THE OONI OF IFE ON A MISSION FOR YOUTH EMPOWERMENT

The Arole Oduduwa & Ooni of Ife, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, on Monday launched an Adire textile production hub; a cultural centre built on a 30,000 square meters of land with a vision to empower the youths through the revival of local fabrics. While declaring the hub opened within the premises of the Ife Ground Resorts, Ile-Ife, Ooni Ogunwusi revealed that the ancient Adire textile is an agelong tradition of Ife, from where he said it was taken to the Abeokuta by the Egbas and other parts of the world.

"Our vision is to empower our youths because that is the way to go, if we empower them they won't be interested in protests and other things that might disrupt the system. A lot of them will be productively engaged and I am happy to inform you that we are doing that already."We are working with the textile department of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and other tertiary institutions across the country as well as Yoruba speaking countries like Cuba, Brazil, Venezuela among others.

"This innovation is a clear message to all that lots can be achieved through local technology and intelligence. Look at this whole place, it was built and decorated through local intelligence whole these fine touches were done with local fabrics (Adire)."This is the beginning and I can assure you that we have mapped out plans to take it across the entire country and beyond." The Ooni said.

Its a common knowledge that the Ooni has a huge passion for the youth, his contributions and considerations has always tilted in favor of the youth.