The management of Budding Acorns International School, Lokoja, has called on Nigerians to always celebrate the nation’s rich cultural heritage and foster unity among all ethnic groups.
The Director of the School, Mrs Titilayo Ogunmola, made the call during the opening ceremony of the 2021 cultural and traditions day in Lokoja on Friday.
She stated that there is an urgent need to inculcate Nigeria’s rich cultural values into new generation.
Ogunmola explained that the school set aside a day to celebrate various cultures and traditions across the country in a bid to promote peaceful co-existence, unity and rich cultural heritage of the country.
She noted that this year theme is “unity in diversity”, adding that the school’s management is strongly persuaded that the event and activity by the pupils will contribute to breaking down the walls of partitions and silence the voice of dissension among the people as a nation.
She pointed out that the celebration is against the background of many ethnic groups clamouring for cessation, agitation for true federalism and regional governance.
“We at Budding Acorns International School, Lokoja understand that we are a microcosm of our nation as our staff, pupils and parents cuts across the different ethnic groups in Nigeria. That apart, with growing westernization and the possibility of our pupils abandoning their rich diverse local roots in exchange for foreign cultures, we like many other schools have established a cultural and traditional day. It is a day we celebrate our rich culture and traditions, a day we chose to be truly Nigerian in every sense of the word ranging from our attires, our food, speech, songs and dance.
“Let us strive to see the things that bind us more together than those things that divide us. We have added a little bit of spice to our activity this year as we will be launching the local foods. We hope to see how buoyant and how much financial muscle each ethnic group represented in our school can flex,” she said.
The highlight of the occasion is the cultural display by the pupils of various cultural backgrounds and the launching of different local foods.
