…Says Politicians Are Same
The Arole Oduduwa Olofin Adimula and the Ooni iv Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, on Sunday kickstarted activities marking this year’s Olojo Festival in Ile-Ife with the traditional 7-day seclusion, where he is expected to commune with his ancestors for and on behalf of the people of Ile-Ife, all descendants of Oduduwa worldwide and Nigeria as a country.
While responding to questions at his Ile Oodua Palace in Ile-Ife, Osun State before embarking on the traditional seven-day seclusion to commune with the gods ahead of the Olojo Festival, Ooni Ogunwusi pledged to pray to his ancestors and God to touch the heart of Nigerian politicians and change them towards loving the people, saying that Nigerian politicians are the same, irrespective of their political affiliation, challenging them to start serving the people genuinely and stop taking the country for granted.
The natural head of Oduduwa race worldwide, who insisted that there is no difference among politicians in the country, stated that they have all cross carpeted from one major political party to another to protect their own selfish interests.
A statement from the Director, Media and Public Affairs,
Ooni’s Palace, Comrade Moses Olafare, quoted Ooni Ogunwusi as saying, “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 the 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 politicians. 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 from one major to othe 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 have been 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 oars, I am going to seclusion which is the 6th since my reign. I inherited the tradition from my ancestors of thousands of years ago.”
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 seven-day seclusion location, along Iremo road of the ancient town, which is the cradle and traditional headquarters of the Oduduwa race worldwide.
A participant from Brazil, Erica Pinheiro, who spoke to newsmen, said that 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 that whenever Africa or Nigeria is mentioned in Brazil, the city of Ile-Ife first come to mind.
She said, “This is my second time in the country to witness this festival that celebrates creation of day and festival of 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.”
