At a meeting in the palace of His Imperial Majesty, Owa Obokun Adimula and Paramount Ruler of Ijesaland, Oba (Dr.) Gabriel Adekunle Aromolaran II, on Friday, 6th March 2020, Dame Olusola Agbeja-Obada, said; “Baba Kabiyesi, you will recollect that about four years ago, when you proposed Mr. Yinka Fasuyi, as he was then, as the Asiwaju of Ijesaland, I was one of the people that vehemently opposed the choice. But looking back today at what Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi has been doing since Day 1 of his installation as Asiwaju of Ijesaland, I make bold to say that, Kabiyesi, since your coronation and enthronement as Owa Obokun Adimula and Paramount Ruler of Ijesaland in 1982, your choice and resolute decision to install Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi as the Asiwaju of Ijesaland is the best – I repeat – is the best chieftaincy conferment decision you have ever made to date…”
What a prophetic statement made by an elder stateswoman, highly cerebral political juggernaut, former deputy governor, former minister, and Erelu of Ijesaland three years, seven months, and 14 days ago! Today (22nd October 2023) marks the seventh anniversary of Fasuyi’s installation as Asiwaju of Ijesaland, and his wife, Dr Olubisi Fasuyi, as Yeye Asiwaju.
Before they are congratulated on their chieftaincy conferment anniversary, let’s take a quick glance at their footprints in office.
WAEC fees
Continuous payment of WAEC fees for students of public secondary schools in the six Local Government Areas of Ijesaland: 2017 (100 students), 2018 (250), 2019 (300), 2020 (310), 2021 (310), 2022 (435), 2023 (310). Total: 2,015 students.
A scheme that, at inception, was misconstrued to be Fasuyi’s strategic move to venture into politics but which today has become the signpost of his unprecedented interest and commitment to the development of Ijesaland.
Unity of traditional rulers and communities in Ijesaland
Upon installation as Asiwaju, Fasuyi discovered that there was no sufficient mutual relationship between the traditional rulers and communities in Ijesaland. He however believed that no meaningful and sustainable development could take place among people who are not adequately relating and communicating.
Consequently, he shared his views with the Owa Obokun Adimula and got his consent to organise the first meeting of the traditional rulers in Ijesaland, at Ifewara on 17th January 2019. And most of the royal fathers were in attendance.
The second edition was held at Ijebu-jesa on the 6th November 2019.It is insightful to mention that some of the traditional rulers met for the first time at these unity meetings. The subsequent level of camaraderie and social relationships amongst the traditional rulers in Ijesaland have affected and improved the relationships among the various communities in Ijesaland to date.
IBEDC electricity cut-off and transformation in Ijesaland
An imbroglio between the youths in Ijesaland and Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) on Monday, 18th March 2019 led to the destruction of vital electricity infrastructure. Consequently, the electricity supply to Ijesaland was disconnected from the National Grid. It was to last a minimum of five years, if the community refused to pay for the destroyed infrastructure, a period considered to be more than enough to ruin the socio economic activities in the entire Ijesaland. To forestall this scenario, Fasuyi coordinated several meetings and consultations with all stakeholders which culminated in resolving the crisis in three months without paying any penalty to IBEDC. As a dogged community leader, Fasuyi demonstrated uncommon enigma and patriotism in salvaging Ijesaland from the embarrassment of living without electricity for a minimum of five years.
Establishment of Ijesa Mineral Resources Development Forum (IMRDF)
On Sunday 10th May 2020, Fasuyi took up another leadership challenge in Ijesaland through the formation of Ijesa Mineral Resources Development Forum (IMRDF), a non-governmental body saddled with community advocacy and enlightenment activities on Safe Mining Practices in Ijesaland. The body, which comprised of top-notch Ijesa technocrats and compatriots, has been relentlessly prosecuting this novel agenda across all communities in Ijesaland with members’ sole financing all its activities without recourse to the government or any external body.
Construction of Owa Obokun Adimula Palace
After three previous failed attempts to reconstruct the palace of Owa Obokun Adimula and Paramount Ruler of Ijesaland gutted in fire in 2002, Fasuyi, in his usual stride. took up the gauntlet by conceiving, initiating, championing, and mobilising 102 illustrious and patriotic Ijesa men and women to contribute towards the construction of a magnificent ultra-modern palace in nine-months within the peak period of COVID-19.He astutely managed the project with other prominent Ijesa sons and daughters in the Project Management Team (PMT), and Project Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (PMEC) without a kobo being paid to the architect, structural engineer, civil engineer, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and quantity surveyor as all the professional services, designs, and supervision were done pro bono. An icing on the cake in the management of the Owa’s palace project fund under Fasuyi was the saving of a surplus N36 million from the financial contributions made by Ijesa.
