Oduduwa News

Aare Onakakanfo of Yoruba land, Iba Gani Adams, has assured that Yoruba will soon regain its lost glory in Kwara State and move from poverty to prosperity.

Iba Adams gave the assurances at the weekend, while speaking at the 2022 Edition of Oya Festival, which took place in Ira, Kwara State, even as he expressed concern about the suffering and deprivation that he noted had been very common among the Yoruba in the state.

“I have a strong feeling that Yoruba will soon regain its lost glory in Kwara.Yoruba in Kwara have been deprived of the glory associated with the Yoruba race. And we are not happy with the suffering and deprivation that have been very common among our people here in Kwara.

“I am not saying Yoruba in the South-West region are one hundred per cent comfortable, but our people in Kwara have been most hit by poverty and backwardness.

“My spirit and that of our ancestors are not happy with the situation. But I want to assure you all today that Yoruba will soon regain its lost glory here in Kwara State,” he assured.

The Yoruba generalissimo also bemoaned the dwindling economy pervading the country, amid security concern, saying Nigerians were suffering from acute hunger scourge with little or no hope in sight, however, urged the Federal Government to put in place a pro-active measure that could save the economy from complete collapse.

“As Nigeria is still battling with the security deficit, acute hunger is fast turning into general pandemic in the country.

“The present economic indices show an unprecedented downturn as inflation had crippled Nigeria’s economy. Prices of food soar higher in the markets across the country.

“For instance, there was a report in a leading Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday that the soaring food prices had pushed inflation rate to 21.09 per cent.

“What this means is that prices of commodities like gas, liquid fuel, air transport have increased drastically.

“It is obvious that there is absolute disruption in food supply and currency depreciation. Common food like rice, which is also a staple in the diet of many cultures are now going out of the reach of the ordinary citizens,” he lamented.

Speaking on the event, Iba Gani Adams said Oya Festival was being celebrated because Oya, the river goddess, was one of the great ancestors of the Yoruba race and the beauty queen of Sango.

According to the Yoruba generalissimo, Oya is a perfect model for female folks and an epitome of beauty and courage, adding that she was also blessed with lots of physical attractions, wisdom and power.

“She was a river goddess and a symbol of beauty. A perfect model for female folks and an epitome of beauty and courage. Oya was blessed with lots of physical attractions, wisdom and power,” he said.

Onira of Ira, Oba Wahab Oyewale Oyetoro, in his remark, expressed his appreciation to Aare Adams for promoting the cultural identity of Yoruba race, saying the Yoruba generalissimo has made remarkable impact in ensuring that Yoruba race retained its pride of place among the leading races in the world.

This was just as the monarch noted that Ira town had been very lucky to key into the cultural promotion plan and programmes of the Olokun Festival Foundation (OFF) under the leadership of Iba Adams, and enjoyed the necessary support that had made the town one of the prominent towns in Kwara State.

“Ira town has been so lucky to key into the cultural promotion plan and programmes of the Olokun Festival Foundation under the leadership of Aare Gani Adams.

“And we have enjoyed the necessary support that had made the town one of the prominent towns in the state. I want thank Aare and the OPC for this brilliant idea of promoting cultural identity of the race positively to the world,” Oba Oyetoro said.

Dignitaries present at the event include the Arigbamu of Agbamu Kingdom, Oba Olusola Dare;
the Onigbaye of Igbaye Kingdom, Osun State, Oba Joseph Moronfoye; the Ira Chiefs in Council, Members of the Ira Descendants Union (IDU), Members of the National Executive Council (NEC) and National Coordinating Council (NCC) of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC).

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has disclosed why he stopped using social media.

Tinubu disclosed that he almost had high blood pressure whenever he used social media.

He lamented that he has been subjected to intense abuse by social media users, hence he avoids it.

The APC presidential candidate disclosed this in a video posted on Twitter by one of his allies, Ademola Oshodi.

In the footage, the former Lagos State governor said he gets angry whenever he reads the things written about him on social media.

