Ooni thrills Lagos audience with Christian songs

IT was a joyful homecoming at the weekend for members of the Lagos Country Club, one of the biggest and popular clubs in Nigeria.

The club’s 2016 New Year party was particularly different, not because the popular Juju maestro king, Sunny Ade, was on the bandstand, but the presence of the new Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, who chose to make the event his first appearance at any Lagos function.

He was crowned the 51st Ooni of the ancient city of Ile-Ife, Osun State, in November last year. Expectedly, it was a long procession that greeted the arrival of the Oba.

The men were gaily dressed in complete white Yoruba attire with red beads on their necks and hands. They were dramatically sounding the metal gong. One was blowing the long traditional flute, and another a short trumpet. Another group melodiously sounded small gongs eulogizing the Ooni, just as the women were singing and dancing in praises to the king.

They were led into the hall by the king’s ‘forerunner,’ a man dressed in white agbada (flowing garment), who was singing the monarch’s praises and praying for fortune, strength, and wisdom in all of his future endeavours.

Another man dressed in complete white traditional attire, symbolizing purity, with a scarf-life dress wrapped on his head, also prayed passionately for the smooth sailing of the Oba. As the procession ended, Oba Ogunwusi, dressed in white attire with a purple cap and holding his staff of office, surprised his audience when he was handed the microphone.

He started his speech by singing Christian songs, to the effect that the Almighty God has never changed and will never change. Tune after tune, the Ooni returned all glory back to God, as the crowd joined in reverent adoration.

Earlier, president and chairman, management council of the club, Chief Kayode Moradeyo, commended the state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, for fulfilling his electoral promises to Lagosians. He, however, pleaded for support in building a multi-storey car park for the club.