The Olu of Ibogun in the Ibogun-Coker LCDA of Ogun State, Oba (Dr.) Fakayode Faluade, and the people over the weekend celebrated the town’s first annual Ogun Ajobo festival amidst pomp and pageantry.
The festival was preceded by the annual Isese celebration, which took place between Tuesday, August 20 and Thursday, August 23, with lectures, cultural dances, dramas, the monarch’s visits to Ibogun health center, Ibogun-Coker LCDA and the Ibogun police station to offer prayers for peace to reign in the country and rounded-off on Sunday, August 25 with the entertainment of guests where the cultural music maestro, Alhaji Sefiu Alao, was on bandstand.
While addressing prominent Nigerians from home and abroad and some foreigners who had come to celebrate the festival, Oba Faluade noted that the occasion was put together not only to offer prayers for the nation’s socio-economic growth, but to also foster cordial relationship among all the towns in Ibogun, more so that the town’s name, ‘Ibogun’, emanated from the celebration and worship of the Ogun deity by their ancestors.
The monarch further stressed that the celebration was also to appease the gods to deliver the entire country from every form of distractions and stagnations militating against the nation’s growth.
He appealed to the Ogun State government to give necessary recognition and support to the festival in the near future considering the fact that it had received global attention in view of the calibre of people who attended the celebration both from far and near.
Oba Faluade, who described the richness of African culture and tradition as second to none, noted that African culture had grown to be an envy of both the Americans and the Europeans and therefore advised that all hands must be on deck to ensure African customs, culture and tradition were accorded their rightful place in the scheme of things.
He, therefore, counselled the government at various levels to create the much needed enabling environment for the growth of the nation’s culture and tradition, as well as give necessary support to organisations and individuals with genuine interest geared towards the development of the country through the instrumentality of culture and tradition.
