*****Ekiti: A rocky state and its untapped potentials***** If you take a trip to Ekiti State for the first time, some of the things you will see are hills and rocky mountains of various types, shapes and sizes. The way nature arranged them across the state are so amazing. Their appearances are so fascinating that you will wish you have vacation and sufficient money to spend, so you can tour and savour the beauty nature has endowed Ekiti State with. In fact, the word “Ekiti” was derived from “Okiti” which, in Yoruba means hill or rock. This is simply because the towns and villages, which formed the state were established on rocky land surrounded by hills of different heights. For instance, at Efon town in Efon Local Government Area of the state, you find hills like: Oke Ahun, Obake Hill, Sagbonke Hill. This Sagbonke Hill is where the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Services (WNBS/WNBC), Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) and Nigeria Telecommunications (NITEL) Plc erected some of their transmission poles serving the old Ondo province. The huge poles are still there.The Public Relations Officer of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado- Ekiti, Prince Ade Adeyemi-Adejolu who hails from Efon said his people do not worship any hill because of the influence of the late Apostle Ayo Babalola, founder of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) who did a lot of revivals and destroyed a lot of fetish practices during his ministry. There are other communities, however, which deify and worship the mountains as protectors of the communual essence. One of them is Okemesi in Ekiti West Local Government area of the state. There, the people worship Oke Agbonna, which is celebrated annually. The Chief Priest in charge, Chief Aworokan, ensures that the traditional norms guiding the worship of this hill are obeyed including the presentation of sacrificial items it demands. The story was told of an ugly experience some worshippers allegedly had some years ago when a small cow was offered for sacrifice, instead of the big one used to be offered the deity. It was gathered that some honeybees stung the worshippers who went there that year for the annual festival. Among them was veteran dramatist, Chief Jimoh Aliu, (also known as Aworo in the famous Yoruba television soap opera “Fadeyi Oloro” and “Yanponyanrin”) who was said to have been there with some of his theatre group members. A journalist from the town who spoke with Daily Sun when the Chief Priest could not be met, Mr. Ademola Atobaba, disclosed that the priest always consulted Ifa Oracle to know what the deity desires as sacrifice each year. Chief Aliu confirmed this claim in an interview saying that the ugly incident occurred about 18 years ago on the hill at Okemesi-Ekiti. Although he was reluctant to narrate his experience, it was gathered that he allegedly took a video recording camera along with him to the shrine with intention to record, perhaps for film making. This was said to have been frowned upon by the deity, and consequently contributed to the bees’ attack. Ikere-Ekiti, which is the first major town you encounter if you are accessing Ekiti from Akure, the state capital, is surrounded by Orole Hill, Olosunta Hill, Ogele Hill, among others. The people of Ikere worship the Olosunta and Ogele Hills because of their historical significance and the spiritual benefits they are believed to proffer. According to Chief Odogun Are of Ikere-Ekiti, Ogele is worshipped first, during which the priest would fix the date for the Olosunta Festival, which is celebrated in August every year. During the celebration, young and old, men and women troop out to abuse one another, using the local slangs to mock and abuse themselves. On the Ogele Festival Day, the real worshippers and the priests climb the Ogele Hill during which they reverse all the curses. Chief Odogun disclosed that the paramount ruler of the town, Olukere coordinates the celebration of Olosunta Hill festival. He noted that if they fail to worship the Hills any year, the people will see the negative effects of not doing that. And each time they worship the hills they get opportunity of praying for the betterment of their lives and businesses, their families and relations. the celebration, young and old, men and Speaking on the economic values of the various hills in the state, the Commissioner for Trade, Investments and Innovation, Mr. Debo Ajayi, said Ekiti is endowed with a lot of solid minerals. He pointed out that the minerals are on the Exclusive List of the Federal Government and consequently, technically there is a limit to which the state government can harness the opportunities for itself. “We as a government are still trying to establish the quality and the quantity of the solid mineral deposits in the state, because mining and quarry businesses are heavy investments and the investors will want to know. The investors are interested in knowing the varieties, the quantities and the quality of the solid minerals. So in 2014 we budgeted to conduct what we called geo-physical survey of the state, which will help us establish these facts so that we can then share them with the potential investors. We are packaging a proposal that will allow potential investors in this sector to also build infrastructure because these are heavy materials to transport. And given our topography, this is a huge challenge, to be able to move volumes of these materials around, you know,” the commissioner said. He complained about absence of rail system that could aid transportation, saying: “We need a rail connection in Ekiti. That positions this agenda within the regional integration agenda. For example, as far as Abuja, no other region has huge deposit of granite as Ekiti State, even down to Rivers. But how do you get such materials transported to the places where they are needed without a good transport link to make it more commercially viable. We need to package a deal that investors can use revenues from these minerals to pay for such infrastructural upgrade.” He said three and a half years were not enough for the state government to get that proposal to fruition. Going by Ajayi’s statements, there is a variety of solid minerals embedded in these rocks. Among them are: Kaolin, marbles, quality granites, .He said there are some granites that require mere polishing. He disclosed that the state has the capacity to produce 20,000 tonnes per day for 50 years, but noted that the question of getting them to the end users after mining them is the challenge. Ajayi admitted that in the areas where people worshipped such rocks, the government would face a lot of challenges in stopping the practice, but noted that they could be persuaded over time especially if they found the mining highly lucrative and beneficial to the community. He added that they can also turn the natural resources into religious tourist centres, where they can build vertical transport system to help people climb such hills.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 19:24:04 +0000
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