Gaphar Adekunle Ojetola, chairman of 2024 Ibadan Cultural Festival planning committee, in this interview with Oluwole Ige, speaks about the festival, Olubadan stool, construction of ultramodern Olubadan palace, clamour for the creation of Ibadan state, among other sundry issues. Excerpt:
What is Ibadan Cultural Festival all about and what do you intend to achieve through it?
Ibadan has a very unique heritage and culture. This cultural festival is the occasion where we showcase our culture and rich history to the world and it also provides an ample opportunity for us as Ibadan people to come together once every year to celebrate ourselves and the indelible achievements of our forefathers, most especially the warriors that established this iconic city. Don’t forget that Ibadan is not just a city, it is a megalopolis, meaning a city without an end. To the east, north, west and south, Ibadan will continue to expand. If you go round Ibadan from morning till night and you continue to drive, you will never reach the end of Ibadan in four or five days. If you face any direction, Ibadan continues to expand and to get to the end might be an arduous task. Ibadan is the only city with 11 local governments and these local governments, despite their number is a kind of shortchange on Ibadan. That is why some governors broke down these local governments into Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs). When you add the LCDAs to the 11 councils, that makes it 29, meaning that Ibadan alone has 29 local governments and LCDAs. Statistically, Ibadan population is 56 percent of the entire population of Oyo State. Ibadan is just one city that has 63 towns under its authority and 3,089 villages, meaning that there are 3,089 Baales as traditional heads of these villages. There is no local government in Ibadanland that has not gotten up to 20 towns under its domain or territory, with their own rulers, all of them under the control of his Imperial Majesty, the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba (Dr) Senator Olalekan Balogun. Ibadan is so unique and diverse, yet we are one people. If you meet a truly Ibadan man, all you need to ask him or her is just two questions. Every Ibadan man must have a home within the city and a village, where his progenitor originated from. It is during Ibadan festival that we celebrate this uniqueness.
If you consider the vastness of Ibadan and the rate at which the historical city is expanding, has it brought any benefit to the town?
We thank God that it has brought enormous benefits to the people and the town, but because of its vastness, it is difficult to recognise. The first achievement or benefit is that it is very peaceful. People always look for a peaceful place or environment to settle in or stay. Ibadan is a mega city that accomodates everybody. Nobody will ever ask you where you come from if you want to buy or secure a piece of land. That is one of the benefits for all. That is one of the secrets why Ibadan continues to expand on a daily basis. We have seen a lot of non-Ibadan people having businesses in this historic city. Investors are just competing to bring businesses here. Ibadan is welcoming and friendly. It opens its doors to all people to flourish here. This in return brings massive benefits, though this also comes with its peculiar challenges.
What are the challenges?
It is like the challenges of a very big house. As a parent, if you have two or three children, your headache will just be two or three. But if you are like my father who has 24 children, your headache or challenges will be much in terms of responsibilities on these children. Our first challenge is that despite our vastness, Ibadan is yet to be recognised and accorded the status of a state. Ibadan is supposed to be a state because with its landmass and population, it is bigger than six states in Nigeria. That is our major and first line challenge. On record, we have about nine European countries that are not as big as Ibadan. Do you know that Ibadan is the second largest city in the entire Africa, the second most populous city in Nigeria, with about six million people. We are more populous than Enugu, Gombe, Osun, Cross River, Sokoto, Ondo, Kebbi, Edo, Bayelsa, Kwara, Adamawa, Ebonyi, Kogi, Nasarawa, Plateau, Ekiti, Yobe and Zamfara. We are bigger than these 12 states in Nigeria. Ibadan was the capital of the Western Colonial administration as at 1893 and also the capital of the Western Region since 1939. We operate the most orderly and peaceful monarchical system anywhere in the whole universe. Ibadan hosts the first university in Nigeria, first television and radio station in Africa, which was established in 1959. That is why we are a pacesetter, from which Oyo State derives its slogan. Ibadan is the only city that has seven federal constituencies. What Nigerian constitution says is that before you become a state, you must have six federal constituencies, so Ibadan is more eminently qualified or eligible to become a state. Ibadan is the first city to have a well structured housing corporation in Nigeria and the oldest surviving national newspaper in Nigeria, the Nigerian Tribune newspaper is located in Ibadan. As of today, we have no fewer than 60 radio stations broadcasting from Ibadan alone. You can’t get this anywhere in this country. If you look at the ancient Mapo Hall, that is one of only two town halls in Africa of Greek Roman architectural style. That is the only one in this part of the world and the second one is in Morocco.
