Members of Ilajo Royal family of Kabba, both at home and in the diaspora, had a wonderful time together celebrating Christmas and New Year with great funfair as the festive period was marked with colourful activities.
The activities kick-started with the celebration of Odide day – a day set aside by the Royal family to celebrate Obaro Odide, the first monarch of Kabba ancient town.
The Odide Day celebration, which is an annual event, took place on Dec 27 at Obaro Palace, Number one Aofin with free medical outreach with several people in the community, both old and young, benefitting, followed by cultural dances.
The Central Committee Chairman, Elder Adeyemi Michael gave the opening prayers, praying for the unity and progress of the family and for over all peace, development of Owe land and God’s protection over all the people.
The revered Elder Adeyemi also prayed for good rains and bountiful harvests for farmers in 2026 and for government and prominent individuals’ interventions to site good companies in Kabba land so as to create employment opportunities for our youths.
Also speaking, High Chief Peter Oloba who is the head of red cap Chiefs called family members to be more united and focused and continue to exhibit the high moral standards and good virtues the royal family is noted for in the community.
While saying gentleness, deep native Intelligence and perseverance are the hallmarks of ilajo royal family, he urged members to always put trust in God and called on sons and daughters of the royal family to come home always for this kind of events.
In his sermon, Pastor Shae Bebeyi, who anchored the programme said the Odide Praise and Worship ceremony was a vibrant display of faith and heritage enriched by a concurrent medical outreach programme.
The 2025 ceremony which was themed “When Mercy Speaks” with Pastor Dr. Shae Bebeyi delivering a stirring message emphasized that human efforts, aspirations, and actions are ultimately in futility without the divine intervention of God’s mercy. He noted that it is mercy alone that saves, heals, delivers, and promotes.
Dr. Bebeyi, therefore, urged the Ilajo Royal Family and everyone present in the occasion to continually covet God’s mercy, leading a collective prayer for the family, the Kabba community and the nation of Nigeria.
The event was a true celebration of identity as local delicacies were served to dignitaries present which serves as a tribute to the Ilajo Royal roots, while performances by the Ilajo Cultural Group, the Erigbo Cultural Troupe, and the Ilajo Royal Sisters showcased a beautiful fusion of culture and worship.
At the ceremony, two categories of scholarship was given to dozens of students of tertiary institutions while helping hands was extended to widows through the gifting of food items, wrappers, and other clothing materials.
In attendance to honour the family were notable guests, including Kabba Development Union President, Alhaji Zachary Ejibunu and his wife, as well as Mr. Donald Oluyomi. Prayers were offered to God’s guidance, strength, peace, and prosperity for the family, Kabba town and the nation, Nigeria
The delegate conference comprising all the Ilajo Royal branches all over the 36 states of the federation and those in the diaspora was held on 28/12/2025, also at the Aofin, Obaro Palace with major issues such as unity of the family members, awards of scholarship to deserving students, among other issues discussed.
The Ilajo Youth meeting followed on the 30/12/2025 with the president of ilajo youth forum, Prince Jacob Arinola Arokoyo, discussing the need for youth rebirth, empowerments and the need for the youths to stop chasing an elusive white collar jobs but to formulate ideas to be employers of labour and be self reliant.
Delivering a paper entitled “Strengthening (Our) Cultural Heritage(s) for Community Development” by Engineer Pastor Olusegun Toluhi at the delegate conference, he delved so much on the need for indigenes to come and develop their ancestral town dwelling on legacy and heritage as good virtues which every member of the royal family must crave for
While urging them to build heritage more than legacy, he said: “When your preoccupation is about you, your family, your name, and your achievement in the present life; then, you’re building a legacy. When you arrive at that state of mind, when your activity is governed more, by your legacy after your death and the preservation of your lifetime goals for the benefit of generations to come, then, you have begun to think and build a heritage.
