Exciting Oriki Yoruba festival, Gov Adeleke pledges full support
Yinka ADETUNJI
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Osun state governor Asiwaju Ademola Jackson Adeleke has assured the good people of Iba in Ifelodun local government area of the state of full government participation and support in the celebration of the wave-making Oriki Yoruba festival next year December.
This is according to a report sent in by Mr. Fatai Adiyeloja, a retired NTA top-notch from Abeokuta, Ogun state.
Obviously impressed by the rich content of this year’s offerings, the array of distinguished Nigerians home an diaspora, academics of no mean repute, frontline traditional rulers, culture connoisseurs, poetry chanters professionals and up-coming chanters, and so on.
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Special adviser to the state governor on traditional matters Hon. Oloke Kehinde Alexander unequivocally stated that the festival keys into his principal’s agenda of cultural reawakening, reinvigoration and reorientation assuring it will henceforth be adopted as a state government ‘s project.
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Oba (Prof) Adekunle Adeogun-Okunoye Oyedeji, the traditional ruler of the host community, while welcoming attendees reiterated his commitment to “rejigging the fast-fading panegyrics which in the day of yore served as medium of education, entertainment, socialisation and value reorientation, drawing a line between culture and religion. Iba is a gold mine waiting to be tapped but for government to reap abundantly there is need for massive infrastructural renewal and expeditious rehabilitation of the road networks. This will shore up the State of Omoluabi’s internally-generated revenue.”
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The keynote speaker Prof Olukoya Ogen, director UNESCO cultural programs commended Eburu’s intervention through Oriki Yoruba festival. He enjoined all present to take advantage of the paradigm shift, according to him, the traditional rulers in particular, saying time to put an end to unnecessary supremacy battle and work assiduously towards impactful administration of their communities is now.
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His Imperial Majesty the Ooni of Ife and Orangun Oke-Ila, he told the large gathering of participants at the festival, have “taken up the gauntlet through intervention in the educational sector as Eburu is leaving no stone unturned as we go back to our roots.”
He canvassed exploration of entrepreneurial dimension to our culture by making it not only a medium of entertainment but a sellable commodity. “Gone,” he says, were the days Obas were always the one receiving, it is time to embrace what l call monarchical philanthropism.”
Oriki Yoruba festival in keeping with tradition kicked off with the well-attended mountaineering program climaxing with rendition of panegyric, other side attractions and award presentation to notable figures in culture and academic arena just as outstanding chanters got monetary rewards.
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What other assurances do we need than the superlative performances of the greater tomorrow that no force under the sun can extinguish the enviable Yoruba Culture and tradition?
Fatai Adiyeloja reports from Abeokuta
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