Ile-Oluji: Paradigm shift in community development

As responsibility in governance wanes across the country, communities are resorting to self-help in developing their communities but the approach by Ile-Oluji in Ondo State which has fused such efforts into an annual celebration that is transforming into a carnival stands out reports Ahamefula Ogbu

Nestled between hills off a tarred but ageing road to Akure is a bubbly city which now hosts a polytechnic and other modern infrastructure courtesy of indigenes who have committed to making their community as good as their various places of residence and trade. It therefore boasts of other development projects, some too big to be handled by states the way people see it these days.

The place is so unique that they call it small Jerusalem because it is surrounded by hills and with little effort, one can see that development is standardised in that whatever project you see has the imprimatur of high taste which only explanation would be the standard and taste of the executors.

Going towards the center of the city gives impression of one continually descending a hill but on going towards what looks like the outskirts, one would on a backward glance, see the beauty of the city called Ile Oluji.

On this particular day, the illustrious sons and daughters of the place had gathered as has become the fashion, all decked in their best attires. A look at the crowd shows that no dress sense was lacking in representation, a pointer that attendees came from far and wide, depicting the fact that people came from across the world to attend…everywhere their people reside in.

The essence of the celebrating Ile Oluji day which has transformed to a festival with a plan to make it an annual carnival is development by self-effort. The spirit behind it is to come together in celebration and provision of what would make life worth living. This they do by providing what the community lack through individual efforts.

Like the one celebrated last December, Ile Oluji had been in the throes of epileptic power supply owing to a transformer installed for the community in the 70s which capacity had been outstripped by development. That visited darkness on the community for a long time prompting those who can to look the way of alternative power supply. The pressure became so unbearable that the youth got restive and were on the brink of social unrest.

However, while the planning committee of 2023 Ile Oluji day were on partial restoration of power through repairs, one of their sons had an alternative plan. Rather than key into the repairs, he donated a power distribution facility worth over N200 million and asked that the community just provide the land where the equipment would be installed for steady power to Ile-Oluji.

That was just one of the donors but his stood out because of the perennial power problem. Others threw their weights in dualising the roads to the community while others attracted government facilities like a passport office since it boasts of the most travelled people within the area. Shopping malls and other facilities were donated to the community.

Going down memory lane, Jegun    of Ile-Oluji, His Royal Majesty Oba Oluwole Olufaderin Adetimehin who incidentally was the first Chairman of Ile Oluji day planning Committee and one of the brains behind its formation was nostalgic in his reminiscences.

According to him, “There were many clubs here before us but some of us came together then to say let us stop depending on government and use our resources contributed by our sons and daughters who are well placed to make our place comfortable to live in. Oba Adeseko Oduntan was the monarch then and we approached their team and explained our vision to them. They felt it was too much for us to achieve but we insisted and asked for their blessing.

“The main objective was to raise a platform to start development and by the grace of God, we held the first one and even surpassed the goal. Today, we have covered the mileage and it has transformed and promoted our self-help efforts towards socio-economic development of the community.

“Local governments are no longer helping in development; they are no longer working as the tier closest to the people so we have to take our fate in our own hands. We thank God for enabling us in self-help development agenda and you can hardly find it anywhere else in Ondo State and other parts of Nigeria. It has become an annual event where we reappraise what we have and what more needs to be done. We are wonderfully achieving the objectives”.

The Monarch pointed at a shopping complex, International diagnostic center, dental center, houses and a modernised cemetery. He said after a polytechnic was located in the community, it became imperative to build hostels to accommodate the students and they are currently building two blocks of 20 rooms each while another three floors building is ongoing.

The Chattered Insurer and one time President of Chartered Institute of Insurers, the Jegun who is widely travelled says all the professionals from the community bring in their expertise and resources into ensuring they have the best, the same template he uses to secure the area.

On how he has been ensuring the peace of his domain is not breached, he said, “We meet regularly with security agencies and district heads and map out strategies to address any threat even before they arise. Intelligence gathering through community efforts and augmentation of the security agencies efforts with those of local hunters have so far ensured that threats were nipped in the bud. To ensure power is restored before the completion of installation of the power system donated by one of our sons, we had commenced the repairs of the old transformer and distribution equipment”

To demonstrate how sensitive he is to the demands and feelings of his people, the Oba who has solar power in his palace said he switches it off as darkness nears to avoid giving impression that he was not feeling the weight of the darkness which lack of power foisted on the community, adding, “I switch it off to avoid giving impression that I am not feeling the suffering of my people notwithstanding that I had mobilised to work on the old transformer.”

On what has ensured that the community had the best result from their efforts, he replied, “There is no magic wand but when a solid foundation is laid, things work out well. What you are seeing today are signs of what is to come in the future because the people have bought into building their community without waiting for anyone or to add to what government is able to do for us.

“We will be looking out for strategic partnership with people because here is safe for production and labour is also cheap; so factors of production will work more favourably for anyone who sites a production facility here. Also, we are strategically focusing on hostels because of the rise in population due to the rising number of students in the area.”

The monarch was full of gratitude for the confirmation of the Comptroller General of Immigration Service, Caroline Wura-Ola Adepoju   who comes from Ile Oluji, stating that it was a confirmation that hard work pays, adding, “We have produced the first female CG for South West; the result of good work came from good background; it is inspiring to the female folk because people may have thought the position is not for the female folk. We are sure and confident that she will deliver.

Also speaking on the Ile-Oluji day, one of the cabinet members of the community, Chief Adeleye Adepoju explained that it was an idea muted by some of their prominent sons which has taken a life of its own as everyone from Ile-Oluji heads home to attend it and also contribute their quota in developing their place.

Chief Adeleye said he proudly calls Ile-Oluji small Jerusalem because they have a lot in common since it is surrounded by hills from all approaches, pointing out that through the celebration, the community has been able to address most of their pressing needs which people had not imagined they could do.

“Yesterday, a substation was donated to our people by one of us. It will replace the old transformer that has been undergoing several repairs and now we have something that can conveniently serve us.

“This is a justification of the idea because through the celebration of Ile-Oluji day when we all come together to appraise how our community is faring and also know what the problems of the people are and how we can tackle them. It was started by some prominent men from here asking for a day to celebrate but as you can see, it is turning to a carnival and people are asking that it be extended to seven days so that different programs can run on different days for entertainment and after that, we raise funds to address our problems.

“The people are now asking that street carnival be added to the day and we will buy into it. It has turned into a veritable way of collectively solving our developmental problems; we are grateful to those who birthed the idea… it is working for us.

“One thing however we need to learn from this, especially for public officers is that officials in charge of the celebrations and donations have been above board; whatever is raised for projects are transparently applied to their execution and it has built the confidence of the people. A look around shows what has been done and what more needs to be done. The transparency has come to make everyone of who can to do more because we can all see what the resources contributed are being used for”