Ooni to pray specially for better Nigeria during Olojo Festival

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, on Friday, disclosed that during this year’s Olojo Festival, there would be special prayers for the nation to overcome its socio-economic challenges.

Speaking during a press conference to announce activities for this year’s Olojo Festival in his palace at Oduduwa House, Ile-Ife, the monarch stated: “I will tell God Almighty about Nigeria’s challenges through the crown. With the crown on my head, I will pray for Nigeria and it will come to pass because it doesn’t fail.

“Olojo Festival is the festival of the dawn and crown. We believe that it is the crown that gave birth to all crowns all over the world with all the colours of rainbow.

“All the colours of the rainbow you will see in the crown. It is called the spectrum of the rainbow. You will see day, night and the four corners of the world including the North, South, Eastern and Western poles.

“The birth of the crown was actually the first dawn. First dawn is called by the pathfinder deity, Ogun, which is linked to our celebration. The world does what is called thanksgiving at this period, but for us it is a bigger celebration after we must have done our main celebration after Ifa celebration in June. That is the beginning of dawn, which is the beginning of a new year.

“But the major celebration is Olojo Festival and it is the festival that actually dovetails into everybody’s celebrating the new yam festival. The crown which has a life in it comes out once in a year with blessings. It has power to change the weather and has very strong connection to every weather around it.

“The crown is our strong heritage, culture and tradition and we will continue to hold it in high esteem. We are not idol worshippers. These are things that our ancestors left for us that are working and it will continue to work. It is our heritage, which cannot be compromised.”

Earlier, the Chief Administrator of the festival, Ayo Olumoko, hinted that Ooni gave the planning committee the opportunity to interface with eggheads of companies supporting its activities.

He said: “The corporate organisations that we have are not the only ones supporting the cause of Ooni as far as Olojo festival is concerned. There are so many individuals and stakeholders supporting us.

“We have new corporate organisations that are just coming in and we pray they will be consistent in supporting the Olojo festival,” Olumoko added. Corporate sponsors for the festival include Nigerian Breweries Plc, Adron Homes, MTN Nigeria, Nigerian Distilleries, producers of Seaman’s Aromatic Schnapps; Just Rite Shopping Mall, among others.