Osun Osogbo festival: Foreign nationals, others defy security threat

In spite of the ongoing security challenges in Osun State, YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE reports that the turnout at the grand finale of the 2019 edition of the Osun Osogbo festival on Friday remains massive, reiterating the significance of the festival to the people of the state, Osun worshippers, Yoruba exponents and the tourism community.

The grand finale of the 2019 Osun Osogbo festival on Friday has further shown that nothing will stop believers and tourists from various countries of the world from paying obeisance to the Osun deity in Osogbo as expected annually by participating in the various programmes of the Osun Osogbo festival.

Indeed, the dire prediction that the festival will not be as usual this year due to the security challenges experienced in Osun state and the rumour that the Osun deity had been sold was turned into a joke as the crowd that turned out for the festivities rather than decrease, was massive.

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Hundreds of foreign nationals from Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba Europe, Republic of Benin, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom and the Caribbean Islands defied security challenges to join Osun devotees, tourists, traditional chiefs, traditional rulers, and dignitaries from various walks of life in their thousands to pay homage to the Osun deity and make their requests known at the groove.

The 2019 edition of the event highlighted good planning and a coordinated crowd control as despite the massive crowd, there was no stampede or serious crowd related accidents as the usual plethora of reports of ugly incident was missing throughout the various activities around Osogbo a night to the festival, though as usual, the road to the groove was filled with people making movement a herculean task.

The crowd was adjudged as unprecedented by residents who believe that the insinuations few months back that the Osun deity was sold rather than deplete the number of visitors to the festival, further sparked interest of devotees across the world, thousands of whom came down to see for themselves if anything had changed.

Their trip was definitely not a waste and their faith was further restored following the appearance of the mermaid around 9a.m. on Friday to people who were lucky to have entered the groove that early. This added to the attraction of this year’s festival as it was stated that the last time the mermaid appeared to people who were not its priest openly was seven years ago. The fact that it had been seven years such happened last was corroborated by the Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Olanipekun and Osun devotees.

Oba Olanipekun, who further dispelled the rumour that he sold the Osun Osogbo deity, expressed his joy that the deity herself had proved mischief makers wrong by appearing when people that were just tourists and not only its priests and devotees were present, adding that the ugly trend promoted by his enemies had been put to rest in the best way possible.

The Ataoja prayed for the peace of the state and commended people for supporting the festival while he thanked all the partners and sponsors who made the festival a success as well as dignitaries, royal fathers and people, both from Nigeria and abroad who graced the occasion as he received homage from foreigners, Osun devotees, masquerades, traditional religion heads, traditionalists and royal fathers.

And to show the support of the state government for the festival and reiterate the current administration’s commitment to boosting the tourism potential of the state, Governor Gboyega Oyetola, through his representative, Dr Babawale Adebisi, the supervisor of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, promised that his administration will support the development and promotion of Osun Osogbo festival to enhance its tourism potential and sustainability.

The governor in his remarks said he was honoured to attend the festival for the first time, saying his administration would continue to support the festival for its sustainability and growth.

According to him, the festival was important to the Oyetola administration and the government was ready and willing to transform the annual festival to a foreign exchange earner for the state, adding that to make this a reality, the state government was seeking partnership with the Federal Government to optimally tap into the tourism benefits the festival provides.

“The Osun-Osogbo festival is important to the government and people of Osun as it is a common cultural heritage and our window and our voice to the world. We are aware of the power of tourism to market our culture to the world, foster cultural communication and harmony and engender national and international peace and cooperation. It is our intention to develop, project and promote the Osun-Osogbo festival to global prominence to compete with other world renowned cultural festivals. We shall transform the festival into a foreign exchange earner and a major driver of our economy through tourism,” he stated.

Oyetola further urged Osun indigenes in the diaspora to partner with his administration in its bid to further promote the Osun-Osogbo festival beyond what it is as partnership is needed to ensure that the festival competes with other major cultural festivals globally, adding that after emerging the most popular cultural festival in Nigeria and listed as such by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation with the Osun-Osogbo groove becoming one of the world heritage sites, there was the need for the festival to be further promoted to attract more global attention.

Oyetola reiterated that the Osun-Osogbo festival had grown into international standard and is being witnessed by about one million tourists from all parts of the world, adding that the festival is a bond between Osun, the river goddess and the people of the state, especially those in need and those that believe in its efficacy.

He explained that the lesson that could be learnt from the festivities is faithfulness which everyone needs to imbibe for peace and development of the state to be guaranteed.

“This festival is very important to the government and the people of Osun as it is our cultural heritage and remains the most popular. The government has done the renovation of the groove and we are constructing a car park to conform to the UNESCO standards,” he said.

Speaking further, the governor explained that this year’s celebration of the festival was the first he attended as the governor of the state, adding that he considered it a great honour as he further assured that his administration would continue to support the festival for its sustainability and growth.

Also at the festival, the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland Otunba Gani Adams expressed concern for the rising insecurity in Yorubaland which has made people to live in fear and made travelling within the zone a dangerous venture. He, however, promised to end insecurity, kidnappings, banditry and other forms of criminality in the South West within four months.

He reiterated that following his coronation as the generalissimo of Yorubaland, protecting the people is a major part of his duties. “Part of my duties is to defend and protect the Yoruba people against any criminality and to ensure that Yoruba people are protected against any forces. This is indeed a major aspect of my responsibilities. I am a warrior and I’m ordained to ensure that Yoruba people are protected. I am assuring you that I would use everything within my reach to make sure problem of insecurity becomes an issue of the past. I will make sure I crush the insecurity in Yorubaland,” he said.

Speaking on the massive turnout and the acclaimed success of the festival, the Managing Consultant of Osun Osogbo Festival, Mr Toye Arulogun, expressed satisfaction that the effectiveness of the planning and coordination of his team reflected throughout the festivities, adding that he was happy that the core of the festival in terms of the culture and heritage of the festival was not eroded while there was conscious efforts to use modern trends to improve the event.

He stated that, “the festival worked in accordance with its theme of one tradition, one heritage and one cultural fiesta, as people came from around the world to participate in the festival. The crowd was enormous and our crowd control mechanism worked perfectly. We are going to improve on this edition. You will see that the tradition has not been distorted despite the innovations of communicating to the global audience which led to many foreigners participating in the festival.

“We introduced the Walk for Osun to sensitise the people about the festival and it worked as people from across the country and the diaspora came to participate en masse due to effective and efficient communication. We also had effective engagement with the stakeholders, sponsors, partners and the people of Osogbo. We can all see that tourism has viable economic potential. However, we need improvement in the area of infrastructure and security.

“We are going to improve on this edition and make the festival more attractive and an economy-spinning event that will not only benefit the government, but also every resident of Osun, irrespective of vocation or status, this festival will benefit all. We thank all our sponsors and partners for their support and promise that we will not rest on our oars in improving the Osun Osogbo festival in the interest of all,” Arulogun stated.

Indeed, the people — worshippers, devotees and tourists — have proved that their faith in the Osun deity supersedes any security challenge as they were undeterred in the face of the kidnappings going on in the state and allowed nothing to stop their participation in the 2019 edition of the festival.