The Arole Oodua & Ooni of Ife, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II on Sunday played host to thousands of Ile-Ife natives and guests from other parts of the country to celebrate the 2019 edition of the annual yam festival.
While addressing audience at his Ile Oodua Palace in the town, the Ooni who was flanked by his beautiful queen, Olori Naomi Silekunola Ogunwusi, Ife High-Chiefs, priests, farmers and traders across the land pointed out that peaceful coexistence is the secret to economic prosperity.
The foremost African traditional ruler lamented that the incessant clashes between farmers and herders has been detrimental to the economy of the nation. He charged the two groups to embrace peace as a tool to enhance productivity.
“Both farmers and herders are two critical stakeholders in food production; I want to advise them to use peace to boost productivity.
“The government has been trying and has even promised to step up the fight against insecurity in the country. So I call on all stakeholders in food production especially the farmers to be patient with the government’s approach towards stabilizing peaceful coexistence across the country.” Ooni said.
On the motivation behind the recent economic boom across Ile-Ife markets, Ooni described the ancient city as the one prominent for countless economic activities earlier before modern civilization.
“The abandoned Ile Ife market also known as Oja Ejigbom’ekun which is the first market in the world and others like the Itakogun and Ajifowobaje markets as well as Oja Tuntun have been revived to bring back the lost economic glories of Ile Ife.” The Ooni noted.
Afterwards, he offered prayers and sliced a tuber of yam which is a symbolic act declaring that farm produce is safe for consumption across the land, after which tubers of yam and other farm produce were shared among the excited participants.
