Olojo festival: Tribune’s MD urges Yoruba people to unite

The Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of African Newspapers of Nigeria (ANN) Plc, Reverend Sam Adesua, has urged the Yoruba race to go back to the drawing board to fashion out ways through which they can work in unity for the progress of the race. He said this at a lecture in Ile-Ife to mark the celebration of Olojo festival, which was an anniversary where the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade, would go into seclusion for five days and left incommunicado

The Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of African Newspapers of Nigeria (ANN) Plc,  Reverend Sam Adesua,  has urged the Yoruba race to go back to the drawing board to fashion out ways through which they can work in unity for the progress of the race.

He said this at a lecture in Ile-Ife to mark the celebration of Olojo festival, which was an anniversary where the Ooni of Ife,  Oba Okunade Sijuade, would go into seclusion for five days and left incommunicado.

Reverend Adesua, who  spoke on  the topic   “Yoru-ba Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” said lack of unity among the race was responsible for its relegation in sharing of political appointments in the country, and that explained the reason no Yoruba person was found among the first top 10 positions in the country.

Reverend Adesua  said the subjugation of the race did not just start, but it had been on for a long time, and unless the Yoruba unite to fight the injustice, the race was doomed.

“The future of the Yoruba lies in going back to the song of the late Hubert Ogunde  in the 1960s, entitled Yoruba ronu. The fact  that the Yoruba race is pathologically hated by some people within the polity is incontrovertible.

“The subjugation of the race has been a long drawn plan. As it was in the first Republic, so it remains today.”

He explained that the enemies of Yoruba had always been employing the potent instrument of disunity to sideline the race, “as it was in the beginning, so it is now. Political positions and other socio-economic carrots have always been the bait being used by the enemies to have their way and sideline the race,” he said.

Reverend Adesua explained further that “although some status quo defenders always argue that it is not possible for the race to speak with one voice, my personal view is that even if this is so, the race can still rediscover its greatness if none of them allows himself or herself to serve as an agent to promote or aid the overt and/or covert scheming against the race.”

Speaking on the importance of deities in Yoruba land, Oba Adebolu  Fatun-mise, the Adagba Iyanfo-woroji of Ife, said Olojo festival was a commen-moration of when one of the deities, Ogun, broke the calabash of conduct (Igba iwa) due to a curse placed on him by Obatala, who he  stabbed at the back when Ogun was fighting the course of Oduduwa.

Oba Fatunmise explained that it was after   five days that the Ooni  would come out of seclusion and bless his subjects.

Meanwhile, former Nigerian ambassador to China, Chief Olagunju Adesakin,  has urged  students to pay more attention to their education because that is the best legacy that can be bestowed to them.

He urged the students not to  allow themselves to be influenced by politicians who might want to lure them to tow their political lines by inducing them with money.