Peace and Development
The Festival Intervention
By Femi Alufa
The Adekunle Fajuyi International Peace Festival is the Nigeria‘s festival of innovative, new work and special events built around a national hero and will takes place annually, in Ado-Ekiti,Ekiti State, Nigeria. The Adekunle Fajuyi Festival Project is a consortium of the Adekunle Fajuyi Foundation, a charitable trust.
'Lt.Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, (1926-1966) the first military Governor of Western Nigeria, is a Soldier of peace; he will be celebrated annually in a social Hub of peace and development at his birthplace, Ado-Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State of Nigeria.’
What is Adekunle Fajuyi International Festival?
Adekunle Fajuyi International Peace Festival is the Nigeria’s first festival of innovative, new work and special events, built around a national hero and will takes place annually, in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, The festival will also encompasses Peace Conferences, Concert and Rally , the community and learning focused arm of the festival, bringing the Festival to the people and communities of Ekiti and Nigeria in general and learning from them in its turn.
OUR VISION
To be an atmosphere of energy, excitement and projecting of the universal values of peace, love and courage which Adekunle Fajuyi, (Fajuyi, the Great) symbolized to the outside world and to promote and imbibe this culture of service to humanity.
OUR MISSION
To help secure Adekunle Fajuyi memorial as a great tourism destination, by celebrating Fajuyi legacy and pivotal role in nation building; civic education, the arts, culture and innovation to teach lessons in service to humanity.
OUR THEME
… social Hub for Peace and Development.
AIMS of the Festival
To create an international, ambitious and extraordinary festival, dedicated to the memorial of Adekunle Fajuyi and commissioning new work across spectrum of creativity and human endeavours.
To help secure Fajuyi status as a world class hero, celebrating his pivotal role in peace, patriotism and nation building.
To welcome national and international talents, resources and communities to take part in the Fajuyi Festival, in extraordinary ways that reflects the festival’s aims and ambition.
To be a great impact in the tourism and economic development of Ekiti State and Nigeria in general, ensuring that there is a lasting legacy for the state in the comity of Nigerian state.
Why do we want to hold a Fajuyi Festival?
The Adekunle Fajuyi Festival will be much more than just a celebration, the Fajuyi Festival will be an attitude to build a new Nigeria where Peace and Development will reign supreme. Whether organized on a regional, national or local level, the Festival will engages diverse partners in three key areas: social impact programmes, a leadership conference, and a significant festival that celebrates efforts and achievements toward realizing the vision of Peace and Development in Nigeria, and the festival will not be a social Hub for peace and development initiatives alone but amplifies the positive message that Peace and Development begins with individuals to the larger society.
We want the Festival to become a major cultural event in the international calendar: a peace festival that enables leading international artists, speakers, festival connoisseurs to create new work, encouraging local, national and international visitors to Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria and providing opportunities for local communities to participate volunteer and take part in peace and development initiatives in their metropolis.
Why is the Festival an annual event?
All of the work presented by the Festival is innovative, new work, commissioned and fashioned by the Festival and its partners. The one-year phase of the Festival allows time to recognize and build relationships with leading international artists speakers, festival connoisseurs to produce the work itself.
Where does the funding for the Festival will come from?
The Festival is a consortium of the Adekunle Fajuyi Foundation, a registered charity. It will get her funding from the public and private sectors and income from ticket sales, plus money from public spirited individuals, local, national and international co-commissioning partners.
How can local people get involved?
There are many opportunities for the public to get involved in the Festival. The Adekunle Fajuyi International Peace Festival volunteer scheme will welcome local people to work in all areas of the 2013 Festival. The Festival Creative, Peace Corps and the Festival’s creative learning programme, will work with over 1,000 local people and included five major commissions created in collaboration with local communities, schools or groups. The Festival will also featured local involvement in creative skills development workshops and arts education workshops with international and local artists.
Sustainability
The Adekunle Fajuyi International Peace Festival is committed to developing a festival which benefits the local economy, is engaging for local communities and which tries to minimize its environmental impact.
These principles will guide all of our sustainable development activities, from ensuring our offices are welcoming and resource efficient; to sourcing and creating our productions responsibly and working with partner venues and suppliers to reduce the environmental impact of the Festival events.
Some of our sustainable actions plans for the 2013 and beyond are:
Keeping approximately 1/3 of the Festival’s Programme free – including the family friendly interactive.
Working with Ado-Ekiti Local Government Council to provide the Festival venues with security and good sanitation and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Ado-Ekiti to provides stable electricity negating the use of no or less external generators at the venues; this will not only benefited the Festival but will continue to benefit all other temporary activities held in Ado-Ekiti during the festivals in the future.
Re-using, hiring, or recycling all of our Production sets
Introducing Festival Project Scheme to help the Ekiti youths and the unemployed.
Turning our Festival into a peace and development initiatives for societal development.
The Festival Team
Donald Fajuyi CEO & Managing Director
Femi Alufa Executive Director
Bukola Bakare PA to Executive Director
Prince Henry Ojoye Press & Marketing Director
Adedayo Folorunso Executive Producer
Samuel Ugbechi ICT Director
Bolaji Isikalu Design Creative Consultant
Tunde Adekunle Head of Finance
Olu Akingbade Administration & Community Relations Manager
Dayo Folorunso Administration Assistant
John Ojo Babajide Head of Development
Mike Awodibo Special Development Coordinator
Festival Patron Board
Names to be posted very soon.
Project Advisors
Names to be posted very soon.
In This Festival Brochure Section
What is Adekunle Fajuyi International Festival?
What are the dates and Venue of the Festival?
What sort of events does the Festival stage?
How do I buy tickets?
Why do we want to hold a Fajuyi International Festival?
