The people of Ogidi-Ela in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State have been celebrating the Ogidi-Ela Day cum New Yam cultural festival for the last six years.
According to the oral tradition of Ijumu, the Ogidi-Ela people were said to have migrated from Ile-Ife through Iddo-Faboro in today’s Ekiti State ,moving towards what is now known as Iyamoye to eventually settle in their present location known as Ogidi.
The Ogidi cultural event which usually holds in the month of June every year, has been adjudged as one of Nigeria’s biggest cultural festivals, which has attracted a large turnout of illustrious sons and daughters of Ogidi both at home and from the diaspora; sons and daughters of Okun land at home and abroad, members of the diplomatic corps, foreign tourists, high profile personalities and cultural enthusiasts to the community, over the years.
The 6th edition of the Ogidi Day celebration which held recently at the Ogidi Town Hall was indeed captivating, as the event featured cultural performances from various troupes within and outside the state.
As early as 7am, the hitherto sleepy community went into a festive mood as women, men, youths and children all trooped out in various processions to dance to the tunes of their traditional drums and songs, prior to the formal commencement of the event.
As the day advanced, dignitaries from within and outside the state, cultural troupes, cultural enthusiasts and other invited guests, continued to throng the venue in their numbers to witness the ceremony.
The ceremony commenced proper when the chief celebrant, the Ologidi (Paramount Ruler) of Ogidi, Oba Alhaji Rabiu Oladimeji Sule was ushered into the venue of the event, amidst rousing ovations and jubilation from the crowd.
Once the Ologidi was seated, the event began in earnest with the singing of the national anthem ,followed by the Ogidi anthem after which opening prayers were said for a hitch free ceremony.
There was the sound of the “Ogidigbo”, a local wooden musical instrument, to signify the official commencement of the cultural event.
The next stage of the event was the paying of homage by various groups to the chief celebrant, the Ologidi of Ogidi, to demonstrate their allegiance and loyalty to his reign.
The first group to pay homage to the Oba was the Olojo Olokoro/Olu-Otun groups and followed by the Orotas.
These groups who were colourfully attired, sang and danced in a procession to the point where the Oba was seated, and prostrated before him as mark of allegiance and honour.
After these groups were done, various male and female groups in the community, also the Ebira community in Ogidi, the Iyamoye group and others took their turns to pay homage to the Oba.
In the same vein, all the traditional chiefs, titled women of Ogidi, all farmers, hunters and the Elegbejegbe groups amongst others, took turns to pay homage to the paramount ruler.
While on procession to pay homage to the Oba, the hunters who were all armed with their guns and other hunting weapons, demonstrated their hunting skills by shooting intermittently into the air as a mark of honour for the Oba.
The various cultural troupes from Edo, Ekiti, Osun, Lagos, Benue and Ondo also took their turn to pay homage.
Colorful performances and displays by the various cultural troupes took the centre stage, immediately after homage was paid to the Oba.
In the same vein, the Aduni and Nefretiti cultural troupe, the Efik dancers and Ondo cultural troupe as well as Iyamoye group, Nike group, Swange Dancers, Olaga Dancers, Iya Epa dancers and Ebira group ,all took their turns to showcase the best of cultural dances and performances.
The high point of the event was the presentation of new yams to the Ologidi of Ogidi, by the “Yeye-Oba” of Ogidi, Mrs Nike Okundaye for Royal blessing after which he makes pronouncement
One unique thing about the Ogidi Day celebration is the fact that, apart from the glitz and glamour of the cultural performances that were usually showcased by various troupes, the cultural festival has been galvanized as an avenue of attracting meaningful development to the community over the years.
Ogidi community has been witnessing rapid development in the areas of health, education, water supply, women and youth empowerment, through the support and donations that are usually made by some spirited individuals/partners from within and outside Ogidi kingdom.
One of such partners is the Ripples Foundation UK, which had supported the community in equipping the cottage hospital in Ogidi with state-of-the-art equipment, and has been organising free medical outreaches annually for locals over the past six years.
Chief Executive Officer of Ripples Foundation, Mrs Anne Toba, said the focus of the Organization was on issues that have to do with the wellbeing of women and children in communities.
“We work with women. We are into women empowerment. We believe that if you can develop or empower a woman, she can look after her children, she will look after her family, she will look after her community. So it is the ripple effect of empowering a woman that we are so passionate about and also the youth.
“The community has given us about 150 acres of land and we will be working with about 2,000 women in not just Ogidi but in the whole of Ijumu. What we want to do is that we are working with a partner university in the US, who want to practice agroforestry and pharmaculture, which is farming without using fertilizers or chemicals.
