Drama as school teacher wins Globacom’s car at Ojude Oba festival
Winner of Globacom’s Hyundai Accent Car, Ayodele Dada (left), receiving the key to the car from Ojude Oba festival’s Special Guest and Senate President, Bukola Saraki (right), and the company’s representative, Folu Aderibigbe.
For a 30-year-old mathematics teacher at Quite Pretty School, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, the rhetorical question “What’s in a name?” could not have been more germane, given what transpired at the 2018 Ojude Oba festival on Thursday, August 23.
The Hyundai Accent star prize.
The mathematics teacher indeed lived his name, Ayodele Dada, as he drove home a brand new Hyundai Accent car courtesy of national telecommunications operator, Globacom, sponsors of Ojude Oba festival. It was not just because his first name, Ayodele, means “Joy has come home”. It was the manner of how he got the car that was even more fortuitous.
Globacom had organized a raffle draw for its subscribers as part of the celebrations, with the star prize being the brand new Hyundai car. The requirement to take home the car was that the winner had to be present at the festival, a condition already communicated to those who entered for the draw. As the Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland, Oba Dr. Sikiru Kayode Adetona, picked the draw for the car, the first person whose entry was selected was not at the venue. He proceeded to pick the second and the third who were also not at the draw.
The crowd waited with bated breath as Oba Adetona picked yet the fourth entry ticket. This time round, the owner was at the venue. And it was Ayodele Dada! An ecstatic Dada screamed and ran up the stage as the audience cheered in deafening applause. It became more dramatic as festival officials calmed him down and asked him to button his shirt before the key of the car was presented to him by the Guest of Honour and Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and Globacom’s representative at the grand finale, Mr. Folu Aderibigbe.
“I am shocked beyond words. If anybody had told me that I would own a car this year, I would have laughed it off as a big joke. Imagine I had just called my girlfriend just before the draw telling her I was bored and wanted to leave the venue of the show. I did not know this was what God and Glo had for me,” Dada said as he wiped off tears of joy.
Miss Ojude Oba: Winner of Miss Ojude Oba beauty pageant, Ololade Aminat Adeiye (3rd left) with 1st runner-up, Kofoworola Osoteku (1st left), 2nd runner-up, Halimah Olorode (2nd right), Miss Nigeria International, Adesewa Adewusi (2nd left), comedian, Odunlade Adekola (1st right), and Globacom’s Folu Aderibigbe at the Ojude Oba Festival sponsored by telecom operatorin Ijebu Ode Ogun State on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a 200-level Accountancy student of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ololade Aminat Adeiye, emerged Miss Ojude Oba 2018. In the keenly contested beauty pageant, 19-year-old Adeiye defeated 12 others to pick the crown in the early hours of Friday at the Equity Hotel, Ijebu Ode, venue of the event.
Kofoworola Osoteku, an Environmental Education Graduate of University of Benin, came second, while Halimah Olorode of the Economics Department of the Olabisi Onabanjo University came third. The beauty queens were exemplars of Ijebuland and were tested on proficiency in Ijebu dialect, culture, poise, composure and general knowledge.
Rave of the moment, Mr Real, entertaining the audience at the event.
Comedian, Odunlade Adekola, digging it out on the stage with contestants in the beauty pageant.