The Kwara State Government has expressed its readiness to partner with Esie community toward ensuring that the museum located in the town attains the unique status of world record of museum of images.

This development was made known yesterday by the Commissioner for Social Development, Culture and Tourism, Mr. Samuel Bamisaiye, during the Esie Monuments Festival workshop, held at the Banquet Hall of the Kwara Hotels, Ilorin. The commissioner, who spoke through the ministry's permanent secretary, Alhaji Nuhu Magaji, said that the government has promised to put in place infrastructural development including drilling of boreholes, rehabilitating the road leading to the museum and provision of modern toilet facilities.

"By way of keying into the national tourism policy and strategy of the Federal government, the Kwara state government is seriously focusing on cultural heritage of the state as a means of achieving the objectives of Medium Term Sector strategy (MTSS).

"This workshop is expected to provide the working documents and insight into how the state can harness all available potentials of the monument festival to further enhance the social and economic future of Kwara state", the commissioner said.

Also speaking on the occasion, the Director General, National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Alhaji Yusuf Abdallah Usman, said that "Cultural heritage can contribute to poverty alleviation in Nigeria by engaging communities as beneficiaries and guardians of heritage.

According to him, this will not only have unprecedented economic gains, but also form the basis of human development for long-term sustainability of efforts to alleviate poverty through improving the livelihoods and working conditions of the local population by providing targeted employment-generation activities in micro and small enterprises.

In his lecture titled "Unraveling the mysteries of Esie Stone Images: The need to Establish a centre for Esie studies", the guest speaker, from the University of Ibadan, Prof. David A. Aremu, explained the importance of recognizing the national importance of the soap stone images as a national heritage which led to establishing a museum in Esie.

The professor added that since the establishment of the museum, the site has been a tourist site and an educational research centre as well, saying that the more important question which the Esie elites want to be addressed is the need to establish a centre for Esie studies.

He therefore called on all levels of government and public-spirited individuals to assist in the successful take off of such development centre toward establishing Kwara state on the global map of tourism.