Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land, Iba Gani Adams, has stated that celebrating Yoruba culture, heritage and tradition goes a long way in boosting the tourism sector.
He spoke at the 2021 edition of Ogun Festival held at Ikorodu Town Hall, Ikorodu, Lagos State, and attended by royal fathers and other dignitaries among others.
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Iba Adams said the Ogun Ajobo Festival which is celebrated at Ikorodu was the last in the series of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) festivals calendar for the year which kick-started in Ile-Ife, Osun State, in January with the Oodua Festival.
Eko Trust reports that among the festivals celebrated last year were Odo Erelu Festival held at the Meiran community; Olokun Festival at Badagry which also featured a beauty pageant, among others.
The year-long calendar filled with different Yoruba festivities was capped with the Ogun Festival.
Gani Adams said Ogun Festival is not peculiar to Yoruba as a race, but a tradition all over the world.
“Everywhere in the world, Ogun remains the god of Iron and the arbiter of all technological development,” he said.
Aare Adams, while pointing out that Ogun is indispensable to mankind and great countries like China, Singapore, Japan and Germany celebrate Ogun in their own way, described Ogun as one of the most popular deities in the world as well as the pathfinder that links the shining world of gods to the physical plane of humanity.
While arguing that celebrating Yoruba culture, heritage and tradition goes a long way in boosting the tourism sector, he lamented that religious fanaticism, bigotry, and intolerance had also hampered Yoruba growth as a race.