Orangun of Oke-Ila, Oba Adedokun Abolarin, on Tuesday said Yoruba leaders should draw development agenda for the race rather than living in past glory.
He lamented the rate Yoruba youths are running away from the country due to the volume of poverty in the country despite numerous resources available within the region.
Delivering a paper at a colloquium themed, “Yoruba race in the world system”, organised by the Global Affairs and Sustainable Development Institute (GASDI), held at the main campus, Osun State University, Osogbo, he stressed the need for stakeholders in Yorubaland, including monarchs to jettison superiority struggle and focus on harnessing both human and natural resources for the benefit of its people.
“With the volume of wealth with which the younger generation are trained and enormous resources available in the land, our children still struggle to run to a foreign land, then we have failed the founding fathers of the race.
“If with all the education that we have, our people all over Yoruba land cannot benefit from any significant development, it is important for us as a race to be futuristic and draw a development agenda for Yoruba nation which will later be copied by Nigeria.
“It is a big problem for us to develop Nigeria and I guess that is the reason people are calling for restructuring but I believe whatever is good for the race must be given to the race. We are suffering in silence. The human capital is massive. While outsiders are benefitting from the little that our forebears have slaved for, our children are suffering. We must begin to look at how to situate development in Yoruba land in the future.
“It is always important to feel the pulse of the people, they are the ultimate, even culturally, it has been established that power lies in the people. Never must you ever joke with the people”, the monarch said.
Earlier in his address, Osun State Governor, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola, who was represented by Commissioner for Education, Folorunso Oladoyin, described Yorubas as a creative race, whose importance in a world searching for relevance and peace cannot be overemphasized.
“This Colloquium offers an opportunity for our Yoruba traditional rulers, political elite, professionals, intelligentsia, and other leaders of thought across the world to come together to hone and harness these rich and diverse potential for sustainable national and world development.
“A Colloquium such as this is an opportunity to find our voice and harness our God-given resources and potential to provide leadership in the countries we are domiciled and consequently the world”, said Governor Oyetola.
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