To ensure that Nigerians in Diaspora are connected to the rich history of Lagos, the Lagos State Records & Archives Bureau (LASRAB) organised an interactive virtual tour of its mini-museum for them on Monday.
The virtual tour organised in partnership with the Northern California Nigerians (NCN) group, a nonprofit organisation, was aimed at entrenching the rich history of Lagos State on the global map for greater cultural awareness among Nigerians in the diaspora.
Speaking at the virtual event, the Director-General LASRAB, Mrs. Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, said that the exercise was expected to create an avenue for anyone or group of people keen on learning more about Lagos history to do so without the barrier of distance, noting that it is LASRAB’s way of promoting heritage and tourism.
She revealed that the participants were Nigerian families based in the United States of America, who had shown a desire to expose their young children to the rich history of Lagos, and were willing to get familiar with interesting historical artefacts displayed in the museum and connect to their roots.
“As Nigeria is home to over 180 million people, 300 tribes and 500 languages, Lagos is a melting pot of cultural traditions. Lagos has been described by city population as the sixth-largest city in the world and remains Nigeria’s major financial and economic nerve centre. The promotion of the rich cultural history, through tourism, has been a major contributor to Nigeria’s overall revenue generation,” Mrs. Adebiyi-Abiola said.
The director-general attributed the success of the event to the advancement in technology.
“Technology has really advanced the cause of tourism globally. The use of tools like the Zoom platform allows participants to freely engage with their favourite tourist sites as if they were physically present at the location. Various artefacts depicting royalty, cultural festivals, traditional games as well as some household items used in precolonial Lagos were on display for the participants to appreciate and connect with”, she said.
Mrs. Adebiyi-Abiola noted that similar virtual events would take place regularly in compliance with the COVID-19 protocols to ensure the safety of participants, maintaining that the virtual platform would also help engage different categories of people and organisations that require the Bureau’s services.
