Yagba Unity Summit: Fulls Speech of Address Delivered By Tajudeen Bisimillahi
Let me start by giving Glory to God Almighty for making this day a reality and to all the major stakeholders who have worked tirelessly to make this Summit a success.
There can’t be a better time than now taking into cognisant the happening around us ranging from insecurity to social economic challenges.
Once again we give Glory to God Almighty and all our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. Especially our Royal Fathers who are committed to ensuring that there is peace and progress in Yagba land.
The committee has made a careful selection on those that can do justice to the major key issues but I will also lend my voice on some areas we need to look into.
1. Security:- it is a known fact that one of the major challenges we have in yagba today is the issue of insecurity.
Our people can no longer go to farm because of the fear of being kidnapped or killed and mothers are being molested and killed. Some of our people who cannot even feed themselves because of the economic hardship are forced to sell the little property they have or even result in borrowing to pay ransom for their loved ones to be released. This is totally unacceptable.
We all know it is not peculiar to Yagba but I think ours is getting worse maybe as a result of the mineral deposits in our land which ordinarily is supposed to be a blessing but is turning out to be a curse. We have to come together in unity to fight the common enemy.
In my humble suggestion, the existing security committee should be strengthened and funded. We cannot wait for the government to do everything as the Governor is trying his best but our little efforts to support the government will go a long way.
Also the security committee should not be limited to our hunters and a few security ex officers at home. There is a need to involve all the serving and retired uniform men both home and aboard. Those that cannot come home to carry arms against the criminal can give professional advice on the best strategy and operational conduct. They should also be accessible when there is a need for contacting top security personnel for backup. With their assistance, It will be very easy to reach people at the top like the IG, COA, Director DSS and many others as there is no security agency in Nigeria that you won’t find a Yagba indigene either as a Senior officer, serving or retired. This will go a long way to boost the morale of our hunters and vigilantes at home to do more.
Also the professional advice of the present Director of DSS on self defense, should be taken very seriously as that is one of the best ways to tackle insecurity professionally.
DEVELOPMENT OF YAGBA LAND
One of the major challenges that hinder development is insecurity. However, we still have a long way to go because prior to the issue of insecurity, where were we? With the notable names we have in Yagba compared to other smaller ethnic groups smaller than Yagba in community like Kwara and Ekiti. The Federal University Ekiti was sited in Oye and Ikole through the efforts of their sons and daughters, likewise Federal Polytechnic Offa. Yagba has produced people who are more influential in Government than these people that make it happen in their community.
What happened to us in Yagba, is it that we failed to do the needful? Is that we don’t love the development of our community or we don’t have the courage to do the needful?
Or is there any curse in our land that makes us not to remember to do the needful while in office?
I think we need to look inwards. I believe this is not ordinary. How many DGs and heads of MDAs have we produced in the past and those that are still serving and what do we have to show for it? Most of them leave their position and never have access to such offices again because they did not make enough effort to plant their kinsmen in the system like other tribes.
On our Elected and appointed political office holders: The easiest way to bring major development to our land is through government intervention and that can only be achieved through a political platform from both State and Federal. Despite the efforts of these political office holders to bring development, I think our people and our land deserves more.
There is a need for all of us to come together united toward achieving this goals. Most especially our elected officials, they owe us a duty to let us know what they are doing towards the development of Yagba.
In such a situation where our representatives in both Local Government, State and National treated us as if they are helping us is not palatable. We are in democratic setting, and that is our mandate that they hold in-trust and they need to carry us along. How many town hall meetings have our representatives called since elected to discuss with our people, to know their needs and get feedback from their constituency?
Instead we will be fighting on social media on rotation, third term and many irrelevant issues instead of asking sincere questions on what they have used the mandate given to them to do so far, that is impactful on the life of our people.
Also we the electorate should be very proactive on what we want by demanding for legacy projects that can stand the test of time, not all this stomach infrastructure that will not take us anywhere. No Family that palliative is enough to feed for 1 month, the remaining 11 months who is sustaining you? GOD ALMIGHTY. There is a need to change strategy if we must move forward by demining for life changing projects from our representatives.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based of some of the above opinions raised
I will suggest the following
1. The security committee should be expanded to include all our uniform men both serving and retired. If possible, have their separate WhatsApp where they will discuss and share ideas on how to tackle the security challenges in our land
2. It is also important to have a separate account for security trust funds and put a strategy in place to make the collection and spending of such funds transparent. The committee strategy will include getting more people that are not in AOY platform to key in, especially those commercial drivers and farmers that are most hit by the activities of these criminals.
3. AOY should organize a regular town hall meeting, where our political office holders from Local Government, State and Federal will be engage. This will go a long way to get them connected to the electorate for feedback and most of the important issues can be discussed on how to make them more proactive to give us the best representation.
4. A lobbyist committee should be constituted to identify most of our people in both public and Private places and see how best we can take advantage of their positions to help in the development of Yagba and to create employment opportunities for our youth.
5. Our Royal fathers should try as much as possible to reach out to their children both home and abroad to encourage them to come and invest at home. And also assure them of the safety of such investment as we have a lot of billionaires in Yagba that don’t have single investment in our land with all these opportunities in our land most especially solid minerals. Also it won’t be out of place if a special prayer season is organize periodically to pray for development of our land,
In conclusion, AOY platform should try to be more focused on what will develop Yagba and issues of politics and irrelevant matters should not be accommodated on the platform. It diverts attention from the purpose in which it was established. As the platform still remains the best and fastest means of reaching out to our people.
Recently we have reduced it to the platform of birthday wishes and political discussions that can divide us than bring us together. If possible there should be AOY Social and political WhatsApp group where people can express their views and leave this our noble AOY platform for only issues relating to development of Yagba.
Thank you and God bless you all
Long live Yagba Land
long live Okun land
Long live Kogi
Long live Nigeria
Together we shall make Yagba great.
