By Abimbola Abatta
Indigenes of Ile-Ife have been urged to present a united front and harness available resources for the progress of the town, particularly in achieving the Ife vision 2030.
This was disclosed in a communique issued at the end of the Ile-Ife Summit convened by His Imperial Majesty Ooni Enitan Babatunde Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, on January 23, 2022.
The summit, held at the Metropolitan Club, Victoria Island in Lagos, sought to aggregate the developmental interests of Ife sons and daughters.
At the end of the summit, the participants resolved to set up key Committees to deal with the development of Ile-Ife in Human Capital Development; Project and Infrastructure; Youth Development; Inter-governmental Relations and Media Relations.
According to the communique made available to Nigerian NewsDirect on Monday, the Ile-Ife Summit will also be held at other strategic cities in Nigeria and abroad, where Ife indigenes can advance the pursuit of the Ife Developmental Agenda.
Ife indigenes were lauded for their early progressive roles in the socio- economic and political development of the town.
The communique which revealed the decisions made at the end of the summit read in part, “It was agreed that over the years apart from the establishment of the University in 1962, Ile-Ife has not witnessed any meaningful development on many fronts, specifically: infrastructure development, human resource and public service representation; political and governmental participation as well as youth development.
“The Summit recognises all Ife indigenes all over the world and resolved that a compendium of Ife indigenes, who have demonstrated interest in the affairs and progress of the Community, shall be compiled and made to participate in the development of the Community.
“It was also resolved that all Ife sons and daughters must come together to present a united front, harness its resources for the progress of the town.
“The meeting equally acknowledged intellectual work and set out to reward excellence among the people in the current knowledge economy.
“Mentorship of the youth must be encouraged in all fronts to develop the next generation of champions. We must leverage on energy of the youth in technology and creative industries for the sustainable development of the town.
“We must work together with our neighbours for the development of robust plan for peace and progress of the entire community.
“We must key into legacy Projects through a comprehensive plan leveraging on the success of alumni associations among others.
“Ife vision 2030 must be dissected and improved upon, based on four pillars, agriculture, mining, tourism and education. An investment brochure is already developed for these pillars.
“We need to integrate everyone – the elites, general ife kith and keen to achieve the developmental goals. We need to invest extensively on education, research and development, using the university resources as a fulcrum.”
It was disclosed that the proposed Committees would design strategy and recommend steps for the actualisation of the goal of the summit.
It was further noted that an Annual Summit would be convened at a location and date to be agreed upon, whereby the Ooni of Ife would be the Grand Patron of the Annual Summit.