Photo credit: Rock City FM
That the Ogun State government has deemed it fit to officially recognize ADIRE, a traditional batik that has been made popular by the Egbas is great.
However, I don’t see anything new in that. When Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was President, he hardly wore anything apart from ADIRE.
Osoba and Amosun too tried to project the ADIRE culture.
But two things the governor was reported to have said really got me thinking. He was alleged to have said ADIRE would be useful as school uniform in Ogun State. He was also reported to have asked the federal government of Nigeria to adapt ADIRE as school uniform for all schools in the federation.
Maybe he would soon get to the point of asking the federal government to adopt ADIRE as uniform for the armed forces and police respectively.
In the first place, the ADIRE is only peculiar to a subsection of a state, the Egbas. There’s no evidence that the other sections would take kindly to the governor’s wish.
The call on the federal government to adopt the material as school uniform for all schools could only be seen as a joke.
Not only that, how can anyone say it should be used as school uniform? Is it for its durability or acceptability?
I can remember my primary school uniform. It suffered so much from me that I’m now sorry for it.
Why won’t I be? Sweets, stones, pens with ink dripping, even puff puff, and so on. Can an ADIRE withstand all these?
I would have thought it better for the governor to look into ways of getting the inputs used in making the ADIRE at a cheaper rate so that the producers aren’t discouraged.
Giving the material a global boost will not be a bad idea, either.
To cap it all, how is the governor faring in the provision of essential amenities to the people?
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