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OLOWU OF ORILE-OWU: Tourism can increase Nigeria’s GDP if serious attention is paid to it

Olowu of Orile – Owu in Osun State, His Royal Majesty, Oba Dauda Ajolola Adebimpe Akinfalabi Arole Ajibosin, Lagbedu 111, who recently celebrated his fifth coronation anniversary, spoke about tourist attractions in his community, tasking the government on paying serious attention to its development

When did your Royal Majesty ascend the throne?

I ascended the throne in 2016. That was when the governor of Osun State approved my candidacy as the new Olowu. I must thank God for His grace and mercy. It is now that I appreciate the popular dictum; ‘uneasy lies the head that wears the crown”. To every position of leadership, there are challenges attached. But my God has been taking care of every situation for me.

What is the level of preparation for the forthcoming annual celebration of the community’s festival?

The month of December is very special for our kingdom because we celebrate an annual festival called Odun Olowu (Olowu Festival of Hospitality). During this festival, everybody living in this community would prepare delicious food, most especially pounded yam, and all our visitors from far and near would be fed to their satisfaction. It is a heritage from our forefathers and it is a time to thank our creator for his goodness. We are going to have Owu Worldwide Convention this year to mark 200 years that they went on exile. The people were dispersed 200 years ago. The celebration will bring various blessings, both for the town and the people.

Before you emergent as the king, what was your preoccupation?

I joined the Nigeria Police Force in 1974, and I was posted to Rivers State in 1975. But due to some circumstances, I resigned my appointment and joined the National Cargo Handling Company. Few years later, I got better offer from Nigeria Port Authority, and later I switched to Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in 1992. I was there until my people invited me to be the Olowu as a crown prince.

During your recent five years coronation anniversary ceremony you spoke about the tourism potentials of the community, what are your plans for developing and promoting them?

Orile -Owu is one of the blessed towns with many historical tourist sites in Nigeria in need of government attention to develop and promote them for the benefits of the world. These tourist attractions include the wonderful Obalufon stream, the inner and outer walls, Okiti Mefa, Anlugbua ground match, and Ogbere stream. If these are carefully attended to they could increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.

Insecurity is affecting various activities in Nigeria, what is your advice to the government in tackling it?

Before now, there were no befitting building for any security agencies in my town but it is very important to provide relevant security outfits in a place such as this that God has blessed with unique tourist sites . I had to visit the Civil Defense Corps and state police command to find out what it would take to have their presence in my kingdom. They told me to provide offices for their personnel and I had to talk to some wonderful people, including my chiefs, who supported me. We were able to put up beautiful structures for them and their commands in turn gave us more personnel. Again, it is a way to provide security for tourists that would visit my kingdom. Increased tourism activities would create huge opportunities for the town and my people. Because tourists will lodge in hotels, move around and buy things from my people. As a traveller, I know that what we have in Owu kingdom are great gifts from God and what is left now is just to put certain things in place. Before now the ancient Olowu palace was in a total mess but today it is a beautiful place for tourists to visit. In the palace, we built an ultra modern town hall with 500 seating capacities.

Osun State governor representative at your coronation anniversary ceremony, Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Dr. Adebisi Obawale, commended your achievements in a short period of your reign, how do you feel about it?

I learnt a lot from my years of travelling to different places in the world including within Nigeria. If you fail to develop your town, nobody would do it for you. Apart from the security agencies’ outfits, we also talked about the judiciary. The Customary Court on ground was in a very bad shape. I contacted the authority in charge; the condition was also that if we can fix the building and make it habitable. So, we renovated the building and equipped it, but were not really satisfied. From that point, we decided to move from customary to the Magistrate level; again we built another structure for the Magistrate Court. Also, the only grammar school in the community, which is the highest institution we have in this town, all the buildings in the school compound were in bad shape. But today, the story is different. The buildings were renovated, fitted with computers and lab-oratory equipment and staff quarters were also built.

What is your relationship with other communities and the state government?

By the special grace of God, when I ascended the throne, I visited all the communities around us including Ikoyi, Ijebu Igbo, Ikire, Apomu, and Ife in Osun State. I also visited the Ooni of Ife. I was able to establish cordial relationships with the communities around us, and as such, we have been able to reclaim some of our lands from some of them. The governor is my friend; we have a very good and working relationship. This present government has done a lot for me and, I cannot forget them, because our people say any stream that forgets its source shall dry up. This government is not partial, if the government was partial, I would have been denied this throne. The sincerity of the governor is the bedrock of my success.

What should your people expect from you in 10 years time?

By the special grace of God, as the Olowu of Owu, this community would have been blessed then with not just one or two universities, but many tertiary institutions. Also, we are anticipating the arrival of many industries. *Stanley Ihedigbo

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  • I like my town

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