It is important to incorporate local culture into community development – Dr. Tokunbo Oshin
“Customs, laws, dresses, architectural style, arts & culture, ways of living, foods, social standards and traditions are all examples of cultural elements. We need to promote and conserve our cultural heritage at the community level. To achieve this, imparting cultural knowledge to the next generation is very key and crucial. Reading literature and poem on the culture of our communities will promote our culture and also by visiting cultural sites we tend to preserve our cultural heritage’’ explains Rt. Hon. Dr. Tokunbo Oshin.
Dr. Oshin explained that: “our cultural heritage has the potential to promote access to and enjoyment of cultural diversity while it can also enrich social capital and create a sense of individual and collective belonging, which helps to maintain social and territorial cohesion. To a large extent, this will enable the children and youths in the community to obtain knowledge on one’s culture, customs, philosophy, traditions and rituals while it also enables the public to recall and remind them about the rich culture and history” he concluded.
Dr Tokunbo Oshin, the Former Deputy Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly is the Chairman of the event at the one day Adelaja Adenuga Foundation 2022 End of the year program. The foundation has been founded to contribute a quota to the development of our communities; organise sustainable community development and awareness programs and projects for the benefit of the rural people; alleviate poverty and unemployment through basic social and economic infrastructure, provision of training to rural unemployed youth and providing employment to marginal farmers/labourers to discourage seasonal and permanent migration to urban areas.
There will be debate for in-school youths in Ijebu dialect and another debate for the artisans, civil servants, tertiary students and others after the senior secondary students’ debate. The foundation would also be running medical care for the elderly with free eye glasses after eye test and screening, test on sugar level, high blood pressure with free drugs on malaria, cough and high blood pressure while raw foods items would be presented to the elderly ones as there end of the year gifts.
His Royal Majesty Oba Olusegun O. Ogunye, the Ojotumoro of Abigi kingdom would be hosting the timely event. Dignitaries that have been invited to grace the occasion are Pharm. Hajia Modupeola Omonike Bankole, Wife of the Ogun State Commissioner of Police and Rt. Hon Akeem Balogun Agbolade, Deputy Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly who will be the Distinguished Guests of Honour; Invited Special Guests of honour are: Dr. Adetayo Ganiyu-Obafemi, Regional IT Head at the Nestle Central & West Africa with his office in Ghana; Dr. Jimson Olufuye, Chair, Kontemporary Konsulting Ltd who also is the Chair, Advisory Council Africa ICT Alliance (AFICTA), Abuja; Apostle Adetayo Pekun Adelaja based in UK while the Guests of Honour would be Mr. Sodipo Rotimi Samuel the head of the logistic section at the Telios Development Ltd and Dr. Bola Adekola, the registrar at the Federal University of Agric, Abeokuta.
As part of the program, the teeming populace of Ijebu waterside area in particular and ijebu generally would be sensitized during the one day End of the Year community empowerment program on the need to promote the cultural heritage of the Ijebu Waterside and ijebu at large, foster and promote unity, good relationship among the community members; use the gathering to campaign against drug use, abuse, cultism, indecent dressing and all forms of social vices among secondary school students and youths at the community level; encourage peaceful coexistence, mutual understanding and harmonious living together at the community level, all in an effort to empower the youths and community members so as to make them responsible community members.
The in-school and out-of-school youths of Ijebu Waterside expected at the gathering to participate in the Ijebu dialect debate on “Rogbodiyan ni aarin asa ati olaju, kini ona abayo?’’ would be coming from Abigi as well as other towns and villages in the local government area of Ilushin, Lukogbe, Iwopin, Olojumeta, Imakun Omi, Ode Omi, Ibu, Itebu Manuwa, Ibiade, Efire, Lomiro, Oni, Ayede, Igele, Ayila and Irokun among others. on Wednesday, December 28th 2022 at Abigi Township Hall, Abigi, Ijebu, Ogun State from 8:00am. There would be another debate among the artisans, teachers, tertiary school students, civil servants and so on ‘’Ki Ipa ati akitiyan ri awon Ijebu omo Ijebu ti ko ninu idagbaroke ile Naijiria? in pure Ijebu dialect.
Dr. Oshin is very much optimistic that the result of the program would yield progress, culture promotion and development in our communities. Also the lecture on: ‘’Consequences of substance abuse: Its impacts on Nation Building’’ by a Director from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), from the Ijebu Ode Command, an arm of the Federal law enforcement agency in Nigeria under the Federal Ministry of Justice charged with eliminating the growing, processing, manufacturing, selling, exporting, and trafficking of hard drugs will also address the teeming youths on the menace of drug use and abuse while there will also be questions and answers on Ijebu origin, foods, arts and culture, standard of living, dresses, ways of life and so on and to crown it all’’ he emphasized.