Ojude Oba 2025: Tinubu’s Minister of Arts, Culture Sets Internet on Fire, Attends Ogun Festival in Gorgeous Native Attire, Dapo Abiodun Slays in Regal Dansiki Outfit 

By: Olufemi Orunsola 

Netizens in Nigeria have found more than enough reasons to talk about the grandeur of the 2025 edition of the annual Ojude Oba festival hosted by Ijebu people of Ogun state following the attendance of the festival by Tinubu’s Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Hajia Hannatu Musawa. 

OPEN TELEVISION NAIJA (OTN) News reports that a video of the Katsina-born Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, which surfaced online on Sunday, June 8, has attracted the attention of many Nigerians who have commended the spirit of the festival and values projected by the Minister’s presence at the Yoruba festival.

OTN News further reports that in the video, which is already going viral on the popular x(formerly Twitter) platform, Hajia Musawa was seen stepping out in elegant traditional attire, gracefully walking alongside two other beautiful women, all dressed in colourful, richly embroidered Yoruba Attire, adorning equally distinctively stylish headgears.

Many netizens could not resist the spontaneous urge to shower praises and encomiums on the Minister, commending her for projecting the grandeur and beauty of unity in diversity.

Meanwhile, in a similar talk-of-the-town viral video on the Ojude oba Festival 2025, the Ogun state Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, who is from Ijebuland was sighted in another viral video uploaded on his official X handle dorning a Regal Dansiki outfit made of Damask and fluffy  feathers on its edges customised to suit the corporate colour of his yellow roof housing revolution mantra, with a well-matched Yoruba Abetiaja (Dog-eared) cap that crowned the look with a princely finesse while brandishing a befitting trado-modern staff to taste. 

Abiodun, in a message attached to the video, felicitated with the king and the people of Ijebu Ode on the celebration of Ojude Oba for this year.

He wrote, “We are getting set as we step out to join our people in celebrating this year’s Ojúde Ọba Festival — a timeless tradition that showcases the rich cultural heritage, unity, and pride of Ijebuland.

Other highpoints of this year’s Ojude Oba Festival was the prominent feature of Farooq Oreagba, who went viral in 2024 for his stylish and commanding presence on horseback. 

Fondly referred to as the "King of Steeze” for his regal look and confident aura, Farooq has been an online sensation renowned for holding his horse’s reins with one hand while clasping a cigar with the other hand.

This year, he made a powerful return, turning heads in a rich brown aso-oke agbada and sokoto designed by Rhobes Official. He accessorized with a silver Cuban link chain, rings, and a majestic gold staff crowned with a lion’s head, further cementing his title as “The King of Steeze.”

A retinue of Nigerian nollywood stars among whom towered Lateef Adedimeji graced the Ojude Oba festival.

OTN News reports that the popular Ojude Oba Festival is held annually in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, South West of Nigeria, on the third day after the Eid-el-Kabir amid pomp and pageantry with sons and daughters of Ijebuland, at home and abroad, flooding the ancient city to pay homage to their Oba, an highly revvered monarch, the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, hence the coinage, Ojude Oba, meaning A Festival at the King's Courtyard.

For the records, Ọba Sikiru Kayọde Adetọna, the Awùjalẹ̀ of the Ijẹbu Kingdom, a traditional state in Nigeria. He was installed as the king on 2 April 1960, which makes him one of the longest reigning monarchs in Nigeria. He is a member of the House of Anikinaiya.

While Ojude-Oba Festival has become a vibrant annual celebration that has become an integral part of the identity of Ijebu-Ode with observance spanning over about two centuries, the colourful event has earned global fame for its grandeur, cultural displays and public parades, horse riding, adornment of traditional attires by the entire social strata of Ijebbuland from the children to the youths, to women groups, men folk in their different strata as well as the aged all united to pay homage to their kong and culture.