All is set for the fourth edition of the Idije Ayo Olopon as
Dignitaries; personalities, including the number 1 Player of the game in
Nigeria, are prepared to storm the city
of Abeokuta in Ogun state for the much anticipated grand finale of this edition
taking place at the June 12 cultural center, Kuto on Thursday, 8th
Of August, 2019.
The competition which is an initiative of the Lanre Laoshe Foundation
will be hosting 12 contestants from the south west region of the country. Two
Ayo Olopon champions each have been selected from Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Lagos, Ondo,
Ekiti, to be part of the contest tagged ‘Oga Ota’.
It will be noted that some of the African culture are
gradually going into extinction and a game like Ayo Olopon has been replaced
with Chess game despite the fact that both games requires the application of
intellect and calculations, hence, this competition is a way of reviving the
precious culture of Africa, most especially, the Yoruba traditional culture.
While speaking with the coordinator of the competition, Mr
Kehinde Oladehinde, he made it known that Idije Ayo Olopon started in Abeokuta
before spreading out to the whole South West region of the country which shows
how wide the competition has gone over the years.
He made it known that the convener of the competition, Lanra
Laoshe Foundation has done a lot for the culture as regards the competition,
stating that it has cost a fortune but the motive is not allowing the culture
to die. He also posits that Ayo Olopon can be compared to Chess game and with
the emergence of the competition, not less than a million are playing it
‘’It is an initiative of lanre laoshe foundation, he has
been able to do so much, it has cost a fortune, one thing about it is we don’t
want our culture to die, it’s a game u can compare with the chess game, it is
tasking, your brain must be alert all the time to play it, it is a game that
naturally put people’s brain into work, the fourth edition have exposed us to
the fact that not less than a million people have been playing it in south
west’’
He revealed that the vision of Idije Ayo Olopon is to become
a league and have a wide acceptance and recognition by Africans and the
government.
‘’We are looking out to a day when we will have the Ayo Olopon
league, our last one had BBC to cover it surprisingly. Some of the rules are
not there but we are working that out. We have done a new counter which was
made from local materials, we will be unveiling it at the final.’’
Furthermore , he adviced Nigerian Youths to embrace that
which is their own as it is the only thing they can be the best in.
‘’You can’t play football better than the creator, we won’t
play basketball like the Americans, youth of Nigeria, the white won’t play Ayo
Olopon than you, if we promote the game, we can also get into the Guinness book
of record’
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