The Imo heritage gallery being put in place by the Rescue Mission administration of Gov. Rochas Okorocha has been described as a wonderful piece of innovation which when opened would reconnect the people of the state to their past cultural heritages that have almost gone moribund owing to persistent neglect and abandonment.
Special Assistant Special Duties to the governor, Mrs. Lisa Asugha Ayalla who made this disclosure in Owerri during an inspection of the proposed site of the gallery at the Douglas Suvernior shop to monitor the progress of renovation work said for every society to move forward its past especially its positive cultural heritages and experiences must be relied upon to serve as roadmap for the present and future.
Mrs. Asugha Ayalla stressed that the need to preserve and protect the past cultural and customary ways of life of the various councils of the state for the use and benefit of future generation of Imolites has become most necessary considering the rate and speed with which modernity and civilization is affecting and changing the way of life of people all over the world including people of the state.
According to her the time has come for every well-meaning Imolite whether in government or not, to begin to take deliberate strategic steps toward preserving the beautiful cultures, traditions and heritage of the state to stop them from going on extinction, warning that a society that loses its glorious past stands the risk of losing its identity.
The Special Duties aide pointed out that, cultural heritage which include past sights and sounds of a given people constitute veritable tourist attraction which when well harnessed become sources of revenue generation as well as job creation for the government and its citizens.
She said her office in the bid to ensure that the heritage gallery becomes a reality has reached to relevant stakeholders in the 27 council areas of the state including the transition committee chairmen with a view to getting the cultural artifacts of each council of the state to be displayed in the exhibition hall.
Mrs. Asugha Ayalla lauded the governor for coming up with such a good idea of bringing back the past way of life of the people maintaining that the initiative would go a long way in making the people proud of their glorious past.
