Ondo Govt declares Friday native day for students, public servants

In order to promote culture and traditions, Ondo State Government has permitted public servants and students in both private and public schools in the state to wear native attires to office and schools on Fridays.

The Commissioner for information and orientation, Mrs Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, disclosed this after the state executive council meeting held in Akure, the state capital.

Ademola-Olateju said the state exco made some far-reaching decisions on other important issues.

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The Commissioner said those who trespassed in various locations on government land, their structures would be demolished completely, saying anyone with properties on government land should go and remove them.

“And those that are writing petitions claiming to be the owners of government land, the government will not tolerate that. So, the council has said those writing petitions to challenge ownership of government land won’t be tolerated by the government.

“In terms of the environment, we made decisions on the use of plastic waste. The Exco made far reaching decisions and plans are underway to encourage the use of biodegradable materials and the recycling of plastics.

“We made some decisions on Chieftaincy also. The council decided that the petitions received would be reviewed by another commission to be set up soon.

“On budget, today we discussed extensively about budgeting going forward and we made decisions and approved the medium term expenditure framework for 2023/2025.”

In the same vein, the Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Mr. Adewale Akinlosotu, said the council decided for the state to preserve Yoruba culture.

“Basically, we are declaring Friday as a cultural Day. For students of both private and public schools, it is permissible to wear their cultural attires to schools on Fridays.

“You will agree with me that your culture makes you who you are. With the Western Civilization today, culture is going into extinction. We have to make sure that we protect our culture from going into extinction.”

He commended Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu for his interest in making sure people’s culture is protected.

He said: “This is one of the things we are going to be doing. Hopefully in the future or in the near future, we are going to come up with other programmes that will enhance our culture.”