The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, on Sunday kicked off this year’s Olojo Festival in Ile-Ife with the traditional 7 days seclusion.
A statement from Comrade Moses Olafare,
Director, Media & Public Affairs, Ooni’s Palace disclosed that during the seclusion he’s expected to commune with his ancestors and for the people of Ile-Ife, all descendants of Oduduwa worldwide and Nigeria as a country.
The Ooni while answering questions at his Ile-Oodua palace, Ile-Ife, before heading into seven days seclusion ahead of Olojo Festival, pledged to pray to God to touch the heart of Nigerian politicians and changed them towards loving the people.
He said Nigerian politicians are the same irrespective of their parties, challenging them to start serving the people genuinely and stop taking the country for granted.
He insisted that there is no difference among politicians in the country, adding that they have all cross carpeted from one major political party to another to protect their interests.
“We believe in the forces of nature for nature to conspire in our favour but every other thing in our country they are all man made, the likes of security, our politicians will take credit for that, they are the ones that caused it till date. I will go again to seclusion for God to touch their hearts for them to stop playing all of us like ludo.
“They should be more sensitive about people because it is one political movement. They are just crisscrossing from one political party to the other in order to retain their positions. We have one political party in this country, same value, same character, same politician. But I am going to go into seclusion for God to touch their hearts for them to stop playing games with the lives of citizens of this country. It is about time for them to realize that they should serve us genuinely because we can not continue like this.
“This time around is a serious one, it is a request on behalf of the entire people, Oduduwa race and by extension our dear Country Nigeria. I am going for God to touch their heart and really pray to my ancestors. We are just deceiving ourselves that they are different, they are the same. All of them have crossed to the major parties but Nigeria is above them all.
“This time around it is a very sensitive one and a very serious one. First of all to thank God almighty and the spirit of our ancestors that have been guiding us thus far, God has really helped us with the pandemic issue because we won’t be able to handle it, when we compare things we have been doing with other nations. We have every course to be thankful to God.
“They said we are spiritual and it is working for us in this country, we have course to thank God Almighty, that it is not out of hands. We should not rest our hoax, I am going to seclusion which is the 6th during my reign. I inherited the tradition from my ancestors of thousands of years ago”, Ooni said.
To participate in this edition of the Olojo Festival in Ile-Ife, foreigners from America and Brazil have started arriving the country in their hundreds as a number of them were sighted at the Ooni’s Palace to join in the procession accompanying the Ooni to the ILE IMOLE, venue of the 7 days seclusion location along Iremo road of the ancient town which is the cradle and traditional headquarters of the Oduduwa race worldwide.
Erica Pinheiro, a participant from Brazil who spoke to the newsmen said this is her second time to participate in the festival which she called ‘festival of day and God’. She described it as a home coming for all of them who came from Brazil, saying whenever Africa or Nigeria is mentioned in Brazil, the city of Ile-Ife first come to mind.
This is my second in the country to witness this festival that celebrates creation of day and festival Olodumare. Ile-Ife is a household name in Brazil. Every Brazilian wants pilgrimage to Ile-Ife and we will be coming home from Brazil every year. ” Erica Pinheiro said.
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