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
.
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?
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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 |