When was the last time you visited Ondo State?
What of Ondo City, the land of the Ekimogun?
Today, a trip to the Sunshine State without visiting the Nibanola chain of investments, including a three-star Hotel, Farm, Resort Centre, Golf Course and others is not a complete journey.
You need to return and take a look at the wonders going on in Ondo City, courtesy of a former Majority Leader of Lagos State House of Assembly, Dr. Ajibayo Adeyeye.
Adeyeye is not only a medical doctor, he is also a lawyer, politician, farmer, industrialist, philanthropist and hotelier.
His wife, Professor Olufunke Adeyeye, as expected, is a good backbone and supporter for these investments.
Adeyeye, son of former High Chief of Ondo Kingdom, the late S.K. Adeyeye, is performing wonders in the land of the Ekimogun.
Once you get to Kilometer 7, Ore-Ondo Road, Igbado, Ondo West Local Government Area of the state, you will start to marvel at the wonderful structure, right from the gigantic gate.
You also need to see the latest addition to Adeyeye’s chain of investments: the Nibanola Hotel, a three-star structure situated in the Odojomu area of the city.
To say Nibanola Hotel is the best hotel in the Sunshine State now is an understatement.
With affordable prices, this hotel, strategically sited in the heart of the town, is a delight to guests and visitors.
If you are coming from Ore and you enter Ondo City from Oka area, you can never miss this wonderful hotel standing strategically to your right, after the High Court Complex.
Adeyeye said when the idea of Nibanola Motherland came to him about six years ago, his immediate aim was to create a farm that will serve as a source of agricultural goods to not only residents of Ondo Kingdom, but also people of Ondo State, the South-West and, with time, Nigerians.
Today, this idea has become a mega structure with focus in other ventures such as hospitality and tourism. Basically, it has transformed from just a farm to an agro/tourism establishment, with facility to serve both local and international community.
During the inauguration, a former Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, said: “I am a well-travelled person and I am yet to remember a project of this type anywhere else, except here in Ondo City”.
Even the Osemawe of Ondo Kingdom, Oba (Dr). Victor Adesimbo Kiladejo, was not left behind in his commendations.
He said: “What we are celebrating today is not a surprise to those of us who are indigenes of Ondo Kingdom, because we all know your father, a special man. Papa, despite his wealth, despite everything that he had, he never had another address outside Ondo Kingdom”.
Nibanola Motherland is just about six years in operation but it is already seen as the “eighth wonder of the world” in the South-West axis.
It boasts of a farm that incorporates poultry, piggery, cattle ranch, camels, donkeys, horses, and tomato farms, among others, and sports facilities that include an international standard golf course. There are also lawn tennis courts, table tennis courts, swimming arcade, a standard gym, artificial lakes for all forms of water sports, amusement parks, a 64-room hotel facility, a bottle water factory, and a proposed Golf View Estate.
The new community with focus on agro tourism with world class facilities in sporting and tourism is so captivating, that when the doors of the facility were flung open to members of the public by the late Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, the level of development was shocking to many first time visitors, who saw the kind of facility and level of infrastructure put in place as surpassing the standard they are used to in this part of the world.
Adeyeye was a Special Adviser to Akeredolu.
Akeredolu, who was represented by his then deputy, Hon. Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, (now the governor), described Adeyeye and his wife, Prof Olufunke Adeyeye, as special gifts to Ondo Kingdom and the state.
He said:“On behalf of the governor of Ondo State, it gives me great pleasure to be present at this auspicious occasion of the commissioning of Nibanola Motherland. I want to heartily congratulate Dr.’Jibayo and his wife for this laudable project. “I am told this project is in three sections, the farm, the resort and the golf view estate, which is a private residential area of the facility. This is quite thoughtful of you, Dr Ajibayo. “Nibanola Motherland, in addition to its agricultural based operations, has all the attractions in these different areas, all in one location, you don’t need to go far, everything is here, this is indeed world class.”
Also speaking at the event which was attended by frontline traditional rulers and top government functionaries, a tourism practitioner and Chairman, La Campagne Tropicana, Wale Akinboboye, said though Adeyeye started with agriculture, “he has brought the mother of it all, tourism, to sit on top of it”.
“So, what we have here now is what we call agro tourism, tourism weaved around attraction. A lot of people talk about attraction. Attraction is just attraction and until you weave something around that attraction, it is not a destination. When it becomes a destination, that is when the trickle down effect of that attraction is realised in terms of economic benefit to the people.
