A 21-year-old undergraduate of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Kwara State Sanni Solape, who represented Edo State, has emerged as Miss Olokun 2022. She was crowned by Aare Onakakanfo of Yoruba land and chief promoter of the pageant, Iba Gani Adams.
Twenty-six-26-year-old Obadiya Shanu, of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, representing Bayelsa State, emerged as first runner-up, while Iyanuoluwapo Akinbinu, 25, Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUE), Ogun State, representing Oyo State came third.
Adams said: “One of the reasons we celebrate the Olokun Festival and incorporating beauty pageant into it and other cultural festivals is to encourage our young people to embrace our cultures and traditions.
“We also celebrate the Olokun Festival and other cultural festivals to correct the wrong impression global world have about us because if you don’t write your history people will write it wrongly for you.”
Adams is also the National Coordinator of Oodu’a Peoples Congress (OPC). He held that the Indus and Jewish equally celebrated their cultures and traditions: “It is not about religion and should not be mixed together.”
He described the reigning and past queens as pride of Olokun Festival Foundation (OFF): “The foundation has never had any scandal since its inception 20 years ago.”