Construction of Ijesa Geriatric Centre
Immediately after the completion of the ultra-modern palace of Owa Obokun Adimula, the N36 million saving was used as the seed fund for another initiative conceived by Fasuyi – 2021 Ijesa Health is Wealth Project. With the support of other eminent Ijesas in the PMT, PMEC, and Project Technical Advisory Committee, the construction of the largest community-funded N1 billion project was delivered in 10 months and commissioned by the then Governor Adegboyega Oyetola on Thursday, 31st March 2022.The massive financial contributions mobilised by Fasuyi were donated by 124 individual Ijesas, six Platinum Ijesas, 20 Ijesa families, 11 corporate donors, and 62 equipment shipment donors. The crowning stroke of the Ijesa Geriatric Centre (IGC) is the judicious management of the project funds under Fasuyi’s able and exemplary leadership, which again resulted in the huge saving of N109,344,878. Eighty million Naira (N80 million) of this surplus has been set aside to finance the Ijesa Youths Vocational and Entrepreneurship Development Programme being packaged by the Ijesa Development Council.
Establishment of University of Ilesa
Previous attempts were made by societies and individuals in Ijesaland to have a university in Ilesa between 1978 and 2019 under 16 different administrations in Osun and old Oyo States, but the efforts were not successful. Fasuyi reopened this drive with his personal meeting with Oyetola on Wednesday, 10th April 2019 at the Governor’s office in Osogbo. Although Oyetola believed in the desirability of a university in the cultural, traditional, and economic headquarters of Ijesaland, Ilesa, the state government’s major challenge in acceding to the conversion of Osun State College of Education, Ilesa to a full-fledged university was scarcity of funds to sustainably run a university, which the government believed could not be undertaken without the support of other stakeholders. Consequently, the then Governor was not initially willing to yield to Fasuyi’s systematic strategies and pressure. Such strategies included, request for a university for Ijesaland during a one-on-one meeting with the Governor in his office on 10th April 2019; public demand for the university in his address to Oyetola at the official commissioning of the ultra-modern palace of the Owa Obokun Adimula at Ilesa on Saturday 26th December 2020; and initiating, conceiving, assembling, establishing, and inaugurating the University Project Consultative Committee (UPCC) on Sunday 18th April 2021. UPCC designed and packaged the university proposal that was publicly presented to Oyetola and his cabinet on Friday 6th August 2021.
Fasuyi also led the three-man proposal presentation session to the Governor and his cabinet. Other distinguished presenters were Chief Akin Akinola (Baba Sawe) and former Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Folorunso Adewole.
Fasuyi galvanised and prepared a Letter of Request for the university in Ilesa, which was signed by the Owa, most of the traditional rulers in Ijesaland, Presidents of Ijesa Societies and Clubs, and notable Ijesa leaders. The letter was thereafter submitted to the former Governor on Wednesday 5th January 2022.
The odds toward having a university in Ilesa were broken when Oyetola and his cabinet arrived at the venue of commissioning of the largest community-funded N1 billion IGC on Thursday 31st March 2022. The IGC suddenly became a game-changer that instantly convinced the then Governor and his cabinet that Ijesaland truly merits and deserves a university with obviously proven unprecedented feat and capacity to self-finance two heavy and monumental development projects back-to-back without any support from government or external bodies. No wonder, this record-breaking magic wand of Ijesaland in self-development prompted Oyetola to take advantage of the IGC commissioning event to announce to the whole world, his government’s immediate upgrade of the Osun State College of Education, Ilesa to a full-fledged university in the presence of the Owa, Traditional rulers in Ijesaland, and eminent Ijesa sons and daughters. There lies the birth of the University of Ilesa!
