DIASPORA FESTIVAL IS A BRILLIANT IDEA- AMBODE.

On Wednesday ,Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode  pledged his administration’s commitment to make the first Annual Diaspora Festival in Badagry a major success, adding that a master plan that would prescribe strategies and programmes to boost the potentials of the ancient town was also underway.

Governor Ambode, said this  when he received a delegation of the first Annual Diaspora Festival led by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, at the Lagos House, Ikeja, said the Government remains committed to partnerships that would explore the tourism potentials of the ancient town and its environs.

Welcoming the idea of the Diaspora Festival billed to hold in Badagry on August 23, 2017, the Governor pledged his administration’s commitment to expand the scope of the Festival in order to ensure that it becomes a major event in the State’s tourism calendar every year.

“This is a rebirth for us. I have always been looking forward to see what it is that I can do more to the Badagry axis, so I am excited that this delegation has been put up.

“I have visited Badagry more than five times, I have slept there, I have tried also to create a master plan of how to recreate the tourism potentials of Badagry and for this Festival to be the first that would be done, we would ensure that it would celebrate what Lagos actually stands for and we would strongly support it, we would partner and make sure that it is very successful, August is a good time and it brings greater things into focus. What I want to encourage you is that the planning should not just be for this year alone, we should have a framework that allows it to be sustained,” he said.

He said his administration would also leverage on the festival to mark the Golden Jubilee of the State, just as he expressed optimism that it would open the doors for other tourists’ potentials of the Badagry axis.

Photo:Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa and Governor Ambode (c) Daily Times.