“We Aim To See Kayokayo Festival Be Among Foremost Tourist Attractions” – Alhaji. Saliu Okulu

Part of the importance of Epe Kayokayo festival is to bring together all indigenes of the community together and to enjoy themselves, the name Kayokayo simply means “chop to fill”. The chairman, Epe Kayokayo planning committee, Alhaji Alade Soliu-Okulu, in this interview with journalists, talks more on the necessity of the festival, what is being done to improve it and what it aims to achieve in future. The Eagle correspondent was there and below are the excerpts:

Can you please introduce yourself, Sir?
I am Alhaji (Chief) Alade Saliu-Okulu, the chairman and coordinator, planning committee of Epe KayoKayo festival. I am also the Baameto of Epe land.

What is the significance of Epe KayoKayo festival?
The significance is in three dimensional, we use Kayokayo festival to celebrate, the religion, social and the cultural. Religion, in the sense that it marks the beginning of the new Islamic year, which starts in the month of Muharrah, secondly, the social aspect is that our people all people in Epe, in occasion like this get and come together, share in the joy of the occasion, eat, wine and dine, the cultural aspect, it also denotes to celebrate the arrival of king Kosoko in 1851, when he left Lagos for Epe with his followers and warships.

Sir, don’t you think that when development comes in, all these festivals will go as we have in other developed places?
It can never go. It is part of our tradition, in fact, we are improving every year in, year out, we are improving, if you are here last year, you will know that it isn’t as glamorous as we are having it here today.

What are those things added to the festival to make it more interesting?
Number one, each of the worth, when I say worth, I don’t mean political worth, I mean community worth speaks of them in the Epe community. Each of them is kitted as a profession, as like the central mosque in Oke-Balogun, we round the town and ended up here in the waterfront.

Sir, what is the importance of having such festival as this?
The importance, as I have said it, is the opportunity to bring all our sons and daughters together, people within Nigeria and Diasporas look forward to come home during Kayokayo festival. Secondly, we hope in the future, we want to key into the vision of the Lagos State government; we want Kayokayo to be part of the tourist attraction.

What is your advice to the youths, to preserve this heritage?
The youths, everybody needs to preserve the heritage, I was once a youth, I was part of the Kayokayo committee as a youth in 1993, that was almost 30 years ago and today I am an elder, so my advice to the youths is to support us and they have been supporting us, I want them to be more committed and dedicated so that our tradition will not die.

How old is Kayokayo festival?
Kayokayo is as old as the Epe community. I told you that the Oba Kosoko came here in 1851, so he brought Kayokayo with them.

Sir, what are the strategies to bring together all the religious bodies together?
We already brought them together as I told you earlier, we have it in three dimensional, we celebrate three things during the Kayokayo festival, the religious aspect at least on Friday, we went to the Central Mosque to thank the Almighty God for our lives over the years and to pray to Him to continue to bless our town.