I write to you with a heart of gratitude in anticipation of your audience, and for the many who have been a part of the ITURA Agenda. There are so many of you who play significant roles by way of prayers, dissemination of information or well-wishes with whom I would welcome a chance to say my thanks in person. Thank you for being you, for offering yourselves willingly and believing in a cause that you have let me undertake on your behalf. There could be no greater proof of trust than this.
Over the past few months, I have been in the trenches, sleeves rolled up, cuffs drawn, and having the privilege of God, friends, families and well-wishers I have pushed on with the ITURA Agenda. Where my strength fails me, I have always found rest and uplifting from you all. My appreciation of this is greater than words can capture.
In my many engagements this past period, I have had the fortune to interact with many who, like me, are truly worried about our prospects as a people and as members of the larger Nigerian nation. The stakes are high, the outlook dire especially if we continue to look at our dear country in the destructive path selfish leaders continue to take us.
The stories are not good, the problems we face are real. Merely recounting the travails that families in the multitude have had to undergo is painful, imagine then the true horror of starving families, out of job parents and youths, kids weaned from the learning process and the depression that threatens to leave no room for individual enterprise nor communal growth and development.
We’ve spoken and written at length on this issues. In beer parlours, public and private transports, market hubs and the privacy of our thoughts we’ve each decried the state of things, interrogated our choices and prayed to God in complete resignation and near hopelessness.
Not just over Oriade/Obokun, across the country – with its sprawling towns and hamlets, the way of life and peace of our people is threatened by a common problem - leadership. There is a feeling of having been left desolate and forlorn. We all sense this, and must wonder if we could ever be rid of it. And before God I say to you, we CAN.
There is a sad conditioning our people have become accustomed to and which greatly benefits those who ordinary should be uncomfortable with the games they play with the future of our people. There are hushed whispers about that the status quo cannot be successfully challenged. That we have no choices and must simply accept our fate. I tell you this is defeatist and a false narrative pushed deliberately by those who have sold out on the people and who wish to continue to hold a whip over our heads.
If we believe that lie and live by it, we perish and even worse, posterity would leave no laurels on our names for we would become the generation of those who failed to conquer where they could have. Our community, our values and way of life transcends a group of men, political friends who are banded together to dictate to it. Our exodus from this Egypt of lies and betrayals lays, first, in accepting the universal truth that power is indeed held by the people and then exercise the power in that truth at the polls.
In a customary moment of retrospection, I said to myself – There is a bounty of talents and skills amongst us, amongst all of you. I am greatly convinced that from amongst your very numbers can be found men and women with the inherent capacity to be better leaders than we’ve had so far. So I wonder greatly why we’ve truly not seized the moment to re-order the fiscal priorities and fortune of our communities and state through contesting for and clinching political office? There is no greater life than a life spent on service and a life built on filling voids. I say this with all seriousness.
As you may very well know, I have looked and seen a need. I have examined the evidence and seen proof of disservice to the people and state in some crucial areas of our development, and now I offer myself - not as the most qualified from amongst your ranks, but as one truly determined and motivated to channel our collective wishes, prayers and dreams as a people and bring all of these to reality through hard-work, honesty and diligence.
I write to you as your son, as one brother to another, as a peer, as a friend and comrade in the common struggle for political and economic emancipation. I have nothing to hide, but all to prove if you would honour me with your time, belief and support. I cannot hope to see my candidacy to a success at the polls without the blessings and consensus of all of you. I do not ask you to waive your interrogation of my person and competence but to let go of disbelief and apathy as we together add details to, and finesse the new map to a new community and people that I have drawn up.
I make this conscientious appeal knowing of the potential you all posses and which you all represent at the polls. I can go no further than I am lifted and placed by your collective efforts and support. I give my word as a bond to honour your faith in me, and bring about a new Ijesa to be renowned not just for its beautiful people and culture but it’s envious and rapid growth and development.
We must remember today that we are the heirs of a beautiful and colourful people and community, we must then today become the progenitors of an improved society to bequeath to the generations coming after us. Let the word go forth from now to all alike- friends, brothers and sisters, parents and acquaintances, that we are lighting a torch and passing the flames round to rekindle in our people the right to hope and prepare for better days ahead.
Know this then, that our rights and privileges as members of this great constituency come not from the generosity of men but from the hand of God. So we must not settle for less, but aspire to greater heights. Let all men know, friend or foe, that we stand together and we are ready to pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend and oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of our struggle for liberty and progress.
May God richly bless our individual endeavours and meet the prayers of our hearts and mouth. May our shared dreams and hope for this great community and state overcome all odds and become a reality.
I truly look forward to meet with and engage all of you one on one again. Such times present me with the opportunity to say my thanks in person and receive the assurances of your support and blessings.
God bless.
Pelumi Olajengbesi Esq. is the Principal Partner of Pelumi Olajengbesi & Co. Law Corridor and the National Coordinator of YouthLeadNigeria Campaign.
