Governor of the Osun of State, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola, has advised the Ijesa leaders under the aegis of the Ijesaland Foundation for Entrepreneurship and Leadership Development to use the life and legacy of the late philanthropist and founder of International Breweries Plc., Dr. Lawrence Omole, to regularly sensitise youths to embrace entrepreneurship as a tool for economic development.
The governor said that “this is necessary in a nation that is just embracing entrepreneurship as a tool for addressing unemployment, poverty and hunger.”
Speaking at the 2nd edition of Dr. Lawrence Omole Annual Memorial Lecture Series organised by the foundation, Governor Oyetola, who spoke through his deputy, Benedict Alabi, said the theme of the lecture: “Ijesaland: The Milk, the Honey (Collective Approach),” is a laudable attempt at taking the enterprising nature of the Ijesa people beyond peasantry or personal level to a coordinated corporate or ‘mechanised’ level.
This year’s edition of the lecture was dedicated to the first female engineer in Nigeria, Mrs. Joanah Olu Maduka, who hails from Ijesaland.
According to the governor, the collective approach will bring everybody in and create an army of wealthy people.
He said: “Adopting this collective approach will also put the Ijesa people on the world map and serve as a model for other tribes to emulate. Indeed, if this is done, Osun will become a state flowing with milk and honey and be a model for others to follow.”
Oyetola, who paid a glowing tribute to Omole, said he lived and died as a notable and foremost industrialist and philanthropist, adding that he will remain the face of Ijesaland entrepreneurship.
He said: “He lived a life that impacted humanity and his business products are enduring in respectable circles in Nigeria. He remains a model to Ijesa and Nigerian youths. He was a man who lived ahead of his time, having embraced entrepreneurship at a time it was strange to the nation as the direction to go to build sustainable economic development.”
The lead speaker, former Director-General of Nigerian Geological Survey Agency, Prof. Siyan Malomo, who addressed the issue of national development based on resources management, said Nigeria has enough resources to control deficits plaguing the nation. (The Nation)
