Ayo Adebanjo urges priority for child education

By our correspondent 

Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo  Adebanjo,  has urged communities to prioritise  education of their children as investment in future community development .

Chief Adebanjo who gave the charge while speaking at the 2021 Ibido-Ogbo Day celebration  at the weekend  said that mothers must be willing to make sacrifices for the education of their children because mothers constitute the bulwark of the family.  

Chief Adebanjo,  who is the Asiwaju of Ibido-Ogbo and  Father of the Day at the event,  stated  that many fathers cannot shoulder the responsibility of educating the children alone and recalled that in his youth days, especially with polygamy, mothers sold some of their belongings to ensure the education of their own children.  

The Afenifere leader, who is an indigene of Ogbo community, near Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State,  pointed out that while multiple wives in a polygamy setup was a major reason why mothers had to take care of their own children,  the harsh economic realities of today,  which have rendered many men incapacitated financially, demand that women, in polygamy or monogamy,  would also need to make sacrifices, like mothers of old,  in the education of children.  He commended the leadership  of the Ibido-Ogbo Development Council ( IODC)  for seeking to sustain the community’s legacy in education by sponsoring  the education of brilliant but indigent children in the community. 

The chairman of IODC, Mr. Folasade Adekoya,  had in his welcome address announced  that the Council  had initiated a programme of educational counseling and financial support of children of the community. He stated that education had always been a priority in the community, and pointed out  the trail blazing achievement  of  an indigene of  IBIDO-OGBO , late Samuel Olukoya,  who was among the pioneer  students of St. Andrew’s College,  Oyo in 1896.  Mr. Adekoya,  who announced the launching of a  Palace Building Appeal Fund at the event,  appealed  for the continued support of community members and well-wishers in implementing the Council’s  educational, cultural  and economic development agenda. The IODC chairman specially thanked the youths of the community for their efforts in the village, ‘’ especially in areas of security, supervising our economic resources, assisting the elderly ones in cases of emergencies  and general welfare of the village’’.  

The 2021 IBIDO-OGBO DAY celebration, with the theme : EDUCATION FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, was a three-day event which featured  free medical examination and provision  of drugs for community members on Thursday, November 25, while Friday  featured  ‘’ IKOKORE NIGHT, ikokore being a special delicacy of the Ijebus,  with the grand finale on Friday, November 27  which featured  a fund raiser,  award of prizes to school children in the community, cultural dances  and performance by the ‘Agbo’  masquerade.