Agriculture, surest way out of recession, says Alake of Egbaland 

The Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, has posited that agriculture remained the surest way out of recession for Nigeria.

The Paramount Ruler of Egbaland made the remark at his Ake Palace on Wednesday at a press conference held as part of the activities marking the 2017 Lisabi Festival sponsored by the next generation network, Globacom. The festival begins next Monday morning with the booming of guns at the Olumo Rock grounds, while the traditional inter-compound dance “woro” that usually takes place as part of the opening process will now  hold during the grand finale on Saturday, March 4th at the Ake Palace grounds.

The Egba monarch said a life size statute of Lisabi would soon be erected in Abeokuta and described the theme of this year’s Lisabi Festival, “Self reliance through agriculture for a secured future”, as a pragmatic way to deliver Nigeria from the current economic recession.

The Alake of Egbaland observed that the annual themes for Lisabi Festival were usually carefully chosen to resolve germane challenges facing Egbaland. He recalled that three years ago the theme was to stem the tide of pregnancies amongst Egba girls who got impregnated prematurely rather than attending schools while the need for Egba youths to be self employed by embracing vocations was the focus last year.

“We are just emphasizing what had been said many times before. We should be able to feed ourselves. We should examine why we prefer exotic rice to our own ofada rice. We are calling on our people to go back to the land by embracing agriculture. They should do poultry, fisheries, snaillery and so on as agriculture is our forte in Nigeria,” Oba Gbadebo concluded.

The monarch commended Globacom for providing robust support for preservation of culture in the country, adding that “Glo is number one in culture and support for the people. The company pioneered per second billing and others followed. We are looking forward to the sale of Lisabi special SIM cards”.

Oba Adedotun Gbadebo also announced that the visit to the Lisabi grove which usually holds on the Saturday of the week-long festival would now take place on Thursday to give room for a grand celebration of fun and merriment during the grand finale on Saturday.
The foremost traditional ruler further  revealed that Chief Duro Odebunmi from the Gbagura section of Egbaland is the 2017 Lisabi Hero of the year.