Amid the recently held 10th-anniversary memorial celebration of Oba Oladele Olashore, the board of trustees explained why all stakeholders must collaborate and cooperate to continue providing opportunities and support for indigent but brilliant children within the community. Funmi Ogundare reports
Mr. Monfus Babatunde Olanipekun, 20, was born into a less privileged family of 10 from Iloko-Ijesha in Osun. He attended Local Authority Primary School, and while in primary six, he heard about the OISA Foundation’s efforts to build on the work done by Olashore International School, founded by the Ajabusi Ekun, Aloko of Iloko, Iloko-Ijesa, Oba Oladele Olashore in 1994.
The foundation works to transform the lives of indigent children educationally and as it concerns mental health in the Iloko Ijesa community and Oriade Local Government Area of Osun.
Olanipekun decided to sit for the school’s entrance examination. Fortunately, he came first and was admitted into the school on a full scholarship. Considering his family background, he never thought he could go far, but the school gave him the opportunity to spread his wings throughout the period he was there. He performed very well academically and joined the drama team and cultural dance troupe. He became the deputy head boy and represented the school in competitions outside Osun.
Olanipekun, a beneficiary of the OISA Foundation, graduated from African Leadership Academy in South Africa for his A levels. He spoke to journalists about the scholarship’s impact on him since 2014.
“Coming to Olashore brought me opportunities within and outside Nigeria and put me in a better position. I was able to express myself better compared with where I was coming from and I have better academic profile,” said Olanipekun.
He said he plans to study Economics abroad and become a businessman to identify and solve problems, to make “my family proud because of the opportunities the OISA Foundation scholarship had brought for me.”
Olanipekun is working on providing scholarship opportunities for the students in the foundation by creating an app that will only be accessible to them, where they can access funds and scholarship opportunities.
The children of the late monarch, who passed on in 2012, are on the board of trustees (BoT) and have continued to carry on with his legacy, particularly by providing opportunities and supporting the brightest indigent children who are resident in the community.
The foundation recently commemorated the 10th anniversary of the monarch’s demise, Oba Oladele Olashore, a philanthropist committed to excellence and honoured many times for his professional competence, patriotism and community service.
In her remarks, the chairperson of the foundation, Mrs. Olapeju Sofowora, said the decision to have a memorial lecture in honour of the late monarch was to enable them to highlight and bring to the fore the urgent need to collaborate and cooperate to serve our fatherland as he had demonstrated passionately in his lifetime and to showcase what he stood for.
She explained, “Kabiyesi’s commitment to serve was legendary. He used all his resources and influence to get things done at the national, state, local and community levels, particularly in his domain Iloko Ijesha, where he lived comfortably in the last 17 years before he passed on.”
She added that their father also coopted his children into implementing his many visions by providing structures to facilitate the implementation of his various initiatives.
Sofowora noted that the monarch meant many things to different people because he championed causes for diverse people seeking him out in Iloko, enabling access to justice, and creating opportunities and employment.
“He facilitated development within Osun State and his community by engaging civil servants and contractors within the federal and state ministries to ensure budgeted programmes and projects within the state are implemented and necessary infrastructures constructed,” noted Sofowora. “To the Anglican community, he was the grand patron of the Ijesa North Diocese in recognition of his service to the church, and as a royal father, he was the Southwest coordinator of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria.”
She expressed concern that the uncertainties within the country have caused many to be distracted and or incapacitated from actualising their visions for a better society.
In his lecture titled, ‘Public Service as the Best Form of Service: The Example of Oba Oladele Olashore’, the founder and Chairman of FATE Foundation, Mr. Fola Adeola, called on wealthy Nigerians to strive to render public service to society as it will go a long way in making it a better place.
“There certainly is no dearth of need in our society. To deny this is to be so disturbingly detached that our humanity must be called into question. There can be no doubt that there is capacity in our midst,” stressed Adeola. “Between our human capabilities and the pockets of affluence, even amidst the staggering poverty in our society, surely, capacities exist. The question for all of us, therefore, is, is there the will and how strong is that will? Is it strong enough to follow an inner voice in the direction of an identified need? Is it strong enough to lead where no clear solution currently exists?”
He described public service as offering to all who have the means, the sincerity of purpose and grace to truly commit themselves to a path to immortality that death has no power to erode, adding that it births new dawn in the lives of those served.
“True public service, the kind we ought to strive to cultivate and engender in this society, the kind I have no doubt the late Kabiyesi exemplified, in choosing to serve his people, is not selfish, it is not vain,” the FATE Foundation chair added. “It elevates the cause over the servant and the public good over the interests of a few and, by its very nature, lends itself to continuity.
Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Chief Joseph Sanusi, described the late king as a remarkable leader who provided quality leadership anywhere he found himself.
“He was very courageous and remarkable, and he was always thinking of the interest of others,” noted Sanusi.
In his remarks, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo revealed that the country needs a new leadership culture if it has to face the challenges of the coming years with equanimity and success.
Osinbajo, represented by Mr. Dapo Akinosun (SAN), explained that no child anywhere in the world should have to go to bed hungry or experience uncertainty because they have no access to quality education or opportunities for realising their potential.
“We are stewards of each other’s welfare. I must view the privileges accorded me by virtue of my position of proximity to resources as being held in trust for honesty. This is what it means to be human and what it means to be a leader,” stated Osinbajo. “It is to be acutely uncomfortable with the suffering of others and to be compelled to act towards its agitation because the suffering of one, is the suffering of all. By all indications we cannot afford to continue as before.”
