The 2025 edition of the Ojude Oba Festival in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, has once again highlighted the country’s chronic inability to host international-standard cultural events, despite its rich traditions and growing global spotlight. What should have been a spectacular showcase of Yoruba heritage quickly unraveled into scenes of overcrowding, failing infrastructure, and grossly inadequate hospitality.
Every year, following Eid al-Fitr, Ijebu Ode becomes the epicentre of a vibrant cultural celebration. Once a modest post-Ramadan homage by early Muslim converts to the Awujale, Ojude Oba has morphed into a global attraction, drawing tourists, fashion influencers, and culture lovers from across continents. Yet, for all its visual splendour and viral social media moments, the festival remains structurally unsound and poorly managed.
The 2025 festival drew larger crowds than ever before, yet it was painfully clear that the city was woefully unprepared. The Ojude Oba Arcade, located within the palace grounds, could no longer handle the volume of attendees. Reports of people collapsing under the heat and congestion flooded social media, while access routes became bottlenecks, leaving both guests and emergency workers stranded.
A travel journalist who attempted to cover the event shared, “I found it nearly impossible to capture quality footage or enjoy the visual elements of the festival due to the suffocating congestion.” For an event with international aspirations, such failures are not just disappointing, they are dangerous.
The city itself also failed the test. Roads across Ijebu Ode remained riddled with potholes, dust clouds, and general neglect. The lack of public transportation alternatives or crowd dispersal plans left visitors frustrated and vulnerable. For elderly participants, the journey through the city was less a celebration and more a physical ordeal.
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Things didn’t improve with accommodation either. At Skoley Suites Hotel, a local lodging facility that charged ₦25,000 per night, guests were faced with broken water systems, no food options, and zero customer care. “The water pump wasn’t working,” was the excuse handed to visitors after long days under the sun without the ability to shower, flush toilets, or even wash their hands.
These are not isolated complaints. They reflect a pattern of neglect, one that reveals just how little the city has reinvested into basic infrastructure, despite the significant economic boost the festival brings. Transporters, vendors, entertainers, and artisans benefit briefly, but the structural decay of Ijebu Ode remains largely untouched.
Indeed, while the festival turns the city into a booming hub of commercial activity for a few days, there are glaring questions about where the money goes. Why are hotel standards still abysmally low? Why do roads remain death traps? Why are crowd control measures nonexistent? And why do medical response teams appear overwhelmed year after year?
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If the festival is serious about earning UNESCO recognition, a goal often mentioned by organisers and local elites, then it needs a total overhaul. The time has passed for treating Ojude Oba like a village carnival dressed in fine clothes. Its future depends not on more viral photo ops but on deliberate, strategic investment.
“The world is watching. And while the vibrant costumes and captivating parades continue to impress, they are not enough. Ojude Oba must grow beyond aesthetics. It must prove that it is not only culturally rich, but also structurally sound,” said Desmond Ike-Chima, a travel journalist and culture advocate who attended the event.
With 12 months until the next edition, there’s still time for the planners, the traditional council, and even Tinubu’s government, which loves to talk about tourism potential, to act. But the clock is ticking. One more chaotic Ojude Oba, and the story might shift from colourful celebration to national embarrassment.
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