Olakanmi Abdullateef
By Abdulraheem Sheriffdeen (Famous)
From the time immemorial, Offa Descendants Union (ODU) is the mother of all Unions and associations in Offa and a unified body of all and sundry representing the community in all capacity. Right from our progenitors down to the contemporary generation, Offa Descendants Union has become the mainstream and the mechanism for Offa development. Hitherto, the Body has served the sincere ideology of “Offa first”, hence, it’s above any individual or organization emanating from Offa irrespective of their capacity, except the Olofa in-Council.
The leadership of Offa Descendants Union, right from the pioneer President, Mr W. Adedoyin (late) to this present president, Alhaji Azeez Olaniyi Muideen Salako has uphold the core value of its existence and operates within the confine of her constitution, which has positioned them unmatched globally and were able to maintain the strong bond amongst her members for a collective strive to achieve this feat and regard unprecedentedly in the history of Nigeria.
The present executive of ODU under the global president of Alhaji Azeez Olaniyi Muideen Salako, under two years has achieved massively which among are; (1)Restructuring of ODU at the Zonal level, (2)Reactivation of many inactive branches, (3)Facilitate Federal Fire Service Area Command to Offa, (4) Ongoing construction of permanent office for Federal Fire Service in Offa, (5) Facilitate Federal Immigration Service Offa passport office, (6) Reconstruction of former Traditional Council Building to a befitting office for Federal Immigration, (7) Facilitate Federal Road Service Offa area command and construction of standard office, (8) Facilitate IBEDC Offa business hub recently commissioned, (9) Enterprise for Youths in Agriculture (Soilless Agriculture Projects in Ogun State) in which a reasonable numbers of youths in Offa were deployed and fully sponsored by ODU, and other assistance offering to Federal Fire Service to ease their operation, (10) Assisting NYSC with ODU coaster bus to mobilize corp members to their various PPA, (11) Assisting ODUNA and ODUUK during medical mission, including others, to mention but a few.
The game of politics in Offa is becoming so tense for selfish interest at the expense of the community peace and unity. The tussle for power and the quest for dominance has eaten up the soul of our gladiators including the ones with a revered title, that ought to be seen as a father of all, but privately romancing and bankrolling one candidate against the others. Much are they aware that this will do more harm than good and the consequences after the election is a divided Offa, ergo, and it’s no more for community interest. Please let them be informed that their hidden agenda is no more hidden and it’s at the detriment of our community. Rather, they should maintain the status quo of a father figure and our pride, because their contributions to the growth of Offa are enormous and far above a lip-Service than to be found in the political mudslinging.
The history has it that our late sages; the like of Pa J.S Olawoyin, Pa Amos Bilewu, Baba Adeyemi Alata, Baba John oyeladun and others, had fought for the liberation of Offa, championed all fight for Offa against external aggressions and not against ourselves. The local government election coming up is a contest between Offa and Offa and not Offa against the neighboring community or state, they’re all sons of the soil, and whoever emerges is a win-win for Offa. They all possess the attribute of Omoluabi and they’ll definitely heed to the call of our elders, should in case they’re doing anything contrary to the interest of Offa. On the good side of the people, the autonomy does not come with immunity, which gives the masses the grace of taking a legal action against any chairman that’s not prioritizing the people’s programme and agenda.
For community engagement and keeping the people abreast of what Offa should be expecting from our prospective candidates, the leadership of Offa Descendants Union led by Alh. Salako organized a town hall debate for all chairmanship candidates across various political parties, that had set another footprint for other communities to emulate. It’s indeed a thoughtful and unprecedented move.
The ODU has set a pace that arrest all attention and beat people’s imagination, therefore any further action that’ll question their integrity should be devoid. ODU has never and will never stop any individual or organization to hold a debate, but tagging ODU with politics is what the leadership disassociated itself. Amidst speculation and political propaganda on the just concluded ODU debate, a lot of murmuring and lamentation are on air that the said Channel TV debate is to project and favor one candidate over the others because every individual even the bigwigs that doesn’t partake in politics before have now affiliated and pick a side, it’s now majorly perceived that the transparency in that debate isn’t guarantee, as such, ODU can’t afford to be dent at the aftermath of the program
In this regards, candidates from different parties had already rejected such debate with reasons that are cogent. In leu of this, nobody dare pointing a finger at ODU for being careful and maintaining equity among all. Also it’s so disheartening seeing some son of the soil with no idea of the political gimmicks in play to be calling out the ODU leadership for ridicule, enabling the non-indigene to have the effrontery to intervene. Can’t we learn from other community based union like IEDPU? The true born of the land will never badmouth the Union not to talk of allowing an outsider to do so. I’ll end this with a proverb that says; “Eni to ta ara ile e lopo ko le ri ra ni owon”, meaning that “Those who sell their families for a paltry sum will not find same to buy for good value”.
Offa Ronu oo !
