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Yewa Union - Strategising for Development of Ogun West(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) It was the third in the series of quarterly lectures of Yewa Union, Lagos. A departure from the monthly meeting of the 1.1 million people of Ogun West, which is being chaired by no less a personage than the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, even years before he became the Vice-Chancellor. The lecture series is designed to charge, challenge, encourage and motivate the people of Ogun West in Lagos for socio-economic empowerment. The third series, which held at the Department of Chemical Engineering of the University of Lagos last Saturday was particularly enriching, politically. The earlier one by the Group Managing Director of Regency Alliance Insurance, Biyi Otegbeye, was more of how to make it as a boardroom player. The subsequent one by Professor Tope Popoola of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, was covertly a political challenge. Doing his welcome remark at the lecture where the representatives of the Yewa/Awori people in the National Assembly (NASS), namely: Senator Akin Odunsi,(Ogun West), Hons. Abiodun Iziaq Akinlade(Yewa South/Ipokia) and Razaq Adewusi (Yewa North/ Imeko-Afon federal Constituency), were invited to render their stewardship, Vice-Chairman 11, Mr. Wasiu Fagbohun, stressed the need for a common front and feedback to gauge the performance of the people's representatives and recharge them. The chairman on the occasion, who also is also a former ICAN President, Senator Kola Bajomo, representative, Alhaji Ayo Adeyemi, said the forum was designed to network for the common good of the area, just as he reminded them that their is strength in unity. The octogenarian, who launched 11 books recently, schooled that no development could be achieved back home if the people do not have a common vision and pursued same with vigour. Giving his account of stewardship in the past years at the National Assembly as the representative of Yewa South/Ipokia federal Constituency, Akinlade said the peculiar nature of his area as a borderline informed his active co-sponsoring of the National Boundary Commission Act amendment bill which seeks for special project intervention for border towns and villages, aside from protection against harassment by federal government security agencies. He also listed the science and technology research and development trust fund bill as well as the National Peace Council Bill, as part of his legislative engagement, just as he enthused about his attraction of projects to his constituency through lobbying. Akinlade, who chaired the small and medium scale industry committee between 2003 and 2007, facilitated ICT centers at Alamala Barracks, Abeokuta, Abeokuta Sports Club, Army Barracks, Owode-Yewa, TASUED, OOU, Ayetoro campus as well as Ajilete and Oke-Odan. He stunned his audience when he said that his lobbying acumen and God's grace made him to site the only approved science park for the South West in his federal constituency. The park houses: incubation centre, biotechnology centre and agro-processing centre, among others. He put the combined value of the park at around N1 billion. The lawmaker, who is contesting for Governor on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), recalled how he lobbied for the employment of over 400 graduates of his constituency into federal agencies in the last 11 years, and still counting. He said he wanted to see Ogun State as place where you don't need to have a god-father before you can live your dream as youths and as elders, when he touched on his background as "a nobody to a servant of the people," on an occasion where he disclosed that he trains 410 students in ICT every three months for three years, in collaboration with NITDA, among the facilitation of a N150 million multipurpose hall for the Federal Polytechnic Ilaro. Perhaps the greatest achievement of Akinlade and Odunsi is the success recorded in the changing of their former identity from Egbado to Yewa as the Senator said that "on June 16th 2013, 79 to 13 Senators votes gain legal ratification to reflect, restore and uphold the unique identity and cultural determination of the Yewa people within the composite framework of the Yoruba ethnic nationality. " Odunsi, a University of Lagos Alumus and Advertising guru told the gathering how 22 youths were trained in financial and gsm transactional deals with EazyBiz Entrepreneurship scheme with each getting products and items worth N55,000 after having trained 30 graduates in conjunction with the Central Bank of Nigeria Entrepreneurship Development Centre and empowerment of the best five among them with N600,000 each. The Senator added that women and youth form the fulcrum of his agenda, and announced to his audience how 24 indigent but brilliant students benefited from his education support programme. He get an applause when he said a $1,000-school grant was given by him to one Michael Adekunle for his PhD in Malaysia. Present at the lecture were the Managing Director of Regency Alliance Insurance, Barr. Biyi Otegbeye, Ogun State governorship aspirant on the platform of the Labour Party; Gboyega Nasir Isiaka, former Petroleum Adviser to President Shehu Shagari; Engr. Femi Tetede and former three-portfolio Commissioner in Ogun State, Dr. Kunle Salako, among other sons and daughters of Ogun West. Not many people were surprised, as the member representing Imeko-Afon/Yewa North federal Constituency, Hon. Razaq Adewusi, neither turned up, nor sent representative to give his scorecard. Copyright Daily Independent. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |