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Sunday 23 December 2012

Only cemetary separate christian from Muslim in Palestine

Only Cemetery Separate Christian  from Muslim in Palestine

Amro Motasem
One of the major challenges been faced by the third world is  lack of  ethnic and religious  sentiment but as for the people of Plaestine, there is nothing like such as a custodian of  Palestinian History and Tradition Mr Amro Motasem  recently informed  pilgrims that they were so united  to the extent that the only thing that separate  christian from Muslim is the  burial place where they were not buried together

Amro who is a tour guide  Nigerian pilgrims in Bethlehem  also informed that they cherised the Unity among the christian , Muslims and the jews in the land " though the town has  higher number of muslim but you can hardly diffrentiate between us and that doesn't even  affect   our dealings withn each others
He said further that , " whenever christian  do their party we get involved and whenever we Muslim want to do our own too tey are involved too. for instance come to the  Church on Christmas day, 90 percent of the people you will find there are muslim  and  there wont be fight because we love each other.
 
  Mr Amro also informed that " we respect each others view, no matter how highly placed you may be, you are equal, we are the same and we abide  by the  same law. we believe in humanity and humility and that is the basis of our relationship." he said.

Wednesday 19 December 2012

CAN Calls For Fast Tracking of BASA Between Nigeria and Israel

CAN Calls For Fast Tracking of BASA Between Nigeria and Israel
The Chairman Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and  Head of the federal government delegation to  the 2012 Christian pilgrimage, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor has called on the Israeli authorities to fast track the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) between Israel  and Nigeria so as to reduce the stress Nigerian pilgrims go through.
Pastor Oritsejafor said this while  speaking during a courtesy call to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the meeting with ground handlers held in Israel called on Israeli Authorities to push up the issue of BASA from their own side while Nigeria will do her own side.
He stressed the need for the Israeli authorities to facilitate the clearance of Pilgrims from the airport to reduce the stress the go through.
The CAN President while requesting for a permanent permit for Nigerian Pilgrims Desk Officer in Israel, appealed for visa approval period to be reduced from five to three days.
Oritsejafor said there exist of a strong bond between Nigeria and the state of Israel.
He said the Israeli Government should let Nigeria's love for them reflect in the relationship with the Nigerian people so that the country  can also benefit from this relationship with the State of Israel.
In his response, Ari Granot, the Head of the African Division of Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs while reiterating the existing relationship between the two countries said Israel has a lot to offer Nigeria in terms of historical sites and monuments.
He stated that Israel is linked to Africa historically and geographically, adding that the bond between the two countries is quite strong.
According to him, Israel has become like a second home to many Nigerians who come in yearly to fulfill their spiritual desires.
Regretting the recent insurgency that erupted between Israel and Palestine which he said was as a result of fanatics and extremism, Granot maintained that the problem has been contained.


