By; OLADELE ADEDAYO, Ado-Ekiti.
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi has assured that the Yoruba speaking states in Nigeria will soon have a common anthem in local dialect that will be sung at every public forum, immediately after that of the nation.
The monarch gave the assurance during a courtesy call on Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose at the Government House, Ado Ekiti to round-off his two-day official visit to the state.
According to him, the need for such Yoruba anthem had become necessary in view of the need to inculcate the spirit of solidarity, unity, service, love and togetherness on every Yoruba person, irrespective of age and status.
He said he got his inspiration about forming a common Yoruba anthem after listening to the one already adopted by Ekiti State many years ago.
The Ooni said he was challenged by the contents of the Ekiti anthem, which he said was laced with messages of solidarity, hope, peace, and unity.
He also promised to soon release a book that would further add value to his current peace efforts across the country.
Oba Ogunwusi said his two-day visit to Ekiti state had been most rewarding due to the prevalence of peace and display of mutual love among leaders and their followers.
He described the state as a model, saying most of the new experience gathered in the state would be adopted and incorporated into the overall Yoruba affairs in near future.
“My ascension to the throne of Oduduwa is not by mistake, it was God, the creator that ordained it and it is my belief that He has a clear role for me, and that role is to bring all my people together and foster peace among them.
“We Yorubas must learn to do only those things that unite us, and not those that separate us because there cannot be growth and development where peace and unity are conspicuously absent
“The time has come for us leaders in the country, especially those of us in Yorubaland to put supremacy aside, we are all nothing before God, we are just basically human”, the Ooni said.
In a response, Fayose thanked the Ooni for extending his visit to two days to enable him fraternize more with the Ekiti people and urged him to continue with his tempo of peace and prayers for the Yoruba people and the entire nation.
