As conversations about public safety intensify, a prominent voice from the community has urged that one of the region’s most important cultural celebrations must not be abandoned. Farooq Oreagba has made the case that the Ojude Oba festival — a long-running, identity-rich gathering — should continue in spite of recent insecurity worries, but with more deliberate security planning and cooperation between organizers and authorities.
The festival holds deep cultural resonance for the people who attend it annually. Beyond its role as a ceremonial homage to traditional leadership, the event acts as a social anchor: it reconnects families, spotlights youth cultural troupes, and sustains small businesses that depend on the influx of visitors. For many, cancelling or indefinitely postponing such a gathering would be felt as a cultural loss that goes beyond a single missed weekend.
Oreagba’s position is rooted in that broader view of the festival as a social institution that reinforces identity and local cohesion. He argues that outright cancellation because of insecurity fears would effectively cede community spaces to fear, while a more constructive approach is to adapt the event’s security architecture so it can proceed safely. This framing shifts the decision from a binary “go/no-go” to a planning exercise that balances cultural continuity with public safety.
Practical steps, he says, should center on collaboration. Festival organizers, traditional leaders, local authorities and security agencies need to align their plans early and share intelligence. That means clearer communication lines, joint risk assessments, and rehearsed emergency responses. When stakeholders plan together they can identify vulnerabilities — crowd bottlenecks, entry and exit routes, medical points — and address them ahead of time.
Other recommended measures include tighter access controls and visible security presence to deter risk, while preserving the celebratory atmosphere. Screening at major entry points, strategically placed surveillance, and an increased first-responder footprint are all commonly cited risk-mitigation techniques. Oreagba also emphasizes community policing and the value of local volunteers who know the terrain and attendees; their presence can be both reassuring to visitors and useful to formal security teams.
Communication plays a dual role: informing the public about what to expect and reducing misinformation. Clear messaging about permitted items, arrival times, and emergency procedures helps manage crowd behavior. It’s also important to give vendors and nearby businesses a role in safety planning — they are part of the event ecosystem and can contribute to rapid reporting and practical support on the ground.
There’s an economic dimension behind the push to continue the festival. Local entrepreneurs, artisans and informal traders often depend on the seasonal volume of visitors. A cancellation ripple affects livelihoods beyond the immediate organizers, touching caterers, transport providers, tailors, and countless microbusinesses that prepare for the annual demand. Oreagba points to this wider economic footprint as another reason to invest in making the event safe rather than scrapping it.
At the same time, he stresses that continuing the festival does not mean ignoring public safety or taking unnecessary risks. The main thrust of his message is that caution and cultural celebration are not mutually exclusive. If done well, a safer festival can reaffirm communal resilience and demonstrate how traditional events can adapt to modern security realities.
Not every risk can be eliminated, and there will be trade-offs. Organizers may choose fewer access points, staggered arrival windows, or heightened screening which could alter how some parts of the festival feel. But Oreagba suggests these are acceptable compromises when weighed against the cultural and economic costs of cancellation. The underlying goal is to maintain continuity while accepting practical safeguards.
As the festival season approaches, stakeholders face a clear choice: cancel and incur the cultural and economic losses, or recommit to the event with stronger systems in place to protect attendees. Oreagba’s perspective urges the latter — a proactive posture that treats the festival as a shared community asset requiring modern risk-management rather than a liability to be avoided.
Whether the festival moves forward will depend on the quality of the planning that follows. If organizers, traditional institutions and security agencies can translate concern into coordinated action, the festival stands a good chance of going ahead in a manner that respects both heritage and public safety. Oreagba’s call is ultimately a call to partnership: to safeguard tradition by investing in the measures that make large gatherings safer for everyone.
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