Opinion
Remembering Pius Adesanmi, Aburo I never met
By Tunde Olusunle
I had two spells as student at the University of Ilorin, abbreviated by us as Unilorin. True, our university started as a college under the University of Ibadan, (UI). We were in a hurry, however, to assert our independence and define our own corporate identity, soon after we were weaned off our mother’s breasts. Unilorin has since imprinted itself in Nigerian and global consciousness. The sheer quality of human resources it has availed the world, its groundbreaking ventures in research, teaching and mentoring, the holistic gamut of knowledge production and dissemination, has since earned it a more fitting appellation. We call it the Better By Far citadel. My primary excursion through my alma mater, ran from 1982 to 1985. The succeeding odyssey, straddled 1987 to 1989. I studied English on both occasions, with a dominant slant for literature which I explored for my long essays and thesis respectively.
Several years after my departure from Unilorin, the name “Pius Adesanmi” became recurring in the public and literary engagement circuits, in Nigeria and beyond. He was at once a poet, scholar, critic, satirist, columnist, author, maybe theorist as well. Biographical information about him which I picked up in places, described him as a product of Unilorin and he was said to have studied French. The English and French faculty subunits in my time, were subsumed under a single department, known as the “Department of Modern European Languages,” MEL for short. Far into its teething years, the department was steered by the respected English scholar, literary critic, editor, David Cook, who helped to build the twin-arms of the department, into formidable, global reckoning. Cook earned a first class degree in English from the University of London in 1954, and a masters degree in 1956. He taught at the University of Southampton, before relocating to Africa in 1962.
On your next outing, you just may encounter: Charles Bodunde; Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju and his wife, Omotayo Oloruntoba-Oju; Sola Babatunde; Gbenga Ayeni; Tivlumun Nyitse; Sunnie Enessi Ododo; Wumi Raji; Sola Mike Olorunyomi; Tunde Akanni; Rasheed Na’Allah, Bayo Afolabi, and several others. They are all distinguished professors, or professorial-cadre eggheads serving in universities and other institutions in Nigeria and elsewhere in the world. They are all sterling products of the primordial MEL, Unilorin’s Department of Modern European Languages of yore, at the undergraduate or postgraduate levels, or in instances, all levels. Pius Adesanmi followed the footsteps of these older, inspirational alumni of MEL, Unilorin.
Even while I was still foraging for information on Pius Adesanmi, I would yet get to know that he was my “younger brother.” Within the context of the family and community in many African cultures, English-style labels such as: cousin, aunt, uncle, nephew, niece, are alien and rarely deployed in day-to-day interactions and conversations. In the Yoruba country for example, every other male or man, is as well your Baba or Boda, every female or woman your Mama or Anti. Egbon also suffices in referring to an older person, not as old as one’s parent, though, while aburo is a younger relative or kinsmen. Adesanmi actually hailed from the same hometown, Isanlu, headquarters of Yagba East local government area, (LGA), like me. His family house a whispering distance from ours. My family home is domiciled in Omowa Mopo, district, while the Adesanmis are in Itedo Ijowa, both in Isanlu. These were distances our people walked as leisure, before the advent of indulgent inventions.
I was born and raised out there in the old North Central and Midwestern states. Adesanmi was sired and groomed at home in Isanlu. This, however, did not detract from the genius he blossomed into. His father, Baba Alfred Dare Adesanmi, was a diligent, respected and inspirational educationist in contemporary Okun land in Kogi State. He taught and headed prominent schools in the area including: St. Kizito’s College, Isanlu; St. Augustine’s College, Kabba, and Titcombe College, Egbe. With his equally committed wife, Mama Olufunke Lois Adesanmi, they ensured their son got the best of education and mentoring, available anywhere. Remarkably, the younger Adesanmi demonstrated early passion for French studies even in these hitherto semi-urban destinations. He would go on to obtain a first class degree honours in the course. And he did so at an impressively young age of 20, in 1992! The differences in our generations, obviously privileged me to have gone through the university, many years before him.
Pius Adesanmi should have marked his 51st birthday February 27, 2023. It would also be four years after his very painful demise in a plane crash involving “flight ET 302” operated by Ethiopian Airlines, come March 10, 2023. The tragic incident occurred in an Ethiopian suburb called Bishoftu, en route Nairobi, Kenya. Jemilat Nasiru in a tribute in his memory, March 12, 2019, notes that: “If there is one name on the lips of many Nigerians, a name that weighs down the tongue with peculiar grief, a name that warms the heart with humour from memories past and pain of an unthinkable demise, a name that will only now encounter its embodiment in dreams and the world yonder, that name will be Pius Adebola Adesanmi.”
