Daily Independent Online.
*
Monday, August 09, 2004.
A
new dawn for YCE
Saturday, July 3, 2004 will forever remain an indelible date
in the annals of the Igbimo Agba Yoruba (Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE). On this eventful day, the Igbimo, in a
literal sense, killed two birds with a stone.
The date had been set aside to bestow honours on the
Executive Governors of the six South Western States for their outstanding
performance. The ceremony was
aptly tagged “The 1st Igbimo Agba Yoruba Day”. And quite expectedly, it was pomp and
gaiety as the crème de la crème of the Yoruba converged at the
prestigious Premier Hotel, Mokola Hill, Ibadan to witness the epoch -
making ceremony.
However, unknown to the hundreds of invited guests and
well-wishers of the honoured state chief executives, the occasion also became
the reconciliation venue for two erstwhile “combatant” governors,
and the credit for this welcome initiative at reconciling two brothers was due
to the astute management and clear vision of the leadership of the Igbimo Agba
Yoruba. Hitherto, Governors Ayo
Fayose of Ekiti State and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Lagos State had thrown
brickbats at each other over an “unpleasant” incident which
occurred at the Iyin - Ekiti residence of retired General Adeyinka
Adebayo last April (on the eve of the local government elections) and since
then, there has been no love lost among the due.
As confided in this writer by Otunba (Dr) Kunle Olajide,
acting secretary general of the YCE, the Igbimo should not submit itself to
political intrigues or internal wranglings, and since the two Governors were
influential members of the pan-Yoruba organisation, necessary steps were taken
to ensure total reconciliation among them.
Undoubtedly, the YCE secretariat had, by this action proved
itself equal to the Herculean task of moving the body forward in the quest to
chart a new course for the Yoruba in our march to the promised land.
The honourees were the five People Democratic Party (PDP)
governors of the South West - Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja (Oyo);
Otunba Gbenga Daniel (Ogun); Dr Ayodele Fayose (Ekiti); Prince Olagunsoye
Oyinlola (Osun); Dr. Segun Agagu (Ondo) and the only Alliance for Democracy
(AD) governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Lagos State.
A galaxy of eminent personalities comparable to the scenario
witnessed at the formal inauguration of the YCE on October 21, 2000 were
present while High Chief Bayo Akinnola Lisa of Ondo Kingdom chaired the
occasion.
The 1st Igbimo Agba Yoruba Honours Day was, indeed, the
beginning of a new dawn by the organisation to honour and recognize individuals
who had achieved success in their various fields of endeavour through hardwork
and the pursuit of the greatest good for the people.
Since their elections in April 2003, it is an undisputable
fact that all the six South West Governors had preserved the norms of civilized
living in the form of social justice, respect for human rights, maintenance of
law and order, the resuscitation of truth and justice and the entrenchment of
fairplay which they had been able to accomplish not by didactic instruction but
by the examples of their personal conduct.
The non-partisanship nature of the Igbimo was demonstrated
at the July 3 event when governors of both the AD and PDP were honoured. It is pertinent to state that the
organisation is also a convenient forum for industrialists and businessmen who
would wish to participate in the affairs of their nation but who would not with
to be drawn into the vitriolic polemics of partisan politics.
It is no exaggeration to asset that the six governors had
indeed recorded outstanding performances in their respective states since their
elections and re - election (in the case of Governor Tinubu) in April
2003. For example, the quiet and
unassuming helmsman in Oyo State, Senator Ladoja has successfully tackled the
multi-dimensional problems facing the educational sector due to lack of
infrastructures, overcrowding in classrooms, lack of incentives for teachers
among others, with a view to restoring education to its pacesetter status. The Ladoja Administration had also
succeeded in making pipe - borne water, which hitherto was a scarce
commodity available in towns and cities of the state.
Suffice it to state that the YCE must continue to play a
leadership role as vanguard of the Yoruba in post-2007 era, when it is expected
that the Presidency will move to the North, especially as ex-Governor Abubakar
Rimi had recently boasted that it would take more than three decades for
another Yoruba man to again occupy the nation’s presidential seat!
Olakunle Egbyemi,
GPO Box 745,
Ibadan
E-mail: [email protected]