“I don’t read social media anymore; they abuse the hell out of me. If I read it, I get high blood pressure and angry.

“I don’t read it, so if I want to hear anything; my children or my workers will say this one said this, and when I’m tired, I say please forget it,” Tinubu said.

Following his emergence as the APC presidential candidate, Tinubu has been subjected to a lot of controversies.

He, however, dismissed all the allegations which he described as false and baseless.

Eighty chiefs of the Ikirun community, Osun State, have demanded the removal of the newly installed Akirun, Oba Yinusa Akadiri and urged Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola to ensure fairness in selecting a new king for the town.

The traditional chiefs led by Chief Yakub Fabiyi addressing newsmen at NUJ Press Centre, Osogbo on Friday noted that the Oba Akadiri was not properly elected and the actions of the government on his appointment and installation are contempt following the pending court case.

According to him, “we want the current Akinrun removed because he was not properly elected. In Ikirun, we don’t choose a monarch through voting. The rites that the new Akirun must undertake were not done because he was illegally appointed or selected. The way he was appointed is offensive to the culture of Ikirun people. Oba cannot be installed in the same manner an ordinary chief will be installed.

“Oyetola has not appointed a monarch for us in Ikirun. There is a Chieftaincy Declaration that stipulates how the stool shall alternate among the ruling houses. There are three Ruling Houses namely: Obaara, Adedeji, and Gboleru.

A popular Nollywood actor, Sunday Olamilekan Ojo, popularly known as Gbatami, is dead.

Lagos Reporters learned that Gbatami died of lung cancer on Thursday morning.

A trainee of Adebayo Salami popularly known as Oga Bello, the late Ojo had been in the movie industry for about two decades.

He was the producer of Ojo Oro, Emi nire kan, Wonyosi, Salaye, and a host of other films.

Condolences have been pouring in following the death of the well-known actor.

“I had the wonderful honour of acting beside this wonderful man,” actress Sheyi Adelakun shared on her Instagram stories on Friday.

“His stories were the best. RIP Lekan,” a fan wrote on social media.

Colleague Aina Olayemi shared a photo with the late thespian, describing working with him as “a joy.”

Portable announced the sacking of his studio staff at Zehh Nation yesterday.

The singer gave an account of how the staff mismanaged his studio in his absence. Portable was away from the country for 6 weeks with the hope that his staff would have made enough money from studio sessions back home.

To his greatest surprise, the account given to him during his arrival back home showed a sum of 7 thousand Naira as the income made in 6 weeks at the studio.

An angry Portable immediately fired his staff with allegations of being scammed. Portable boasted of making 15 million on his own from the studio in a matter of 5 days. According to the singer, the staff wanted to wreck Zehh Nation, his studio.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has identified lack of political will and insincerity on the part of Governor Seyi Makinde as the major reason for the worsening security situation in the state even as it urged relevant stakeholders to intervene in the interest of the masses and good people’s of Oyo State.

Available reports indicate that cases of organized crime and security breach have been on the increase in parts of the state in recent times residents lament over seeming helplessness of the state government and the security agencies in tackling kidnappers, armed robbers, ritual killers, political thugs among others who now strike at will and subject their victims to untold agony and pains.

In a statement issued on Thursday and made available to journalists in Ibadan by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, Oyo APC alleged that the PDP administration of Gov. Makinde was guilty of paying a lip service to matters relating to improving the security architecture of the state “as those responsible for crime surge take advantage of incompetence and poor commitment on the part of the government of the day to perpetrate their evil.

“Apart from the fact that Gov. Makinde has failed to demonstrate competence and commitment in power, he has not been able to show the world that he is capable of solving the myriad of problems facing the state particularly as this concerns insecurity, environmental degradation, youth unemployment, falling standard of economy, infrastructural deficit among others.

“The situation is made worse by Gov. Makinde’s penchant for globetrotting and dereliction of duty since he prefers holidaying abroad and hibernating in Port Harcourt, Rivers state more often than not as it pleases him. It would have been better if the governor stay more at home and acquaint himself with details of happenings across the state on hourly basis. Worse still, Gov. Makinde does not have confidence in his imposed local government Chairmen who he recently accused of mismanaging security votes released to them.