Monday 17 December 2012

We Celebrate Idanre Day to Promote Unity- Owa of Idanre



Idanre day 2012


 We Celebrate Idanre Day to Promote Unity- Owa of Idanre
 
The Owa of Idanre Oba Fredick Arogunle, JP the Owa of Idanre has described the annual celebration of Idanre day as an avenue to promote unity and development of the community.
  The monarch in an interaction with the Alarinka  during the year 2012 Idanre  day celebration  also   said the coincidence with Mare Festival is a blessing  and  assured that the donations made by people  this year will be channels  toward the  construction of  a civic centre in the town
 According to him the donations made by people will be used to build  a civic centre as planned this will  create an avenue for people to relax, cohabit and  have their events at a cheaper rate.
Hon Kayode Akinmade, Comm for Info, Ondo Sate
  While  appreciating the people of Idanre  for their  support and  contributions to the development of Idanre,  the 86 years old monarch also appeal to the  state government to please  expedite action on the construction of  alternative route  from Idanre to Ofosu in Edo state  and Ondo town
 Also  Hon Kayode Akinmade  the Ondo state  commissioner  for information  who was also the chief  launcher of the civic centre assured  the people of Idanre of  Dr MImiko led administration  to continue to improve on the lives of all and sundry in the state
 Speaking on  the  yearnings of the people which is the alternative  route, Hon Aknimade   maintained that the governor is a promise keeper  who doesn’t  toy with issue of development  of community and assure that as soon as there is resources to  execute the project it will be done without any delay.
“We ‘ve appealed to Mr governor and he has assured us that if he get re-elected  and to God be the glory he has been re-elected he will ensure that that road form part of his developmental policy and we are praying that God will give him the enablement  and that the resources will be there  to do. We are sure that our government will do it for us provided there are resources “.
High Chief Akinde   with sons and wife 
 Also the chairman of Idanre Local government, pastor Akinduko Marcaus said that Idanre festival 2012 is a  success,” it was so successful as you can see the way the youths organize themselves to uplift the culture of  Idanre, we are now agitated  in such a way that we want  to see ourselves  adequately coordinated  to see our town developed.
Some of the people including high chief  Charles Oladipo Akinde, expresses satisfaction   with the  planning of  Idanre 2012 and appealed to the state government  on the road issue.” If we have got a thorough fair from Idanre to Benin and other places   i believe there  will be more civilization and  our town will progress.” Chief maintained.

Saturday 15 December 2012

Relics of 1942 Plane Crash

 Relics of the first plane crash that occur on  Sunday April 12 1942 At about 8:15 PM.  Ekiti State government is planning to make it a tourist center.

Friday 14 December 2012

Why Mare Festival is Unique- Information Commissioner


Hon Kayode Akinmade

  
  Why Mare Festival is Unique- Information Commissioner 

Hon Kayode Akinmade is the chief information officer of Ondo state,  in his interview with Alarinka Agbaye crew he spoke extensively on  what Mare Festival is all about and the economic benefit of the festival to the people of Idanre and Ondo state  entirely. Excerpt
Tell us about Mare festival
 The uniqueness of this mare festival is the celebration of the historic mountains and rock, this mountain have a historical value and that is why the government have decided to have a day in the calendar  to celebrate  Mare day because it is very unusual to see an assemblage of rocks and mountain in a very orderly manner like they are in Idanre, it shows that Idanre is a tourist centre, some people go to Spain some people go to South Africa  as mountaineers the mountains  there are not as beautiful, as magnificent or as assembled like the one we have here, and now we decided to have this festival to celebrate our culture,  Mare is not about  mountain, it is about Yoruba Culture,  Ondo state culture, celebrating our culture , we are men of strength and vigour and that is why during this celebration you will see people  joining the marathon to run from state capital to Idanre town its  about i6k killometer, it  strengthen human strength also it bring people from all walks of life to come and celebrate nature at its best, if you enter this town  you will be marvel at the way God organize this mountain it is awesome
What  does the people of Idanre and the state government stand to benefit
   This is the fourth edition of mare, the essence is to attract investors to the state  tourist to the state, when tourist tour a particular state it boost the economy, people in all sector will  benefited, the hotelier will have patronage, in term of the economic activities the informal sector they will be able to benefit  from this and we are also looking at a way to crate partnership with some national and international organization to come and celebrate this particular important festival
 How many  foreign  participant are you expecting this year.
We are expecting close to about 50, as i am talking to you ten or fifteen of them have arrived and   i am sure  by  tomorrow more will arrive, and it is not also about foreign mountaineers  alone, we are also encouraging our  people here to come and  compete and contest because we will love the situation where by prizes are been won by indigene of the state or even by Nigerians  the essence is to promote this culture , there are some people during Holiday in Europe  they travel far  and wide to come and behold nature at its best i believe  that anybody in Nigeria , anybody in the world that want to enjoy   and want to relax will find this place very good for relaxation.
 What are the prizes available for different category
The first prize is between 7 and 5000 dollars ,  2nd is 4000, dollars  and  3rd will get 3000 dollars and there are som many other consolatory prizes for people to win  and there are some game  within this festival  where people will win 

