Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, and his Ekiti State counterpart, Kayode Fayemi, have said the world will experience lasting peace if various nationalities can emulate the Yoruba's socio-religious disposition.
The governors said this at the public presentation of two books written by Jacob Kehinde Olupona, a professor at Harvard University School of Divinity.
The two titles are City of 201 gods: Ile-Ife in Time, Space and the Imagination, and In my Father's Parsonage: The Story of an Anglican Family in Yoruba-Speaking Nigeria.
Fayemi, an advocate of South-West integration, decried the waning of institutional structures and avenues of imbibing the Yoruba cultural values, which he observed was vanishing.
The governor called for support for every initiative that would reinvigorate the culture.
Fayemi said, "So many problems the world face today are strange to the Yoruba culture. We have something to offer the world and we must not throw it away.
"Those who know the culture should not shy away from documenting it."
On his part, Aregbesola said, "If there is anything the Yoruba race can give to the world, it is tolerance, accommodation and religious tolerance. "We are a people with a distinction that must be an example to the world. We allow multiplicity of religion in the home."
Earlier, Olupona had called for the establishment of a Yoruba Hall of Fame, pledging to dedicate the proceeds from the sales of the books to a foundation established in memorial of his parents, Michael and Herientta Olupona.
The don added that the foundation among other social development projects, would build in Ile-Ife a world-class institute for cultural and religious studies, a project Aregbesola and Fayemi believed would be supported by the South-West governors.
Aregbesola said, "On behalf of all the governors in this region, Ondo inclusive, we will adopt this book as a must-read in all our senior secondary schools."
The title on Ile-Ife, according to the reviewer, Professor Wale Adebanwi, explains "why a true Yoruba can never be a religious fundamentalist because a people with 201 gods cannot have a problem coexisting with one more God."
Other dignitaries at the book presentation, where Sir Olaniwun Ajayi was the chairman included the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade; Sir Ayo Adebanjo, and top tradtional rulers in the South-West.
