On Thursday, the lawmaker representing Badagry federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Sesi Whingan, urged the indigenes to preserve their culture and traditions.

Mr Whingan gave the advice at the grand finale of the second edition of the relaunched Jeke Dance annual festival in Ikoga-Zebbe, Badagry.

According to him, the preservation of culture is one of the greatest means of retaining the identity of a group and people.

“We need to project and appreciate what we have, and by so doing, our children will emulate us. Preservation of our cultures is one of the greatest means of retaining the identities of groups and people. 

“When you leave your culture, you have no identity. Wherever we are, we should not forget our tradition and culture,” Mr Whingan said.

The lawmaker said relaunching the Jeke dance had shown the people that they should not allow their culture to perish.

“I really appreciate those who have invested their time, energy and resources in it. I hope that the next edition will be bigger and have more attention from the appropriate quarter,” Mr Whingan said.

Oluranti Segbeyon, the head of the Department of Sociology, Lagos State University, Ojo, said civilisation had made people forget their culture and traditions.

“We have our culture before foreign culture came. This begins with your language, the way you dress and everything about our life. Ogu language is a language of its own, not a dialect of any language. When you leave your language, you have no identity,” Mr Segbeyon said.

He advised Ogu indigenes not to hide from their culture and traditions, adding that they should exhibit it if they don’t want it to go into extinction.

Also, Tony Dansu, a lecturer at the Lagos State University and indigene of Ikoga-Zebbe, said the festival’s objective included the resuscitation of one of the town’s cultural heritage that was almost in extinction.

Mr Dansu said before the grand finale, the festival had begun with prayers in the king’s palace on December 28, 2023.

(NAN)