Ikogosi springs: Nature at its best

In early 1999, some of the young Nigerians posted to Ondo State for their mandatory one-year national service under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, served in a “Corpers’ Week Planning Committee”. Among other things, the planning committee scheduled a visit to the Ikogosi Warm Spring in Ekiti State. The amount demanded as fees from the corps members became an issue both among the committee members and the gentlemen corps members.

Following the sustained arguments over funding, the committee then proposed that the excursion to Ikogosi be shelved. But the negative reaction to the idea of shelving the Ikogosi excursion was even more rife, and threw the meeting into further confusion. In the end, it was agreed that some other events be struck off the proposed week-long programme instead of Ikogosi. Many of the corps members, who were from other regions of the country other than the South West and even those from the region, said it was a “rare opportunity and privilege to visit the place we’ve been hearing of all these years.”

Such was and is still the allure of the legendary Ikogosi Warm Spring. Not a few Nigerians find it difficult to resist the opportunity of touring the resort, which has been on the Nigerian tourism map for ever. The spring has etched Ikogosi on the lips of many and the soporific community is now somewhat larger than life.

Ikogosi is one of the smaller communities in Ekiti West Local Government Area of Ekiti State, and is perhaps more on the lips of people, especially outside Ekiti than Aramoko, the headquarters of the local government area. The community is bounded by Ipole, another community with a renown for a water fall; Iloro, Erijiyan and Ogotun which falls within the South West Local Government Area.  With now better roads and the improved facilities at the centre, the visitors of 1999 would be marvelled at the transformation that has taken place at the warm spring.

Governor Kayode Fayose had made the development of the warm spring resort a priority of his government and he pursued this with purpose and brought it to a standard that has made it one of the most sought-after tourist attractions in the country. Before the advent of the Dr. Fayemi administration, the centre was a sorry story of poor capacity utilisation as the chalets and guest houses were virtually abandoned to the elements.

The now popular resort was said to have started first as a training camp for the Baptist Mission in Ekiti area, after the American missionary working in the area had heard about the “hot stream” from the people of Ikogosi community. The Baptist mission’s base is still in Igede-Ekiti, now the capital town of Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area of Ekiti State. Legends about the hot spring were told by the Ikogosi locals, and had meant to dissuade the Baptist missionary, the Reverend John MacFee, who had come from Igede to Ikogosi, from seeking its source. They had told Rev. MacGee that he would die should he get to the source of the spring.

But rather than be cowed by the warnings by the locals, the clergyman got to the object of his mission in Ikogosi. Rev  MacGee did not just get to the source of the fascinating natural resource, he also found the location suitable for some other useful purposes by the church. Thus, his missions became dual: developing the spiritual life of the people and the development of a worthwhile venture for the physical development of the people.

He built a road to the source of the spring and further developed what he referred to as “Warm Springs Camp” by building hostels and a swimming pool for the use of the Baptist mission, until the government bought over the entire property from the Nigerian Baptist Convention in 1978.

The legends of the warm spring in Ikogosi still subsists, despite the fact that the reverend gentleman seemingly demystified it. Some of the Ikogosi locals still tell of how a man who had two wives of different temperaments  had been the source of the warm spring. They claimed that one of the wives was a hot-tempered woman while the other was a temperate mien. They say that the woman without the temper is the cold component of the springs, as nature has put a cold spring near the hot spring of the Ikogosi legendary waters.

According tot the people, the woman with a bad temper went into a rage during a quarrel one day and had, afterwards sunk into the ground, from where the hot water began to spring from. The other woman is the cold spring at the other end of the springs.

They hold that a hunter cum medicine man had discovered the hot spring and had used its water for curing of illnesses. As a matter of fact, the people of Ikogosi still believe that the hot spring comes with medicinal qualities and they do not hesitate to tell of these powers, and that they freely use it.

While the locals told of how they thought the spring had evolved, some geologists from the Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island in Bayelsa State, who had come with their students to the resort on a tour of duty, had said the spring which gives water which temperature some had said gets to as high as about 30degrees Fahrenheit, was as a result of volcanic action in the belly of the earth.

However it is considered, the spring has brought fortune to the community. While a conglomerate has been bottling water in he community for a good number of years, the deliberate development of the warm spring resort by the Fayemi administration has further raised the usefulness of the resort and its marketability. The company bottling the Ikogosi water had deliberately named the brand after the town, and it is about the most visible brand of bottled water in Ekiti State.

On another plane, the resort was a beehive during the administration of ex-Governor Fayemi. Numerous government events, retreats and meetings were held at the facilities his administration had out their for the comfort of the users and tourists alike. Fayemi’s government had built modern chalets, reconstructed the swimming pool, built and amphitheater for evening shows and a 600-seater hall with competent air conditioning and sundry east ethics. Apart from the development of the centre itself, the roads leading to the community were also reconstructed and power generating sets were installed for a constant supply of electricity power.

As part of the moves to sustain the development of the resort and further consolidate its use, in June 2013, the Fayemi administration started Ikogosi Graduate Summer School (IGSS). The coordinator of IGSS, Dr Femi Akinola, at the take-off of the programme, had said the two-week programme was to have such lecturers as Professor Niyi Osundare and Professor Wale Adebanwi among other renowned foreign-based Nigerian academics. The school was to have about five Nigerian-based intellectual powerhouses that would also partake in teaching the 50 post (graduate) students in the two-week summer school. The , he had said was “meant to transform brain drain and try to begin brain gain and as a way to reverse brain drain by bringing some of the scholars that would ordinarily been said to have been lost, back to the system to also give back to the system.”

One of the accolades for the development of  Ikogosi came for Dr. Fayemi through Professor Osundare when the IGSS kicked off in June 2013. But what has become of the school now is left to be imagined.

Ikogosi still attracts visitors from all parts of the country. Schools still visit the centre for excursions while government has not failed to engage the facilities for various activities and engagements. These have buoyed the economy of the community and further entrenched the name of the community and its resort in the minds of tourists.