This is therefore a fitting opportunity to remember this meteor who shot through and shone in the global firmament of creativity and intellection, during his abridged sojourn on this side. As a poet, Adesanmi released his maiden, and sadly, only volume of poetry, The Wayfarer and Other Poems, in 2001. The book won the keenly contested Association of Nigerian Authors, (ANA) poetry prize, in the same year. It has been described as “a literary response to the ambiguities of oppressive power during military rule in Nigeria.” It is consistent with the over-arching thematic focus of poets writing within that milieu, who attempted “the mobilisation of poetic imagination in the resistance of the dominant military culture of the 1990s.”
Adesanmi released his collection of satirical essays, Naija No Dey Carry Last: Thoughts on a Nation in Progress in 2015. Despite his place in diaspora in a career which privileged him an American green-card holder and Canadian citizenship, simultaneously, Adesanmi’s umbilical interconnectivity to his homeland and to Africa, was never in doubt. The book is an overflow of the author’s vocation in public intellection. It is an aggregation of witty perspectives by the author about different sides and slides of Nigeria’s day-to-day experiences, even conversations. Udo Okoronkwo-Chukwu in a 2016 study suggests that the book deploys “satire to create political awareness and national memory… and scrutinises the growth of Nigeria’s democracy and the commitment of successive leaders.” The book was listed by Channels Television Book Club’s prestigious list of the “Best 15 Nigerian Books of 2015.”
His very seminal book, You’re Not A Country, Africa: A Personal History Of The African Present, ( 2011), is a groundbreaking collection of essays. Adesanmi attempts to interrogate what it really is, that Africa means to him as an African. By extension, it equally tries to distil the perspectives of other Africans, about their continent. An immensely prolific writer, he also authored *Who Owns the Problem? Africa and the Struggle for Agency, posthumously released in 2020, as well as Africa Matters: Cultural politics, political economies and grammars of protest, (2019), co-edited by Blair Rutherford, and among others.
Adesanmi obtained a masters degree in French at UI in 1998. He had engaged with some of Nigeria’s most revered scholars and literary creators, notably Olu Obafemi, Emeritus professor of English in Unilorin. UI will further expose him to literary icons like Wole Soyinka, Femi Osofisan and Niyi Osundare. He pursued a doctorate in French Studies from the University of British Colombia, graduating in 2002. He was between 2002 and 2005, assistant professor of Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University, in the United States of America, (USA). He was engaged by the Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada in 2006, as professor of literature and African Studies. A prodigious global brand, Adesanmi harvested strings of honours and awards in his impactful career. He won the inaugural “Penguin Prize for African Writing” in the fiction category for his landmark work, You’re Not a Country, Africa. He also won the 2017 edition of the “Canada Bureau of International Education Leadership Award.”
Pius Adesanmi is survived by his aged mother, Mama Olufunke Lois Adesanmi, his wife, Muyiwa, and two young daughters, Oluwatise and Oluwadamilare. Back home in Isanlu and the broader Yagba sub-country, Adesanmi continues to be missed. Tayo Akanbi, an engineer and civil servant, one of Adesanmi’s childhood friends, recalls with nostalgia that Adesanmi was in the process of having his own address in Isanlu, by way of building a small house in the community. Ralph Omololu-Agbana, journalist and Adesanmi’s classmate at Titcombe College, Egbe, recalls his late friend’s consternation at the weaponisation of the 2019 elections, when they chatted before his departure. Agbana recalls Adesanmi saying in Yagba: “This is unbelievable. You mean arms were brought into our pristine oasis of peace and serenity in Yagbaland? This is ominous and totally out of our DNA.”
