We should defend our heritage with whatever we have – Subomi Balogun
…says bad roads across Ijebuland inhibit socio-economic development
The Olori Omo-Oba of Ijebuland and Founder of First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Otunba Olasubomi Olayiwola Balogun was recently caught up in a chat with The Issues Magazine where he bore his mind on socio-economic challenges that face his home town, especially deplorable roads, asking the ruling class and government in particular, to the needful in other to bring about socio-economic growth that helps both the haves and haves-not.
Otunba Tunwase, who spoke to the team of Journalists including reporters from The Issues Magazine during the Annual Christian Prayer Meeting at his home town in Ijebu-Ode where he declared that the Annual Christian Prayers and Get-Together for all Christians in the entire Ijebuland is usually conducted to appreciate what “the Good Lord has done for me, my family and for my place of work, my institution – FCMB.
He added, “A Yoruba adage says “Eni to ba dupe ore ana, ari emi gba”, that is, whoever that is done a favour and appreciates it, will receive another from God. It’s out of a sense of deep appreciation of what the good Lord has done for me.
“I am a fellow human being like you all, but when I looked back and see how favoured the good Lord has been to me, I have every reason to open a new year with thanking God and ask him for more favour. It’s out of appreciation to my Creator, the Alpha and Omega of my life, so I believe that I have good reasons to thank him, and like I usually say, through the love of Our Saviour, all will be well.
Speaking more on the impact of Ijebu Christians on the annual gathering; he said, “being the Asiwaju of all Ijebu Christians and individually as a favoured son of God, I could see the grace of Almighty God working wonders but not just to individuals but to the Ijebu nation. This is a time when families get together to thank God for what he has done in the earlier year and to ask for his blessing in the coming year.
“We have many reasons to thank God for we have not been victims of violence that we hear about – militants and kidnapping, and generally, we have been able to provide where we will all have good health and when you have good health, other things shall be added unto it. It’s the grace of God that has been with the Ijebu people and with Nigerians as a whole. There are many things that are growing particularly in the economy and like I usually say, with God all things are possible. I am a fervent believer on the grace of Almighty God and his love.
“The importance of Christmas Carol is universal, not just to the Ijebu’s alone. The birth of Christ Our Saviour, the redemption is given to all of us and the protection that this Good Lord has given us, the privileges we enjoy as children of God and as well as favoured child. All these ones are roles because the Good Lord sacrificed his own son “Jesus” to take away our sins as well as to provide a comfortable place for us in his Kingdom.
“It is not just for the Ijebus, it is universal and for every believer. Even nowadays, being a Christian is not only being around the one set or the other. Any one who believes in God and the miracles and lives of Jesus, would have the reason to raise Halleluyah, these are the profound things, these days enjoyment of Christmas is not only restricted to Christians, it’s universal and the coming of the new year is blessing that the Good Lord has seen us through the past year and here we are, being joyous and asking him to give us better and more enhancing benefits in the new year we have come into.”
Being a typical son of Ijebuland and also one of the High Chiefs to Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, the Awujale of Ijebuland, Otunba Balogun pointed out the need for the incumbent government in the state to put up an intervention on the deplorable roads in all Ijebu axis; saying: “I am not a politician, but I am a patriot, and for that reason, I would want the government, the leaders to assist my people in whatever inadequacies that we have.
“The Ijebus are very enterprising people, they are innovators but they can’t do any of these things unless they have a conducive atmosphere, I am saying it not as a politician and I am not. One of the things that is worrying the Ijebus right now is the condition of roads within the town, if you have a good vehicle you will be scared to bring them to Ijebu, if there is an emergency and someone has to be taken by an ambulance, the things that they would be afraid of are the bumps, pot holes, please people know me to be the dispassionate and realistic.
“I know there are problems but I am only asking for those who are involved to help us produce a conducive environment for people to be able to transact their different business and other pre-occupations. The roads are just too bad and we are appealing to any person concerned, it’s unhealthy for those living there.
“When I drive from Lagos, the moment I am stepping into Ijebu I am scared of the pot holes, ditches and my vehicle could run. The providers of health services would definitely agree with me that this is part of the causes of unhealthiness. It’s a main problem and that’s a major thing but I am not a politician, I don’t want to get involved nor am I partisan, I am only appealing for the sake of all Ijebus not just me.
“Let people assist us with good roads within the township and the interconnecting districts. The roads are just too bad, and I hope they are not beyond redemption.”
