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By Tope Adeboboye
A light harmattan haze enveloped the atmosphere, but neither its dust not its cold was palpable this morning..
Time was 6.07am inside the world-class Ikogosi Warms Springs Resort and Conference Centre, the exquisite facility situated in Ikogosi-Ekiti, this serene, sleepy community ensconced within the Ekiti West Local Government Area of Ekiti State. It is one small town that has, over the decades, gained global fame and acclaim for the mysterious, awe-inspiring warm and cold waters issuing forth from underneath its rustic grounds.
This early morning, the thousands of time-worn trees and shrubs overlooking the Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort stayed still and silent. No grasshoppers sang; no crickets chirped. Neither rats nor rabbits were up and about. The air was a bit eerie. A thick cloak of morning fog was upon the surface of the earth, abetted by these thick, pristine forests majestically occupying the surroundings of the facility, wearing the toga of a protective shroud, like a mother hen enveloping its chicks under her wings…
Lights glittered everywhere – upon the lampposts, at the base of the trees and flowers arrayed in neat lines around the resort, on the buildings – everywhere.
Then suddenly, a bell tolled, silently. Another followed. Some Christmas hymns began flowing forth from an assortment of décor in the middle of the aesthetic mini-roundabout lying opposite the makeshift reception, a stone’s throw from the Olosun Restaurant. Soft tunes flowed from the mini-roundabout, though no speaker was in view.
Roads of torture
Forty-four hours earlier, the writer had arrived at the expansive Ikogosi Warms Springs Resort and Conference Centre in company with some colleagues.
From Lagos, the road to Ikogosi was far from smooth. For the majority of the just over four hours spent between Ikeja and Ikogosi, the federal roads were bumpy, harrowing and torturing.
A great ride it was on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway all the way through the Old Ife Road in the Oyo State capital. But shortly after reconnecting to the Ibadan-Ife Expressway, the smooth navigation met its end. An unbearable, torture-dispensing, hellish highway then commenced from long before you hit the Asejire Bridge, as you bid farewell to Oyo State. The horror continued through more than 100 kilometres of the totally collapsed, pothole-riddled, cratered roads meandering through Ikire, Gbongan, Ife, Ilesha and other communities in the Osun axis.
For most parts, motorists must leave their lanes to face oncoming traffic, praying and hoping that the other lane might be better paved. No way! Reality hit when you saw motorists on that lane diverting to the lane you abandoned, also hoping that that lane coming from Ibadan might be better than the one taking them to the Oyo State capital.
Around Ilesha, the road from Ibadan was closed. Some reconstruction was on-going on that section of the dilapidated highway.
At the end of the collapsed dual-carriageway – if that description still fits the failed road – another road diverts to the left to Iwaraja. That is the winding, tortuous road that took the party through the hilly terrains of Efon Alaaye, through Iwaji to Ipole-Iloro and then to Ikogosi, where, by your left at the entrance to the town, the Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort welcomed you with open arms.
But you could also ignore Iwaraja and just keep going towards Akure. Then you could veer left at either the Igbara Oke or Ilara-Mokin junction. Both roads would soon become one. That road would take you to Igbara Odo-Ekiti. From there, by your left, a brand new community road would lead you directly to Ikogosi.
Wonder waters
On the short commune to the resort, you were stopped at an elaborate gate where your vehicle and its occupants were subjected to a thorough check before you were allowed in. A large car park sat ahead. By the right, just before the car park, was the makeshift reception where your intentions at the facility – tourism, conference, lodging, swimming or whatever – were unveiled.
To access the warm and cold springs of Ikogosi as well as other facilities offered by the resort, you would need a tag, which would be strapped to your wrist after the payment of some mandatory fee. Without the tag, you might be queried while taking a walk on the serene, well-paved roads of Ikogosi resort.
And if you are too tired to walk, electric golf cars are available to drive you to your destination within the resort.
Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort and Conference Centre might have transitioned from its past rustic state to a world-class status, but the managers of the facility have ensured that the springs still maintain their natural mien as much as possible.
A small wooden path – made of planks sitting atop the swampy grounds – took you to the springs this afternoon, a day after your arrival. To your left was the swimming pool area, where a young male guard inspected your hand to ensure that the tag – your visa to the area – stayed visible on your wrist. A uniformed tour guide was waiting for you and other tourists right at the gateless entrance. Today, the tour guide was a woman, Mrs Ruth Aina Adeyeye.