Nduka Otiono, also a Nigerian-Canadian like Adesanmi, who is associate professor at the Carleton University, collaborated with Uchechukwu Umezurike, to produce a memorial poetry collection in honour of Adesanmi. Titled; Wreaths for a Wayfarer, a pun on Adesanmi’s first and only poetry volume, the book was published in 2020. I have equally paid tribute to his memory in my newest volume of poetry, A Medley Of Echoes, (published in 2022), in a poem titled “A bouquet for Bola.” Bola is abbreviated from Adesanmi’s middle name, Adebola which he rarely used. February 17, 2023, Carleton University where he worked for nearly 15 years, rising to the position of Director, Institute for African Studies, (IAS), named a new *Pius Adesanmi African Studies Resource Centre, (PAASRC), after him. We all continue to savour the *cologned* memories of a brother and kindred spirit who was on this side, albeit for brief. One who nonetheless engraved his name indelibly, on the sands of time.
Tunde Olusunle, PhD, poet, journalist, scholar and author is a Member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, (NGE)
By Hamza Lamisi
No doubt that one of the expected big game Changers of the 10th National Assembly, particularly the Senate, is the emergence of a vocal voice who ran one of the country’s most persecuted election campaigns in Nigeria’s history. From the feminine gender in a male dominated political ecosystem to being transracial in a highly conservative District; a Christian in Muslim-saturated bargain table of stakeholders, from being single to inter-tribally married in a natively and culturally republic Ebira Land. Not only to contest in a struggling opposition party but to face the most ruthless Chief Security Officer of her State, from her District.
The odds were obviously too many but Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan upturned the guess – defeating the threatening ruling party and emerging the first female Senator Kogi State ever produced. She defined the turning point of Kogi Central’s representation in Nigeria’s bicameral Parliament. Unlike her colleagues from Kogi State who rode on the backing of the number one citizen of the State, Senator Natasha’s road to the red Chambers was never paved, it was a tough and rough journey of determination, persistence, unwavering dedication and commitment to a dream held in trust for the people.
She walked through the storms and she is shaped by the lessons – to remain bold, assertive, unbroken, unbeaten and unbowed by any circumstance, because only by struggle and perseverance freedom comes. Not unaware of the systemic dialogue, lobby and collaboration but Senator Natasha would not do so at the expense or in exchange of the People’s trust and mandate for which she swore oath to protect.
Stepping into the Senate as a survivor of election and litigation battles, and looking back to the unwavering support and uncommon trust of Kogi people and Nigerians by extension, notwithstanding already some months behind her fellow law makers, Senator Natasha was prepared to have the end justify the means. Barely 16 months from the very day of her swearing-in till date, Senator Natasha’s contributions and impact in the 10th Senate have left many wonder if she was a first time Senator or one elected from the minority opposition. Most popular and best performing member of the current National Assembly.
Just within one year in office, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan lit 30 kilometers of road networks across Kogi Central with over 2,000 solar powered streetlights. Over 1,300 women and youth were trained and empowered by the law maker. Senator Natasha has supported the tuition fee of over 353 vulnerable indigenous students at tertiary institutions nationwide. She has faciliated federal employment opportunities for various graduates and facilitate capacity building trainings and empowerment for many others.
She brought a reliable supply of portable water to Kogi Central communities with 12 water reticulation projects with each being a massive 50,000-liter solar-powered motorized water system, which serves 300 locations and provides, 1,800 fetching taps.
To draw legislation closer to the grassroot, Senator Natasha engaged 100 constituency aides both men and women across the 57 wards in Kogi Central. She has distributed 12 trucks of grains, 10, 000 wrappers for women, 20,000 notebooks, 5,000 school bags and reconstructed and remodeled Abdul Aziz Attah Memorial College Okene (AAAMCO), Okene to smart school.
Within one year in office, Senator Natasha has attracted employments in both federal agencies and private organizations to over 30 graduates from her constituency.
Ihima community has been without police station for the past 7 years, Senator Natasha embarked on total reconstruction of Ihima Police Station which was commissioned by the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun.
Senator Natasha distributed 4 trucks of fertilizers totalling 2,400 bags of NPK and Urea fertilizers to Kogi Central farmers. Free Business CAC registration of 2,500 SMEs. She has empowered Kogi Central students from 12 selected tertiary institutions across Nigeria with multipurpose business cart and start up fund.
Commissioned six constituency offices in the five LGAs to make government closer to the people. Senator Natasha has sponsored two motions and two bills including the bill for the establishment of Nigeria Gold Reserve, the bill for the establishment of Ihima Federal Medical Centre, motion to investigate alleged corruption and inefficiency in Ajaokuta Company Ltd and National Iron Ore Mining Company, NIOMCO amongst other.