We are celebrating Ondo culture with Mare- Deji Falae



We are celebrating  Ondo culture with Mare- Deji Falae
 
  Barrister Deji Fale is the Honourable commissioner for  culture and Tourism in Ondo state and the Chief organiser of the just concluded Mare Festival . in this interview with Alarinka Agbaye  he spoke on   Ondo state government  to make Idanre the centre of tourist destination in the Nigeria and  why celebration of Mare festival
What is Mare Festival all about
 Mare festival is a festival that was initiated  by regime of Dr Olusegun Mimiko when he  came on board , Mr governor felt it was important  for us to do a couple of things , first of all to celebrate our natural potentials in the state. We have  a lot of beautiful location across the state, secondly to celebrate the diversity of our culture as you can see we have  musical troops from  different  part of the state   and local government coming to dance and showcase their culture  here at a point we  discovered that there is a need to have a state festival where all this things will come together and be celebrated in one locations  and  of all the beautiful locations we have in Ondo state  you will agree  with me that the hills of Idanre are beautiful in Ondo state and so because of that Mr Governor said that  there is a need to celebrate this location, to celebrate our culture and that is what initiated the Mare festival. There is a bit  of spot in it as well the term Mare came from Marebo, ( Don’t fall down) and the  idea is that we have the mountain climbing competition here and we have  mountain climbers from all over the world who have come to take part in this competition and every year we keen adding  new things to year this year they’ve included grips, they  add grips on  the walls so that it makes it a bit tougher and harder in some area as well, we are getting more and  more in this what we are doing.
 What is the economic important of Mare festival to Ondo people
 You must  realize that in every location where you have the convergence of  a number  of people, what use to happen is that  the local business people in that area will begin to experience an increase in their business in that location , that transporters too will have their business boosted because of the influx of the people and also if you look around  you will see that we have  restaurants and  different drinking joints  and the rest of that, some are displaying their clothing’s their product and all kind of things, what happen is that  all this people that come here  from morning till evening are going to eat   and buy things  and  that means what use to be their turnover in a week mat probably  happen in a day, the immediate  environment is impacted by the quantum of business that the local people  here do,  in fact  we have a competition where the former location where  we use to have Mare  have been pleasing with us to move the  general activities back to  where their own location is because the people in this area seems to be benefiting more, so the immediate impact is that the local people here are benefiting more. Also a lot of people comes here and decide to stay a day or two  so the hotel here are also business too, so there is an  immediate and direct transfer of wealth of visitors to local business in Ondo state.
 To what extent have  you gone in cultural re-orientation in Ondo state
 We all know that our culture is the vehicles of our values,  what  we believe in , the language we speaks and the rest of that , in the ancient  time we had  colonization by force, the white people  came  force their culture on us and took us away but in modern times  we have this cultural  colonization  which means the  popular music, popular clothing's  that are  been worn by the artists abroad have  started taking over our own natural mode of dressing , language , our culture  and traditions, so we must make a deliberate   and conscious effort to keep celebrating it and  bringing it to the fore, otherwise you will realize that to a large extent Languages  die off sue to lack of use, so  you  will discover that if you are not careful, you don’t keep celebrating what you have you will loose if we do not keep bring  our culture to the fore, in the next one or two  generations  you will have