“All those experts will come here to teach them how to do their own manure and their own insecticides. And when they (the women) work with us for two years, they will become independent.
“We will be raising cattle; we will be raising goats and we will be raising sheep. You could start with 10 goats and within a year, you could have 160 goats. So, if we give a woman 10 goats and say this is your own; you can go and start your own business. If she follows our training, by the end of the year, she will have 160 goats.
“We will take back 12; 10 for the one we gave her initially and then two for us as interest so that the next woman can also benefit,” she said.
Speaking on the significance of the cultural event, the Ologidi of Ogidi, Oba Oladimeji Sule said the festival was meant to appreciate God for good harvests, and at the same time use it as an avenue to attract development to the community.
“This is our Yam Festival; we are celebrating our yams and we are taking the opportunity to reach out to people that can support some developments in this community. We have invited many people to be here today.
“The secret behind the yam festival is that our elders felt that yam is something very miraculous; you cut it into pieces and put it into the ground and within six to seven months, it becomes bigger ,and what you eventually harvest from it would be more than tenfold of what you put in the farm. And we are saying that since God has done that, we need to celebrate it and thank the Almighty for it.
“The Ogidi Day celebration has contributed a lot in bringing foreigners to this community who have helped us in the areas of development. We have some of our illustrious sons and daughters that usually bring foreign nationals to this community during the occasion of the Ogidi Day, and that means development for the community, the state and the country at large.
“The appeal we are making to the state government is to construct our road because, once you are cut off, you can’t develop. We want this road to be tarred. We learned the road is already in this year’s budget and we are appealing to Governor Yahaya Bello to please just help tar this road up to our boundary with Ondo State,” he said.
On his part, the President of Ogidi Development Union (ODU), Mr Kayode Eniolorunda, expressed happiness over the success the event had recorded over the years, especially the various donations and support the community has received to further the cause of its development.
He assured that the union would ensure accountability and transparency ,by ensuring that all donations made to the community were judiciously utilized for the overall good of the people.
“Monies we received are judiciously utilized and the accounts rendered as at when required every year. If donations are tied to particular projects in the community, so shall it be.
“Last year, Mrs Diana Chan of CIG Motors Ltd made a donation of N2 million to us. It is my pleasure to announce that the money has been effectively deployed to help activate our existing boreholes.
“Her noble gesture has ensured that water is made available throughout the length and breadth of our community,” he said.
He added that in an effort to further showcase Ogidi to the world, the Ogidi Development Union has launched a website where people from across the globe could access information about the Ogidi Kingdom.
Kayode said efforts are on to galvanize the array of unemployed youth in the community to form cooperatives and other talent utilization programmes, to help promote the cause of putting their energies into income generating endeavors.
He commended the efforts of all those that have contributed to the development of the communities, and urged others to join hands with the community’s quests for holistic development.
Kayode appealed to the Kogi State Government to support the cottage hospital in the community, especially in the areas of health personnel and expansion of infrastructure, to accommodate the state-of-the-art medical equipment supplied to the hospital.
He said the hospital also needs a 100KVA stand by generator set to guarantee uninterrupted power supply, especially during surgical operations.
Director General, Kogi State Bureau of Information Services and Grassroots Sensitisation, Mr Abdulmalik Abdulkarim commended the people of Ogidi for organising such a colorful cultural festival, assuring that the administration of Governor Yahaya Bello would give the community the needed support to enhance its development and the general wellbeing of the people.
“This is one of the many areas of interest for this government; the promotion of culture and tourism is germane to this Government of Yahaya Bello ,and he is doing everything possible to achieve that.
“That was one of the reasons for tackling insecurity in the State because Kogi State is blessed with abundant tourism potentials, and if there is no security in the land, you cannot expect tourists to come around.
“With the war on terror almost won, we are moving to the next stage of collaborating with the various cultural activities of the various parts of the state, and promoting them to the best of our capability and ensuring that they are given international attention.
“Ogidi is very peculiar; it is an ancient town that is very rich in cultural activities. No wonder even today, you can see foreigners from other African countries and also from Europe who have come to grace the occasion.
“So, it is the interest of the government to leverage on this and promote the cultural potentials of the state, which in any way apart from the entertainment aspect, is also going to rake in a lot of income for the state.
He said the state government would give the needed attention to development of the tourism sector to boost its revenue earnings.
Credits: Itodo Daniel Sule | Daily Trust
