Igbo-Ora World Twins Festival celebrated in grand styles

Thousands of Twins stormed Igbo-Ora for the 2021 edition of the World Twins Festival, which was celebrated with Glitz and Glamour recently with the grand finale at Igbo-Ora, Oyo State.

The festival which was established to celebrate the uniqueness in multiple births marked the fourth edition in its rebranded series at the World Twins Capital, Igbo-Ora with the theme ‘Twinning for Global Medical Breakthrough’.

The historical town of Igbo-Ora that is renowned for having the world highest concentration of living multiple births was alive over the weekends as it attracted dignitaries from all walks of life to celebrate with the unique beings at the festival aimed at celebrating the multifunctional international heritage of the town that is most prominent with multiple births with a record of twins in virtually every household in the community.

The one-week-long festival which was put together by Twins World Creations in conjunction with the entire Igbo-Ora Community has twins of different classes, tribes, ages and sexes in their large numbers in colourful attires at the festival. In Yoruba land, Twins are often referred to as ‘Oba Omo’ literally meaning “King of other children” and this connotes why they receive so much respect and honours in the society.

According to His Imperial Majesty, Oba Dr Lamidi Olayiwola Atanda Adeyemi III, the Alaafin of Oyo expressed his joy at the festival, said it is a great pride and blessing that all over the world, it is in Yoruba land that we have the world highest concentration of Twins. The Royal father added that other Nations with high numbers of twins include China and Brazil but are not as prominent as what we have here at Igbo-Ora.

The first-class monarch who is also the life grand patron of the festival also emphasized his gladness that the Almighty blessings of good luck as having the world ‘First’ with multiple births. He prayed for blessings for the twins, their parents, lovers of twins, the entire Nation and the world at large.

The Special guest of honour at the festival, Chief Okikiola Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR), the Former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was represented by his wife Chief Mrs Bola Obasanjo who doubles as the mother of the day, expressed her happiness in associating with the festival.

According to her, “this is unique; the festival can attract tourists to our country which will help our economy to grow”. She, therefore, calls for supports from government and corporate organizations for the festival.

In his address, The Olu of Igbo-Ora, Oba Jimoh Olajide Titiloye said “in Igbo-Ora, there is no household without twins or other multiples. This phenomenon has been associated with so many things but the most important is the blessings and favour of Almighty God on our town; the people, the water, the soil and the environment are all blessed”.

Meanwhile, the Ibadan Oyo State-born twin ambassadors and festival facilitators, Taiwo and Kehinde Oguntoye in their joint address stated that the festival happens every second weekend of October annually and attracts dignitaries on a pilgrimage tagged ‘Twins Pilgrimage’ to the land of twins.

Oguntoye twins stressed that “Leveraging on the successes recorded at the previous editions which staged the World Largest gathering of Twins (Multiple births) on Saturday, 12th October 2019 with 3,200 and on Saturday, 13th October 2018 with 2,034 sets of twins in attendance respectively.

“Last year edition of the festival was a mini-celebration due to the ravaging global covid -19 pandemic as we are optimistic that this year festival is just a tip of the bigger picture of what to expect in the coming year 2022 when all components of the festival will be included.

“The birth of twins and multiple births is a blessing and have in some ways reduced the rate of maternal mortality, however, there are some associated challenges that occur during the formation in the womb and one of the prominent is having twins conjoined. This is one of our premises to celebrate one of our medical breakthroughs as it relates to multiple births.

“The twin brothers were also known as The Most Famous Twins in African Tourism, further said “Today, we are celebrating the medical team that separated the conjoined twins at National Hospital Abuja in the year 2020 which was a major medical breakthrough for us as a Nation of multiple births. Also, we are showcasing to the World our uniqueness in well packaged cultural content. We hereby call on all and sundry to support our drive to celebrate multiple births as a unique creation of God”, they said.