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The Ekiti State Government has assured talented Ekiti youth in the arts and craft industry have been assured of adequate support in developing their skills to become job creators rather than job seekers.
The Director General Council of Arts and Culture Mr Wale Ojo Lanre gave the assurance during an interactive session with the Curator of Genesis Arts Gallery, Osogbo Osun State, Mr Adeyinka Fabayo, who paid him a courtesy visit in his Office in Ado Ekiti.
Mr Ojo Lanre who expressed displeasure at the rate at which Ekiti cultural entity was being devalued stressed that the state’s administration led by Governor Kayode Fayemi was keenly interested in reawakening the rich cultural heritage of Ekiti people in order to save it from total extinction.
The Director General who informed that a standard arts gallery would be established in the state conveyed government’s readiness to synergize with the curator in its quest to revamp Ekiti Cultural heritage, hunt and train upcoming artists to become master artists.
In his remarks, Mr Fabayo who leads the second largest private art gallery in Nigeria, stated that arts is not only for decoration but an investment, and urged government to support the industry by creating an enabling environment.
Also speaking, the former Commissioner for Home Affairs Culture and Tourism in Osun, Dr Obawale Adebisi who led the delegation to Ekiti State said Osun is ready to synergize and ensure harmonious relationship with Ekiti at revamping its cultural values
In his contributions, the Permanent Secretary in the Bureau Alhaji Ibrahim Ganiyu maintained that there would be no bureaucratic bottleneck in attending to the needs of the arts industry in order to achieve the overall objectives of the present administration.