In a renewed bid to re-position Ekiti State. The state government under the leadership of Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has embarked on destination branding to make the state an investors delight Princewill Ekwujuru reports.

Ekiti state government made a major move towards consolidating on its virtues and attributes, which the people of the state are known for recently, when it unveiled a new identity. The identity comes with a new logo, colour and six elements that represent the unique selling points of the state and its people.

The State governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, while unveiling the new brand identity of the state in Ado Ekiti used the occasion to spell out some basic values with which his people wanted to be identified with. Stakeholders in the ,Ekiti project’ praised the doggedness of the governor for the stride, which they said would help take the state to an enviable height.

The stakeholders  who spoke, described the move as a step in fostering unity among the people.
Chief Deji Fasuan, Chairman of the committee that started the struggle for the creation of the state, described the creation of  Ekiti State in 1996 as the best thing to have ever happened to the people. He  however regretted that the state  was being marginalised in the distribution of infrastructure  under the old Western Region.

Before the build up to the unveiling, a teaser, which played around elements  associated with the state, had been published in some national dailies. The material had arousedcuriosity, as many observers tried to know, which place had the attributes identified. Among other things, the puzzle played around things like hill, knowledge and integrity.

Two of the statements in the ads are; “there is a state in Nigeria, where the people are woven together in knowledge, truth and service’ ‘there is a state in Nigeria, landscape by hills of hope, and plains of possibilities,”

Explaining what each of the elements stood for, the Chief of Staff to the governor, Mr. Yemi Adaramodu said all the six elements represented Ekiti as a brand.

According to Adaramodu, the woven cord depicts the culturally homogeneous nature of Ekiti people, the new dawn symbolises Ekiti’s place as the emerging land of opportunities and the hope and optimism associated with the Ekiti people, which makes the people rise above challenges.

He also pointed out that the rolling hill depict the topography of the land, which is the origin of their name; ‘ile olokiti’ and that the vegetation depicts the fruitfulness of the land as it boasts of a wide variety of natural resources, which represents the people’s mainstream of livelihood  Agriculture.

In what looks like a practical demonstration of the popularly held opinion that Ekiti people are enlightened, book was used as a foundation of all the elements.

To show its tourist potentiality, the water in the logo represents the spring in the state, particularly the popular Ikogosi spring – the only place in the world, where hot and cold water springs naturally occur side by side.

Ikogosi, where the ‘wonder’ is located is a sleepy town in the Ekiti West Local Government area of the state. It passes for an ordinary community, but for decades, the existence of warm and cold water at its outskirt, has put the town’s name in the world’s tourism map.

Earlier, Governor Kayode Fayemi had noted that the  logo is not a re-branding, but rebuilding the core values, which the state was noted for. Fayemi, used the occasion to dis-abuse the minds of former political office holders that he was not doing them any favour by paying the backlog of their benefits, but doing what he ought to do as a governor.