“To build for generations, the building process must be long-term, equitable, justiciable, and sustainable. Whoever seeks to build a heritage requires insight for long-term planning, an objective mindset that seeks justice and fairness, and a desire for continuity.
“This builder must be knowledgeable, practical, unbiassed courageous, charming, and totally clear minded. He or she must be a skillful leader with integrity.
“Here in Owe land, we are predominantly a community of hardworking, intelligent, skillful, upwardly mobile professionals with a genial mentality. For us in Oweland generally, life is good, if we can feed, clothe, and house ourselves to taste, without recourse to anyone.
“When we can help others achieve these goals, then we are successful. The thresholds that define our graces are fundamentally, contained as if on a leash. We are content with basic supplies. Reason, the ‘Eleramo’ syndrome is dominant in our midst. We think legacy, when we should be thinking heritage. The difference between ‘legacy’ and ‘heritage’ is a gulf that we can not exhaustively deal with at this time,” he stated.
Pastor Olusegun Toluhi, however, called on the people to embrace their culture and not to lose their identity as a result of Western civilization, saying a set of people is known and identified through their culture.
While emphasizing the need to preserve our culture for meaningful and significant community development, he stressed that good culture drives growth and enhances peace.
“While ‘culture’ is the vehicle for transformation, ‘values’ is its fuel. In other words, values are the driver of the driver of culture and its shift. Please let this sink in deep into your mind – without values, there can only be culture that is crass and not transformative.” he added.
Earlier, on December 14, the Lagos branch of the Ilajo Royal family had their colourful banquet, which was attended by the creme de la creme of the society.
Delivering his address at the colourful event, the President- general of Ilajo Descendants Union, Dr Samuel Dare Alori, thanked God on behalf of the branch members and the Royal family at large for the grace to witness another annual banquet ceremony.
“This is a biennial event that brings our family members and well wishers together to thank God, appreciates one another, showcases some of our cultural values, and interacts for better and stronger relationships.
“We are here to share the excellence and beauty of our family values, cultural diversity of our community, and the world at large. Our coming together is unique today as this serves as strength and hope for a better relationship for the future of our family and community. We appreciate you all for coming.
“Family unity is central to community and national development. This can be achieved when there is love and peace. Let us love and support one another. Our participation in our community programme and activities will further promote community and national development.
“We thank God for the progressive development recorded in areas of our family cooperative society in Lagos, Family scholarship scheme and extramural classes/leadership training, website ilajo.com, empowerment and welfare support for our family members and community.
“This has enhanced our bonding with a deep sense of responsibility to our family, and we appreciate your continuous support in sustaining this laudable project, and we can always achieve more and better by the grace of God.
“Let us encourage our children and youths to identify with our family and community vision. Family is everything, and our root is everything as there is no place like home. I am challenging them to come up with implementable plans of programmes and activities that will promote their growth and capacity development and strengthen our family values and community development.
“As a community, Kabba and Okun, one of our major challenges at home and by extension the nation is security and unemployment, let us come together and strategically strengthen our security system in our community in collaboration with the local and state government.
“Our youth is key, a sustainable empowerment/ entrepreneurial and youth development programme will bridge the gap of unemployment and economic development. We encourage our Leaders/Elders to provide mentor-ship and support for our youths to sustain our family and community legacy.”
The ceremony was attended by the immediate past President- general of Kabba development union, Engineer Emmanuel Ajibero and the present President General of Kabba Development Union, Alhaji Zachary Ejibunu, leaders of Omo Okun liberty Association Worldwide, representatives of Omodo Family, Iyalode of Okunland among many other dignitaries with entertainment by ilajo cultural troupe Omo Okun film makers and guest musician.
Award of excellence was presented to three distinguished members of Ilajo Royal Family lagos branch Prof. Samuel Timothy-Jide Asobele, Elder Ebun Olayemi, and Prince Friday Awuto for their invaluable contributions to Ilajo Royal Family Lagos and for their exemplary leadership.
