Osun Celebrate Oodua World Children's Day in Grand Style

State Government of Osun celebrated Children's Day in grand style as thousands of school children and over 80 eminent traditional rulers from Yoruba speaking states and other parts of the world assembled Osogbo, the capital of the State for the event tagged Oodua World Children's Day.

Governor of the state, Ogbeni. Rauf Aregbesola in his speech, noted that the Children's Day can be traced back to the 1925 'World Conference for the Well-being of Children' in Geneva.
He said the event has since been adopted by most countries of the world as a special day set aside to honour children, to protect them and give them everything it takes to be what they are meant to be in life.

According him, "In Nigeria, Children's Day, as we all know, is held on May 27 every year. It is meant to highlight the rights and needs of children - the need for love, care, affection, protection and nurture.
It is also meant to underscore the right of children to material well-being, to education, to moral guidance and proper value orientation."

"We are determined, that among the various programmes we are executing, education will be the grandest. That is why we have embarked on the most ambitious projects in education."
This year Children's Day was celebrated with children and royalties from Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, Lagos, Kwara, Kogi, Edo and Delta States of Nigeria; West African countries of Benin, Togo, Ghana and Sierra Leone; South American countries of Brazil, Argentina and Colombia; Cuba; Caribbean; and the United States attended the event in Osogbo."

Aregbesola said he was of the conviction that the realization of the socio-cultural and economic integration of the Yoruba race can be greatly enhanced by imparting that vision into children because such a cultural renaissance agenda cannot succeed without including children.
"The Yoruba cultural integration can only be meaningful if the children, who would carry on the culture, are properly socialized into it. We can begin right from here, the cradle of the Yoruba race; to plant the seed that may germinate into something that will in time surpass the wildest dream of the brains behind the idea."

Also speaking on the occasion, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, described Children's Day as a unique event that needs to be continued for the progress of Yoruba nation. He noted that the traditional rulers of Yorubaland in Nigeria and the Diaspora have once again come together to forge a united front for the progress of
the entire black race.

Alaafin, who was with the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade, in a single outing for the first in many years, said the Yoruba people, wherever they are, need to come together for the benefit of the race.
Pigeons were released as a symbol of unity among Yoruba rulers wherever they are across the globe.