We are all too familiar with the Bible passage that says: “How pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together” and that is why, the organizers of Okun Summit have come up with this programme to chart the way forward and to strategise for the future of Okun land.
We are all too familiar with the Bible passage that says: “How pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together” and that is why, the organizers of Okun Summit have come up with this programme to chart the way forward and to strategise for the future of Okun land.
By the same token, the importance of “Unity” as an essential tool in achieving national and communal development is exemplified in the story of “Tower of Babel” – we were made to understand by this narration that a united people can never be defeated rather they become “unstoppable“.
Going down the memory lane, we are all living witnesses that the glory and honor accorded “Okunland” in the scheme of things in the past is fast waning – it has become a story of the first becoming the last; the people who hitherto looked up to us as leaders are the same people we now look up to as leaders; dictating our future and determining our destiny. This is an aberration, a historical fallacy and political negativism.
Under the Colonial era, Okunland was the intellectual powerhouse of the nation. We dominated and rode the socio-economic firmament like a colossus and in Nigeria politics dictating the pace and setting the agenda for others to follow. May I announce to everyone that the glory has since disappeared, it has departed; and instead of communalism, what we have now is individualism? While the former is “eternal” so to say, “individualism” ends with the man who carries the glory.
Since this is a Summit on Development, Security and Unity, we should look at critical areas of re-inventing our human and capital resources with the mindset of moving our dear Okunland forward. But, let me say here, that it takes visionary, selfless, and sacrificial leadership to turn things around. But as a Chinese proverb says “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a step”, it is my earnest desire that this summit will not end up as another jamboree; as a talk shop and not a workshop.
Aside the issue of unity, the greatest asset of a people are the youths: they form the largest number of our population, they are our future and hope. The story should not just end there; we need to empower our youths, intellectually, economically and socially to compete favourably with their counterparts elsewhere.
Right now there is no concrete plan in Okunland to secure our future by engaging and equipping our children with the right tools to confront the challenges of our time. We often dismiss them as being gregarious, youthful and exuberant; but what have we done at individual and corporate level to empower our youths? Any society that neglect its youth mortgages its future.
We have since moved on after the demise of our beloved Kabba Province to Old Kwara and now Kogi State. As the music or beat changes, so the dancing steps also change to synchronise with the beat. We should come out from our victim, siege and timid mentality to a more focused, dynamic, and a better organised political zone. We have all it takes to excel as a people and the future belongs to us – if we can plan and strategise.As we can not move forward by looking backward.
What is our agenda for 2019? Where are we now and what is our projection for the future? We need to fashion out a united front; in this regard, the overall interest of our people should be paramount. That is the more reason we can not afford to wait for another four years before taking necessary steps to position ourselves and come up with common agenda on the way forward.
Our strategy should be Kogi centric, i.e. an all encompassing, all embracing programme that will make others buy into our agenda. We are first of all a part of a whole and we can no longer practice the doctrine of isolationism; let’s engage and reach out to others, sound them out and reach an agreement on moving our state forward; as it is said the “peace” of the tree determines the security of the birds that perches on it. We the Okun are born leaders and we should take leadership role in the affairs of our state and in Nigeria- there is hardly any sphere of life that you don’t find on Okun man – whether in the academia, polity, industries and in Diaspora.
It is on this note I wish to salute the sagacity and foresight of the conveners of the Okun Summit, our elders and the youths of Okun land and to say that we cannot afford to fail. This is not the time for division and clannish sentiments. The future is now, let us move forward together. I encourage everyone to attend and participate effectively for the benefit of all.
Victor Walsh Oluwafemi is the Executive Director of Africa Development and Studies Center (ADSC), a policy development organisation and the convener of Kogi Investment Summit.
Link to our pages:
African Development Studies Center (ADSC) LLC
https://web.facebook.com/adstudiescenter/?fref=ts
Kogi Investment Conference
https://web.facebook.com/KogiInvestmentConfrence/?fref=ts