some people from  here who may not be able to speak the language, it is something that the government have to deliberate purse as a policy and we’ve been doing that.
 Sir if you look around there has  not been much  in term of infrastructural  development of this town,  what is your government doing in developing this town to attract  foreign  tourist
 I may not agree with you that not much has been done on the infrastructural development here, if you drive from Akure to Idanre you will notice that there are certain area where the road has been fixed, last year there was a lot of works done in terms of fixing the road but because the attention that has  come here, we have the neighbourhood market that has been built here, we have  the Mega Primary school going on , all this thing take us to the fore, some of this thing are on doing here next year we have a plan  the plan are already going on to improve on the facilities  by the hill, the golf course in Idanre is nearly completed, it is a standard gold course with 18 holes our plan is that by the end of  February  formerly Mr governor will commission all the facilities we are putting on here to make Idanre a tourists location, so that when you come to Idanre it wont just be about the Hill alone, you can do a lot of other things as well the plan is just to make Idanre a capital tourists of Ondo state.
What are the challenges so far
 Well naturally we live in an environment in Nigeria where it is difficult to predict  to a larger extent how things will turn up definitely logistic is the major problem to be sure that things will go according to plan you need to keep checking and rechecking to make sure that everything go according to plan, we’ve  invited  some states, so many people, musicians, Nolly wood stars and others  so the first  thing is coordinating the letters making sure that they get to their destinations  so logistic  is always the major  challenge so as we move year after year the mistakes of the past will not  repeats itself
 Is your government looking at a situation whereby Idanre will be visited by tourists  all the time  and not just during the Mare Festival
 There are few things that the government is looking at  first  of all this festival is a creation of Dr Olusegun Mimiko, the people of Idanre themselves have their own community festivals that takes place here and the idea is that   for government to come in and support them we must realize that it cost a lot of money to build costume for them even if  it is Aso Oke  and the rest of them to increase from may  be 10 20 people to up,   increase   the number of dancer, drummers and others  so the the government can come in so that they can make more costumes  and others  and get more people involved in their own festival in the local community, secondly hopefully, will they be able through the media to blow it up so that whatever they are winking in the dark, so that the rest of the world can see and hear it. That is the idea we are hoping to support the community on their own festivals
 What is the stare roadmap for culture and tourism development in Ondo state.
 When i came in, we actually do not have a codified tourism master plan we are working on that right now but the idea is that we don’t want to go and create something that is exoteric we already have certain natural endowment and the idea is that we put  everything together so that we have a  five years  or more plan so that our focus will be on nature. Most of the developed world don’t have what we have this is a natural environment  , we have  a small both regatta coming sometime this month, next year we are going to blow it up  again so the idea is to have which will draw them in , some of the climbers that came  last year state for another week they didn’t want to go because this are the natural things they  don’t have in their place  what they use where they come from are the  artificial  climbing walls so the them its a new challenge and that is part of our focus.

We'll Make Ondo a Preferred Tourists Destination - Gov Mimiko

 We'll Make Ondo a Preferred Tourists Destination - Gov Mimiko


As the year 2012 annual Mare Festival kicked off yesterday, Ondo state governor Dr Olusegun Mimiko reaffirmed his commitment to make the state the best tourist destination in the world
 Gov Mimiko who disclosed this in his speech while declaring the festival open  in Idanre  also assured that  his administration will  continue to invest in other general tourist activities  that Ondo state eventually becomes  a preferred tourism destination in Nigeria.
Speaking on Mare Festival, Gov Mimiko maintained that  “Mare is about celebration of our unique geography in Idanre, Mare is a celebration of excellence, bearing courage  and the can do mind set of a typical Ondo person and we will continue to celebrate Mare as a major annual event in Ondo state”
 Adding that, for us culture and tourism is one of the very credible avenue to generate engagement for our youth, apart from the fact that on a day like this a lot of resources  will get to idanre but in the year ahead we have no doubt in our mind that Mare will be a veritable avenue to  qualitatively engaging our youth and we will continue to invest in it”.
 In an interaction with the commissioner for information  Mr Kayode Akinmade, he  explained that the intention is to brand Ondo state with Mare festival as a state festival which will be mother of all festival in the state. “  Mare is not just about the fun and other things therein, it is specifically   to brand Ondo state  and  make it a  festival that will be acknowledge  by  the world  at large and i am sure  that will happen before the next 2 years.
 Also the state commissioner for culture and Tourism Barrister Deji Falae said Mare festival is an initiatives of Dr Olusegun Mimiko administration as a state festival that will bring the diverse culture of Ondo together.
According to him “  Mare is not all  about celebrating Idanre Hills alone there are a lot of things there in  where people from all over the continent  are participating in  and  this is also a festival of unity as  as you can see we have troupe from all  local government in the state and at the  same time invite other state  to participate in the cultural dance and exhibition.
He said further that the ongoing standard golf course and other activities that will complement the Mare festivals will be commissioned by March 2013 and assured that the festival  will soon takes its rightful place  in the world  in less than five  years time.