LAUTECH: PROMO holds appreciation walk for Makinde

Aare Babajide Oniyo

Earlier today, I joined the Progressive Movement of Oke Ogun (PROMO) on a solidarity and appreciation walk for the Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency Engr. Oluseyi Makinde on the Establishment of LAUTECH College of Agriculture and Renewable Natural Resources in Iseyin. 

A specially framed Appreciation note was presented to the Governor, through the Executive Chairman of Iseyin Local Government, Hon. Mufu Abilawon who appreciated the group on behalf of His Excellency and promised to deliver the message to the Governor.

Prior to the visit to the Chairman, a press conference had earlier been held by the President of the Progressive Movement of ÒkèÒgùn (PROMO) Comrade Hammed Saheed Adeyemi Oloro on the Campus of the institution, where he lauded the Governor on his love for ÒkèÒgùn especially on the LAUTECH, Iseyin Campus. He also advised those calling for the cancellation of this well legally-sealed development to desist from such move, as he prays for the continuous development of Oyo State.

In my remarks, I appreciated the PÈGÚNRUN of ÒkèÒgùn and the ÈYÍNNBÁBÍ of Iseyinland, Governor Oluseyi Makinde for his torrents of benevolence acts to the ÒkèÒgùn zone, ranging from the construction of Moniya-Iseyin road, Iseyin-Fapote-Ogbomosho road, Iseyin-Oyo road, Establishment of LAUTECH Campus in Iseyin, renovation of Iseyin City Hall and many others still in the stocks in Omituntun 2.0. I also extended my appreciation to the Chairman and his cabinet members, ditto the members of Progressive Movement of Oke Ogun. I prayed for continual prosperity of Iseyin and the entire Oke-Ogun.

PROMO is commended for this beautiful act and advised to sustain this tempo in future; as we can't wait till the last minute to get things done aright. May God help us.

An Open Letter To His Excellency, Eng. Seyi Makinde

By: Asiwaju Abiodun Abdul'azeez

I want to use this opportunity to congratulate you on your re-election, but it’s with a heavy heart i write to you on the issue of the dilapidated health care sector in my Hometown; Iseyin. Over the years, we have witnessed the maximum support and turnouts of electorates in order to cast their vote for the right candidate, and unarguably Sir, you have enjoyed this decorum–like reactions. Firstly, i must establish the fact that i was born and raised in iseyin town, so beyond ink and paper, i am qualified to draw your attention towards certain slaps raping our locality’s cheeks. 

Your Excellency Sir, it is pertinent to appreciate your kindness towards Iseyin and its environs by reconstructing Ibadan to Iseyin road, Ogbomosho to Iseyin road, Oyo to Iseyin road, relocation of Faculty of Agriculture; Ladoke Akintola University to our dear hometown and many more that are still on the way in your second term that would kickstart very soon. I learnt that The University would commence activities in a short while, which some of us are anticipating for such a climax of development. Sir, there is this depiction that you are people’s choice whom citizens hope that can get rid of their tears, and of course you have truly inhibited some tears with your kindness in these past years, but the moment we need you in extension is now. 

Your Excellency Sir, we have witnessed the prudence of a good governance under your watch, and the dividend of democracy is not left out, but i have come to draw your attention like the cry of a new born baby seeking his mother’s nipple. Sir, Basically, Primary Health Care is one of the vitals of a good governance, and according to World Health Organization (WHO), Primary Health Care is an essential care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable method and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost they and the country can afford to maintain in the spirit of self reliance and self determination. In addition, primary health care reflects and evolves from the economic conditions and sociocultural and political characteristics of the country and its communities. Addresses the main health problems in the community providing promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services, It includes education concerning prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them. It involves, in addition to the health sector, all related sectors and aspects of national and community development, example, education, housing and beyond; but i shall center my observation and clarion call on the curative and rehabilitative services. 

