Abike Dabiri-Erewa, others pledge support

However, there has been next to no government participation or involvement in the activities. This situation has witnessed a turn around as the Senior Special Assistant to President Mohammed Buhari on Foreign Affairs, Abike Dabiri-Erewa met with the organisers.

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She met with Mr. Babatunde Olaide-Mesewaku, the founder of African Renaissance Foundation (AREFO), who are organising the event as well as other stakeholders. Together, they discussed ways to reap the economic benefits of opening Door-of-Return for Africans in the diaspora who want to reside in Nigeria.

The Badagry Diaspora Festival and the Door-of-Return ceremony have been endorsed by Professor AnthonyAsiwaju, the director of Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan; Professor Pogosin Ohioma, Professor Alaba Simpson of Crawford University; Mr. Rotimi Vaughan, a descendant of a former slave, Scorpio Vaughan, whose descendants founded Oyotunji Village in Sheldon, South Carolina.

Badagry Diaspora Festival is intended to be a platform for Africans in the diaspora to decide. The Door-of-Return ceremony is a reenactment of history. African returnees would be on a ship decorated with the national colours of Nigeria amidst drumming, dancing and singing.

Libation would be poured for ancestors who drowned while on the tragic middle passage.

According to Dabiri-Erewa, "My office is ready to partner with you. The festival is not cultural but intellectual. It's a revolution as far as the back man is concerned. This is a story we should tell; we also have the history. The world is excited about this. It's going to be about Badagry; but it's going to be about the world. We will form a committee on the Door-of-Return."

Each year, the festival is dedicated to an African who was in the diaspora. This year, the festival was dedicated to Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavos Vassa, a Nigerian who was captured and sold into slavery. He later gained freedom, travelled widely and became the first African to write a book.

Two Africans are being considered for the honour next year. They are Churchill Vaughan (1828-1893), who returned came back to Nigeria from the United States and Do Santos, a Yoruba man who returned from Bahia, Brazil and settled down in Ketu, Benin Republic.