“For some weeks now, there have been daily reports of of armed robbery and kidnapping on Ibadan-Ijebu-Ode and Ibadan-Lagos Expressway while governor’s of Ogun and Lagos states have responded well, their counterpart in Oyo state was nowhere to be found as we have it on good authority that Gov. Makinde is in the United States for no reason other than tourism and junketing. The best he (Makinde) could from abroad was to intervene in matter involving the police and Mukaila Lamidi (Auxiliary) who has been fingered in many cases of billboard vandalism and harassment of residents of the state in recent times.

“Without mincing words, the daunting problem of insecurity in the nooks and crannies of Oyo state would be drastically addressed if Gov. Makinde decide to take the bull by its horn. First, he should established the necessary synergy with other stakeholders including all the security agencies and also stop treating the menace of miscreants with kids’ glove. It is high time the governor was made to realize that no government can fight invading criminals successfully while keeping and indulging thugs and miscreants for locally for political engagement and ego massaging.” Oyo APC said.

Ayodele Fayose, former governor of Ekiti, says Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) will affect thr chances of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The former Ekiti governor also asked the PDP to negotiate with the Obi and reconcile with the camp of the Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, in order to win the presidency.

“Obi is a danger to watch out for. I don’t believe Obi will make 25 percent of votes in two-third of the states of the federation,” he said.

“I’m not against Obi. I love him and he is a very vibrant leader. I don’t believe he will get the required 25 percent of votes because of my permutations as Ayodele Fayose, but with God, nothing shall be impossible.

“Let me say Obi is more of a chronic cancer to PDP and there is no denying.

“Let me give you an analysis. In south-west, people might not like to hear that, I don’t see how PDP will win. Anybody deceiving us can continue to deceive us.

“I don’t see how PDP will win in the south-east. South-south will be a combination of all interests. Let me come to the key states of the north.

“Without deceiving ourselves, there is so much work to do in the north-central. PDP and APC did not pick any candidate, either presidential or vice-presidential from the north-central. The north-east is where the vice-presidential candidate of APC came from.

The Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, has presented the 2023 budget proposal of N472.26billion before the State House Assembly, with the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure taking a lion share of N129,371,366,122.38bn, indicating 27% of the total budget.

Abiodun, while presenting the appropriation bill at the chamber of the OGHA, Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, on Thursday, said the 2023 fiscal proposal is christened ‘Budget of Continued Development and Prosperity’ as it will take his administration’s “Building Our Future Together” agenda from the current phase into another one.

The governor noted that his administration would continue to accord priority attention to the completion of ongoing projects, especially those with revenue potentials; that can enhance employment generation; projects that are consistent with priorities articulated in the State
Economic Development Plan and Strategy 2021-2025 as well as projects that align with the seven thematic areas contained in the Medium-Term National Development Plan 2021-2025.

He disclosed that the 2023 budget conception came with obvious economic challenges, hence, the preparation was done conscious of a very challenging world economy that is weakened by the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, high inflation, high crude oil prices resulting in huge cost of PMS Subsidy, continued crude oil theft and negative spill-over effects of the Russia-Ukraine war on food and dwindling federal revenues.

While declaring that the principal objective of his government in 2023 is to maintain and enlarge the state economic base by being strategic towards harnessing economic opportunities in the outer years of the current administration, Abiodun said a total of N201.84b is proposed recurrent expenditure, while as sum of N270.41b is set aside as capital expenditure.

Breaking down the budget, he said that a sum of N129,371,366,122.38b has been earmarked for works and infrastructure in 2023, which is the 27% of the entire budget.

He attributed the largest share in the budget to works and infrastructure as his administration had planned to implement schemes for power generation to improve and guarantee electricity supply to major cities, business clusters and estates; development of a dry port at Kajola to leverage on the
existing rail network; rehabilitation, reconstruction and maintenance of roads across the state; completion of the Agro-Cargo Airport; procurement and installation of transformers state-wide; construction of pilot rural Road of 13.1km at Alapako-Oni and Mosa Junction; improvement and upgrading of other rural roads among other infrastructural projects.

