Taking lessons from the 2019 Greater Lagos Fiesta’s fiasco, the Lagos State Government has begun early preparations to make this year’s edition a roaring success.
Towards this end, the government inaugurated a seven-person committee last week at the State Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja.
The members who will organise this year’s fiesta include photographer Dayo Adedayo, President, Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria, Israel Jaiye Opayemi, comedian Ali Baba and Mrs Bunmi Kuku. The others are Mrs Temitayo Etomi, and Ms Ayiri Oladunmoye.
The Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Cultrure, Mrs Akinbile-Yussuf, is also part of the committee with six terms of reference. They include making the December event self-sustaining, enhancing the program as a marketing tool to sell the state to the outside world, and incorporating local government communities and the larger stakeholders in the tourism industry.
The others are injecting new ideas and innovations that will attract international tourists to Lagos, facilitating data collection and collation, and exploring the possibility of expanding fiesta’s scope to incorporate other related sectors.
Recall that the shoddily organised 2019 edition and its attendant fallouts claimed the first Tourism, Arts and Culture Commissioner of the Babajide Sanwoolu administration, Shulamite Adebolu.
No fiesta happened last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the #EndSars violence.
But with the early inauguration of the committee that would oversee this year’s event, expectations are high among Lagosians that it would be a successful outing.
The Great Lagos Fiesta is one of the most attended Yuletide season events by fun-seekers.