Yoruba Leader Must Wake up from Slumber- Gani Adams

 

Yoruba Leaders  Must Wake up from Slumber- Gani Adams



Otunba Gani Adams is  the leader of the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, in this interview with Remi Oladoye, he spoke on the need  for Yoruba Leaders to wake up from slumbers so as to be able to move forward. Excerpt.

Sir as a custodian of Yoruba culture and tradition can you tell us what Oranyan is all about.

Oranyan as a deity is one of the heroes withing the deities of Yorubaland,he is a warrior, he fought a lot of war in Yorubaland and he is one of the most important institution we have in Yorubaland because he went to organize Benin where he gave birth to a child called Eweka, Eweka dynasty is one ruling house in Benin Kingdom today, and at the same time he became the became the Oni of ife and later became the Alaafin of Oyo, so deities like that needed to be recognise and needed to be laid emphasis to what he done if not for the festival it will be very difficult for people to know the role he played when he was alive

Sir Yoruba Unity is being threaten , what are your suggestion to restore unity and the lost glory of Yorubaland

Well, i think the Yoruba unity is not threaten, we just have to wake up from our slumbers and make sure we move Yoruba forward, i mean you are talking about this issue between Oni and Alaafin, i am sure there will be a way to resolve it later, Yoruba always react to issues in the appropriate time we don’t normally prepare and that has been our culture and traditions since the liberations from the shackles of oppressors , so i believe Yoruba Unity will not be threatened and we will move forward and at the same time lost glory will be restored back in due time

What are those things you expect too see in this celebration and are not here
We are watching because the stage we are now they have tried a lot, especially the traditional rite that the Alaafin is performing is highly unique, that will go a long way in sustaining the programme because you can start a festival in a very good form to sustain it is a always very difficult it is a serious challenge to anybody who is organising festivals, it require a lot of money, a lot of energy to mobilize people and a lot of orderliness in between the festivals . So i believe the way they start it the sky is the limit for this festival in future

Sir is OPC partnering with Alaafin on Oranyan festival or part of the celebration

Well we are partnering through Olokun festival foundation, we are partnering with Oyo people and the Alaafin, if you look at the brochure you will see picture there, we are in the midst of organising the festival if you listen to the speech of the Bishop Ladigbolu acknowledge me , when the preparation for the festival started, i gave them advise and we’ve done many things that we don’t want to say in the public to make this festival successful.