From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will tomorrow on Tuesday, November 22, lead prominent Yoruba monarchs, including the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, and Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, to launch Yoruba World Centre in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
The project’s visioner, Chief Alao Adedayo, publisher of Alaroye newspaper, who made the disclosure, said the multimillion naira project has been sited inside Nigeria’s premier university, the University of Ibadan. The event, he said, would hold at the John Paul II Hall, UI.
According to him, the six governors in the South West: Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo) and Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti) as well as many eminent Yoruba leaders, are also expected to join Osinbajo to make another history for the Yoruba race.
Adedayo, who stated that the project is a brainchild of the International Centre for Yoruba Arts and Culture (INCEYAC), explained that the project signposts a new chapter in the advancement of Yoruba culture, history, tradition and values. He added that launching would feature the opening of the centre’s temporary abode, the presentation of a full documentary on the Yoruba World Centre, and the laying of the foundation at the permanent site by the vice president.
‘When completed, the Yoruba World Centre will have a standard library, an archive, a museum, a recreation, reconstruction and digital centre, a broadcasting and film village, and an artificial forest (zoo).
‘The centre will serve as a one-stop-shop that offers old, new, recreated and reconstructed materials for researchers, lecturers, students, authors, journalists, historians and members of the public interested in Yoruba history, arts and culture, as a tool for nation-building, national cohesion, and mutual understanding,’ he said.
Adedayo noted that as vibrant and vast the Yoruba race is, it has “no single institution anywhere in the world, where researchers, or anyone at all, can stay to conduct and complete works on the history, arts and culture of the Yoruba people.
‘Being the largest user of Yoruba language (in print) in the world today, and because of our daily interactions with the language, arts, culture and history of the people, through our newspaper-ALAROYE, we can confirm that there is no such institution in the entire world.
‘In addition to providing a good ambience for researchers, the Yoruba World Centre, as a knowledge centre, will help Nigeria and Nigerians in the onerous task of nation-building.’