesday on his party’s preparation for the poll. He said:

“There’s been an upsurge in the press releases of the PDP calling on whoever would listen that there is plot here and there to undermine the forthcoming election as if the institutions of state do not know their duty”

“The PDP Governorship candidate, Mr Musa Wada recently disclosed that Governor Yahaya Bello was spoiling for violence by arming his supporters with arms and that security agents should arrest youths with illegal arms”

“Similarly, Kola Ologbondiyan, the national publicity secretary of the PDP was warning Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, who is the chairman of the APC Kogi state National Campaign Council, to steer clear of the state as the people abhor incitements and threats in the forthcoming governorship election”

“We know that the APC did not make any overt declaration or call to violence or civil disobedience. You can see that our supporters are going about the campaign based on the directive of our leaders, GYB and CEDO for us to eschew violence or as they say, we come in peace but mean business”.

“All this are just feeble attempts to keep their drowning ship afloat. They are anxious and jittery because of the latest turn of things in the state. the APC is in full control, the momentum and polls are impressive and in our favour, so you can understand”.

“Our media team has been engaging them on issues with facts and figures while they have been resorting to insults. We have raised issues about the Lokoja water works, Abuja house, demolition of Kogi hotel, the mismanagement and misappropriation under the former governor Wada and the comparative index for evaluating the achievements of the PDP and the APC”, Ohikere added.

Whenever I visit here
I do not fail to feel the calm sensation on Toyin Street
At Gbemisola I reconnect my spirit with Abami Eda
In his museum of trumpets and prison shorts;
I find my way to Salvation end,
To meet the stars on Coliseum Night.
So, when next you hit town,
Around here you can find your way to Ibis,

Or you book a tryst with Western Best
White House or Water Parks
1960 a friend in deed:
Rain or sun, dawn to dusk
Legendary Sheraton beckons tourists with open arms.
Opebi, let me take a bow here before it’s dark
Before your birds of easy virtues
Storm your streets in skimpy wings.

(First published in ‘PHENOMENAL LAGOS: 50 Monuments in the Centre of Excellence’, by Akeem Lasisi and Kabir Garba. Now on audio while work has started on video…)

PHOTO (File) from ‘ENCOMIUM’

The inauguration of new facilities in Oshodi brings to fore Akeem Lasisi’s poem for the transformation the popular area in Lagos has witnessed. The poem and its video well bring out the iconic character of the community that many can neither love nor hate.

OSHODI
Akeem Lasisi

So, a rose could rise from a bed of thorns,
An affectionately green park
From a jagged pile of broken bones?
You are the damn fresh spring from a heritage of mud
Silver granite from a memory of stones:
So, you were eminently saveable
When you buried yourself alive in jagged filth?
Oshodi, your story has changed
So also must your poetry change.

Once upon a time
You kept your children in coffin-like trucks
Whose traffic, blaring smoke and more
Guaranteed your global status on hazard lists.
I do not want to remember your history of notorious mess
When pepper sellers contested the rail with locomotive trains,
So that where we now have a pedestrian bridge
We had a harvest of pedestrian deaths.
Oshodi, your story has changed
So also must your poetry change.

It is a big fun watching the insane at play
But no one dreams of giving birth to a scattered brain.
With your award-winning heaps
You became the toast of every poet
Riding to acclaim on morbid puns.
But just when we thought your redemption was gone
A king came who knew not your dirty gods
He changed your song with his mega gut.
Oshodi, your story has changed
So also must your poetry change.

READ ALSO: Yemisi Shyllon gets poetic justice from Lasisi

I forgive and forget your area boys
Who snatched my wallet on a Christmas eve;
I forgive and forget the warring songs that deafened me
I forgive and forget your area boys
Who coloured my lung with alien smokes
For a rose has risen from a bed of thorns,
An impossible green park
From a notorious pile of broken bones.

NOTE: Watch the poetry video on OSHODI/Akeem Lasisi Poetry Channel/You Tube

Akeem Lasisi

If you miss the poet this weekend

Do not carry placards

The muse has gone for renewal at the Whispering Palms.

There you catch red-handed

The mighty and the low in search of peace

Those who value the potency of unpolluted breeze

Escape into tender arms of the gossiping palms.

Then, hold me,  Badagry, hold me

Hold me temptingly tight

Or else I share my love with the Kuramo  Beach,

Hold me dearly like the first and final love

Lest La Campaigne snatches my heart with its whistling charm.

(From Phenomenal Lagos: 50 Monuments from Centre of Excellence, by Akeem Lasisi and Kabir Alabi)

(For the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos)

Akeem Lasisi

On Marina Street of blue, blue chips

The Cathedral stands tall with sacred awe

Wearing a gentle silver colour,

The edifice woos the eyes and hugs the soul

Robed in intricate pillars, a tower is a bangle upon her neck

Her clock impeccably tells earthly time,

Her glistening bell, hanging beneath a roof of unambiguous  gold,

Tells of the impending Other Time that will never end

In this city of artsome churches,

The Apostolic stands so tall

It overlooks the city with its thousand eyes

You need to get to Gbagada to see the Deeper Life’s iconic pose

Magnificent in its impossible breadth,

It beckons our Lagos for the Noah’s Ark

.

With the Synagogue, there is a classical Rome in Ikotun

House on the Rock sprawls, spoils Lekki with glow

All hail Rhema’s Disney chapel

For in this city of holy mansions

Beyond mentoring faith

The church is a genre in visual arts.

The egret is ashamed of its wings

The snow recoils into London sky.

Lo and behold Agogoro Eyo, patriarch of all carnivals

The socialite masquerader with capitalist charm.

Eyo, Oh, Eyo!

The myth of Adimu, with a cap as black as an isin’s seed

Riddle of Laba, a spectacular cap as red as a rose

I have seen Oniko in his legendary dance,

Taunting the moon with his yellow cap

Seen Ologede with Island grace,

His cap as green as riverside pine

Now: Purple-headed like a royal bride,

The Agere storms the scene in elegant steps.

Eyo, o, Eyo,

Do not flog me,

I am not the novice that came on a bike!

My sandals are off, my cigarette is dead

Spare me your droning whip

I have loosened the suku on my humble head.

Eyo, o, Eyo!

The riddle of Oniko

   Myth of Adimu

Ageere’s unbending spirit

   Ologede’s Island soul

Okinlaba has hit the city square

   With his Opambata staff of Spartan healing.

We unlock the door of the Lagos dream:

Buying and selling is the secret of wealth

Where multitudes exchange means for endless needs

Sharing, savouring secular bouquets of mercantile smiles.

I-du-mo-ta!

Barrage of grains, bazaar of beverages

Household bits and office things

Clothing the host, adorning the guest

Heaven of elegant fabrics,

She clothes the groom, she clothes the bride

Robes their parents in a fulfilling lace

With gifts as varied as a peacock’s plumes.

I-du-mo-ta!

Even if we fail to remember everything

Can we forget the lift you gave to our films?

Nollywood is Nollywood because of your role

From this Ebinpejo screaming Lane

You zoomed our Nollywood to the global scene.

So, all because of Idumota,

Pride and prime of Lagos markets,

I bring sapo leaf from Lagos West,

Tori ewe nla ni sapo o yo:

That plenty millions may kiss your stalls;

From the East I bring the leaf of ogede agbagba,

Ewe nla l’ogede agbagba a yo:

That you may continue to savour a harvest of sales

From Lagos North and Lagos South

I am here with the bark of the pine tree,

Tori peregun kii ku boro:

That market chiefs may reign long

That marketers may healthily rise daily with the breaking dawn.