Ojude Oba: Display of tradition, culture

The dance steps were entertaining, different shades and colours of fabrics, elegant horse riders and different age grades paraded before the king felicitating with him and expressing their delight for yet another year and successes.

The streets were filled with canopies from Folagbade Junction to Moborode Junction  a distance of about one and a half kilometres and the whole of Olisa Street.

The Gbelegbuwa road,  leading to the palace and the palace extension, was  completely blocked to traffic by law enforcement agents leaving only Very Important Personalities to pass through while all the sides of the roads also had canopies.

Music blared from within the canopies leading to a cacophony of noise. The streets were filled with people.

From exotic lace fabrics to assorted shoes, bags and other fashion accessories, the venue of the celebration is always sparked with a display of colours. The traditional Etu, Aso Oke always come alive. It is a mixture of the ancient and modern when some men came out in Aso Oke mixed with damask fabric. Ojude Oba can also be tagged a parade of fashion.

Groups made up of different age grades like the Otunbas and Oloroguns [war chiefs], other categories of chiefs and people of the town came out en_masse gaily dressed to pay homage to their king.

Streets were filled with canopies, roads virtually blocked, exotic cars on display and rare show of opulence on display by the people. The celebration was a study in display of tradition and culture wrapped in modernization.

With about 5,000 capacity pavilion, guests were comfortably seated in an enclosure which looked like a modern sports arena.

The age grades, called Regberegbes,  had enough space to sit while guests  were also comfortably accommodated.

The Awujale sat  at his side of the pavilion which had 650 customized seats provided by Globacom, the GSM service provider owned by a prominent  Ijebu son, Dr. Mike Adenuga. The horse riders had enough space to display  in front of the Awujale  and the guests.

Sponsors for the festival have also grown with Globacom, the official sponsor parading prominent music stars that thrilled the mammoth crowd. First City Monument Bank [FCMB] too among others.

As early as 7.30 a.m., indigenes and invitees started trooping into the arena in anticipation of the commencement of the festival slated for 10.a.m.

Such were the features of the annual Ojude Oba, a ram slaughtering festival of the Muslims peculiar to indigenes of Ijebu Ode in Ogun State. This festival has emerged a rallying point for not only sons and daughters of Ijebuland but to non natives alike as they converge on the ancient city to rejoice with their king, the paramount ruler of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, the Awujale of Ijebuland.

Age group creates the spectacle at the expansive lawn that separates the king and his guests from the crowd. The Gbobaniyi group; middle-aged men, which has former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel as its patron, has one of the most special appearances by dressing in rich traditional Aso Oke clothes.

The  Ojude Oba festival  is usually held in two days after the Ileya. The festival shifts from Ijebu Ode to Ijebu-Isiwo for another three day celebration after the Ileya fundamentally to honor their king and do obeisance.

Historically, the festival started with an Islamic cleric, alongside members of his family, paying a courtesy call on the Awujale as a way of showing appreciation to the traditional ruler for allowing Islam to grow peacefully in Ijebu Ode.

This festival which has survived for almost a century has emerged as a dominant cultural festival anticipated by the people. Corporate organisations too are not left behind as they have added values to the celebration with their different promotional strategies aimed at putting their brands on a vantage position.

Prominent among these conglomerate is the Globacom company. Prior to the festival, the telecom company said it is committed to elevating the Ojude Oba festival to an enviable cultural fiesta capable of attracting investments in tourism in Ijebu land.

It promised to introduce milestones to stimulate local and international investment in tourism in Ijebuland in particular and Ogun State in general. True to its promises, Glo donated a block of fully equipped classrooms to Ijebu Muslim School as part of the activities marking the 2012 festival. Globacom had during the Ojude Oba festival last year promised to deliver the block of classrooms with ICT equipment to the school.

Dr Mike Adenuga, Chairman of the telecoms giant, Globacom, said the festival had grown in importance and scope and had emerged as the melting pot of culture, glitz, fashion and panache, adding that it afforded the Ijebu people, home and abroad, the opportunity to contribute to the development of the land.

Responding, Oba Adetona praised the company for injecting pomp into the festival, adding that the telecoms firm had brought many innovations and had turned the carnival to a world class.

He described the chairman of the company, Dr Adenuga, as a pride, not only of Ijebuland, but Nigeria as a nation.

The Senate President, Senator David Mark who was a special guest at the event pledged his support for the actualisation of Ijebu-State.

Speaking at the 2012 Ojude-Oba, he said that one of the ways to achieve rapid development in the country is when more states were created.

The Senate President who was reacting to the plea of the Awujale and paramount ruler of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona on the need for Ijebu State, said he had received various delegations from agitators of state creation, saying that one of the highest delegations was from Ijebuland.

He said: “I support the creation of Ijebu State, the National Assembly must work to actualise it, we know that it is through it that government can move closer to the people, and I pledged that when next I shall be coming here, the dream would have been actualised.”

The festival is competitive because financial gains are attached to it, hence, age grades try as much as possible to outshine the other. Six age grade groups won awards at the ceremony. Egbe Olugbadebo Okunrin won a trophy and cash prize of N750,000; Egbe Mafowoku Okunrin and Egbe Bobagbuyi Okunrin won N500,000 and N300,000 respectively.

Egbe Arobayo Obinrin won the star prize of a trophy and N750,000, while Egbe Obafuwaji and Egbe Bobajolu Obinrin Basiri won N500,000 and N300,000 respectively.

 Many of the groups names is related to the king such as Gbobaniyi, Obafuwaji, Bobakeye, Gbobayo, and Gbobalaye. The parade of the Baloguns and Eleshins is usually the most colourful and breathtaking event of the festival.

A Balogun or Elesin is a direct descendant of the war heroes who gained notable victories for the Ijebu nation during the inter-ethnic Yoruba wars in the pre-colonial history of Nigeria. It is commonly believed that it was at Ojude Oba that the families of the war heroes led by the reigning Balogun and deputies, exhibited their prowess by simulating mock battle shows and displays.

It is always a spectacle to behold as each Balogun and Elesin families take their turn to pay homage to the king amidst martial music, jubilation and gun shots, passing through the town with participants, visitors and tourists.

In reality, this year's festival underscores  the importance of peaceful co-existence among Nigerians, despite their differences in language or religion. The  festival was indeed a celebration of the unity of the people and a show of Nigeria's rich cultural heritage.

NigerianCompass