After months of technical delays, the pioneer leadership led by Sarafadeen Owonikoko Aderemi had on Saturday 30th of December 2023, been officially inaugurated by the Rt. Hon. Opeyemi Israel Fawole – Speaker, Oyo State Youth Parliament to oversee the affairs of other Youths of the council area so as to help leveraging the council area competitive with other Youths of Ogbomoso zone, in the State and federation at large.
In his inaugural speech, Owonikoko said;
“I am elated to stand here today to present my acceptance speech to the youths of the local government area.”
“My appointment as the Chairman of the Oriire Youth Council did not come as a surprise to me in view of my numerous contributions to youth development in the past. This is an opportunity for me to serve the entire Youths of the local government and beyond and I will ensure that they are fully represented in all ramifications.”
“I am not unaware of the tasks ahead of me on synergies with relevant stakeholders to bring unity and development to Youths but must strive to use creative templates to ensure that Youths of the local government excel in all fields of human endeavour.”
“Permit me to use this medium to salute the Executive Chairman of our noble Council Area, Oriire LGA for his passionate leadership acumen. Sir, we are very grateful for the great job you are doing. The Chairperson of Oriire South LCDA and the Chairman of Oriire North LCDA, we are proud to have you leading us.”
“I pay special tribute to our elected members of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Johnson Ogundele for the great work he is doing at the State Assembly.”
“With humility and respect, I acknowledge the presence of the Speaker, Oyo State Youth Parliament, Rt. Hon. Israel Fawole ably represented by Hon. Timothy Oyebamiji, member representing Ogooluwa/Surulere State constituency at the State Youth Parliament.”
“I also appreciate with all sense of humility and respect the effort and the selfless representation of our own member at the State Youth Parliament, Hon. Joshua Ojo Aderemi Akin J’Icon.”
“Today I am humbled and honoured to accept the mantle of leadership that the teaming youths of Oriire in and at the diaspora bestowed on me. I know the task is a great one, it is a difficult one and it is much cumbersome, but, I believe with GOD nothing is impossible.”
“I will lead passionately to the best of my knowledge and ability in line with the international best practices and in the best interest of the over 620 dispersed towns and villages of our darling council area. I will lead them towards the path of development and prosperity that is deeply rooted in social justice, equality, transparency, peace and unity. Furthermore, I am promising here today not to allow my personal interest and ego to have influence over that of the general public and the youth.”
“As a non-political pressure group, we shall employ all diplomatic mechanisms and turn many things around for the overall interest of our people, cutting across tribe, religion, internal and external political party divides. We will strive to eschew all trivialities and inculcate to ourselves and our youth the spirit of togetherness, equality, patriotism, solidarity, compromise, sacrifice and total adherence to the RULE OF LAW.” More importantly, Oriire first.”
“Mr. Speaker Sir, distinguished guests, youths and the entire people of Oriire, it is not new that Oriire is one of the largest LGA of the state both in areas and in population, predominantly an agrarian area, inhabited by Yorubas from Ogbomoso, Oyo and Ilorin extractions coexisting peacefully.”
“Sir, statistics and research has shown that we have a reasonable number of agile youths in oriire who are graduates yet are roaming about without work to do. We also have a reasonable number of holders of master degrees in different disciplines who are still working with the primary education board. Not to talk of other unemployed youth with different degrees of qualifications. With the above sir, it is needless for us to stress that oriire local government is one of the most disadvantageous local government in the state.”
“Predicating on the above ugly condition of the people of oriire, youth in particular, we are pleading with the State Youth Parliament to give us special priority while addressing the problem of unemployment, skill acquisition, agricultural value chain, micro small and medium enterprises etc.”
“It is true that development of an area is not determined by the number of people but by the quality of the people it has. And the quality of people depends solidly on the environment, policies of the government and the legal frameworks on ground. As a pressure group we shall do our best by influencing the policies of the government in the interest of the people by following all the recognised legal means.”
“For the small and medium scale industry within the confines of our locality we will make sure they distinctly discharge their corporate social responsibilities. We will be bold enough to say the truth regardless of the personality involved.”
“In order to guarantee the quality of lives of our people and that of our environment, we have the solemn belief that we will achieve these through societal orientation, sensitization, mobilisation, awareness campaigns on self-reliance, peace building, consensus, vocational education, team and community work. We will also work with the council leadership to see that the abandoned vocational training centre domiciling at the council premises returns to operations to this effect.”
“Finally, starting from January, we will kickstart the year with an inter-secondary school debate competition to help the young school leavers on comprehensive reasoning and build public speaking skills as they grow, also we will engage all the youths of the local government without sidelining anyone irrespective of religious, political and socio-cultural affiliations.”
“I, together with my Executive council members, are ready to run an open door policy. We will work in consultation with other stakeholders and in collaboration with the other associations and pressure groups for better oriire. No matter how difficult the nature of this task is, we shall strive to deliver as Nigerians and as indigenes of oriire. Salvation of Oriire and Oyo state is our collective responsibility and we will pursue it religiously and with all vigour together. I cheerfully wish you safest journey to your various destinations. Thank you and God bless you all.” Aderemi concluded
Earlier, while declaring the team inaugurated, the Speaker had charged the New Leaders on taking initiatives in their modus operandi and never to expect government interventions at all time to power their activities but to be more creative and engage relevant stakeholders for partnership while maintaining due diligence.
