BY TAIWO FAROTIMI
Emmanuel Macron, president of France will, on Tuesday, July 4, pay a visit to the Afrika Shrine, a celebrated entertainment centre located within the central business district, CBD, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos. The Centre, which is run by Femi Kuti, son of the music legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, plays host to the annual Felabration, a festival of music in honour of the late Fela. He died on August 2, 1997.
Fela, even in death, is loved all over the world for his creativity and iconoclastic disposition. He used music as a social crusade. Though Femi and Seun, his sons who continue to propagate his genre are also non-conformists, none has beaten the record of the man also called “Abami Eda” (the weird one).
The French president, who makes history as the first head of government to visit the shrine, will be hosted there by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State.
The state ministry of transportation has ,therefore , announced traffic restriction in the area between the hours of 12:00 noon and midnight of Tuesday. A statement by Taiwo Salaam, permanent secretary in the ministry appeals to the public to make use of the “alternative routes provided.”