Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State has banned the use of the English language as a means of communication during any traditional events in any part of the state.
The governor, who gave the directive on Monday in Ado-Ekiti during the First Ekiti State Arts and Culture Stakeholders’ Forum, said it has now become an offence for anyone to communicate in the English Language during traditional events.
Fayemi said his administration was desirous to promote arts and culture in the state through Yoruba and Ekiti dialects, saying this will make the step imperative at this point in time.
Fayemi, who was represented at the event by the Head of Service, Mr. Deji Ajayi, revealed that the state will hold its Festival of Arts and Culture in December as part of the ways to boost its economy.
The governor added that there were empirical statistics and evidence to prove that there was a need for the state to enhance the skills and capacities of the youths since government alone can not solve the issue of endemic unemployment in the system.
“From today, henceforth, the government has banned the speaking of English in any cultural programme. Whoever that will participate in any traditional programme must speak Yoruba or our dialect.
“In the primary school teachers’ recruitment exercise we advertised recently, we wanted to employ 1,100 teachers and over 19,000 had applied on our website. This shows that the government must develop the skills and capacities of our youths to be able to be on their own.
“We are going to organise Ekiti State Festival of Arts and Culture in December this year to enhance our capacities in crafts, dancing, weaving and other vocational areas of arts.
“We should not forget to teach our children those values that will make Ekiti to remember their heritage and sustain our culture as a people.”
Fayemi said that the government would build a new traditional rulers’ Secretariat for monarchs in the state to make them more active and functional.
(NAN)