Also speaking, the member representing the Oriire State Constituency at the State Youth Parliament – Hon. Joshua Ojo Aderemi Akin J’Icon had said;
“Earlier this year at the floor of the House, i had sponsored a Motion titled “A PASSIONATE APPEAL TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR SEYI MAKINDE ON THE NEED TO CREATE OYO STATE EMPLOYMENT TRUST FUND (OYSETF) TO ADDRESS UNEMPLOYMENT SYNDROME IN THE STATE.” The essence of this motion was actually to promote entrepreneurship in the State by improving access to finance and strengthening the institutional capacity of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.”
“Furthermore, myself and this Oriire Youth Council under the leadership of Hon. Owonikoko Sarafadeen will be working on reviving the abandoned vocational training centre domiciling at the local government, it was designed to take ICT training, Tailoring, Hairdressing, Barbing Saloon, Metal welding, Fashion designing among other classes, for free, it was from this initiative that i studied more on computer desktop appreciation. In the year 2013 when it was at its peak operationally, through the initiative alone, The Council leadership at the time, Hon. Jacob Abidoye Bamgboye could conveniently equip over 150 graduates of the centre with empowerment materials worth N5 million. The centre was actually supposed to afford our teeming unemployed youths the opportunity to acquire various skills for economic empowerment and self-employment to earn a better living standard. So, we are presently in discussion with the council Boss, Hon. Michael Olateju with a view to revive it and get it back on operation to skill-up our teeming youth and get them employable and self-reliant.”
“It is true that this pro-elite interest group and well-structured Oriire Youth Council was formed last year from my call for volunteers and nominations from the 10 serving councillors chaired by the nominee of the Executive Chairman of the local government, Hon. Michael Olateju Alabi who actually nominated Hon. Sarafadeen Owonikoko Aderemi.”
“This workforce became necessary to effectively service the peculiarity of Oriire having about 630 plus dispersed agrarian villages that spread over 2,116 km2 landmass and a population of 150,628 as at 2006 census and by projection to this year 2023 will be roughly over 250,000 population. Oriire is predominated by Yoruba of Ogbomoso, Ikoyi, Oyo and Ilorin origin, the sentimental demography which needs to be handled carefully to avoid crisis. Actually Oyo State Youth Parliament operates on pro bono tariff, basically selfless services with all focus on capacity building. Every achievement made so far are sourced from personal initiatives. No Salary.”
“Summarily the whole essence of undergoing such intense training at the Parliament is actually to be exposed to standard leadership qualities as against the vogue cluelessness of most of the leaders we are electing into power, right?”
“Meanwhile, my passion for leadership had been nurtured to emulate the likes of Baba Obafemi Awolowo and Governor Seyi Makinde whose aim is basically to see that our people are liberated and not marginalised.”
“On this premise, i am not contesting in an election yet actually, i don’t even have the resourceful wherewithal to do that yet. So I am only looking forward to working with anyone or group willing to break the barriers hindering Oriire local government indigenes from getting elected as Federal House of Representative members in our Federal Constituency.”
Since the inception of fourth republic alone, we have had:
Hon. Temilola Segun Adibi (1999-2003) Ogbomoso North;
Senator Buhari Abdulfatai (2003-2007) Ogbomoso South;
Hon. Mulikat Akande Adeola (2007-2011 – 2011-2015) Ogbomoso North;
Hon. Ebenezer Ogunwuyi (2015-2019)7) Ogbomoso South;
Captain Ajao Adejumo Jacob (2019-2023) Ogbomoso North; and now
Hon. Alao-Akala LMJ (2023 – till date) Ogbomoso North;
“where is Oriire local government? You get what I am saying?”
“Honestly myself and the Oriire Youth Council are very much concerned on who comes 2027 moving forward. We will start by consulting our community and political Leaders across all political parties irrespective, within and outside Oriire LGA. Why not one of our qualified brothers/sisters from Oriire? Because we have them. We will find answers to this at the right time actually and we ain’t joking around. We are setting the record straight this time that it is not supposed to be business as usual.”
“My message to the Youth and every indigene and dwellers of Oriire Local government is to give our struggles for liberation every form of support we can and let us all get to the promised land together. I wish us a very prosperous New Year ahead.” he concluded.
Other members of the newly inaugurated Council leaders are; Ogundare Temitayo Lawrence as Vice Chairman I from ward 1 Iluju community and Akanji Folasade Vice Chairman II from ward 10 Eleesun, Olafimihan Olalekan Oyekanmi, Ajala Oluwaseun Babatunde, Ajadi Isaac, Ojo Oluwasegun, Jacob Phebean Feranmi, Ojo Joshua Aderemi at the centre of council.
While Abdullahi Sulimon. Abdulfatai Hammed, Abubakar Jamiu Onikoko, Soliu Abdulwasiu, Adekunle Olaleye, Zubair Saliu, Ajayi Olusoji, Ojekola Jonathan Adetunji (Reps. Coordinator), and Samuel Ogunmola as their ward representatives at the council.
Meanwhile, the Oyo State Youth Parliament actually is a Government-structured and inaugurated non-political Youth Assembly comprising representatives from all the 32 State Constituencies of Oyo State, and under the tutelage of the Oyo State House of Assembly (OYHA), while reporting to the Oyo State Ministry of Youth and Sports Development. A non-partisan umbrella body for the State Youths created in Compliance with the United Nation Charter on Youths Development as a platform through which youth voices could be heard on government policies that affect them directly.