Friday 14 August 2015

EKITI STATE: A rare beauty

Ekiti state was created on 1st October 1996, carved out from Ondo state……….. Am from this state so I can't promise not to be a bit bias. lol.  Unleashing the city's myth, beliefs, down to its superstitions. Most of the facts about the state is already  known. 
One of the major uniqueness of this beautiful state is the captivating hills that spreads all across Ekiti, trust me, they are hard to miss. Do you know that the name of the town was extracted from a local term “Okiti”, which means hill? The hills do not only magnify the mesmerizing views, they also have spiritual and cultural beliefs




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Another special thing about the Ekiti people is the “Ekiti Dialect”, this dialect is spoken all over Ekiti but there are slight differences in how it is spoken in various towns in Ekiti, some say it's as a result of spatial locations, especially the border communities to other states. For example the indigenes of Ado local government do not speak the exact same Ekiti dialect as the Ijero local government indigenes, while the people of Ikole do not speak the exact same Ekiti dialect with the Ikere indigenes. The interesting thing about the dialect is that it looks as if it is the mixture of dialects spoken in different path  of the states in  South West, Nigeria, a recipe of Ijumus in Kwara, Ijesa dialect in Osun state e.t.c. It's no news Ekiti people best food is Pounded Yam, Egusi soup and some fresh palmwine. A typical Ekiti man can eat that 3 times a day.

Olosunta and Orole Baba oke hills in Ikere Ekiti are one of the most popular hills in Ekiti. History has it that they  helped their village people during an atttack from Oyo Soldiers long time ago. They both opened up to hide their village people. Elders in Ikere said Olosunta opened up to release it's people after the war  but Orole wanted it's own kingdom/world so it never opened up. Till today it is believed people are still living inside this hill, and some people even claimed if you stay there long enough you can hear people singing, pounding yam and doing other activities too inside this infamous hill. I use to sneak out in secondary school to listen too. Don't ask me if i heard anything tho. lol.  Every year the people of this town offered sacrifice to Orole hill to appreciate its protection upon them.  
Apart from the hills, the city is also blessed with other glamorous tourist attractions, the warm spring, a waterfall, dam, beautiful rainforests and ridges. The city’s tourist attraction is like no other, I bet you can’t and wouldn’t find a warm spring in any other state (at least hasn’t been discovered yet). Ekiti is endowed with a spring which from it oozes cold and warm water with no man help involved; it is located in Ekiti West Local government. Also is the Arinta waterfall at Ipole-Iloro, the beauty of this waterfall is like no other, the serenity, bulky rainforest, clear air and the coolness of the waterfall itself can be felt all around the area. Then, there’s the man made Ero dam sighted at Ikun Ekiti, the dam even though man made, has it own life. The dam which was initially designed to cover only five kilometers but eventually developed into an eleven kilometer lake! Can you imagine?

Ilawe Ekiti
The Ekiti people are very, very intelligent set of people, most  people believes that we are stubborn tho (Snort) I think we are courageous and sweet. Besides Ekiti has been known to have produced the highest number of professors in Nigeria, koh easy to be accredited Fountain of Knowledge now, enough of the bragging. The only thing an average Nigerian know about Ekiti is that they are stubborn people. Can't claim or disclaim that tho. Someone asked me that which state has the most beautiful girls among yoruba state and you can guess my answer right?     Lol. I will post pictures of Ikogosi Warm spring and Ipole iloro waterfall when i visit again. Thanks for reading people....
Skyline view in Ado Ekiti