Speech
SPEECH DELIVERED BY MR. ADISA KABIRU ADENIYI KULUKULU AT A GET- TOGETHER OF 1999 SET OF IWO GRAMMAR SCHOOL HELD AT IWO GRAMMAR SCHOOL, IWO, OSUN STATE ON SATURDAY 2ND JANUARY, 2016.
The Chairman, chairperson, invited guest, ladies and gentlemen, it is an honor to speak to all of you today.
I graduated from this school 25 years ago. It is a great honour for me to give a brief speech on the state of education in Nigeria. We are still uncertain as to the future of education in Nigeria.
What is education?
According to experts, education is the process of facilitating learning. We (the 1991 set) are the first set to spend 6 years in secondary school in Osun state with the introduction of 6-3-3-4 which replaced 6-5-4 system. According to the policy smakers, 6-3-3-4 system was designed to inject functionality into the Nigerian school system, by producing graduates who would be able to make use of their hands, head and heart (the 3Hs of education).
But to the Nigerian people utter dismay, the new system of education is yet to make any meaningful changes. Let us just assume that our Government has lost focus.
To have the crop of students that can compete with their international counterparts, all of us have role to play. Parent, teacher, community, government and student should see themselves as stakeholders. Nigeria education has gone bad to the extent that our graduates are not even employable.
The question is, what is the benefit of investing in a student that cannot get job?
The first culprit are parents as they are the major stakeholder to feel the impact. Parent has primary duty to monitor the performance of their children. Let the challenge start from the parents, most students lack home training, and they are not ready to learn.
There is need to sensitize our parents to know what is going to be the advantages and the disadvantages if they fail to give their children proper training and inculcate in them the fear of God.
It is no more “it is only one person that answers biological father to a child, but many are those that mentor or nurture the child”. We are now in the period where everyone minds his/her business. No wonder that some parents will follow their children to school to challenge and threaten any teacher that punishes their children without baiting their eyes.
What a case of “things fall apart”!
First and foremost, it is claimed that lack of commitment on the part of the teachers in our schools is a major factor. Many teachers nowadays fail in their duties to give students sound education. Unlike in the past when the performance of students was used to rate the quality of teachers. Teachers are no longer ready to sacrifice for their students. Parenting is also identified as a cause. Many parents do not have time for their wards anymore.
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Caring for Widows as a Community Building Project
Being a speech delivered by Mr. Adisa Kabiru Adeniyi Kulukulu, the founder Guildance Community Development Foundation, at the 2017 Widows Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation Programme held at Iwo City Hall, May 13, 2017.
Our Royal Father, Kabiyesi Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi Telu 1, Olowu Kuta, Oba Hammed Adekunle Oyelude Makama Tegbosun III, The Chairman of the occasion, Religious Leaders here present, Political leaders here present, Representatives of Unique Foundation, Representatives of Orphanage, Students and members of the media, Team of Guildance Community Development Foundation, Beneficiaries of the programme Ladies and gentlemen.
I am grateful to almighty God for His mercy and for enabling us to organise this event. This programme is the brainchild of several organisations including Iwoland Development Coalition, Guildance Community Development Foundation, RAI Foundation, Olawale Rasheed Foundation and Team Olodo Oba.
The organisations are individually and collectively concerned about the welfare of widows in our society. More importantly, they are ready to pull resources together to empower the widows in our community with a bid to pull them out of debilitating poverty.
There are around 15 million widows in Nigeria, a significant percentage of them in serious poverty and neglect. For most, their late husbands were the sole bread-winner in the family and the demise of the husbands has made their wives quite vulnerable to poverty and want. Coupled with lack of life insurance and profitable investment, a family without its breadwinner is soon pushed into poverty.
This is where our society and government have to come in. Unfortunately the Nigerian government has not been able to institute a comprehensive and dependable welfare system for the less privilege. We as charitable people have a role to play in ensuring that no widow or orphan go to bed without food.
We have to evolve a system that would take of people with little or no resources of their own. Our aim for organising this event is to empower selected widows in Iwoland. We hope to make this programme a continuous ones so as to ensure more widows benefit.
Today, we will be distributing school bags, sewing machines, hair dressing dryers, grinding machines, rice, beans, books, ointments and many more. Our ambition is to provide these widows with short term succor in food and long term sustenance in the tools and equipment for their business.
We are compiling a database of all widows in Iwoland and we hope to reach out to all needy widows soon. We consider taking care of widows is a community building avenue. We cannot build a good society when our widows and their children suffer in acute poverty and are abandoned to their fate.
I encourage everyone here to reach to widows around them and help lessen their burden in any way we can.
I will like to use this opportunity to thank men and women who played commendable role in making this programme a reality.
They include Dr Adebayo Lasisi, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, Otunba Adebayo Oladosu, Sheikh Badru Lukman, Engineer Lambe Maruf, Dr Mojeed Akintayo, Mr Tunde Rahman Sarafa, Aremo Maruf Adeyemi Adedapo and Dr Dawood Abdulbaqi. Others include Mr Rufai Ismail Adeniyi, Alhaji Sulaiman Bello, Engineer Semiu Odeyinka, and Engineer Ademola Adedapo. Special thanks also go to Alhaji Badru Taofeek, Dr Abdulwahab Sambakiyu Imogbemi, Elder Eniola Olawoyin, Alhaji Akeem Taleat, Mr Amobi Taofeek, Mr Wakeel Isamotu, Mr Ayinde Mashood, Mr Salimon Yusuf Afolabi, Alhaji Nurudeen Emiloju, Engineers Lere Oriolowo, Ademola Asifat, Mr Fatumbi Babatunde, Mr Sola Oladokun, Adeniyi Muritala,Honourable Bisi Alamu, Honourable Kamorudeen Alao, Adeniyu Rufai Ismail, Alhaji Ismail Toyin Kudaisi, Alhaji Remi Ishola Morgan, Honourable Abdulgafar Akintayo Amere,Honourable Semiu Okanlawon, Sheikh Ibrahim Tunji, Mr Muritala Adeniyi, Badru Babatunde Muhaliy, Mrs Ganiyu Wakilat and Adebayo Shu’aib Alabi. Special appreciation must go to all the organisations that put this event together.