Senator Natasha has provided 5,000 digital learning devices to both public primary and secondary schools in Kogi Central.
For her magical achievements in office and accelerated development and impact her constituency has witnessed, Senator Natasha has received and even turned down several prestigious awards. She emerged Senator of the year 2024 which is her first year in office as Senator.
Achieving these feats in less than 16 months as a first time Senator and one from the minority party and from Kogi Central, one may wonder what could be the Achilles’ Heels of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan in the 10th Senate and why the persecution by supposed colleagues in the Chambers. Is there a question of loyalty to individual rather than institution? Is it her performance record or her dedication to the business of legislation rather than playing the cheap political cards around the leadership of the Senate? Is it her idea of universal development of Nigeria rather than regional? After all, every Senator is of the Federal Republic Nigeria and should think and act so.
We may ask further; is anyone being threatened by her uncommon pace? Is there a question of envy or jealousy among her colleagues? Do they expect Senator Natasha to be one step behind, considering the enormity of the task on her shoulders as Senator from an already underrepresented District in the past? Is there a fear that Senator Natasha may reveal to Nigerians what is due to them from their representatives across boards? We may have more to ask than provide answers.
Meanwhile, Senator Natasha is a more than equal to the task of addressing the challenges that come with standing out in an uncommon manner. She is not one to be taught the difference between ‘diplomacy and cold slavery’ or ‘breach of rules and violation of right’. Nobody can silence her or box her to a corner of the Senate. Beyond her voice and impact over the years as an ordinary citizen, the people have been her greatest strength and she can only get more strengthed by any attempt to silence her.
Nigerians know how rare it is to have a NATASHA among the current crop of leaders and they are obviously making sure she is protected against bully, intimidation or harassment in the Senate. The dream is of the people, by the people and for the people, and so the mandate too.
By Professor Mike Ozekhome, SAN, CON, OFR, LL.D.
I have carefully read and listened to former Nigerian military president, General Ibrahim
Badamosi Babagida’s public remorse and regrets over the atrocious annulment of the June
12,1993 presidential elections. He did this 32 whopping years later. I want to very quickly say
that it takes a man with strong guts and balls and a man who has become repentant, born
again and has seen the face of God to publicly recant his earlier wrongful deeds and offer
public apology to the entire nation. This was no doubt meant to heal gapinng wounds and
balm wounded and bruised hearts.
The polls, the best, most transparent and credible elections, ever held in Nigeria till date,
were meant to end decades of military d The annulment threw Nigeria into turmoil and
widespread unreast, protests, maimings and killings. This forced Babagida to “step aside”;
the enthronenent of the Enest Shonekan’s Interim Government; and the arrest and detention
of Chief Moshood Abiola, the presumed winner who later died in Aso Villa in questionable
and suspicious circumstances. Of course, General Sani Abacha who was his second in
command later sacked Shonekan in a bloodless coup. For years, IBB prevaricated on the
annulment, claiming he did it in the best national interest. But on Thursday the 21st of
February, 2025,Babangida during the presentation of his memoirs, “A journey In Service”,
pointedly regretted in the public: “I regret June 12. I accept full responsibility for the
decisions taken and June 12 happened under my watch. Mistakes, missteps happened
in quick succession. That accident of history is most regrettable. The nation is entitled
to expect my expression of regret “. And wait for it:: he acknowledged for the first time that
Abiola won the elections fair and square, trouncing his major opponent, Alhaji Bashir Tofa.
I want to salute Babagida for having the courage and humility to own up like a man; that
everything that happened during the June 12 crisis took place under him as the head of state
and the president who was also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria. I salute him for acknowledging that his government which actually
organised unarguably the freest, fairest and most credible elections in the electoral history
of Nigeria when it introduced option A4 from electoral books that were hithenlrto unknown
to Nigeria or to the world. But unfortunately, regrettably like he now admits, he again turned
around to annul the same elections in a way that was most bizarre, curious and unnatural.
To me, that he has come out to open up to doing something wrong and egregious to a
bleeding nation should be appreciated. I believe that Nigerians should forgive him because
to err is human and to forgive is divine ( Eph 4:32 ). I personally have now forgiven him
because I was also a victim of the June12 crisis. It threw up all manners of challenges to me
as a person, where in my very youthful age; in my thirties, I found myself marching on the
streets of Lagos every day- from Ikeja bus stop roundabout, to Ikorodu road; up to Tejuosho
market; from there to Ojuelegba, Surulere; to Mushin; to Shomolu and Igando, Alimosho.
