Maye of Yorubaland Splashes N1m on Ife Timber Contractors Association
……Promises Scholarships worth 20m naira to Ife Indigenes.
The Maye of Yorubaland and Chancellor, Oduduwa University, Ipetumodu, Ife North Local Government, His Royal Eminence (Dr) Abdul-Rahaman Adegoke Atobatele Adedoyin has donated one million naira as assistance to Ife Timbers Contractors and Saw millers Association towards the completion of their projects.
Adedoyin gave the monetary gift at a program organised by the association recently at Ile-Ife at which he was nominated as the Life Patron.
In his address at the occasion, the President of the Association said Adedoyin was selected as the Life Patron because of his numerous contributions to the socio-economic development to humanity in Ile-Ife in particular.
He noted that the last Life Patron of the association, the late Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Okunade Sijuwade rendered a lot of assistance to the association and left an indelible mark in their affairs and expressed optimism that the Maye of Yorubaland would even do better. He disclosed that over 15,000 Ife indigenes earn their living from the timber businesses in Ile-Ife forest reserve.
In his remark, the Maye of Yorubaland advised the members that as they cut trees, they should plant trees for the future. He also said he heard that the association is divided into two and advised them to bury their grievances. "Ile-Ife is one, the reserve had been there before us and we shall leave it there. Let it remain one. You do not need to divide yourself.”
He used the occasion to invite the other small group to come back. “I was with the Oba Okunade Sijuwade and the late Oba S F Omisakin when the representatives of the Osun State Government came to resolve an issue about the forest. The problem keeps on lingering because you people are divided. The reserve is very important to more than 50% of the people of Ile-Ife far before we were born.”
He also advised the people of Ile-Ife to beware of strangers dressed in borrowed clothes and big cars to deceive them. They have only come to steal the little that they have. ’Awa Ife, ijekuje ti a nje, oun lon kobawa, oun pawa lara,’ but I know that Ile-Ife is a spirit. If you do well, you get well.... it is a matter of time and history"
Meanwhile, Dr. Adedoyin has promised to grant scholarships worth over 20 million naira to Ife indigenes who passed the last Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board- JAMB Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination-UTME and are willing to school at Oduduwa University, Ipetumodu, Ife North Local Government or at The Polytechnic, Ile-Ife or Oduduwa Polytechnic, Lagos.