It breaks my heart each time i visit General Hospital, Iseyin due to certain anomalies flying like a night bird, religiously, in some context, sickness and death are beyond man’s knowledge, nevertheless, there is need for a better health care system in our community. Permit me to remind you that in 2011, Iseyin population was about 362, 990, and this was about twelve years ago, and it is visible to the blind that there are only two Government health care facilities that are functioning/under-functioning; General Hospital Odo-Omu and Maternity Center, Oja Oba. 

In the case of Maternity Center, the responsibilities are narrowly channeled to perhaps the Obstetric and Gynecology, but my major concern is the poor performance of the General Hospital which is the hope of every common man like me who does not have money to bear the cost of private hospitals, i may be wrong in this regard but averagely, General Hospital Iseyin hardly have a Physician on call after working-hours which is definitely not applicable in some parts of the State. Sir, my people have lost trust in the healthcare delivery system of the General Hospital, Iseyin due to their lackadaisical attitudes towards managing several emergency cases, of course this may not be the fault of workers but the management at all levels of health sector, hence, the sick people prefer patronizing herbal homes which reduce the cost of their treatment but a reminder that this has limitations; considering the diagnosis and often time when surgical cases are required. 

A reminder that there are other primary health care centers at the outskirts of Iseyin as a local Government which we expect General Hospital to be their secondary facility but unfortunately even the secondary facility can not serve its roles due to several factors which you're being called upon to assign checkers as a sole administrator of our dear state. Recall that our sister towns; the likes of Ibadan has University College Hospital (UCH) and Adeoyo Memorial Hospital among others, to some extent, they deliver their roles averagely, Ogbomosho has a teaching hospital which performs very fairly, Oyo town has a functioning General Hospital, also, Saki, and what have we done in Iseyin to deserve this negligence, enhancing lost of lives to unnecessary carelessness. 

In the same vein, quack health care providers are now flowing in Iseyin streets, i even learnt they now learn how to be a physician under the shelter of illiteracy, this could happen in an environment that pays less attention to the health care of its people, and this should definitely be a slap on the twenty first century. Like i have mentioned earlier, ruling out diagnosis is key in managing ailments, and who could do this, our physicians but countless times, nurses at the General Hospital explain to us as client that Physicians are not around, and the aftermath of this reaction could be death or unimaginable complications.

Sir, i am appealing to you to do something very urgent regarding this request, many people have died in the hands of poor management of their ailment, and these quacks aforementioned operate blindly with zero knowledge of what, when, how and where to administer medications. 

In conclusion, there is need to appoint Senior Physicians, Resident Doctors, Pharmacists, Nurses, Medical Laboratory Scientists and other health care providers in order to achieve the desire of Omituntun 2.0, also, there is need to install equipments in our dear General Hospital for effective diagnosis, there is also need to close down unregistered health care facilities which accommodate and train quacks that expose our loved ones to dangers, there is need to swift to action by preventing irreversible health complications, even if lives are not lost. We would be glad if you could as well replicate every functioning department at Adeoyo Memorial Hospital to our owned General Hospital in Iseyin, we would definitely appreciate that, and posterity would never erase your fame on the walls of memory. 

Thanks so much for reading my letter Your Excellency, God bless you richly. 

Sincerely,

Asiwaju Abiodun Abdul'azeez

LAUTECH: The story of the beginning

 By Kunle Alhazan

Truly, I could vividly remember the fund raising day at the ISEYIN TOWN HALL then where Baba Ashiru Olona of blessed memory was imploring every well-to-do son and daughter of our town to donate handsomely for the institution to be located at ISEYIN.

I could also recollect that Baba Olona donated sum of #50,000 while Alhaji Omokunmi Mustapha donated:the sum of #20,000 but Baba advised that he should donate more.

The value of those monies donated then could be imagined then compared to now.

Alhaji Sanni of blessed memory also promised on that fund raising day that if the institution is sited in ISEYIN he would build infrastructural facilities worth #200,000 for the school.

