GOVERNOR Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, yesterday, urged Nigerians to see their ethnicity and religious diversity as an opportunity to unite, rather than divide them.
Sanwo-Olu said this when the National Technical Committee of the National Festival of Arts and Culture, led by the Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture, Olusegun Runsewe, paid him a courtesy visit at Lagos House, Ikeja, ahead of the NAFEST Festival, holding in Lagos in November.
The governor said: “We believe that bringing the NAFEST Festival to Lagos at this very difficult times in our country would be used as a means to galvanise the country. The NAFEST 2022 in Lagos, by the grace of God, will be used to heal this country; it will be used to bring together our diversity in unity.
“If sports can bring us together, arts, culture and entertainment can do better. And if we do it and package it very well before we go into the general elections in 2023, we would have used that platform to heal the country; we would have used it for people to see that we don’t have any other place to go to. We have a responsibility to fix it (Nigeria).
“We should see the NAFEST not just as a festivity, but an opportunity for us to come together, heal and project unity for our country. And ensure that if we can go into next year with all of the tribulations and fears that we have; we will suppress them, surpass them and have elections that will be free, and peaceful, and we can build a better and bigger nation that would be the envy of the world.”