The Elerinmo of Erinmo land in Osun State, Oba Micheal Odunayo Ajayi has revealed why his people stopped producing rice in the community.
Oba Ajayi noted that the people of the community stopped producing rice, as they claimed witches were turning into birds and eating their farms.
The monarch who spoke in an interview recently towards his 10th coronation anniversary said rice produced from the town was one of the best in the country, saying efforts are on to return the people to production.
He said: “When I became king in 2014, I realised that the essential purpose of my kingship is to bring development to my people and cater for their welfare.
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“Over time, Erinmo has been known to be a spiritual town because of the potency of various spiritual mountains that we have. And people troop there for pilgrimage and they get answers to their prayers.
“At a time too, Erinmo was producing rice. Our rice was one of the best. Along the line, people stopped producing rice, saying that witches were turning into birds and eating their things.
“We are in the process of revitalising that because I had to convince them that everywhere there is fruit, birds will always go there to eat, and this has nothing to do with witches and wizards. They have accepted that.
“Erinmo land is fertile for so many things like cocoa and so on. We built a cocoa house where our farmers can produce and send forth, and then we can move on to the next stage of finding an export market or making useful use of them. Of course, we have arable land for farming and so on.
“We first of all have to provide the infrastructure needed. The electricity was there fading but we had to renew the transformer or whatever and focus on education to people who just thought they just go to school partially, but now everybody understands that education is the key.
“We provide food for those who are in need. We cater for the youth by helping them to support their businesses, and we cater for farmers and women by providing the tools they need as farm implements.”
Yusuf Oketola is a trained journalist with over five years of experience in the media industry. He has worked for both print and online medium. He is a thorough-bred professional with an eye of hindsight on issues bothering on social justice, purposeful leadership, and a society where the leaders charge and work for the prosperity of the people.
