Tasks before Alaafin Owoade, by Kola Amzat

After three years of waiting, Oyo state governor, Seyi Makinde finally announced the appointment of Prince Abimbola Akeem Owoade as the new Alaafin of Oyo kingdom, with the Staff of Office already presented to him, and formal coronation ceremony scheduled for four (4) weeks’ time after the king would have emerged from Ipebi, where he’s scheduled to undergo the traditional rites, norms, cultures, as well as customs of the exalted throne.
Meanwhile, it’s pointless to dwell on how we arrived here. It’s not important at all to highlight all the challenges and travails the people of the ancient kingdom, Oyo Mesi, and other stakeholders went through in getting to this defining point.
The fact remains that we’re at the desired point and whatever have happened are already past of history; we must therefore celebrate this joyous and momentous period and move on.
As traditionally demanded, the new king will emerge from Ipebi in a couple of weeks of now and his reign will formally commences.
We beckon on Almighty Allah to make his reign purposeful, rewarding, beneficial and prosperous for longsuffering Oyo citizens, the entire Yorubas, both at home and in Diaspora.
Valuable time have already been wasted in the past three years, so, there suggests that no time to waste again, as we must all rally round the king as soon as he concludes the traditional rites so that he could settle down to attend to numerous issues and challenges on the ground as I highlight below:
For decades, the ancient town has suffered infrastructural neglect. Besides the road that connects Owode to palace and perhaps the Ibadan expressway that links Sabo and Oranyan Grammar school axis, no notable road in the entire kingdom that could be refer to as modern and of contemporary standard.
Without infrastructural facilities, no worthy investor, be it local or foreign would invest in our kingdom.
It is what it is. It’s no brainer!
The priority of our monarch as soon as coronation exercise comes to a close is to connect the relevant state and federal authorities, and even, wealthy private individuals to link the nooks and crannies of the ancient town together with good roads.
Kabiyesi can seamlessly cultivate the governor in this respect.
Historically, the Afijios-Ilora, Awe, Fiditi and Akinmorin are integral part of our kingdom. If issues and challenges had reared their ugly heads to temporarily separate and dismember them from the kingdom, Alaafin Owoade must move swiftly as soon as his reign commences, with the aims and objectives of cultivating them and bring them back to the fold. They are part of kingdom.
Indeed, we need the Afijios for the kingdom developmental purposes and the new era would indeed be mutually beneficial.
Of course, Lagos would never have attained the greatness and lofty pedestal it is PRESENTLY, without Ikorodu, Epe, Badagry, Lagos Island.
Lagos is obviously a replica of Oyo case.
Meanwhile, as much as possible, I encourage the new monarch to be APOLITICAL. This has not help the ancient town in the past.
Deep involvement of the new king’s immediate predecessor in politics regressed the kingdom. The ancient town totally became polarized and segmented into different groups for period Alaafin Adeyemi reign lasted, with plethora of diversionary issues that sometimes grounded the cause of governance in the kingdom.
This significantly affected the development of the ancient town in all gamut.
Of course, there is no gainsaid the fact that Oyo has fallen behind Ogbomoso, Iseyin, and perhaps in the pecking order of developments.
This is very unfortunate considering the historical and traditional status of the kingdom.
I also intend to alert Kabiyesi that, enough of schools. We have them aplenty. Tertiary Institutions, Federal Colleges of Education, Survey School, the first and only one in the country, several public and private secondary schools.
What the kingdom need now is entrepreneurial initiatives, in form of small and medium scale enterprises/ventures that would accommodate and empower teeming Oyo youths that have graduated from these Institutions.
Kabiyesi, perhaps with the help of infrastructures and educational committees I expect him to set up amongst other committees that would come alive during his reign, can reach out to development Banks across the country-BOI, CBN, and even, foreign International bodies to partner with the ancient town in this respect by empowering our people, and bring development to us.
In the same vein, Kabiyesi could also connects the Minister of Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation for the purpose of giving the town locals priority through several social intervention programs of the federal government.
On a related note, the revival and restoration of Technical College, Awe should be paramount. The college that is presently in extinction should be revived to accommodate youths with desire for vocation enterprises-ICT, Engineering, Carpentry, Tailoring, Building & Construction, etc.
It’s also instructive to emphasize to the new monarch that Oyo social life starts and ends in Owode. This is obviously aberration for a town/community desirous of genuine development in the modern era.
To herald a new era in our kingdom, all areas MUST be bubbling with life and social activities at least till 10-11pm every day. This is what is obtained in other towns that are experiencing developments and growth.
If we’re to compete, we obviously don’t have a choice.
I don’t know how Kabiyesi could achieve this, but, it’s very important we move from where we presently are.
May be, the monarch we start the experiment in Sabo, Akesan market axis before replicating the model in other notable areas.
Finally, as Alaafin Owoade would be settling down for business after his coronation, it’s essential for him to start giving priority for organizing Oyo Kingdom day every year.
This is an event that would be drawing Oyo indigenes home and abroad to the ancient town for a yearly get-together.
The kingdom indeed need this event to herald prosperity, growth and development, and more importantly to draw home many that have been hitherto alienated from the community.
Kola AMZAT (FCA, FCIB)
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