Those were some of the instances that happened on that day in 1989, aside other huge donations from other prominent sons and daughters of ISEYIN not excluding donations from young and old people, our mothers and fathers who were anticipating for the institution to be located in our town.

With all this historical background of the establishmentof the school, I wonder how the Ogbomosho people has turned the collective property of the state to their own property.

They had the upper hand then for the school to be located there because the military Governor then was their son not that they contributed more the other divisions of the state especially Oke Ogun region.

LAUTECH would have been located in Iseyin !

Dr. Fadare Nureni

If not for fate, LAUTECH would have been located in Iseyin. 

All the town's and cities bid for it and Iseyin People for the first time, came out and donated generously to the cause. Every adult contributed. How it went remain fresh in my memory, it was during the period of the fund raising that I lost my dad precisely December 1st, 1989. 

The story is long but today, I'm compensated and consoled that a branch of the University is domiciled in Iseyin. Tell those children of indomie generation that LAUTECH is our collective property and all our fathers paid their price including supreme price for it to come to fruition. 

LAUTECH,ISEYIN CAMPUS: FILGS LETTER TO MAKINDE

 FEDERATION OF ISEYIN LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDENTS (FILGS) NATIONAL COUNCIL.

10th April, 2023

His Excellency,

Governor Seyi Abiodun Makinde, 

Executive Governor of Oyo state. 

NO GOING BACK IN SITING OF LAUTECH ISEYIN CAMPUS. 

Your Excellency, please permit me to make this an open letter.

I have to state clearly that the good people of ISEYIN and its environment cast their votes for you during your first tenure and the last concluded gubernatorial election because we totally believed in your government to bring the needed change to the Oke Ogun part of the State. 

You fulfilled many of the promises you made by including Iseyin and its environment in every of your developmental plans for the state. Your watchword has always been "to bring development to every nook and cranny of the state". Sir, some people have grouped themselves to sabotage all these efforts by writing and pronouncing unnecessary and rootless protests against the existence of the LAUTECH Campus in Iseyin.

Some organisations have organised themselves and aimed to sabotage your plans with protest which are targeted against the actualisation of LAUTECH ISEYIN CAMPUS. This is purported at making you to rescind your decision or change the plan of the campus. Their so-called views or protests are nothing but an act of political biases and regional hatred. Many universities and colleges have multi campus and are functioning absolutely well. Why should the case of LAUTECH be different? Why should some regions take themselves too superior to others? Why some regions be left underdeveloped? Many schools run multi campus system and rub it perfectly like; 

Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT),

Osun State University (UNIOSUN), Uniuyo, Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Delta State University (DELSU), FUOYE, Lagos State University (LASU) among others. 

Sir, I wish to state some benefits of a multi- campus for university system; rapid socio-economic development of all zones.  One of the ways a town or region can develop is by giving them education. Education is the key to opening many doors and opportunities. 

A multi campus system will not only bring tertiary education closer to the grassroots but will also bring massive development to those regions. Oke Ogun has always been known as the food basket of the state. So the availability of lands, dams (ikere gorge dam) and other resources in the region will help the research and development of the university too. 

Your Excellency Sir, we pray to you that you don't rescind in your decision by making the students of Faculty of Agriculture and Renewable and natural resources to resume in Iseyin by the month of May.  

God bless you

God bless Oyo State

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Yours in the State building,

Andrew Adisa,

National President

08068306040

Iseyin and 2023 Election

 Now that the struggle to take over the Government house in various state has begun, diverse kinds of promises from the aspirants are what we wake up daily to read. Oyo state is of no exception, other parties like Labour Party, APC, Accord, and so on are all jostling to occupy the Agodi garden house of government.

While some of these manifestoes are what we can term logical, some are not worth to write home about! When an aspirant just decide to turn a general applaudable projects to an unworthy design when he takes over the power, you can easily read between the lines that something is wrong. 