We also thank their founders and members for their support. Thank you all as you reach out to widows in our society in a bid to help strengthen our society.
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TEXT OF SPEECH DELIVERED BY MR. ADISA KABIRU ADENIYI KULUKULU,FCA AT IWOLAND YOUTH CONFERENCE, SEEBEE HOTEL, IWO, OSUN STATE ON SATURDAY 8TH APRIL, 2017.
The Role of Youth in Community Development
The Chairman, chairperson, invited guest, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted and honoured to be called to deliver this speech on the important theme, The Role of Youth in Community Development.
In an era where most people look up to the government for solution to every little problem that ails us as a people, it is heart-warming that there are people who have recognised the inimitable role young people can play in community development.
For the sake of this conversation, we are limiting youth to people under the age of 40. In a country like ours, with the majority of citizens being youth, the role of young people in community development cannot be overemphasised. It is at this age that citizens are most energetic, productive and idealistic.
As people become older and enter their 50s, cynicism tends to set in. They begin to lose the idealism that had fired that activism in their youth. There are exceptions to this rule like late Chief Gani Fawehinmi and our own Hon Mudashiru Toogun activism continue beyond their 40s.
But even in these rare cases, the activism and community development drive started early in their lives. This is why it is important for us to remind ourselves and the youth constituency of the role expected of them in the society. These are roles previously performed by our predecessors and it is incumbent on us to not only sustain the movement but also improve on it. Because youth have the advantage of immense energy and drive, they form the most productive constituency in the society.
They are able to ride motorcycle over a distance of 100 kilometers to deliver medical aid to a forgotten community, just as they are able to march for hours to demand for better deals from the government. Young people not only have ideas but they have the much-needed energy to bring their ideas into fruition. This is why their positive contribution to the society is germane not only because of its importance but also because they could easily become instrument in the hands of mischief makers.
When their energies are not positively engaged, they can become negatively engaged. Our experience with street touts and daredevils in Iwo in recent times bears testimony to this truth. Let’s now highlight the roles young people can play in the development of their community.
*. Education: Youth have been involved in the educational development of their community for years and there is a need to continue this trend and improve on it. The Federation of Iwoland Students Union for years have been organizing holiday lesson for secondary school students.
This is a clear case of young people helping fellow youth in self-development.
The Iwoland Coalition Development is also another youth-dominated organisation that has been playing inimitable role in the educational development of its community.
*. Leadership: One major area where youth need to be more actively involved and engaged is in the area of leadership. There is a need for more young people to be represented in the highest decision making bodies in the community. This is to ensure that their energies and fresh ideas are thoroughly leveraged on for the sake of the community. Youth mobilization for a lofty cause would also be easier with the involvement of young people.
A community that does not find a way to engage youth in its leadership hierarchy is resigning itself to a life of stagnancy. Youth that also refuse to involve itself in the leadership scheme of their community are setting themselves up for a life of frustration. Youth participation in leadership would help in catalyzing development drive in a community.
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Writings
A speech delivered by Mr Adisa Kabiru Adeniyi at the launch of historic Movie ADEKOLA TELU and Award Presentation held at Iwo City Hall on 30th July, 2016. All protocols duly observed.
It is indeed a great honor to address this distinguished event.
Recently, on a Whatsapp forum, a debate broke out on some details pertaining to history of Iwoland. Iwo patriots expended energy and time debating whether Iwo should be praised as Olodo Oba or as Olodu Oba. They debated whether Iwo of old used Eru wewe or Eru wawa in safeguarding its doorless houses.
There are many things like these that cause confusion and passionate debate and call into question the authenticity of our story as a people. The reason for this is that our history and cultural transfer have depended for centuries on a less reliable medium of communication, the oral communication. This is why any attempt at documenting our history in modern medium must be celebrated.
It is for this singular reason that we are here today.
We are celebrating the launch of a movie and documentary cum Award Presentation on the biggest figure in Iwo history, our progenitor Adekola Telu.
Telu looms large over the history of our town. It was he who left the comfort of Ile Ife and marched through hitherto uncombed forests to found Iwoland, paraphrasing a verse from a Sodiq Alabi's poem. This effort to put Telu's journey in a video format will definitely go a long way in spreading the story of our beloved Iwoland.
History is important. So is documenting it. A people without a good understanding of where they are coming from will have a hard time charting the course for their future. Not only that, they stand a chance of their history being bastardised and manipulated which will in turn affect their identity. We must tell our story ourselves or we stand the chance of losing to it to outsiders.
We at Alli Iwo Nigeria Limited and Odidere Academy are therefore honoured to present this film to the public and it is fitting that we are doing this during the reign of a modern, history-conscious Oluwo who has taken Telu as part of his royal title. Iwo will be great again. Thank you.
