By Dare Ajayi (Oyo State Correspondent)
For Nigeria to enjoy stability, unity and achieve meaningful progress and national development, the twin problems of injustices and mass poverty which has threatened her corporate existence must be unanimously battled and totally overcome.
This is the view of the 2023 presidential hopeful, a Senator representing the Imo West Senatorial District in the National Assembly and the former governor of Imo state between 2011 and 2019, Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha, when he spoke in Ibadan, Oyo state capital on Saturday, April 10, 2021, after he received an award of honour for being an ‘Outstanding Friend of Ibadan’ people.
Senator Okorocha was presented with the award organised by the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII), at a grand finale of the 2021 Ibadan Cultural Festival Celebration, which took place at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, formerly known as Liberty Stadium, Ibadan, in Oyo State.
Okorocha who held his audience spellbound during his address, however, pointed out injustices in the Nigerian system and mass poverty were the root causes of instability and lack of development in Nigeria. This, Okorocha affirms, has threatened the country’s unity and corporate existence, adding that unless these twin problems are fought with the required political will, the situation might worsen with the passage of time.
The lawmaker, therefore, enjoined all Nigerians to collectively rise up in search of a lasting solution to these challenges of the nation's unity and development. He stated that though he has personally, in his own little way, attempted to solve the problems by building schools across the geo-political zones of Nigeria and by providing access for education to poor children whose parents could not afford to send to school, the injustice and poverty still remains intractable.
Senator Okorocha however assured that the problems were not insurmountable, but appealed to well-meaning Nigerians and corporate organisations to join hands in eradicating the injustices and poverty and all other problems militating against Nigeria's development. He maintains that the factors have led to a lack of western education, banditry, kidnapping, insurgency, terrorism, and other insecurity manifestations in Nigeria.
However, Chief Yemi Soladoye, the outgoing President-General of the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII), said in his address that the former Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, was honoured with the award in recognition of his contributions to the education of indigent students, through his free education programme and establishment of tuition-free schools, known as the Rochas Foundation College, in Ibadan.
Shortly after receiving the award, an elated Senator Okorocha expressed his appreciation to the Ibadan Citizens Council, particularly to the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Saliu Adetunji, the Aje Ogungunniso I, and other eminent sons and daughters of Ibadanland for the award.
He explained to his hosts, that 6,000 Ibadan children, out of about 25,000 indigent children across the South-West Zone, are sufficient beneficiaries from the free education programme provided by his charity schools.
Rochas argued that "If all these children gathered here and many of them who have passed through my foundation school were not given the opportunity of free education, many of them would have become one of the Boko Haram insurgents, causing violence around the nation".
The 2021 Ibadan Week of CCII, according to the President-General, Chief Yemi Soladoye was meant to celebrate Ibadan sons and daughters, as well as people outside Ibadan who have contributed immensely to the development of Ibadanland.
However, eminent Nigerians like Senator Rochas Anayo Okorocha who was accompanied by his friends and political associates like the former Governor of Gombe State, Senator Ibrahim Dakwambo, and other dignitaries, were honoured at the occasion.
Others equally honoured includes other federal lawmakers like, Senator Kola Balogun, who represents Oyo South in the Senate; Prof Idowu Olayinka, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan; Prince Ayodeji Abass-Aleshinloye, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo state; Chief Aderemi Oseni, a notable business mogul and Prof Sabitu Olagoke, a renowned Islamic Priest. NNL.