Everyday, we were on the streets, protesting the mindless annulment. Some of us were killed
in process; some were lucky enough to escape abroad on self exile. But some of us- very few
indeed- refused to flee our dear country; we stayed back. We stared at the military eyeball to
eyeball. We challenge authority and spoke truth to power. We challenged impunity and
repression. I suffered several detentions across different detention centres. I virtually could
not find means of livelihood for my youthful family because I was profiled, my phones bugged
and no briefs were coming in. But I personally forgive him because it takes tons of guts to
make public confession of having erred and atone for same as he has now done.
It is confession that leads to penance and penance leads to restitution and then forgiveness.
If Babagida were to die today, I believe that he will see the face of God because he has prayed
God to forgive him; and he has prayed Nigerians to forgive him. Beyond that historic and
epochal mistake of the annulment of the June 12 election which constitutes his original sin,
let me place it on record that Babagida is one of the greatest presidents that Nigeria ever had
in terms of his ingenuity, rulership mantra; ideas for national resurgimento; ideas that
contributed greatly to nation-building. These were aside the IMF-induced loans and pills
which he introduced and which we again valiantly fought against successfully.
Babagida it was who gave birth to the Federal Capital Territory and laid the solid foundation for virtually everything you see there today. His government was peopled by intellectuals and
not by half illiterates and quacks. He recognized and used intellects. He was luminous and he built bridges of understanding, friendship and brotherhood across Nigeria. Nigerians,
please, accept IBB’s confession and forgive him his sin of annuling the June 12,1993
elections. Let the wounds heal; let the heart melt; and let the spirit of national triumphalism
prevail.
Festivals world over are the most popular forms of celebrations in human existence. Whether as religious, culture, sports, film, arts and other traditional practices, festivals are pivotal events that could involve millions of people in the case of the religion related across the globe annually or periodically. They are events that bring people together and are characterized with merriments, ceremonies, and a lot of other forms of fun and bonding.
Nigeria as a multi ethnic and diverse society with over 250 ethnic groups is enriched with various forms of festivals observed annually with those of religions most prominent with the celebrations by Muslims and Christians. Similarly, the traditional worshippers retain their own forms of festivals all depending on the tribes and the culture involved. Several among the religious and cultural festivals in Nigeria include Christmas the celebration of the birthday of Jesus Christ, the Easter that heralds lent and the resurrection of Jesus after death while Islam has Eid-el Kabir and Eid El-fitri which is breaking of Ramadan fasting. At the level of culture and tradition there other festivals that comes to mind that includes Argungu fishing festival in Kebbi state, the new yam festival predominantly among the Ibo speaking tribes, Durbar festival, Calabar Carnival, Osun festival, Ojude Oba festival, Igue festival among the Benin people of Edo state, Oro festival, Osun festival, Sango festival, Egungun festival all among the Yoruba people, New Yam festival, Eyo festival popular among the people of Lagos Island in Lagos state and so on.
Durbar Festival
The word Durbar is traced to Persian and is connected with the ceremony marking the installation of Queen Victoria as the Express of Colonial India in 1877 while the word have been pronounced and propounded as “darbar” with dar meaning door and bar meaning entry or audience in Hindi-Urdu. In Nigeria, Durbar is a treasured cultural horse riding and display festival majorly among the Hausa people of the northern Nigeria to mark the Islamic holidays of Eid-el- Fitri [end of Ramadan} and Eid-el-Adha [the feast of the lamb]. The over 400 years old practice is said to have been introduced by Sarki Muhammadu Rumfa of Kano in the late 14th century as military parade and display when horses were used in battles to defend and protect the Emirate and also the opportunity to pay homage and demonstrate loyalty to the emir. It is also part of demonstration to showcase the readiness of the palace troops for battles and to also celebrate important political events. Available information has it that the first major Durbar in the country took place on the 1st of January, 1900 as part of the celebration to mark the transition of the Royal Niger Company to an imperial Protectorate.
