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NigerianNews

Dare Babarinsa.

 Former
Executive Director, Tell Magazine

 Ti Oluwa Ni Ile Lodge
Okemesi-Ekiti
 08022904926
babalekeleke@yahoo.com
Gubernatorial aspirant for Alliance for Democracy, Ekiti State

 Curriculum Vitae

Time to Re-Invent the Ekiti Brand

The Debt We owe

Come and Let Us Build

AN AMBASSADOR OF THE NIGERIAN PRESS

FRIENDS, BROTHERS, COUNTRYMEN


Time to Re-Invent the Ekiti Brand
 by Dare Babarinsa

Text of a speech delivered at the inauguration of the Ado-Ekiti local government executive of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, on Saturday, November 12, 2005.

I am happy to be here in Ado-Ekiti, the city that has played a prominent role in the history of our people and the history of the Yoruba Nation.  The people of this town embodied the best in Ekiti people.  They are noted for their frankness and love of integrity.  They are quick to defend their honour and the honour of their people and their fatherland.  It is not surprising that the people of Ado-Ekiti are again being called upon to join their kith and kin from the other 15 local governments of our beloved but beleaguered state behind the lofty banners of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, and grant our state a rebirth.

More than anything else, Ekiti people are noted for their love of education and skills.  We have produced the best in almost every field in Nigeria, be it medicine, the arts, literature, engineering, banking, journalism, soldiering and commerce.  We are noted as a people of honour and integrity.  Only 39 years ago, a great son of Ekiti, Lt. Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, was the military governor of the West.  He laid down his life in order to protect the life of his guest, Major-General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, who was to be killed by coup makers.  When the coup makers who stormed Government House, Ibadan on July 29, 1966 would not hear the plea that Ironsi be spared, Fajuyi volunteered to die with him rather than live in dishonour. 

Today, we are being called upon, not to lay down our lives, but to stand up and be counted in the rebirth of our state.  Like most parts of Nigeria, Ekiti State has been overrun by reaction and decay.  Whichever sector we look into, we would be confronted with the same legacies of despair.  We pride ourselves as the Fountain of Knowledge, but which institution in Ekiti State could be said to live up to that sobriquet?  Where can we look at without being led to believe that the past is better than the present?  This town of Ado-Ekiti used to be one of the neatest and safest towns in Nigeria.  Today, we cannot even keep one street in Ado Ekiti clean.  And certainly, no one would say that Ado-Ekiti is safer. 

Today, the war we need to fight is to overcome our doubt about our ability to change the face of our fatherland.  In recent years, Ekiti has faced the siege of armed gangs threatening to impose their will on our people.  We have been subjected to the humiliating disease of poverty and want.  Indeed unemployment has become the profession of many young men and women in Ekiti.  This year again, as it has happened in many years past, young men and women of Ekiti origin would troop out of the state to look for greener pastures in other states and even beyond Nigeria.  In the past 30 years, the only known new industry in Ekiti is the Gossi Water project in Ikogosi set up by the UAC and well-meaning Ekiti citizens.  If the truth be told, our land has been overtaken by the climate of darkness, depression and despair.

The danger now is that this terrible climate of darkness is being regarded as normal.  Even traditional rulers and senior citizens of this state who knew the meaning of the Ekiti brand have been persuaded to embrace the falsehood that all is well with Ekiti State.  Young people are being fed with the falsehood that knowledge does not matter and that ignorance pays.  May God deliver Ekiti State.

Many of our citizens have confronted these problems in different ways.  Some have put themselves in a psychological state of denial.  Some have been cowed into silence or bought into submission.  Some have become collaborators with darkness and oppression.  Many have simply fled.  Some of them need to be reminded that they are Ekiti people and not deny the work of God who created Ekiti and its people. Few courageous ones have decided to join forces to bring hope to our people.

It is to transform that hope to certainty that we are gathered here.  We would be over-simplifying this struggle if we conclude that this is a struggle between the AD and the Peoples Democratic Party.  It is true that the outgoing government in the state is PDP’s.  Nonetheless, this struggle is between the people of Ekiti State on one side and their oppressors and traducers on the other.  It is a struggle between the forces of darkness and the forces of light.  This is an eternal struggle and it is our turn to carry the flag and lead our people to victory.

Fifty years ago, the children of Ado-Ekiti trooped out to enjoy the free education that was provided by the government of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.  I often wonder how such a gigantic programme could have been launched the same day across the entire Western Region which is now divided into Ekiti, Ondo, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Lagos, Edo and Delta states.  Twenty-five years ago, I was part of a gathering in Akure during the ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of free education. That day, Chief Awolowo took the centre stage.  He explained the progress made by the West was powered by its own people.  They built the schools.  They built the hospitals.  They built the roads.  Awolowo said he and his colleagues only provided the leadership.

That is also our pledge to our people.  We shall provide the people of Ekiti State with selfless and courageous leadership.  We shall build new schools and hospitals.  We shall build roads and create an economy based on knowledge and creativity.  We shall institute integrity as the cannon of governance.  We shall re-brand Ekiti State as the Fountain of Knowledge.  Like Awolowo did, we shall create a regime that will become the benchmark for good governance in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  As it is said in management, we shall create the industrial standard for others to follow.

All these may not be easy, but I can assure you that we shall do them.  Many, many centuries ago, the town of Ado was founded.  Since then, from generation to generations, through wars and famine, through harvests and festivals, the people have laid out the streets and built the town.  I can assure you that all these were done by people who never attended any university and did not need to prove their qualifications before any magistrate.  They were dedicated men and women.  They built the markets, the palace of the Ewi, the town squares and the streets. They never took a World Bank loan to do all these.  They were great men and women.  Like Obafemi Awolowo, they were armed with dedication and love for their people.  We shall live up to their names because we know the children of who we are.  The time to do so is now.

I thank you all.

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"More than anything else, Ekiti people are noted for their love of education and skills.  We have produced the best in almost every field in Nigeria, be it medicine, the arts, literature, engineering, banking, journalism, soldiering and commerce.  We are noted as a people of honour and integrity.  Only 39 years ago, a great son of Ekiti, Lt. Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, was the military governor of the West.  He laid down his life in order to protect the life of his guest, Major-General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, who was to be killed by coup makers."