We need to celebrate Ibadan Day in grand style —Prince Oyewole

A renowned musician and musicologist, Prince Eji Oyewole, who has scored music for movies and television programmes such as Food Basket, Basi and Company, Business World, Dialogue, and many others in the 1970s and 1980s has emphasised the significance of the Ibadan Day celebration as one that should be celebrated with so much publicity and pride.

The saxophone legend made this known at the Ibadan Day celebrated last Saturday, at Liberty Stadium. According to him, the festival is very vital and one that has a deep root as regards the culture of Ibadan citizens, nothing that Ibadan has a long history, with warlords that fought for the expansion and heritage of Ibadan.

“Ibadan Day is to tell people the kind of city Ibadan is. In all of Yoruba land, Ibadan is important and vital. It is the city of wise men, not necessarily for western education, but when you talk of wisdom and knowledge, our forefathers were wise and knowledgeable, and God had their supported them.

He, however, urged for the support of Ibadan citizens both at home and in the Diaspora to celebrate the Ibadan Day whenever it is being celebrated. He bemoaned the dying tradition, the low turn-out of people when it comes to celebrating indigenous days, also nothing that traditional religion is going extinct as many has now embraced the western ways

In the same vein, the Personal Assistant to Asipa of Olubadan, and Aroole/Mogaji of Ayenjeku Foko, Sir Chief Eddy Oyewole, Kayode Adewuyi, also stressed need for a global support for the festival, noting that such days like these happen once in a year, and in order to keep this going, there is the need for indigenes of Ibadanland to come around to celebrate Ibadan day.