The concern in some quarters is that despite these advantages of mass population and landmass, Ibadan, with arrays of prominent sons and daughters, has not been accorded the status of a state. What is the situation now. Do you want to continue like this?
A lot has been done in this regard and I want to assure you that works are still going on. Let me commend our elders, including Chief Bayo Oyero and his team under the auspices of the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII). They have been to the House of Representatives in Abuja to present our papers. That was about 10 years ago and they continue to follow up on it. But there is a constitutional bottleneck because two-third of the states in Nigeria must consent to the proposal for the creation of any state. It was easy during the military era to create a state with fiat than now. However, we are working on how we can get the consent of two-third of states in Nigeria to make Ibadan State a reality.
Do you think this is feasible or have you lost hope on the creation of Ibadan State?
No, we have not lost hope. Creation of Ibadan State is the only request Ibadan elders place before all our elected senators and lawmakers in the National Assembly. That is the only mandate we give them to deliver and it will happen very soon by the grace of God under the regime of President Bola Tinubu. All our leaders, including the Olubadan of Ibadan, President-General of the CCII, obas and high chiefs are working tirelessly on the creation of Ibadan state. We are not giving up at all because we deserve it. Like I said, we have been shortchanged for a very long time on this and they have to correct that anomaly. It is indeed an anomaly that must be corrected.
The project on the construction of a befitting palace for the Olubadan of Ibadan has been on for years. We have a palace in Oja’ba, which had been abandoned for decades. How many palaces do you have in Ibadan and when you are going to complete the palace beside Ibadan House?
We consider it unacceptable that we have not finished the construction of Olubadan palace for almost 12 or 13 years now. Works stopped on it about eight years ago due to some issues. But we thank God that with the arrival of this new President-General of CCII, Suleiman Ajeniyi Ajewole, one promise that he made while campaigning for the position is the resuscitation and completion of Olubadan palace. He specifically promised that Olubadan will move into the new palace December 2023. If you go inside the palace now and Olubadan chooses to move in today, the palace is habitable. But we want to ensure that everything is perfect and completely done. We commend all the 11 local government chairmen in Ibadanland because they rose up to the challenge by supporting the CCII and we also specially thank our amiable governor, Mr ‘Seyi Makinde, for encouraging the council chairmen in Ibadanland because this is their responsibility. Similarly, we want to appreciate all Ibadan people who have contributed one way or the other to this palace project. This is phase one of the project because phase two will soon commence. By the time we complete this project, it is going to be the best in Nigeria. If you see the 3-D image of this new Olubadan palace, you will realise what I am trying to explain to you. This palace, when completed, will be the pride of all the Yoruba race.
What are the activities lined up for the 2024 Ibadan Cultural Festival and how do you intend to use it to drive tourism in Oyo State?
Our proposal on the festival is awaiting the approval of the state governor. Surely, the festival is holding in April 2024 and it is going to be a week-long activities. We will start with a church programme and visit the Olubadan of Ibadanland to receive royal blessing and the state governor, Mr ‘Seyi Makinde. There will also be a symposium for the youth where problems confronting our younger ones will be discussed by experts with a view to finding solutions to such challenges. We will also have Ibadan conference which covers all the age groups, which will be sponsored by Jericho Business Club (JBC). We have another opportunity for a business luncheon where industrialists, entrepreneurs and investors will interact. It will be followed by a stage play that will be used to immortalise our warriors on how they fought many battles and conquered cities. That is more cultural and historical. We also plan to organise education competition from primary, secondary and tertiary institution, where participants will demonstrate their knowledge and academic prowess. We also have Amala Day and indigenous musician treat. This Amala Day is an opportunity for everyone to come into our venue and eat Amala with gbegiri, ewedu and goat meats free of charge. While savouring Amala delicacies, they will be enjoying renditions from indigenous musicians. We have another programme called talents hunts, where we will scout for Ibadan Indigenes with unique talents in all fields of human endeavours. There is also Orekelewa beauty and brain competition, where beautiful girls of Ibadan extraction will demonstrate how we dress in Omoluabi or virtuous ways without exposing their nakedness by projecting our rich culture. We will also have product exhibition for companies and organisations, football competition. The grand finale will come up at Obafemi Awolowo Stadium at Liberty area of Ibadan, during which we will honour selected individuals, corporate organisations with awards. I am happy to inform you that the Nigerian Tribune newspaper will be honoured with one of most prestigious awards as the only surviving national newspaper in Nigeria, situated in Ibadan.
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