According to the governor, personnel cost; social contribution and social benefits; public debt charge and overhead cost will gulp N79.47b, N21.12b, N39.90b and N61.35b, respectively in the 2023 budget.

On the finance of the proposed budget, Abiodun said that the state is expected to generate an estimated revenue of N90b internally through the OGIRS, N120.25b from other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) totalling N210.25b.

Noting that the state will achieve an IGR to GDP ratio of 3.7 per cent, he added that the state is expected to receive a sum of N92b from the statutory allocation from the Federal Government, while N128.37b is expected as capital receipts comprising of internal and external loans as well as grants and aids in 2023.

“The 2023 budget proposals manifest the issues we confront as well as the necessary steps to overcome them in a sustainable manner. The expenditure policy of government in 2023 is designed to achieve the strategic objectives of the Ogun State Economic Development Plan and Strategy 2021-2025, including fiscal sustainability; human development; food security; improved business environment; energy sufficiency; improving transport infrastructure; and, promoting industrialization focusing on Small and Medium Scale Enterprises.

“We will continue to focus our public spending mix towards a capital expenditure that is higher than that of recurrent expenditure. We are convinced that increased investment in capital expenditure is our secured route to sustainable economic growth and development as a State.

“Against the backdrop of the challenging global and domestic economic environment, it is imperative that we strengthen our macroeconomic environment and address existing challenges as a State. The 2023 Appropriation therefore is a “Budget of Continued Development and Prosperity” expected to achieve social cohesion that will continue to focus on equitable socio-economic growth and development state-wide.

“Our internally generated revenue capacity in the comity of states is no longer in doubt. More importantly, this administration’s budget model is revenue driven through the State Medium Term Revenue Strategy. In essence we will continue to focus on improving our revenue base. In doing this we will rely on the provisions of the section 23 (1 & 2) of the fiscal responsibility law, 2020 (as amended) with a view to increase the State’s Internally Generated Revenue. This will not only help to enhance the comprehensiveness and transparency, but increase the State’s revenue in due course”. The governor stated.

Abiodun, who recalled that the total projected funding for the 2022 budget was N450,986,566,678.04 comprising of N160,174,462,525.27 as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and N290,812,104,152.77 as expected inflows from the Statutory Allocation, Value Added Tax, Capital Receipts and others, disclosed that “as of 30th September 2022, actual total funding was N193,731,370,976.27 representing 62.11 per cent of the pro-rated revenue target. We are poised to finish this year strongly at an expected performance of well over the 70% that was achieved last year”.

While saying that the infrastructure investments of his government are people-oriented and transformational with immense multiplier effects on the socio-economic development of the entire state, the governor said that over 80 major roads and others (Federal roads inclusive) totalling 400km have been constructed, reconstructed or rehabilitated across the State, submitting that “this administration in three years and six months has done more in terms of kilometres of roads than previous administrations in the state”.

Governor Abiodun, however, urged the leadership of the State House of Assembly to ensure that the 2023 budget proposal is thoroughly but expeditiously vetted and returned in earnest for his assent before January 1, 2023, emphasizing that the budget contents emanated from the wishes of the Ogun people expressed at different budget town hall meetings.

“Mr. Speaker and honourable members of the 9th Ogun State House of Assembly, as I lay before you the 2023 Appropriation Bill today, we must remind ourselves that this event is another symbolic representation of our joint mission towards the realization of the Ogun State of our collective dreams. We have done it before. We can do it again. The challenges that are ahead of us in the coming year dictate that we should all move on more cooperatively to continue to deliver dividends of democracy to our people. We have covered a lot of grounds, but we must remind ourselves that there is always room for improvement. Time is of the essence and our people must see our commitment and sincerity to their security, peace, comfort, wellness and well-being”, the state governor concluded.