We appreciate all the good works of the incumbent governor of Oyo state under Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), he has set great records in his administration in which any other incoming governor in the state will have to tight their belt to surpass. He has given us the reason why developmental projects should be spread across the regions in the state unlike the past executives who always concentrated in developing only one region and gives out only the remnant projects to other region.

It is during this regime that we witness the restoration of projects that have been hijacked by the superpower region, for example the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency. Saki. 

In Iseyin, the administration of the Governor Seyi Makinde has been so favourable to the city that Iseyin has now been turned to an efficient commercial hub in Oyo state. Various projects that previous administration cajoled us to be impossible are been made releasable. Ranging from the agricultural development to Education and road infrastructure, it has been a positive development to the city.

All we have to do is to support this His Excellency, Engineer Seyi Makinde to complete all the good works he has started in our city and region. It will be a suicide attempt to allow an unknow/another individual, who has not hidden his high level of hatred to Iseyin and Oke-Ogun region in the course of his manifestoes. For example, one of the aspirants in other political parties has said seriously that," the new Iseyin - Ogbomoso road does not have any economic benefit to the state". This kind of setback statement is a pointer to the kind of relevancy this type of aspirant will  have for our dear city.

At this point in time, continuity is what we need in Iseyin especially when everything seems to be turning around for our good. 

Thank you.

History of Iseyin, Oke-Ogun Region

 The emergence of Iseyin was not arbitrary; however, its geographical endowment was an attractive feast to the earlier farmers and hunters being a fecund forestland harbouring both mild and wild games, thereby promising to agriculturists and game-hunters to thrive upon. The slight modification in its landscape whereby Iseyin City tucks into itself within an expanse of land surrounded by four high hills has a link with history.

Aaba Odo-Iseyin with his people plumbed the depth of loneliness as the first set of settlers to exploit the earlier bewildered forest now called Iseyin. He was an ordinary hunter of no royal or chieftaincy extraction migrated from Ile-Ife for hunting purpose, so he could not have established himself as the owner of the land and probably the Oba. But he built for himself and his people a Camp Base at Ipokun where they rest and reside after daily work. The base was later relocated to Igbo-Odofin. Aaba belonged to Oro Creed.

Ipale, another valiant hunter, later joined Aaba and led his own people to settle at another part of the forest to continue their work. Like Aaba, he had no link with royal hegemony and he was also of Oro Creed. It is noteworthy that no name had been given to this forest at this time when these hunters were moving in.

Oke-esa and Jagun Ilado, in order, migrated in to settle as hunters. They together with their peoples settled at different portions of the land. Jagun had his Base at Igbo-Iwoye(in present Ilado Area). They were not different from the previous hunters in mission, origin and creed.

Aaba took it upon himself to convince the other hunters to visit Ebedi in submission, and he invited them to a meeting at their meeting place. They all came, and he discharged the message. Despite all his explanations, only Ipale and Jagun were convinced to visit Ebedi and they did so. Oke-Esa considered such invitation disdainful and refused to tow the path of his colleagues. When Ebedi got wind of this, he was not hesitant to place a statement on Oke-Esa, and put an eternal ban on him and his descendants from being a chief or community head in history of Iseyin. And since then no Aseyin has dared it appoint anybody as Baale in Oke-esa Community till today.

All the other three hunters were appointed the heads of their respective communities. Their titles are Aaba Odo-Iseyin (Dunmoba Community), Ipale (Ekunle Community), Jagun (Ilado Community). Ipale was also given the right to apportion land to strangers who wished to settle in Iseyinland. Among the beneficiaries were Baale Koso and his people, Onikosa and his people, Baale Ladogan and his people, and many others.

Aaba later made arrangement to settle Ebedi at Ekunle, he accepted and settled there. Ebedi was of Sango Creed (Sango god of thunder), but for the humility of the three hunters submitted to him who were of Oro extraction, he approved Oro Oracle as the official oracle with which Iseyin was created, and decided to honour it by celebrating it yearly(the time during which women in the town are confined in for some hours daily for a week, and peaked the seventh and seventeenth day with full day confinement).And this was the beginning of yearly Oro festival in Iseyin as depicted in one of its panegyrics `Iseyin Oro Omo Ebedi`. In addition, he endorsed `sacrifice to Oro` a part of rites necessary to make any Aseyin.

