Following last week’s celebration of the maiden edition of the Oyo State government Twins Festival in Igboora, Ibarapa Central Local Government Area of the state, YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE speaks with Prophet Ojelabi Sunday Olusola, the acclaimed initiator of the festival in Igboora town on what inspired him and what the community and state government intends to achieve with the festival.
Why dedicate a festival in honour of twins?
I am a father of twins; our late traditional ruler, the Olu Of Igboora land, Oba J.O. Oyewole was a father of twins and we have many in our community. Why not celebrate them? It is a curious but a known fact that the rate of twin births in West Africa is about four times higher than in other parts of the world and Igboora has the highest figure.
How do you feel now that your idea has become a big event?
I am fulfilled. I am so happy and ecstatic that the event became recognised by the state government. The collaboration and support from government will ensure that the programme attains the vision and develop the state further. The emerging well coordinated and concerted plan of action initiated will take previous efforts to a whole new level. The strategic partners have objectively pledged to accelerate the development of this segment of the tourism industry. Innovative partnership such as this that partners the resources of private sector players with those of public sector programmes will provide corresponding support and strengthening of the process to ensure sustainable stability. I must add that this type of exemplary leadership championed by the Oyo State government is much needed and a fantastic proof and testimony of the government’s massive social democracy excellence as pacesetter.
How did you come about this vision?
There was a visit by a BBC team to Igboora; they came here in 2008 to carry out documentation. That’s the inspiration. The research finding emphasised our uniqueness as the capital for twins and the need to celebrate and use this uniqueness for our development as a community. That was what inspired me.
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So what is the celebration about?
We are not just celebrating twins; the objective is to transform Igboora to a tourist zone, the Mecca of twins because it has been established that we have the largest concentration of surviving twins as evident today in the whole world. We want to make this place a tourist zone for the world, not even Oyo State or Nigeria or Africa.
What is responsible for the high level of twin births in Igboora?
This can be traced to the diet. It is dietary and hereditary. This is not our assertion, it is based on research by the United Nations World Health Organisation and this is in the public domain. You want to have twins, come here, live here and eat our food. It is in our food; the Igboora Agida yam, cassava flour and okra leaf delicacies. Researchers have proved that there are substances in our soil which enter the tubers and these substances are linked to the release of more than one egg, which usually leads to twin pregnancies. So diet, heredity and environmental factors are the reasons twin births are prevalent here.
We also have as proof, a research conducted by a British gynaecologist known as Patrick Nylander. This was between 1972 and 1982 and according to him, Europe has about 16 twins for every 1,000 births; the United States about 33 for every 1,000 births while Igboora, at that period, records an average of 45 to 60 sets of twins per 1000 live births in the southwest.
As a Christian cleric, don’t you think this celebration is fetish?
Fetish? Did you see us do anything that indicates that? This is purely a tourism event, we are using what God gave us to build our community; you can see foreigners and people from all over. That is the idea and there is nothing fetish about celebrating God’s gift. The unusually large number of twins has earned us the title of the twin capital of the world and if we bring people in to see how that capital looks and boost our tourist potential, I do not think it is bad neither is it fetish in anyway. We are not worshipping twins; we are thanking God for giving them to us as gifts.
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