By Steve Oni, Ilorin
The Senate President and Waziri Ilorin, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki has donated the whopping sum of N20 million towards the successful holding of Ilorin Durbar 2018.
The big event where 500 horse riders are expected to participate will take place on Wednesday, a day after Eid el Kabir celebration.
The Director General of ABS Constituency Office, Ilorin, Alhaji Musa Abdullahi said Saraki made the donation to ensure a colourful and hitch-free durbar event.
He said Saraki sent his goodwill message to the organisers of the event and urged residents, the horse riders and spectators to conduct themselves in peaceful and orderly manner before, during and after the Eid El Kabir and durbar celebrations.
The chairman of the durbar committee, Engineer Sulyman Yahaya Alapansanpa said 500 horse riders will partipate in the event.
Alapasanpa who briefed journalists about the significance of Durbar celebration at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), press center, Ilorin said unlike in the past, this year’s durbar will be extended beyond the emir, and royalty .
“Durbar is the unique ceremonial display and cultural processionsb of well decorated and garrisoned horses usually and beautifuly mounted by the royals , chiefs, princes and some other eminent citizens of a given emirate to celebrate an important cultural epoch or religious event or , sometimes ,the presence or visit of an August dignitaries.Thus ,the forthcoming durbar cultural festival has no any political intention”,he said.
Alapansanpa said the event was being organised to promote the rich cultural heritage of Ilorin emirate and guard against cultural imperialism that was fast eroding the cultural values of the people.
“Durbar is to prepare the entire Ilorin emirate community against the deep danger inherent in unguarded Cultural dynamism of our contemporary time and the threat of growing cultural imperialism which if left unchecked may destroy the fabrics, essence and organic foundation of our basis as a unique people within the context of the Nigerian nation”
“The organisation of durbar will also discourage the penetration of foreign culture into the psyche and consciousness of our often impressionistic younger ones who opened and often exposed to “attractive “ but destructive cultural products of the western world and their allies. With the continuous future and regular organisation and their participation in one way or the other by our growing population they will surely develop affinity for what it is ours and do away with what is detestable”.
“ Durbar will also douse the acrimonious tension and socio-cultural apathy the perennial haphazard staging of baseless, meaningless and pernicious social carnivals by some restive, and poorly guarded youthful groups across the emirate and halt the appalling tendencies of promoting cultural illicities , drug addiction, thuggery and sexual misdeamour that come with it and among participants and which are sometimes visited on innocuous, helpless and innocent young members of our community “,he said.
He dismissed the insinuations making the rounds that the durbar was being organised to achieve political interests.
In his remarks, the national president of Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressives Union (IEDPU), Ambassador Sheikh Abdulazeez called on the indigenes of Ilorin in Diaspora to come home in order to be part of the historic event.
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