On his donation of the National Paediatric Centre located along Ijebu-Ode-Benin-Ore-Lagos expressway to the University of Ibadan, Otunba Balogun pledged to influence new development in the establishment though it had been handed over to the Federal Government through the University College Hospitals (UCH), Otunba noted that it was purposely built children hospital that would take care of children and welfare of mothers either nursing or expecting mothers.
“I built it with some very handsome amount of money that I won’t disclose, but it is of international standard, while for the case of efficiency and professionalism, I handed it over to the University of Ibadan, I have not left them alone from time to time I have been involved in further improvement of the place. With the facilities available I have impression that the standard of health care there has made of people, I can only appeal to the University of Ibadan to make it an all-purpose hospital, even though their specialization area still remains.
“Singlehandedly, I did it for what my Good Lord has done for me, I am trying to improve on what I have done, because the good Lord is improving on whatever he has done for me, it is my service to my community, to my fellow human beings and to my God for which I am profoundly grateful, so about the feedback, I think the people are satisfied with what the Good Lord has made me do.
“But, in addition I do listen to their complaints when we first completed that place, we provided a bus to bring patients from town because the Hospital is on the Highway, when someone mentioned that the service is no longer available, immediately I instructed my people that at the next available opportunity they should provide them with another bus to convey patients from town to the place, I think Yoruba has the adage that if you give a lazy man dirty clothes, be ready to provide what will make it clean – Ti a ba da aso f’ole, a maa n pa laaro ni.
“By the grace of God, I will always be doing that, I won’t say I have built the place. For instance, the other Hospital named after my mother, I wasn’t informed, and someone just went in there and said “this is very much unlike the standard of Olori Omo-Oba, so I drove down to the place and I saw it, immediately I called for contractors and told them in the next two to three weeks the whole place should be refurbished and better. It is what I am doing to my God and I particularly have good reasons to be always thanking God because I enjoy his grace a lot.”
When Otunba Subomi was asked on his roles and what led to his recent appointment as the Olori-Ebi of Fusengbuwa Ruling House in Ijebu as well as the recent crisis that mildly rocked the royal family, he simply answered, “What the good Lord has done for me is marvellous that is why people are focused on me; the majority of people, in a particular ruling house in Ijebu, called me to be the Head of the Ruling House (Olori Ebi).
“Before then, since 1995, Alaiyeluwa Oba S.K Adetona has been a support to me in whatever I have been doing within Royalty and within the town and he elevated me beyond just being the Olori Omo-Oba of Ijebu (the Head of all Princes and Princesses in Ijebuland). An occasion aroused when someone got into his head that this matter is up to this and I am a lawyer of some years.
“Being the Olori Omo-Oba, and also the Olori Ebi, to everybody who heard about it. It’s a mis-normal, for the person making the claim cannot rule; he’s claimed not to be an Ijebu, also Ijebu has vision but the capital of Ijebu is Ijebu-Ode, it has never been known in the history of Ijebu for somebody to come from a Village and be the Olori-Ebi of any ruling houses in Ijebu-Ode.
“However, it is mis-normal for someone who is much more younger than you in age whose heritage or his origin as an Ijebu is doubted as well as somebody who already has been made by the fountain of Authority to be subsumed or subjected to the directions of a much more younger person.
“I like to say in this country not to talk of Ijebu alone, God has given me an expansive position so much so that when I was offered that position I said with all due sense of humility the good Lord has been kind to me, it is like being in an airplane and in the sky and still blowing the horn, who is blocking you”? So I thought for the pride of my heritage, it should be defending and irrespective of my status in life I said as a law-abiding person, we should defend our heritage with whatever we have.
“It’s unfortunate when people try to unravel the cause of all this “hulla ballo”, people who are younger, less privileged, who don’t have claim to this royalty are trying to say that they should be somewhere and their reason is that they have an evil intention that they will want to misuse the right to have an opportunity of having a say if and when an opportunity occurs for succession, to me thinking of such is ungodly, all of us here, irrespective of our age, we don’t know who will die first and for any human being to be arrogating to himself the right to do certain things about the life of someone or anything after the death of someone is not only criminal, it’s ungodly.
“So, we should not entertain such things and I for one, not only as the Asiwaju of Ijebu Christians but as a believer in God, as a believer in the saying that all honours and anything in life only come from God, I don’t take it lightly, I think is irresponsible, wicked, atrocious, ungodly for someone to be conserving the idea of what happens after the death of a fellow human being, I believe that in the fullness of time, the good Lord will show his face.”
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