ARE EKITI DAY 2026: UNITING THE PEOPLE, UPLIFTING THE COMMUNITY

_By Segun Dipe

Every community has a day it remembers itself. For Are Ekiti, that day is just around the corner, and it comes with a simple but deep message: Are Ekiti beckons to all well-meaning sons and daughters to come home and uplift their source, for their little town to blossom.Are Ekiti Day 2026 has been slated for November 21, 2026, and it will be grand.

It is not just another date on the calendar or just another day to wander. It is a day that the Lord has blessed already for the town to glow! A homecall to the sons and daughters who left through the old Iworoko road in search of school, work and fortune. A call to those who are in Ado, in Akure, in Ibadan, in Lagos, in Abuja, in London and in Houston, who still answer Are Ekiti when their name is called.

A call to return, not just with your presence, but with your pride.A town does not grow because government remembers it. A town grows because its people remember it. Are Ekiti has always been blessed with people — industrious farmers, prolific academics, respected teachers, brave soldiers, dedicated civil servants, brilliant professionals, traders who never forget their source. We are all scattered, but we are not lost.

And this year, the town beckons to us all, not to count our problems, but to celebrate our progress and to plan our upliftment.Why must we come together to celebrate? Because such celebration is not vanity. Such celebration speaks to memory. When we gather at the palace, when we dance the same steps our fathers danced, when we hear the drums call our lineage, when we exchange banters, we are reminding our children who they are.

A child who has never seen Are Ekiti during Are Ekiti Day will grow up thinking he/she has no source. A child who has seen Are Ekiti Day will know he/she has a root that no city can give him. That is why we must come home. No matter how big your house is in the city, your heart should still link you to your source.And Are Ekiti needs us now more than ever. It’s bursting and itch to bustle. Celebration without upliftment is empty noise.

This year’s Are Ekiti Day is about attaining new heights. It is deliberately themed _Towards a New Dawn of Unity and Prosperity in Are-Ekiti_ to move us from merriment to meaning. We must come home to lift home. To ask what has improved since last time and what is still begging for attention. Government will do its part, but no government can love Are Ekiti like Are Ekiti indigenes love their town.This is how communities elsewhere have developed. They did not wait for Abuja.

They challenged themselves and came together on their Day, they put money together, they put ideas together, they put hands together, and their community changed. Are Ekiti can do the same. We, the sons and daughters can copy what is good in others.

The progressive-minded ones among us should prioritise Are Ekiti Day 2026. Come with your idea, come with foresight, come with a pledge. Even if you cannot lay a block, you can lay a word of encouragement. Even if you cannot donate a million, you can donate your presence, and your presence itself is a donation.There is something spiritual about homecall. When the people are at home, the land is happy. When the land is happy, it yields. Our fathers knew this, which is why they floated the idea of the Day.

They knew that unity is not automatic, it is built when we eat together, when we quarrel and settle, when we honour our kabiyesi, our chiefs and our elders, when we honour our best and inspire our young.So let Are Ekiti Day 2026 be more than a jamboree. Let it be a grand reunion. Let it be a revival. Let it be a resolution that wherever we are, we will not forget that we have a source.

Let the farmer come with his harvest, let the teacher come with his wisdom, let the trader come with his support, let the youth come with their energy, let the elders come with their prayers.Brothers and sisters, _Ilu Are npe wa._ Come home, for the people. Come home, for the upliftment of our little Jerusalem. Be part of those who will make Are Ekiti Day 2026 a resounding success. Ilu Are mo fe o…Alale Are a gbe wa o._Segun Dipe writes from Are Ekiti._