“What the doctor, a lawyer, an entrepreneur and politician has achieved here is transforming an attraction into a destination. When I walk around here, I see sports tourism, I see adventure tourism, I see agriculture tourism, I see entertainment tourism, I see all forms of tourism. We also have a location here where you can fish, you catch your fish and they will roast it for you, for those of you that have never caught a fish before in your life, this is the easiest place to catch a fish.
“A lot of us keep our money in the bank, we are happy to know we have X amount of money. What does that add to humanity? It’s a piece of paper. What will add to humanity is what you are looking at here, the jobs that it will create, the opportunities that it will create, the lives that will be turned around, the people that will come from different parts of the world to mix and mingle with our people. The Europeans that will fly from different parts of the world to hike, to do kayaki, all kinds of sports, all kinds of possibilities are here, this platform is built for tomorrow’s people”.
An elated Oba Kiladejo said further: “There is nothing much to say again, many people have spoken. Is it the agro tourism centre, where we have everything? There is nothing you want you won’t find, we have the farm, a very big one, we have the Golf Course and many others, but in addition to that, he is also talking about having real estate, going into hospitality, at the end of the day, this is just a one-stop facility, a tourism centre.
“This is something that gladdens the heart of all of us in the kingdom, because some years back, we celebrated the 500 years anniversary of the existence of this kingdom. It was during the celebration that the idea of having Ondo City was conceived and you cannot talk of a functional city without talking of facilities like this. Hon. Dr. Adeyeye, I want to thank you for this.
“Beside the joy of having this kind of facility, one other thing that is of importance to me is the employment of our teeming youths, so I also thank you for this.”
Hear Ikuforiji again: “I recognise Nibanola Motherland as the very first private agro tourism resort in Nigeria. The two people behind this inspiring and beautiful project, Dr. Ajibayo Adeyeye and Prof. (Mrs) Olufunke Adeyeye, are people of accomplishment. They are people that the society should give honour and recognition.
“I have had the privilege of working with Dr Ajibayo Adeyeye for almost two decades now. The first major contact was at the Lagos State House of Assembly, where he served as the Majority Leader of the biggest House of Assembly in Nigeria. After that, we also spent four years together at the University of Lagos, reading law from the tail end of our tenure in the House of Assembly.
“Without doubt, this couple are a shining and an inspiring example worthy of our collective respect and admiration in terms of their collective service to humanity. They have been very dedicated and compassionate physicians and have provided invaluable care and treatment to those in need, always putting the needs of their patients ahead of all others.
“Jibayo’s foray into politics is to further serve humanity in a different capacity. His political decision has been a bold step and he has been a powerful voice resonating across our local and national governments. I can say it without fear of contradiction that Ajibayo Adeyeye contributed to the height the Lagos State House of Assembly attained.
“Today, we are here to commission this wonderful project and I don’t want to take too much of your time. He has already told us what the project is all about. I am a well-travelled person and I am yet to remember a project of this type anywhere else, except here in Ondo, congratulations”, Ikuforiji said.
While thanking the guests, Adeyeye declared that Nibanola Motherland is a vision he conceived with his wife, “and we have worked at it in the last three years. We started by establishing a farm, about six and a half years ago. In the farm we have a poultry and the poultry has over 60,000 layers and produce between 1100 and 1200 crates of eggs every day. We also have a piggery, we have a cattle ranch, a palm tree plantation, a cocoa plantation, a plantain plantation, a kolanut plantation, a tomato farm, among others.
“About two and a half years ago, where we are presently gathered was a very thick forest, we didn’t think of doing a resort, we were just doing our farm, but we realised the topography of the area, that the natural resources present here can be harnessed together as a major tourism potential for Ondo Kingdom, so we started.
“There is a mountain that is bounding us to the North East of the farm, we constructed 580 steps to the top of that mountain, so you don’t need to go to Idanre hills to go and climb mountain, Idanre is 680, there is 580 in Ondo City, in Igbado here.
“We also started with a nine hole Golf Course, but we have since expanded it to 18 hole standard international Golf Course. We have a table tennis court, a basketball court, we have six artificial dams, one of which we are using for water sports. We have a swimming pool arcade, there is a spa, there is a sauna, there is a steam room and a hydro-massage in the swimming pool arcade.
“We also have an amusement park where children can play. In the resort, we are trying to encourage family value, we have a standard gymnasium both for cardio, weight lifting, a very complete gym.
“We discovered that in Ondo State, most of the bottle water we drink are brought in from Lagos, so we have taken the bull by the horns by producing our own water. We produce the bottle and the water here.
“The other aspect of Nibanola Motherland is the private residential estate. We have carved out 200 plots of land which we will be selling to members of the public to develop their private homes. Our attraction will be for those who desire to live decently and quietly in a resort”.
