The organisers of the Ogbomoso Cradles Festival, which gets underway on Thursday, December 19, have been called upon to redirect the energy being put into organising the festival to things that will be of much more immense benefit to the people of the town.
The call was made by some concerned indigenes of the town, under the aegis of the Ogbomoso Development Agenda (ODA).
In a statement jointly signed by the spokesperson of the group, Mr Owolabi Ezekiel, ODA noted that what the people of Ogbomoso need at this point in time is infrastructural development, which directly affects their economic and social lives.
The statement reads in part: “As a group which is interested in the overall development of Ogbomoso, we call on the organisers of the Ogbomoso Cradles Festival to channel the energy being put into organising this festival towards steps that will lead to the all-round development of our dear town.
“There is no doubt about the fact that this festival is needless at this time when there is disunity among traditional rulers in the five local governments which constitute the town. At a time when the economic situation in the town is nothing to write home about as a result of bad roads and insecurity, among other social ills.
“In addition, indigenous artistes were relegated for non-natives; hence, the benefits of the events are going to non-indigenes of Ogbomoso. What this means is that monies paid to these foreign artistes, which ought to be for our local artistes and would be beneficial to our economic growth, will now be taken away, a development we would like to describe as capital flight.
“We call on those behind this festival to subsequently think of turning around the fortune of Ogbomoso by making productive moves capable of putting Ogbomoso on the list of towns that are well-developed and serve as a reference point to others.”
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