By the time you read this, the Edo Festival of Arts and Culture, slated for the 19th to 26 October 2016  would be well under way. One of the best things to come out of all the preparations for this festival is that Benin City, Edo state is wearing some kind of new look. Once abandoned art works and structures have been given a face lift, and the character of gaiety one meets around the city centre tells well of the city itself.
Prior to these preparations, Benin City was an unusually dirty city. Pundits had said that this was because of the location of a market in the city, and together with the many bus stations dotting strategic sections of the city.  Most of those issues related to the dirt arrogated to the metropolis are being addressed, what with the relocation of some parks away from the city centre. To say that move helped to bring a certain level of sanity to the situation would be an understatement.
But there are other issues apart from the dirt in Benin City which organizers have failed to look to. First is the name of the Festival itself – Edo State Festival FOR arts and culture. If this festival is indeed to celebrate arts, culture, our singing and dancing, our music and poetry and the dramatic arts, then it cannot be a festival FOR arts and culture.  It should be a festival OF, that is, it is a festival OF arts and culture. We have made an attempt to draw the attention of the Obaseki administration to this anomaly through text messages, Facebook  and twitter posts to the highest levels of the decision making process. It seems the administration loves to be highfalutin and rigid, unyielding to constructive criticism.
Another area that the organizers should have looked to is public toilets. Because it is not in our culture and tradition to perform bodily functions in public, we did recommend to organizers through our social media channels, that this Festival of Arts occasion would be one opportunity for Benin City to have public toilets at Sakponba, Sapele, Akpakpava, New Lagos Road/Benin and Forestry junctions. Our argument was premised on the fact that the capital city of Edo state, and indeed one of the oldest capitals in Nigeria,  was fast becoming a toilet.  Beggars and homeless, and indeed anyone feeling pressed just turns to a nearby bush and lets go. Therefore, if the opportunity of the EDOfest cannot be a reason for the Edo State government to have constructed toilets then no other opportunity would impress upon the Obaseki administration the need to build public toilets for Edo people and our visitors. It means therefore that all facelifts currently ongoing – especially at the Oba Akenzua Cultural Centre – are cosmetic and probably just for the nonce.
Yet, if the rumour making the rounds – that Tuface Idibia – has been tapped to be the face of the EDOfest is anything but true, then the organizers would have indeed shot itself on both legs. Tuface as face of EDOfest is a no no. First of all, we must recognize as a matter of fact, that the young man Tuface is one of Nigeria’s finest music icons. Through dint of hard work, he has won nearly almost every music award there is, and has contributed more to the development of the Nigerian music industry in more ways than a lot of his peers. But Tuface cannot be a cultural icon, especially the EDOfest cultural icon. He does not have any cultural songs, and has not been known to promote the sanctity of the institution of marriage – he is rumored to have fathered many children through several baby mamas, and out of wedlock as a matter of fact.
Edo people have several musical and cultural icons who can be the face of EDOfest. We will not e hard pressed before we recommend a Sir Victor Uwaifo of the tititbitis, Osayomore Joseph and Akabaman. More than any musician alive or dead, these worthy ambassadors musical and cultural ambassadors should be the face(s) of the Edo Festival of Arts and Culture.  If the organizers insist on being rigid, and decide to ignore the fact that an Osayomore Joseph or a Victor Uwaifo would have better been the face of this festival, a portrait of our Omo N’Oba Oba Ewuare II, dressed in his royal beads would survive. For no one else can better be a custodian of our culture and traditional beliefs and norms.  We are aghast at the pictures making the rounds in the Benin City capital having messages like Our Culture, Our Pride, with royal beads dotting the logos, but with the pictures of the governor and his deputy instead of our royal father the Omo N’Oba. If this has been done inadvertently, then Goodluck to the organizers.
Our culture is one of the greatest drivers of development. It brings people together and helps us examine key areas of our lives that need attention.  It is only in an environment where there is harmony, even development and accountable and transparent utilization of public monies and revenue can people actually come out to sing, dance, play, and write or compose songs celebrating the achievements of people we should hold in trust.
*** Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku, deputy executive director of CERLSI, is editor-in-chief of Bob MajiriOghene communications, publishers of Wadonor, a Niger Delta cultural Digest.
