My Reign Will Be Dedicated To Cultural Renaissance And Development Of Yorubaland, Says Ooni Of Ife

Ooni-ifeThe Ooni of Ile-Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has assured that his reign will be dedicated to cultural renaissance and development of Yorubaland.

The monarch gave the assurance when a delegation of the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere Renewal Group, ARG, paid him a courtesy visit over the weekend, according to a press statement signed by Kunle Famoriyo, the group’s publicity secretary.

The statement quoted the Ooni as saying that the time has come for Yoruba people to unite and deploy their God-given potentials for the benefit of mankind.

Before the meeting went into a closed door session, Oba Ogunwusi advocated peaceful coexistence and a return to Yoruba cultural values.

“Yorubaland is abundantly blessed particularly with human resources. The problem is that abundance of wisdom may sometimes precipitate power tussle, and even that can be healthy”, he said.

“But we must realise that power belongs to God and it is He that gives it. There will be no need for superiority contentions once we realise and accept that though, all fingers are not equal; they are all important and dependent on one another.

“God’s endowment for Ijebu is different from that of Ekiti; Oyo’s is different from that of Ibadan. The lesson here is that we have common ancestry and we must deploy all our collective strengths to combat our collective weaknesses”.

Ogunwusi further said peaceful coexistence and brotherhood should be the common pursuit of all Yorubas.

“Our history has proved that once we have peace and unity of purpose, development is easy. This is my watchword and I will keep saying it. The process has started already in Ile-Ife and it will spread across Yorubaland”.

He commended ARG’s “love for Yorubaland as evidenced in its commitment to developmental issues” and promised to work with the group.

Earlier, national chairman of ARG, Olawale Oshun, said the group embarked on the visit to congratulate the new monarch, present a proposal for his consideration on cultural renaissance and developmental template for Yorubaland.