Ooni makes case for sustenance of Yoruba culture, history

Ooni of Ife

The Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi. Ojaja II has tasked governments at all levels, especially in the South West to ensure the sustenance of the Yoruba culture and history for the growth of the region.

The Royal Father who made the clarion call in Ile-Ife, Osun State at the weekend, when the President of Aviation Round Table (ART), Dr Gabriel Olowo visited the palace to thank the royal majesty for gracing his 70th birthday recently, lamented how the abandonment of culture and the gradual erase of history by the government would have negative effect on the country.

According to Ooni Ogunwusi, to salvage the situation, there must be practical efforts by all and sundry to sustain the culture and history of the region, without which he cautioned that wrong information may be passed to the next generation.

Ogunwusi who said several of the histories of Ile-Ife were either not well-documented or told from the biased point of views of whosoever that is promoting them, declared that in order to ensure true representation, the Ile-Ife royal stool has instituted Ife Studies where history and culture of the city would be well-told and documented.

His words: “We have what we now call Ife Studies where knowledge about physics, medicine and others are done. The Bible is only 6,000 years old, but we had one Ooni that was on the throne for 2,200 years. When we tell this story, majority feels it is not possible, but we had Methuselah in the Bible who lived for 962 years. If Methuselah was enthroned as Ooni at the age of 30 for instance, at least, he would be 932yrs on the throne, which is almost a thousand years.

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“And we had another Ooni that was on the throne for 422 years, 300 years, 190 years, 175 year, Ogboru was on the throne for 195 years and if you calculate all thee cumulatively, you will know that the lineage of the world even from Adam in the Bible till date is only 3,000 years, Jesus Christ is over 2,000 years. Adam to Jesus Christ was one thousand. All these were in the Bible and it is clear.”

Commenting, Olowo said that he was in the palace to thank the Ooni for attending his recently held 70th birthday and the launch of his book; Cutting Costs Without Cutting Corners,’ in Lagos despite his tight schedule.

Olowo who is also an indigene of Ile-Ife, Osun State, however, regretted that Yoruba culture and history were being lost among the sons and daughters of the region and challenged every parent to inculcate the Yoruba culture in their wards and children.

Besides, the aviation expert bemoaned the bad road networks across the region, stressing that this was adding to the cost of sales of agric produce.

While saying that with effective intermodal form of transport linked to airport that transportation of goods and services would be seamless and cheaper, Olowo canvassed for the abrogation of some infrastructure and amenities under the exclusive clause of the Federal Government which he said was slowing down development across the country as it increases states’ dependency on Federal Government.

“I am strongly for the termination of exclusive clause, which puts a lot of things under the Federal Government. There are some things that we should leave to the State and Local governments, let us build our immediate environment and together, we shall be a stronger nation.

“The exclusive clause has been a bigger problem to the growth of the economy. We have things on our grounds that we can make use of and generate wealth for our economy. That is a vital lesson to be learnt from here and this is not only in Ile-Ife, it is like that in the western region.

“Ile-Ife needs a lot of infrastructure because for instance, it is historically an agricultural background. If I am going to establish either the raw materials or semi-finished materials, I need road to get to the market place and if there is a good network of roads in the western region for instance, all the western governors come together to provide the region super roads, once there is a road, agric produce can move.”

Shola Adekola