Also known as horse ride festival it is worthy of note that horses and to some extent camels played prominent roles in the growth and developments of the today prominent Nigeria cities like Kano, Katsina, Zaria, Sokoto and Bida. In the 14th century before the sojourn of Christopher Columbus, aside being used during conquest and in battlefields under the command of the Madawaki who leads cavalry of horsemen with their horses loaded with various weapons, horses were used mostly for commercial activities particularly the trans Sahara trade expansion with items like salt, gold and farm produces.
Ceremonies
The activities and ceremonies involves “Hawan sallah” in Hausa language {meaning Mount of Eid} which in essence connotes the mounting of horse during the Eid or sallah celebration. The ceremonies begin with prayers at Eid grounds followed with parade of the Emir and his entourage on horses followed with drummers and trumpeters with the movement ending at the Emir’s palace. The parade includes hundreds of beautifully decorated horses with nobles in their best clothes followed by musicians and magicians all in a long procession in distinctive turbans {Rawani} clearly indicating their nobility and social status through streets to pay homage to the Emir. Other special attractions particularly in Kano Durbar which is acclaimed to possess the biggest parade of colouful horses in the world, include the display by the “hyena man” who carries out street performance with trained animals like hyenas and baboons which create a lot of excitements and entertainment for the hundreds of crowd in attendance.
The procession of the strictly male event showcases participants dressed in flamboyant turbans and robes with modes indicating their royal linage. Kano Durbar for example is four day event that commences with Hawan sallah on the day of Eid followed by the day 2 and most popular for its entertainment and glamour Hawan Daushe for the special visitation of the Emir and his colourful entourage to his mother in her domain. The display of various entertainers including magicians, drummers, dancers, stunt men and masquerades attract and witness the attendance and spectators across the globe. The other two days are for Hawan Nassarawa and finally Hawan Doriya which are both continuous aspects for merriment during the festival.
The Emir’s return from his mother’s visitation on the day 2 {Hawan Daushe} is followed by The Jahi that sees the him and his entourage ride through various important historical quarters and families before returning to the palace. On arrival the Emir in a military manner takes position to receive salutes and traditional greetings from the cavalry of riders along with the various district heads, their families and entourage in order of hierarchy. This is followed by the demonstration of loyalty and gallantry by all the riders and spectators present. After the homage and performances, [The Jahi] the palace guards take positions and fire several gunshots to signal the closure and end of the day and most important aspect of the four day festival.
Durbar festival has become annual festival celebrated across cities Northern Muslim dominated cities of Nigeria like Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Zaria and Bida and was extended to Ilorin in Kwara state during Eid el-fitri and Eid El-Adha. Generally speaking, the Durbar festival is not just the most population cultural heritage of the Hausa people of the northern Nigeria and major parts of Niger republic but it is festival that unite and bring the people together to celebrate their unique historical and cultural heritage.
Durbar festival recently has witnessed more activities like car racing and other fun fairs that attract sons and daughters of Hausa decent, visitors and tourist annually to places like Kano, Katsina and Zaria. The glamour, popularity and attractions of Durbar particularly the Kano Durbar festival over the years, led to the recognition of the festival as one of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO in in December 17, 2024. This laudable and significant achievement in the nation’s cultural heritage exemplified the extent to which the festival has become popular to the people and the role it places towards unifying the people through their rich cultural heritage. During the presentation of the UNESCO certificate, by the Permanent Delegation of Nigeria to UNESCO to the Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy Barr. Hannatu Musawa, opined that the great achievement does “not only celebrates the beauty and unity of the festival but also creates opportunities for the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage. The country’s representative at the UNESCO in addition stated that “Having the Kano Durbar on the UNESCO list is a huge milestone for Nigeria” while the Minister in her view remarked that “the recognitions bring both international prestige and tangible benefits to the local economy”.
In comparison, while Ujude Oba yet another similar festival of the Ijebu people of Ogun state in Western Nigeria, entails the participation of both male and female across various age groups as part of the big sallah [Eid-edha] celebration of the Muslim faithful. While both festivals identify or are associated with royalty, palace events and horse riding, durbar is strictly a male show and more of an horse riding festival while the practice is just an aspect of horse riding is just an aspect of Ojude Oba festival.
It is hope that the recent drive by the present administration leverages on the recent recognition of Durbar by the UNESCO to create more awareness through wider media coverage with a view of boosting general interest and tourist attractions which shall cascade or stimulate growth of the sector and also serve as source revenue to the governments across all levels.
Abdulkareem A. Ikharo.
Curator [NCMM].
Abuja.
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