The Ondo State Government has directed workers and students in the state to wear traditional attire to work and school every Friday.
The development is not new in the South-west, as the Governor of Osun State, Adegboyega Oyetola, had in 2021, made it compulsory for all the public and civil servants to wear Adire to work every Thursday.
For Mr Oyetola, it was to boost the production, promotion, and marketing of Adire Osun, a locally-made fabric.
After a meeting of the state executive council, the Ondo State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Adewale Akinlosotu, explained that the directive to wear traditional attires was to preserve the Yoruba culture.
“Basically, we are declaring Friday as a cultural day,” he said.
“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 who you are. With the Western civilisation today, culture is going into extinction. We have to make sure that we protect our culture from going into extinction.
“We want to commend Mr Governor for his interest in this sector to make sure that our culture is protected.
“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 another programme that will enhance our culture.”