From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
The Onijan of Ijan-Ekiti, Gbonyin Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Oba Adebanji Aladesuyi, has lauded the efforts of the state governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji, at reconnecting the community to the national grid after ten years of darkness.
The monarch who expressed joy at the new development, described it as a remarkable achievement that will forever be remembered by the people of the town.
The Onijan made the remarks in his palace during a press conference heralding the activities marking his one year coronation anniversary which would be concluded on Saturday, October 7.
The elated monarch expressed.optimism
that the restoration of electricity to the town would improve the standard of living of his people.
“I, on behalf of Ijan community thank this government for this light that we have.
” Recently, electricity was restored to some parts of the state including my community. I am very happy and my people are very happy too.
“The town had been in darkness of upwards of about 10 years. But now we have light. But what is happening is, on the three lines up, there is light, this still has to be stepped down and we have been talking to our people so that we can come together to assist government in making sure that this light goes into each of the houses.
” The essence of light is not just having it in the house, there are welders, barbers, hairdressers, computer operators, electricians, tailors, shop and kiosk owners who sell drinks, etc. And this will encourage more people to start some small businesses. All these kind of people will be engaged and when they are engaged it becomes better. It will bring sense into everybody. So, we thank Governor Biodun Oyebanji for restoring light to Ijan community.”
Speaking on what his reign has brought to the community since he ascended the throne in the last one year, Oba Aladesuyi said : ” We thank God because He has been in the journey with us and He will continue to be with us.
“The first thing that came to my mind when I ascended the throne was that there must be peace and unity. We must love ourselves. There is nothing we can do without love, without peace. But now
there is peace, love and unity among the people and they love it.”
On what are his plans for the community, the monarch who assured of unprecedented development under his reign, urged the people of the town to support him to take the town to greater heights.
” We have a lot of plans on ground. For example, we have thought of building a library. A library comprising an e- library and a physical library in a particular place where our youths can go and read, educate themselves and improve their knowledge of issues surrounding them. Because we found out that education is key in everything and here in Ijan everyone of us believes in education. I don’t think there is a house in Ijan here where you don’t have graduates. It is a lot of competition. You are in University of Lagos, I want to be in the University of Ibadan, I want to be in Obafemi Awolowo University, I want to be in Ekiti State University (EKSU), I want to be in Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), that has been the competition and it has be going like that.”
” Basically, our people are farmers, we plant cocoa, yam, kolanut, rice, plantain and others. But even the farming, we have used it to train our children and quite a lot of them are in the US, UK, and other countries, they are experts in industries, in medical science and so on. We want to replicate this and make our people grow and have many more of them. So, that is the concept about the library.
” Of course, you can see that this palace must have been built may be in the 50s, we have put forward a programme, an endowment fund which will be launched this Saturday, that we want to build a befitting modern day palace for the community and the concept is that it is the community that owns the palace because it is a community thing, we want to talk to everybody to plead with them to ensure we come together to build the palace. Of course, we are equally talking to our representatives in government to see if they can also assist us in some of these things we are doing.
” Now, apart from the library, we are also thinking of incorporating the youths in the community, because the youths form the tommorow of the community. For example, on Thursday, we have a programme for the youths. We are bringing people to come and tell them how things were before and how things are now. We want our youths to be computer literate. You can see that in modern day Nigeria and in the world, there is nothing that you want to do without being a computer literate. You have to be able to work on it and from there you can grow.
” We are also going to have a museum of history where we will display various crowns used by past monarchs of Ijan, we will make people come to see what we have.”
Commenting on security challenges in the state and other parts of the country, the first class monarch urged governments, security agencies and individuals on collaborative efforts in the fight against the trend.
” Security is everybody’s job and within the ambit of our own level we try to mind the little we can but above all God is the number one security but you don’t because of that not be security conscious.
” It is regrettable that monarchs were kidnapped in the past. The Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, Mr Paul Omotoso, was kidnapped, luckily he was released and a lot of other things have happened. It has happened in Ijan too, one of us here was kidnapped sometime ago and thank God he was released.
” I appeal to Ekiti State government and security agencies in the state to step up measures to tackle the menace of kidnapping and other security challenges in various parts of the state.
” Also, security belongs to all of us, we must join efforts and ensure all hands must be on deck to tackle the challenge.”
Speaking on the deplorable state of the federal roads linking the community to other states like Kogi and Abuja, as well as other federal roads in the state, Oba Aladesuyi said : ” we plead with the federal government to come to the aid of the people to build good roads in Ekiti.”
Sharing his thoughts on how to improve agriculture and boost food production in the state and country, the royal father suggested to governments at all levels to build cottage Industries for farmers.
” Farmers across the country need encouragements from the government. Governments should build cottage Industries to encourage them.
” Not only by giving them money but if they have industries to make sure that their products do not get wasted, it will equally bring money to them, it will reduce unemployment as more people will engage in farming and will also reduce hunger in the land. ”
The monarch hinted that awards and chieftaincy titles would be given to individuals who have contributed to the development of the town and the state.
Oba Aladesuyi said apart from
the sons and daughters of Ijan-Ekiti living in the country and in the diaspora, who will come together to rejoice and celebrate with him, the governor of the state, traditional rulers from within and outside the state, top government official in the state, members of the National Assembly, members of the state House of Assembly, and people from all walks of life are expected to grace the occasion.