EYO GLO
No matter how much Globacom may have invested in the sponsoring of the Eyo Festival held in Lagos last week, chiefs of other corporate organisations that witnessed the carnival are likely to have envied the telecom company. This is based on the success the festival recorded – the huge crowd, the festivity and enormous tourism potential that dotted every inch of the entire project.
Of course, Glo has been an active player in the promotion of cultural and entertainment event. In what was its first major art sponsorship, it had, at inception, organised A Night with W. S., a novel reading and performance spree built around the Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka. The event held at Golden Gate Restaurant, Ikoyi, Lagos, where Soyinka had read in public after a long break, featured star artistes that included Peter Badejo (O.B.E.), Tunji Oyelana, Joke Silva and Jimi Solanke.
While a planned repeat of the show was put on hold – some two years after – for some logistic reasons – Glo has also been the regular sponsor of other festivals that include the Ojude Oba in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, one of the most colourful festivals in Nigeria. By stepping into the sponsorship of Eyo, therefore, the company appears to be operating on a familiar terrain.
This was the kernel of a goodwill message that Globacom‘s Chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga, sent to the festival. He said that as an indigenous company, Globacom took great pride in the Nigerian people, their rich cultural heritage, enviable traditional nuances and all that set them apart from others.
While noting that Gobacom has contributed a lot to the economic development of the country, he said it had not forgotten the need to identify with its cultural and tourist revival.
”We are prepared to support the cultural renaissance endeavours of this great country,” he explained. ”We note with every sense of pride that given the beauty of the Eyo Festival and the transformation effort of the administration of Governor Fashola, Lagos may soon have to work harder to cope with influx of visitors and tourists into Nigeria‘s Centre of Excellence.”
Also speaking on the company‘s involvement in other areas of culture, Globacom‘s Head of Business Solution, Mr. Folu Aderibigbe, said it decided to sponsor the Eyo Festival because the hosts had demonstrated seriousness in their rich cultural heritage and enviable tradition.
”What we are witnessing now are the necessary steps in a polity that is poised to explore its full potentials. We recognise the fact that what the government of Lagos State is doing is capable of attracting tourists in their multitudes, thereby improving the economic activities of Lagos state in particular and Nigeria in general,” he said.
A pot pouri of drama, dance, songs fashion and musical performances, the Eyo Festival beat most records that other festivals or carnivals had set, both in terms of the number of tourists recorded from within and outside Nigeria, and in terms of organisation. Part of the sponsorship lessons from the project, however, is that any corporate organisation that chooses to support such a show should do so with full measures. Half-measure deals are known to have made several cultural programmes flop in the past. Besides, no matter how much the sponsor spends, it should not indulge in undue interference in the structure and organisation of the event so that it will not lose its essence. As far as the Eyo 2009 is concerned, Globacom appeared to have scored a good point. For instance, beyond its strategic presence at the Tafawa Balewa Square, venue of the event, it remained in the background as the parades and performances unfolded.