What first struck you, even before you accessed the wonder waters of Ikogosi, were the trees, which seemed to have converged upon the place, as if protecting the warm and cold springs.
By the meeting point of the warm and cold springs was where Mrs Adeyeye stood. She encouraged you to dip your feet into the water – your left in the warm spring, your right in the cold water. The difference was glaring.
As your feet got immersed in the clear waters, you could feel some goose pimples all over your body and a tingle in the brain. It was as if you were receiving a special welcome as you experienced the mysteries of the waters of Ikogosi.
She explained that the warm springs are actually two, with one warmer than the other. The cold springs are also two, she informed. One is also colder than the other.
In her words, the source of the warm springs is a few metres away from the meeting point, while the cold springs flow in from the thick forest.
Indeed, beyond the differences in temperature, at the point where the cold and warm waters converge, you could notice a clear difference in complexion. The warm water is very bright, while the cold water is brown, both flowing side by side without mixing.
“We have the history of this place, and we have the myth,” she began. “In the mythology of the Ikogosi warm springs, the water was discovered about 700 years ago by a hunter from Ile-Ife who was on a hunting expedition to the forests around Ikogosi. His name was Oganunganun. He was a sharp shooter, a strong hunter. He was the one that discovered the warm and cold springs while he was hunting.
“Naturally, he was shocked and confused, and he had to consult the Ifa oracle, which revealed to him that the waters were human beings who transfigured into water.”
She informed that the cold springs were two women named Awele and Aina Orosun, while the warm springs used to be two men – Awo and Olosun Ikangunosi. Ikangunosi means the extreme end of the left. It is from that name that Ikogosi, the name of the town, was formed.
During a past visit to Ikogosi, the reporter had encountered an elderly man who narrated a similar story about Ikogosi and how the mysterious warm and cold springs were discovered.
In his narration, after Oganunganun, the hunter, chanced on the warm springs and their cold cousins, he was thoroughly terrified. He ran to town and demanded to see the traditional ruler. After meeting with the king and recounting his patently implausible story, the king sent some chiefs down and the presence of the warm and cold waters, which met but didn’t mix, was confirmed. The springs were then turned into a deity, and a priest was appointed to supervise an annual worship.
That, it was learnt, continued until a White Christian cleric of the Baptist Church, one Rev Maggi, an American (some say he was British) came to town. He saw the tourist potential of the mystery springs and the futility of the rites and rituals at the shrine. He then persuaded the community leaders to turn the grove into a money-making venture. He it was that opened the eyes of the people to the potential of the warm and cold springs. He also built a small swimming pool and some other structures there before the government of the Western Region under General Adeyinka Adebayo took over the management of the place. Adebayo reportedly built a small zoo there. Sadly, after Adebayo left, the different succeeding governments of the Western Region, Ondo State and Ekiti State never saw any big deal about Ikogosi. Several governments have come and gone since then, with many of them turning a blind eye to the Ikogosi forest and its warm and cold springs. It wasn’t until the coming of Dr John Kayode Fayemi that fortune started smiling on the wasting wonders situated in the western flanks of Ekiti State.
Moving up, following the trail of the waters, you discovered that the two cold springs are indeed from the thick forests to your right – little, mini springs flowing in separately before becoming one entity shortly before the meeting point of the four springs. A signpost is erected where the two cold springs become one.
To your left, further up, is the source of the warm springs. A visit to the source of the warm waters reveals that the water comes from under the ground. If you look well, you would see the water suddenly spurting out of the ground in fine, little steaming bubbles, which gradually turn to droplets. The drops converge and turn to miniature pools. Gradually, the pools form a little streamlet, which begins to flow downhill.
On the right is a similar scenario. The water there also comes from under the ground, little bubbles squirting out from under the ground and turning into drops, then into puddles before flowing downhill.
In the years of yore, the source of the warm springs used to be accessible. In times past, this reporter had visited this same spot and observed the water spurting out in bubbles from tiny outlets. Not anymore. Right now, the place has been barricaded with blocks and barbed wire. And there are clear instructions that you could not venture beyond a certain point. But you could still observe the bubbles coming out from the earth if you lean close and train your eyes.
