The paramount ruler, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, (Ojaja II) is set to celebrate his 50th birthday coming up later in the year with 50 projects.
He stated this recently during interactive session with journalists in Lagos.
According to him, culturally, a king of his status shouldn’t normally celebrate birthdays, “but because I am tying its significance to the projects to benefit humanity, I am celebrating it with the whole world.”
He explained that the 50 iconic projects will be very impactful ones that cut across every sector and relevant to human existence.
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“It will cut across so many strata of race, ethnic and even religious beliefs,” he said.
“We all come to this world for a certain reason and for me, to the glory of God, there is nothing I will ever aspire to become again in life. I have gotten to my peak and the utmost thing to do is to create a legacy for myself and be impactful to mankind,” he said further.
“Therefore for me, clocking 50 is beyond celebration. It is beyond the normal routine of what is expected from everybody. For this, I want to showcase 50 iconic projects as I turn 50. Those 50 iconic projects are going to be impactful projects that cut across every sector and relevant to human endeavous, ” he explained.
“Many people don’t really know what I do. Even before I became the Ooni of Ife in the last nine years, God has used me to set up very strong and formidable projects all over the world. I want to showcase that to the world, for the world to see that truly, you can be on the throne and still impact lives,” he added.
While encouraging Nigerians to be patriotic, the paramount ruler said there is the need to believe in the country, Nigeria.
“We are not very serious in Nigeria and I will say the only due we owe as a nation is patriotism. If we are very patriotic, we will realise that we will go very far. It is better we know that patriotism is what will take this nation out of the current doldrums,” he said.
“That is why out of the 50 projects that I want to showcase, one of it is the Adire Odua textile. We have been able to spread it across the world, to so many western countries. The Adire Ooni is 100 percent made in Nigeria. The only two components that are not here is maybe the importation of dye but we have our own material too which is indigo. We are doing further research on how to bring out an industry that will be making dye because we still import those items. Aside that, every other thing about Adire Odua is 90 to 95 per cent locally made,” he disclosed.
He explained further: “So for me, I will showcase 50 projects that God has actually used me to pioneer. We will show how it has helped people in the areas of the health sector, entertainment, manufacturing, education among others.
“Many people don’t know that I have a university called ‘Ojaja University’. I am putting together one of the best hospitals in the world here in Nigeria. A hospital where we will handle real emergencies without issues. The hospital has the best of everything. We will align with some foundations that can help when patients cannot meet up with demands of their treatment. It’s a place patients will be treated first before every other bureaucracy. It’s located in Lekki Phase One.
“Its one of the projects that I am going to showcase for my 50th anniversary. I didn’t even know how I achieved 50 projects. That’s the highlight of my 50th birthday. For me, its beyond being a king. For me, its service to humanity and God almighty will uphold it all,” he said.
Talking about his style, the Ooni of Ife said his dressing in all -white indicates, purity, spirituality, clarity and a very strong connection to spirituality.
“On my own, I have added some panache and refinement to it.
“For me, when you look at me from head to toe every day, everything I wear is 80 to 90 percent made in Nigeria. I am also a cobbler. When I was a kid, I went to learn shoe-making. I still make my shoes till date. I design all my shoes till date.”
Responding to questions on Ife as the source in the Yoruba race, the Ooni said it is one of the things he is working on as the king on the throne.
“I am working on getting the connecting infrastructure right, then we start to build capacity. Some of our very powerful festivals in Ife attracts millions of people. We have 12 major festivals that are like blockbusters.
“Every day in Ife, we have things to do, except one day. So in 365 days in a year, we have more than 300 activities to do in Ife. We still have about 12 to 14 festivals that are very massive and powerful. Many people do not know that about 500 to 600 years in the world, there was nothing like calendar or January to December. For us the New Year starts after the festival of Ifa. We use nature to count the year. Every 27 to 28 days, there will be full moon. Once there is a full moon. It is a complete one month.”
He added: “It is 13 times that we have full moon in one year. So every thirteenth full moon is a new year and it starts around May ending and June. That is the New Year for the Nigerian belief of the Yoruba people. It is tied to nature. That is the time you start to prepare for your harvest. Then you now pray to God to have a bountiful harvest between September and October, after the second maximum rainfall. That is where the advent of thanksgiving came. The Gregorian calendar is manmade just like the New Year we all celebrate in December.”
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