By Lekan Adejuwon
The initiator and organizer of Goge Africa, Mr Isaac Moses has expressed fulfilment at the humongous success of the culture and tourism exhibition since it’s inception 25 years ago.
He stated this while fielding questions with our correspondent on Saturday during the 2024 edition of Goge Africa celebration at the main bowl of the Onikan Stadium Lagos.
“I feel fulfilled 25 years after I and my wife, Nneka floated the idea behind Goge Africa because people now dress in our clothes, our fashion designers are now big as people no longer don’t feel good only when they wear foreign designers clothes, but they feel good when they are wearing designs made by Frank Oshodi, from Antie Nike and when they wear the adire or Aso oke. Besides, look at our artefacts, they can be found everywhere on display and I’m happy that we have thrown our spotlight on all of these” he said.
An elated culture and tourism enthusiast spoke further on his motivation for organizing the top notch annual cultural fiesta;
“I feel our culture needs to get a pride of place, we need to throw the spotlight on our culture and that was why Goge Africa came to be, to showcase to the world, Africa’s beautiful heritage, their culture, their food, their dance, their costumes, their colour and the camaraderie and lifestyle of a people and we have been doing all these not only by promoting the culture of Africa, but tourism and even investment opportunities in Africa. After 25 years, we have succeeded in calling our friends to come and celebrate their heritage on the world stage and that is why we have over 25 countries present here today to celebrate with us”
On the future value added plans to elevate Goge Africa to the next level, Moses said; “We initially tell the story, via TV, now we have decided to organize shows that shocase our tourism and culture so that people can physically and exhibit their cultural potentials on the stage and people of the world can get to know us the more and more media presence can be felt in that regard because one thing I noticed is that in the world, if people get to know your culture and the reasons why you things the way you did, there would be less frictions and conflicts in the world” he added
In his closing remarks, the CEO of Goge Africa expressed his profound appreciation to all the 25th anniversary’s partners including: Providus Bank, Nigerian Breweries, Royal Caribbean Tours, Gambian Touurism, Lagos State, Ekiti State and all the Media friends including the News Agency of NIgeria (NAN)