Mrs Adeyeye, the tour guide, explained that the authorities were forced to barricade the place and prevent tourists from stepping into the source when it was observed that people were turning the place into a shrine, bringing sacrifices and performing other rites there, thereby polluting the clean warm water.
The warm springs then flow quietly down from their sources uphill. As they course down, the water begins to gather strength, cascading over some smooth stones.
The tour guide, Mrs Adeyeye, explained that the warm water always remains warm, no matter the climate. When it’s raining, during harmattan, or whenever, the warm waters of Ikangunosi had always maintained its warm temperature, no matter the season or weather.
She also informed that the warm water has been scientifically proven to have medicinal and therapeutic properties. She informed that water from the springs, is what is employed in the resort for the facility’s everyday use. It is what flows into the chalets’ bathrooms, the swimming pool, the kitchen’s sinks, and so forth. It is also what is used to produce the popular table water brand, Gossy Water.
Weather-worn trees
All around you in this Ikogosi forest were assorted types of trees. Several varieties of tall trees everywhere inside this large jungle. Weird-looking trees – palm trees, ancient-looking, weather-worn trees, some thick, some thin, most evoking some trepidation, strange-looking trees sharing roots with palm trees.
There are plenty of rubber trees, mahogany trees and fig trees, known as Igi Opoto in the local Yoruba language. One of the fig trees is believed to be around 350 years old, while the age of the other is put at around 180 years. There are also plenty of mangrove trees, known as Peregun eti odo. Mangrove trees, Mrs Adeyeye told you, could be found anywhere there is water, and it is believed that they can live for as long as possible. In Yoruba land, the elders use the peregun tree to pray for long life for themselves and their loved ones. Peregun is also used to create boundaries, she further stated.
At the Ikogosi warm and cold springs, you would be encouraged to do a little prayer ritual. You would touch the Peregun tree and utter some blessing into your life. “Long life to me,” you were asked to invoke, gazing towards the heavens, as you touched any of the Peregun trees in the warm springs grove.
Shedding the rustic toga
The warm and cold springs might have been the major attraction to the Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort and Conference Centre, but they are certainly no longer the only tourism products on offer at the facility. The place has lodging facilities, exquisite restaurants, conference centres, an amphitheatre for film shows, theatre performances and concerts, a nature park with a bar, sporting facilities, including a volleyball court and a five-aside football field, a bar, party and celebration facilities and more.
Now, who could tell the story of the resort better than High Chief Ayo Ademiluwa, the Asaoye of Ikogosi Ekiti and one of the nine kingmakers in the town whose family owns the forest where the resort is located? He is also one of the senior managers at the resort.
He was managing director of the resort for four years before it was taken over by the concessionaires. He is presently in charge of communications and community engagement for Glocient Hospitality, managers of the resort.
Glocient Hospitality Limited, a subsidiary of Cavista Holdings, is the concessionaire managing and developing the Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort and Conference Centre.
“I started working here in 2019, and the charge the government gave me then was, don’t let the place die,” High Chief Ademiluwa told the reporter in a chat.
He noted that during the first coming of the former governor, Dr John Kayode Fayemi, who had great tourism development ideas running around in his brain, a whole lot of funds were injected into Ikogosi with a view to elevating the facility to international standards.
“Unfortunately, his government got truncated along the line, and then it dawned on him that government had no business being in business. The government after him never wanted anything to do with Ikogosi, probably they didn’t share the dream, the vision of tourism that Fayemi had. So when he came back after the interregnum, he decided not to inject government funds here again. Then they were scouting for an investor. I was here in 2019 till 2021 when they got an investor, but the investor was a joker. I’m sorry to use that word. He never invested a dime, and the government had to review the MOU. Fortunately, fortune smiled on Ikogosi when Niyi John Olajide, the chairman of Cavista Holdings (the parent company of Glocient Hospitality) decided to take over the resort. The rest is history. He has been able to pump a whole lot of money into this place. And things have never been the same again.
“To me then, it was a precarious situation. It was like a mother having a marasmus-ridden, kwashiorkored baby on her lap, and there was nothing she could do. I was having my baby dying on my lap, and I couldn’t do anything. Because I have always been so passionate about this place from my childhood, because I grew up on these plains.
