14/08/2022
THIS IS YOUR ANCESTRAL LAND THAT A MAN FROM OWO IS TRYING TO GIVE TO NON ILAJE, NON INDEGENES OF ARAROMI. YOU MUST REJECT IT.
Araromi Seaside: " Ojà Bansa" Going, Going, Going !
- Allen Sowore Esq
There was an auction sales on harvest Sundays those days, particularly in some orthodox churches- where items including Frankincense were sold to raise fund for church programmes. The salesman would stand in the midst of the congregation with a bell announcing his readiness to handover the goods to the latest highest bidder, chanting Going, Going, Going !
However, the emergence of pentecostal churches and the emphasis on the preachings of Christ's injunctions contained in the New Testament “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into market " has made the practice outdated and unpopular. I doubt if there is still any church that practises "Ojà Bansa"
Lugubriously, the Chief Executive of Ondo State, Arakunrin has revamped this archaic and anachronistic method, selling all the state's natural endorsement, treasures land and state-owned properties to his business cronies and allies.
Recently, farmers in Idanre Local Government Area of the state protested vehemently. They lamented that the state government has arrogantly given out about 50,000 hectares of their land in the area to private business owners for 99 years. The good people of Odigbo and Okitipupa Local Government Areas are suffering the same fate - all their arable land has been ceded to foreign bourgeoisie camouflaged as foreign investors.
Genuinely, it's the forest, idle land and " ungoverned areas" in the Northern District of the state which is fast becoming a safe haven for crimal elements that should be first cleared, cultivated or leased out for any serious business requiring mass land. But power has revealed that Governor Akeredolu shares the same strategy with those Europeans as illustrated by Walter Rodney in his 1972 masterwork- "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Craftily, Arakunrin has deployed that political economy of deliberate exploitation and underdevelopment of one side in favour of the other.
The latest news is that the Ondo State Government has concluded arrangements to cede Araromi Seaside to La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort Ltd for an undisclosed amount. The Memorandum of Understanding is shrouded in secrecy. The same government that has completely forgotten Ilaje LG in its project ex*****on has suddenly remembered that Ilaje is a global tourism zone.
On Friday, Mr Governor announced that the government had concluded plans to "declare the Seaside a Tourism Zone." This reminisces the wrong assertion of primary school teachers who believed those days, that Mungo Park discovered River Niger.
We all now know that people were already fishing in the River Niger before Mungo Park’s grandfather was born. Araromi Seaside has always been a tourists' delight from time immemorial. This " Declaration " is a gimmick to sell off the collective natural endowment of the people, particularly the Ilajes.
If Arakunrin truly love the Ilaje people he should take his investors to Aiyetoro, Molutehin or Awoye and erect protection piles along the seacoast to prevent incursion. Judging by the antecedents of the Governor, unless the people stand to protect their possession, the Araromi Seaside is going, going, going !
Ilaje Omuro, remember the last stanza of your Anthem.