Why is the Festival an annual event?
Where does the funding for the Festival come from?
How can local people get involved?
Sustainability
The Festival Team
Festival Office
Adekunle Fajuyi International Festival
Fajuyi House, Fajuyi Lane
Okesa Street
Ado-Ekiti,Ekiti State, Nigeria
Phone: +234 (0) 8033841751,(0)8071494747
Email:fajuyifestival@gmail.com,info@adekunlefajuyifestival.com
Press Enquiries
Prince Henry Ojoye
Press and PR Director
Mobile: +234(0)8039292929
Sponsorship Enquiries
Sponsorship Enquiries , Femi Alufa, Festival Executive Director
Phone: +234 (0) 8030475828
sponsorship@adekunfajuyifestival.com
Become a Member of Adekunle Fajuyi Festival
Membership of the Fajuyi Festival indicates a commitment to the art of events towards Peace and development in the Ekiti State Capital and Nigeria in general. We look forward to a collaborative partnership with all individuals, festival connoisseurs, and corporate organizations as we work together to make local events world-class and promoting Fajuyi Festival as an exciting tourist destination while also making a significant impact on the local economy and greatly enhancing our nation’s image.
Fajuyi Festival is committed to providing support to and promotion of members, keeping members informed of related news and activities, and developing new opportunities which will benefit members. Together we can help and support each other in a unified voice while building a strong and prosperous festival industry.
The Adekunle Fajuyi Festival Society will have a seven man Board of Directors who will oversee our core Festival staff in their year-round work, and who will make sure everything is in place to support those who produce and present the planned Nigeria’s biggest Peace initiatives in every last week of July.
Membership of the Festival Society is open to anyone
Why join the Fajuyi Festival Society?
You can play a part in the shaping of the Adekunle Fajuyi Festival. Members have the responsibility of electing the Board of Directors, adopting the accounts and appointing the auditors each year.
How much does it cost?
Membership to the Adekunle Fajuyi Festival Society currently costs N1,000 per annum. This is to cover administration costs in supporting the membership.
How can I join?
If you wish to become a member of the Adekunle Fajuyi Festival Society (AFFS), please begin by logging in to the website. You will then be taken to the Membership Payment Form.
Or Telephone: +234(0)8030475828
APPENDIX
Adekunle Fajuyi Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, BEM (26 June 1926 – 29 July 1966) was the first military governor of the former Western Region, Nigeria. Originally a clerk, the late Lt. Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi of Ado Ekiti joined the Army in 1943 as a Non Commissioned Officer, and he was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1951 for helping to contain a mutiny in his unit over food rations. He was trained at the now defunct Eaton Hall OCS in the UK from July 1954 until November 1954 when he was short service commissioned Lieutenant, backdated to March 1952. In 1961, as the ‘C’ Company Commander with the 4QONR under Lt. Col. Price, Major Fajuyi was awarded the M.C. for actions in North Katanga and extricating his unit from an ambush. On completion of Congo operations Fajuyi became the first indigenous Battalion Commander of the 1st battalion in Enugu, a position he held until just before the first coup of January 1966 when he was posted to Abeokuta as Garrison Commander. When Major General Ironsi emerged as the new C-in-C on 17 January 1966, he appointed Fajuyi the first military governor of the Western Region.
He was assassinated by the revenge seeking counter-coupists led by Major T. Y Danjuma on 29 July 1966 at Ibadan, along with General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, the Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; who had arrived in Ibadan on 28 July 1966 to address a conference of natural rulers of Western Nigeria. By dusk, he was through with the assignment and was prepared to head back to Lagos, but his host, Lt. Colonel Fajuyi, convinced him to spend the night at the Government House, Ibadan.
The bloody overthrow of the civilian regime of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa’s government had taken place six months earlier in which the Prime Minister and other top government functionaries especially of Northern Nigerian extraction were killed.
The coup (seen then as a revolution) was successful in the North but failed in the South. Ironically, Aguiyi-Ironsi who did not participate in the violent bloodletting inherited the pieces of a shattered Republic by virtue of his seniority in the armed forces. Yet, he was a victim of the counter-coup that claimed his life alongside his courageous host, Fajuyi. Fajuyi did all he could to persuade Danjuma not to kill Ironsi but when he saw that Danjuma insisted, he told him that he could not allow him unless he (Fajuyi) was killed first. This Danjuma did before going after Ironsi himself.
“Those of us who have had the privilege of serving with Lieutenant-Colonel Fajuyi draw consolation from knowledge of the fact that his sense of honour and duty is such that he would not shrink from making the supreme sacrifice in their defence.
This brave son of Western Nigeria will for ever live in our memory as a beacon of light to generations of Nigerian Army officers and Statesmen. We will always remember him as a worthy and distinguished Yoruba Army officer whose act of bravery in war and peace are unmatched by any in the history of this nation. He was a gallant soldier, a true patriot and a most able administrator.
His outstanding military records notwithstanding, Lieutenant-Colonel Fajuyi was a man dedicated to the cause of peace and given to the spirit of tolerance and moderation in the Councils of State. Wherever he served, within the Army or in civil administration, Lieutenant-Colonel Fajuyi’s character and authority commanded involuntary respect; he has a special place in the hearts of all of us and we will always remember him. I join with the people of Western Nigeria in doing honour to the memory of a truly great man and in giving expression, publicly, to our debt of gratitude and deep appreciation for the manner in which he conducted the affairs of this Region and for the supreme sacrifice which he made on behalf of us all. We owe him more than we can repay. May his soul rest in peace.”
Culled from TRIBUTE to Lieutenant- Colonel Adekunle FAJUYI; By His Excellency Colonel Robert Adeyinka Adebayo, Military Governor of Western Nigeria. January, 1967.
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