The Arole Oduduwa and Ooni of Ile Ife, Ooni Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II on Saturday arrived Bahia Airport in the city of Salvador, Brazil received by representatives of the government of Bahia State, officials of the Nigerian Embassy and the Afro-Brazilians who came out in their numbers to honour the monarch they referred to as the symbol of their heritage.
A statement issued by the director of Media and Public Relations, Moses Olafare, copies of which were received by newsmen in Osogbo, explained that the monarch, was received in Salvador, the capital of Bahia state, alongside 17 other monarchs drawn across South Western Nigeria, several priests from Ile Ife, academicians, art promoters and newsmen around 3:00pm local time on Saturday by the officials of Bahia state and Nigerian Mission in Brazil.
Ooni Ogunwusi and his entourage who immediately after arriving the airport from Rio de Jenairo, proceeded to Boka Dogio, a place of worship founded by a prominent Brazilian of Nigerian descent from Bamgbose family in Lagos called Rodolfo Martins de Andrade, otherwise known as Bangbose Obitiko in Brazil also witnessed the service by the adherents.
Dressed in all white apparel, Ooni Ogunwusi who is the Co-chairman of National Traditional Rulers Council Of Nigeria in his words of exhortation, assured the adherents, who had turned out in large numbers to receive him, of his support, urging them not to relent, but to keep working towards bringing more people into the fold for the sustainability of the African culture.
According to the African foremost monarch, his mission is to seek, find and bring under one umbrella the people of Yoruba race, especially those living away from their ancestral home, not minding the risk and the cost such an assignment will impose on him.
He also implored them never to see themselves as people without identity, stressing that all descendants of Oduduwa like Itsekiri, Edo, Ga, Anago, Igala, Lucumi, Napa, Yoruba and a host of others around the world belong to the same family with their ancestral roots located in Ile Ife.
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