The 2018 edition of the Odun Oba Festival in Ikere-Ekiti was another epoch in the community, with the annual celebration fast becoming a festival to reckon with among the people. Odun Oba Festival was designed as an annual event to mark the coming out of new yams, and a time to pay homage to the paramount ruler of the town, the Ogoga, Oba Samuel Adejimi Adu Alagbado.
At Odun Oba Festival, the various groups and organisations, in their revelry, sang praises of the Ogoga, danced to dexterous drumming and prayed for the monarch. In the process, they also prayed for the prosperity of Ikere as well as a long reign for the reigning Ogoga.
The various dignitaries at the ceremony were not left out of the joyful occasion as they gave their time and talent to the success of the 2018 edition of the Odun Oba Festival. The ceremony was not one for speeches, but the chairman of the Odun Oba 2018 Planning Committee, Otunba Sola Adewumi, while welcoming the people to the ceremony, said the event was meant to showcase the greatness of Ikere-Ekiti in Ekiti State and indeed, Yoruba land.
Otunba Adewumi said the Odun Oba was “the grand finale of all Ikere-Ekiti festivals.”
Oba Adejimi Adu, at the 2018 Odun Oba Festival commended indigenes of the community at home and in the Diaspora for their cooperation with him to give the town an uplift, saying this had resulted in positive changes that could be seen by all and sundry.
The monarch noted particularly that in 2018 alone, not a few sons and daughters of Ikere-Ekiti had achieved remarkable milestones in their various successful careers in law, academics politics and in business. He noted with delight the inauguration of the first gas plant in the town, which he said had served as an avenue to provide jobs for more of the young people of the community.
The traditional ruler also used the occasion of the large assembly of the people to call for peace and calm among the people, particularly following the loss of an indigene of the town in the recent governorship election in the state. He appealed across political divides not to allow the governorship election to divide them, saying the interest of Ikere should always be topmost in their priorities.
Particularly alluding to the circumstances surrounding the loss of Prof. Olusola, an indigene, who was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Oba Alagbado stressed that elections were over, and that those aggrieved by its outcome should forget the past and move on.
In his speech on the occasion, the Sapetu of Ikere-Ekiti Professor Olufemi Babatola, highlighted the importance of Odun Oba festival to the life of Ikere community, pointing out that the ceremonies which start in July were “a celebration of agriculture heritage and fertility of the land” and that nothing fetish was associated with it.
He said: “This is the conclusion of the festivity, it is the “idupe” (thanksgiving) but now the Ogoga rechristened it as “Odun Oba” to make it more comprehensive. This is harvesting period, even the pastor in the church will ask for “akoso” (first fruit) from you. It is a thanksgiving period to thank God that last year, we planted and we are now harvesting.”
The Sapetu said the Odun Oba Festival has nothing to do with anything fetish or worship of idols as he said was the contention in some quarters, pointing out that “it is a celebration of agriculture heritage and fertility of the land.”
He said: “This is the time that yam, which is the major food here, is matured and we are starting to harvest. Before this ceremony, the Ogoga or the Sapetu will not eat the yam until the celebration.
“We started eating since last Saturday because the “idasu Sapetu” was on Friday, then the second day, the “idasu Ogoga” the night of on Friday to the early morning of Saturday then the second day we eat the yam.
He urged the people of the town to go back to land and engage in agriculture not just to ensure food security in Ikere-Ekiti and Ekiti State, but also for economic prosperity.
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