“Then fortune came, and the baby that was dying started smiling and was coming back to life again. You could imagine the excitement. I started seeing the metamorphosis, from a decrepit, moribund, dead centre to an internationally-recognised tourism centre. Because in 2023 and 2024, this place got the award of being the best holiday resort in Nigeria and the most desired tourism spot in Nigeria.
I tell people that this place is like a jewel in the jungle, like gold untapped. But someone saw the vision, and with the support of the government of the day that gave an enabling environment, all thanks to Governors Fayemi and Governor Oyebanji.
“Governor Fayemi tried his best, and all thanks to Governor BAO. Being a son of the soil, he’s our number one supporter, so to speak. He’s our number one ambassador.
“The resort has been thriving since the end of 2022 that Glocient Hospitality took over, and they’ve injected a whole lot of funds into this place. And the hitherto dead resort is springing anew.”
He said the new look of the resort has spurred waves of positive response from the public. He recalled that when he was managing the place, and there was no development work at all in the facility, people still came in trickles. But gradually, as the resort began to spot a new look, tourists started trooping to Ikogosi in their numbers, he enthused.
“One thing that has been working for us is the catchphrase, ‘Go See Ikogosi!’ You can see the play on words. It’s a very good advertisement that has been working well for us. It has stimulated a very robust influx of tourists to this place.
“Glocient came and met 92 dead rooms. They started work on December 1 2022, and by December 24, 60 out of the 92 rooms were habitable. Everything in the rooms was changed. Even the grass had to be uprooted and replanted. When our chairmen came in March, he praised us for achieving that much in less than one month. But he said he wanted higher standards. So we removed virtually everything we had fixed and replaced them.
“Now, we’re still in pre-opening. We haven’t even opened. We’re still doing a lot of construction work. We still have 32 rooms undone. Hopefully, by early next year, we will re-opening.”
On the nature park, he said: “When I was the MD of this place, that place you’re seeing now was a swampy jungle. Because it was a conservation for so long, it was full of reptiles and primates, monkeys and baboons. I grew up to know the place as a very thick jungle. But we have been able to preserve the flora. And when I came in, in 2019, we added the fauna. So now, we have been able to preserve both the flora and the fauna of the place.
“When we decided to open up the place, many people thought, what are these people trying to do? But now, we are preserving all the trees. We decided to turn the place to a forest nature park. So we have the tree-house bar, the basketball court, the volleyball court, the five-aside football court, we have the children playing area with bouncing castles and so on. The facility also boasts of hiking trails. We are really in business. We want to stimulate a robust lodging experience.”
High Chief Ademiluwa confirmed that getting accommodation at the resort could sometimes be hectic. He said the rooms are usually fully booked, especially before and during festive seasons.
And he wasn’t lying. This reporter had, upon arrival at the resort, made enquiries about getting two rooms at Christmas, to enable the family spend a few days at the resort. But the managers at the front desk said the request came too late.
“We’re fully booked until January,” they chorused.
“Really? Not even a room?”
“No sir. If you wanted a place here for Christmas, you should have made your booking around September,” they insisted.
Has the facility started making profit? Not yet, said the High Chief. “Profit will definitely come, but this place needs to be world-class first. We’re happy that we’re getting there.”
The state governor, Mr Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji, attested to High Chief Ademilua’s narration during a short encounter with him at the resort. He said his predecessor, Dr Fayemi had spent quite a fortune to revive Ikogosi during his first coming between 2010 and 2014. By the time Fayemi returned as governor in 2018, the resort was in ruins. Realising that government had no business being in business, the search for a competent concessionaire began. Eventually, Oyebanji, popularly known as BAO, inherited the place when he was sworn in as governor in October 2022. Two months after he got into office, the new managers of the facility, Glocient Hospitality, commenced work.
Oyebanji asserted that beyond enabling an environment conducive for business growth and success for Glocient, his government had not spent one kobo on Ikogosi.
“They said they wanted the road done, and I said, okay. Now, the airport is commissioned. Commercial flight operations have started. Ekiti is ready for tourism,” the governor, also an indigene of Ikogosi, stated.
It’s 6:15am, and it’s time to head back to Lagos. Time to bid farewell to the warm and cold springs, the mystery trees, the nature park, the restaurant and other facilities in this exquisite wonder situated within the jungles of Ikogosi-Ekiti.
