Nigeria Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has said that cultural centers such as the International Centre For Yoruba Arts and Culture (ICYAC), could become an important agent on how culture can help in a more inclusive, fairer, and just society. ayokinews.com reports
Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, made this known during the launch and commissioning of the Centre in Ibadan, Oyo State.
He explained that the centre could help in strengthening the bonds of unity within an ethnic diverse society like Nigeria.
Osinbajo said: “The work of this Centre should also offer a base and sanctuary which reflects how Yoruba culture can contribute to the tools of nation-building.”
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The Vice President, asked that “how can the rest of the nation learn as President Buhari observed, from the way Yorubas manage within their families to accommodate diverse faiths and beliefs?
“At a more reflective level, we will through this repository and the traditions embedded in the artworks and cultural artefacts, imbibe the triumphs, challenges, inventions, and spiritual heritage of the Yoruba people.
“And how here at home, Yoruba culture also had to adapt to the onslaught of colonialism in Nigeria by the British and in Benin and Togo by the French. In ‘Death and the King’s Horseman’, a classic play by Professor Wole Soyinka, we see forces at work that tried to adapt cultural practices with tragic consequences.”