Then, after when Ebedi had settled down at Ekunle, as a valiant and responsible leader he deemed it necessary to provide security for his subjects against external aggression and intrusion rampant then. So he set out to Dahomey(now Benin Republic) to seek powers to ward off insurgence and enslavement from this newly established town christened Iseyin, the name emanated from palm kanel proccessing. The assignment took Ebedi a very long length of time which his people construed to mean that he had been beset with a calamity beyond his control so made his return impossible.

And a community without a leader is on the brink of disorder, they decided to appoint an Oba. They chose Ebide’s brother Ogbolu as the first Aseyin of Iseyin city. The event turned dramatic at the time Ogbolu’s intallation ceremony was at his peak, Ebedi resurface with an army of supporters including sophisticated security experts and servants both males and females.
Not too far at the outskirts, Ebedi caught winds of drum beats and tunes signifying a grand celebrating in the town. Ebedi ordered his entourage to stop a bit, he sighted a pregnant woman plucking leaves nearby, and he approached her and elicited from her what was happening in the town.

Ebedi was sad and disappointed with the development. With courage and a great sense of patriotism, he sent all his security outfits he brought from Dahomey and their usage through the women to his sibling, the new Oba. He informed the woman to instruct Ogbolu that he could no more enter the town to avert anarchism or possible breakdown.

Consequently, Ebedi transmogrify into a high hill (Ebedi Hill). Thus, it has been in tradition that all installed Aseyins must make sacrifice to Ebedi Hill yearly. His entourage followed the same footstep. Ogba, one of his charms experts transformed to river (Odo-Ogba) and channeled across through the length of Iseyinland. His chief servants; Oluofi, Eyinjue and Atamafon also transform into high hills at different location on the outskirts of the town making Iseyin to be surrounded by four historical hills. Others in the entourage who transformed into rivers are Igbobi, Atori and Ajumoda. Ogidiyi, Adabo, Iserin and Okutapamo also transformed into some other things out of disappointment and inability to go back to Dahomey.

This made Ebedi a very popular hero and most mentioned name in the history of Iseyin, and that Ebedi is a substitute to Iseyin as the name of the town.

The first eleven to ascend the prestigious throne were from patricia lineage. Abu Oniside was the 11th Aseyin. He went to war in Ondo for so long a time that the palace became benighted.

Then the princess Ogbekun Omosopo Adeyi called on the council of chiefs to find a replacement for the Oba in war as they presumed him dead thereupon his inability to return. The chiefs reasoned and made moves to install another person as Oba. But, because Aseyins then did not live long, all the princes where chary of ascend the throne. Also, nobody wanted to release his son for the job. The chiefs invited princess Ogbekun and informed her about the development and she was charged to release her son. She accepted and went to Alaafin of Oyo to inform him of the development and that Alaafin should endorse her matrimonial family lineage to be producing the Aseyin of Iseyinland as agreed upon by her and the council of chiefs. Based on the reasons adduced, Alaafin endorsed the move.

Princess Ogbekun invited his son, Ajisibi Alao who was far away at Ajase. Ajisibi came home with his first son Akando Ariwi. On gething home, Ajisibi was informed that he would be the next Aseyin of Iseyinland. He accepted to become the 12th king of the land. Akando took over after the death of his father in 1833 as the thirteenth Aseyin. Oba (Dr) Abodul Ganiyu Adekunle Salau (Ologunebi-Ajinese I) is the 29th and the incumbent Aseyin of Iseyinland. He ascended the throne in 2006 after the demise of his predecessor Late Oba Ganiyu Adebayo Alobalowo.

Oba (Dr) Abdul Ganiyu Adekunle Salau (Ologunebi-Ajinese I) joined his ancestors on July, 2022.