During the commissioning, Oyetola openly commended and recommended the Ijesa community and her leadership to other communities to emulate. The feat of delivering the two monumental community projects initiated, conceived, and championed by Fasuyi, the then governor further remarked, was the final reason and conviction for yielding to the yearnings of the people of Ijesaland. The University of Ilesa was therefore finally a reality. Fasuyi hosted a post-university proclamation final strategy meeting at his Ilesa residence where the strategies for speedy passage of the University of Ilesa Bill at the Osun State House of Assembly, as well as the Executive Arm processing of subsequent steps, were thoroughly discussed. In attendance at the strategy meeting, hosted by Fasuyi on Sunday 24th July 2022, were the former Speaker of state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Timothy Owoeye; Chief of Staff to the then Governor, Dr. Charles Akinola; Chief Akin Akinola (Baba Sawe); former Chairman of the state House of Assembly Committee on Education, Hon. Wale Adedoyin; former Provost of Osun State College of Education, Ilesa Prof. Kola Kazeem; and the hostess, Yeye Asiwaju of Ijesaland. On Monday 8th August 2022, the Bill for the Establishment of the University of Ilesa was passed by the state House of Assembly, led by Owoeye. With the ingenious works of the University Implementation Committee under the erudite scholar, Prof. Olu Aina, the ever-supportive Oyetola signed the University of Ilesa Bill into Law on Tuesday, 27th September 2022.
Seed funding of Ijesa Youths’ Development Fund
Fasuyi facilitated the birth of Ijesa Youths’ Development Fund (IYDF) through a stakeholders’ meeting called at his instance and hosted at his Ilesa residence on Wednesday, 7th September 2022. It was well attended by esteemed traditional rulers in Ijesaland, who endorsed the initiative and promised to support it through the donation of land in their respective jurisdictions for the use of the youths for their various agricultural-related enterprises. Fasuyi followed up his commitment to the IYDF, which Ijesa Youth Forum (IYF) was expected to use to drive its development fund mobilisation by pledging N12 million during the meeting. The pledge was fully redeemed to IYF on 18th October 2022
Heroes of Ijesa unity
On Friday 27th January 2023, a windstorm was experienced in Ilare-Ijesa with attendant damages to many of the community’s infrastructure. Fasuyi championed the clarion call to all Ijesa sons, daughters, societies, and communities. This culminated in the entire Ijesas’ coming together for the first time as one family and proving that the plight of one, was the plight of all. The financial contributions from 182 individual Ijesa compatriots; 16 Ijesa societies, clubs, and community associations amounting to N16,616,267:89 was contributed within three weeks. The Heroes and Heroines of Ijesa Unity were birthed with this camaraderie.
Scholarship empowerment
Youths in Ijesaland represent the future. They are invaluable assets, which must be invested heavily in to secure their contemporary value and relevance in the future. Fasuyi investigated and discovered that less than 100 candidates (10 per cent) of the total school enrolment of 1,300 students at the highly equipped Federal Science and Technical College (FSTC), Ilesa came from the six LGAs in Ijesaland. The remaining academic seats were occupied by students from outside Ijesaland. This did not sit well with Fasuyi. He therefore initiated a meeting with the FSTC management. The meeting revealed that Ijesa students were not forthcoming in enrolment due to their inability to pay the school fees. Fasuyi mobilised the indefatigable and committed Ijesa community, through the FSTC Scholarship Management Committee (FSMC) to sponsor 250 candidates of Ijesa origin in the three-year courses at the FSTC, Ilesa. The school fees/total value of scholarship for the 250 students who have already resumed for their studies on Monday, 9th October 2023 amounts to N150 million. The Almighty God shall continue to bless and prosper the 78 Ijesa compatriots who paid for the sponsorship of these 250 scholars drawn from all the six LGAs in Ijesaland.
With the array of historic, landmark, and monumental developmental interventions that were either never conceived before the coming of Fasuyi as Asiwaju, or those interventions that were unsuccessfully attempted, it is evident that the entire Ijesaland has good cause to celebrate two of their own, Asiwaju and Yeye Asiwaju of Ijesaland, who have positively changed the course of history for good in their fatherland due to their ability to garner the needed support from the well-meaning and highly committed and patriotic Ijesa sons and daughters and their uncommon ingenuity at approaching sustainable development agenda.
In the last seven years, you have both succeeded in making Ijesaland the envy of other communities in the quest for quality leadership. In the words of Dr. Felix Olowogboyega Oyebade to you as the first Asiwaju of Ijesaland; “You (Fasuyi) have beamed a light for all to see. You have built a fortress for all to hide. You have sewed regalia for all to hide. You have built a platform for all to rise. My leader and mentor! Our iconic leader. Your account with history is settled!”.
Fondest congratulations to the first Asiwaju of Ijesaland, Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi and the first Yeye Asiwaju of Ijesaland, Dr Olubisi Fasuyi on the seventh anniversary of their respective installations to the highly revered and esteemed office in Ijesa Kingdom.
By MayeloreOluwa Adewumi and Ojuolape Meshack
