Lijebu Festival: Ile Oluji’s celebration of royalty, fertility

AKIN ADEWAKUN reports the unique celebration of royalty by residents and indigenes of Ile-Oluji in Ondo State during the Lijebu Festival held recently.

Respect for royalty is never in short supply in this part of the clime, especially among the Yorubas in the South western part of Nigeria, where royalty is treated as next to the supreme deity. Interestingly, nothing perhaps authenticates this than the annual Lijebu Festival of the people of Ile Oluji, an agrarian community in Ile Oluji/ Oke Igbo Local Government Area of Ondo State.

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Lijebu, a traditional festival, set aside to celebrate the town’s traditional ruler, the Jegun of Ile Oluji, is seen as unique by residents and indigenes of the community.  And this is so for many reasons. Besides being wholly dedicated to celebrating the community’s traditional head, another significance of the festival, according to indigenes and residents, is the fact that it is a traditional rite that gives the traditional ruler the right to eat the new yam for that season.

Despite the fact that his subjects, including indigenes and residents, must have  started eating the new yam as early as the  month of July of every year, after  the Owe Festival must have been held in the town, the Jegun would still need to tarry a little longer. He does not enjoy the luxury of eating the crop until the Lijebu festival is held in the last quarter of the year.

A traditional leader in the community, Chief Henry Akinsuroju and chairman of the event planning committee of the festival, believes Lijebu holds a lot of significance for the people and the community itself.

“A lot of people do not know that even after the Owe festival is held in July and the people in the community are now free to eat the new yam, Jegun will still have to tarry till September for this very important festival, before he begins to eat the new yam,” Akinsuroju stated.

Besides, it is a festival that residents and indigenes of the town must celebrate with the monarch, since it is Jegun’s own festival. For instance,  Owe, Ogun and other traditional festivals are believed to be for the community and, as a result do not necessarily require residents of the town paying homage at the monarch’s palace.

This perhaps explains why the whole community literally ‘emptied’ itself into the monarch’s palace, this year, to celebrate with the relatively new monarch, Oba Olu Adetimehin, who ascended the throne in 2016.

As early as 7 am, individuals from both within and outside the town, cultural groups, social clubs and other influential stakeholders had thronged the palace, located at the heart of the town, to be part of the festival.

Perhaps another highlight and attraction the event offers is the special crown that the monarch wears on this very special day. According to tradition, Jegun of Ile Oluji comes out with this crown, seeing as the original crown of his ancestors, once in a year, and it is always for this occasion.

“I’m around to see this relatively new monarch and also see the special crown that he wears once in a year to celebrate the occasion. Since he was crowned Jegun of Ile Oluji, two years ago, I’ve not been in town,” explained Kogi-based Raphael Akinmoladun, an indigene of the town, who claimed to be witnessing the festival for the first time, in a very long while.

But for Akinyomade, another indigene of the town, who stays in the state capital, the hype surrounding the festival made it irresistible. The pre-event publicity in the state actually made the festival a must–attend for him, and for the Akure-based civil servant, the event never failed to live up to his expectation.

What Akinyomade found very intriguing was the participation of other ethnic groups, too at the festival.  He believes it was a way of preaching and exhibiting that much-needed unity between the nation’s ethnic groups.

For instance, the Calabar Cultural Group was the cynosure of all eyes at the event, especially with their unique dance steps that earned them applause from the crowd, and a trophy from the monarch at the end of the day.

Interestingly, Hon. Akinsuroju, the Chairman of the Event Planning Committee, believes that seeking peace and unity is the essence of the festival. According to him, since ascending the throne in 2016, Oba Adetimehin has been using every traditional festival to preach unity and peace, and showcase the community to the outside world.

According to him, the community boasts of huge potential, which can only be realised when such potential is showcased to the world. “We all know that the Lijebu festival is for the Oba. It is to celebrate the monarch and that is why you are seeing this type of attendance.

“It is also the only time the oba wears his special crown, the real traditional crown and also remembers his predecessors. All these are the traditional activities attached to the festival.

“But we are going beyond that. We are making it attractive to the people, especially those not born and bred here. That is why you see other cultures participating actively in the festival,” the former state House of Assembly member, explained.

The town monarch would not agree less with the former lawmaker’s position. Speaking on the festival, Oba Adetimehin described it as one of those traditional festivals he intends to activate the community’s socio-economic growth with. He however believes such desires may continue to be a pipe dream without preaching and entrenching harmony among the people of the community.

“When I was enthroned few years ago, I developed a blueprint that I plan to use to activate growth in the community. But I believe that such will not be possible if there are divisions among the people or the districts that make up the community. What we’ve done is to ensure that the people, irrespective of their ethnic stocks and religion live harmoniously, and the result is what we are seeing today,” he said.

But this much-loved monarch is, however, unrelenting. He is determined to take the community to unenviable heights, by promoting its cultural values to the outside world.  Ile Oluji, he insists, is a community that is rich in human and natural resources, and his pre-occupation, for now, is to showcase such resources and opportunities for the world to see.

One of the ways he intends to achieve this is by ensuring some of these festivals are made money-spinners. “What we intend to do is re-brand these festivals, carnivalise them in a way that would make them attract the attention of people both within and outside the shores of the town. The ultimate aim is to make Ile Oluji a tourists’ haven, especially at this period, when the whole country is trying to look beyond oil, as the only revenue earner,” the monarch stated.

Perhaps, an indication that the objectives are gradually being realised was the significant attendance this year’s festival recorded. For instance, apart from individuals, within and outside that had come to be part of the festival, all the community’s twelve districts were fully in attendance, with each of their traditional heads taking his turn to pay homage to the monarch.

Besides, the social clubs within the town also added colour to the event. While some distinguished themselves from others by the unique uniforms, worn by members, others simply stood out by their comportments all through the one-day event.

Some simply made their presence known by dancing round the town before retiring to the waiting arms of the monarch in his palace. As the curtains fell on this year’s event, not a few attendees believe the present leadership of the community has what it takes to put the community on the world’s tourism map, using the instrumentality of Lijebu and other traditional festivals in the town.

Akinsuroju also echoes these sentiments, too. For him, despite the glaring the feats achieved with the last two editions of the festival, the Event Planning Committee is unrelenting. “We have a mandate, and that is to re-package the festival and make it attractive to all and sundry. The journey has just begun, and we promise that despite the successes recorded with the last two, we are going to achieve more,” Akinsuroju stated.

Perhaps the greatest lesson in this year’s festival remains the fact that the people  of the community could actually unite and rally round a common cause, as evident in the way the whole town stood still for royalty at this year’s edition of Lijebu festival.