The visiting Ooni Of Ife Oba Adeyeye Enitan Babatunde Ogunwusi Ojaja II yesterday preached love and togetherness to Yorubas in the Diaspora during a colourful reception hosted by the Yoruba community at the Trade Fair Site in Accra.
The King who recently ascended the throne following the transition of his predecessor is in Ghana on a four-day state visit. He had earlier visited New Jersey and London.
The King of the Yorubas and a descendant of Oduduwa charged his people in the Diaspora to remember their ancestry and forge unity among themselves.
He expressed gratitude to his hosts for the warm reception accorded him and his wife explaining that his visit to Ghana was intended to cement the bond of goodwill that already exists between the two countries.
Ghana is host to fourth generation Yorubas who were represented during the function by the head of the ethnic groupings from Kumasi, Sekondi and Tamale.
The King reminded his hosts about the two cardinal demands of God which he said are the love of God and the extension of this to their fellow human beings. “Love your neighbours as you would want to be loved” in a speech which was full of divinity.
It is God, he said, who bestowed him with the position he now holds and to him he said all should express gratitude to.
“I will always glorify the name of God the King of Kings who exalted me to this position” he said.
Ghana he said holds a pivotal position in the maintenance of our cultures hence its inclusion in his itinerary, he said. The Ooni of Ife is one of the major African majesties and is scheduled to join President John Mahama in a social programme in Kumasi today.
In Kumasi he would pay a courtesy call on Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene.
The King would return to Nigeria with gifts presented to him by the Yoruba Community in Ghana and Association of Nigerian Students, the largest grouping of foreign students in the country.
The Ga Mantse, Nii Adama Latse presented the King and his wife with an assortment of gifts through an emissary who acknowledged the Ife ancestry of the Gas.
By A.R. Gomda