IKEJI ILE IJESA NEEDS YOU & I @ THIS CRITICAL MOMENT

IKEJI ILE IJESA NEEDS YOU & I @ THIS CRITICAL MOMENT
Heeding To The Clarion call
It is the Love of Country/Community that has Lighted and Keeps Glowing the Holy Fire of Patriotism. – J. Horace Macfarland

Ikeji Ile Ijesa needs You & I to move her forward!
Ikeji Ile Ijesa needs people like the Biblical Joshua to raise her hands every time!
Ikeji Ile Ijesa needs You & I to take her to a Greater height!
Ikeji Ile Ijesa needs You & I to make her a haven of God-fearing people!
Ikeji Ile Ijesa needs You & I to put her on the Path of Greatness!
Ikeji Ile Ijesa needs You & I to Rescue her from the bottomless pit of Teenage Pregnancy which it has sunk!
Ikeji Ile Ijesa needs You & I to get the present youths living in the town Enlightened! We need to Inform the Unformed how life is being run. We need to Organise Pundit Talk Shows, Quiz, Debates, Lectures, Discussions, Round-table Conferences, Symposiums est. (like a Symposium I attended in 2005, organised by Advance Club held in Ikeji Ile Ijesa Town Hall, since then, we’ve never seen such again) not every time we should be organising party, party, party that keep aiding the rampant teenage pregnancy we are seeing in our town today. We need to witness this good old days again.
Ikeji Ile Ijesa needs You & I to inform the young boys living in town that “igbo ati oti mimu, pelu sina sise” is not the best way of enjoying life. We need to tell them that thuggery is not a way of proving big boy. We need to inform the girls that flirting around loosing their human-hood integrity to just some minute’s ‘thinked’ enjoyment is not the best for them.
They need to be enlightened to make them have a Paradigm Shift in the way they think this time around; they need to be told that Teenage Pregnancy is a barricade to their Aiming goals (that is even if they have any).
They need to change their thinking that if you’re not ‘After/Plus 1(having a child)’, ‘Minus 1 (you born a baby and he/she dies)’, ‘1 Minus 1 (1-1) (you’ve terminated a pregnancy)’, 2 Minus 2 (2-2) (you’ve terminated two pregnancies)’, (and so on) that the person is not A big ‘Omo to Jasi’ girl. They need to be brainwashed!
To the both Guys and Girls living in Ikeji Ile Ijesa presently, we need to be forthright with them; we need to ask them some painstaking questions like ‘Do you want to ever remain in abject poverty? Do you want to be impoverished for life? Do you want to take back the ‘osuka ege’ your mother left (will leave)? Do you want to be the servants of your mates in other cities? Do you still want to live in a fantasy world? Of course, their answer will always be a Kapital ‘NO’, A Stagnant ‘NO’, A ‘No’ that will never be followed with Actions. Is this the set of unschooled people that will uplift Ikeji Ile Ijesa? What a pity!
Parenthesis! On our (My Dad, Prince Olusegun Ogunmokun, a.k.a SEGMOK and I) journey to Osogbo on a lovely Monday morning, bla…bla…bla…we talked about Osun State Politics all-along, when we got to a place in Ilesa, my father dropped to see someone and it remains Prince & I inside the car. We both kept quiet for some minutes, suddenly he turned to my side and asked passionately ‘ewo niwo naa n baaka (what are you also doing around)? I replied by telling him my Educational Status, he smiles and then wished me well on my desired discipline. We talked about degradation of Ikeji Ile Ijesa, we talked about the dog-like behaviour (kissing, romancing, hugging rubbing each other every night in ‘Odo Arigbo’) of the present youths living in the town, we talked about the ‘maybe’ cause of Ikeji Ile Stagnation, we charted the way forward to ‘New Ikeji Ile Ijesa.’
What brings my story is about what he said lastly, he said ‘the future of Ikeji Ile Ijesa are not those living presently there, they are those that are living in other lands, thriving, they are those that knows what the future holds.’ Let me quote what he said about the youths living in Ikeji Ile Ijesa, I quote “They don’t ever think of their future, they have no future ambition, they don’t have any goal in life, they have no goal to pursue, they don’t really aim higher, they like living an inferior life, they like to die in their plank carrying business (pako riru), they don’t have any dream to make a reality, they like living in a daydream world, they have no vision, visionless set of people, they are of no use to Ikeji Ile Ijesa, they are even useless to themselves, useless set of people.” We then continue to talk about the oscillating Pendulum in the then Osun State Gubernatorial Election Tribunal Judgement.
When I got to my destination, I sat down and think about what he said; I noticed nothing but the truth from his word. I asked myself a question that ‘is this man really right or wrong about what he said?’ My Brothers and Sisters, please help me out in answering this unanswered question. With my above emphasis about the present youths living in Ikeji Ile Ijesa, I am convinced to say that Prince Olusegun Ogunmokun is utterly right with what he said.
At this juncture, I will like to share with you my discussion with a guy in SSS3, Ikeji Ile High School. Below is the discussion;
Me: bawo laye e oni?
Him: aye mi oni daa.
Me: how is your study?
Him: a n ti (we dey push am, as if sey na truck).
Me: now that you will be leaving secondary school, what is your dream about the future? Ur aiming goals?
Him: actually I can’t say but after my secondary school, I’ll stay at home for like three years to enjoy myself jare before I think of looking for a work to learn.
Me: work to learn? Don’t you wish to further your education? Why don’t you even think of sitting for Jamb this year?
Him: my brother there is no time jare, they even say that jamb is too hard and I can’t waste my ‘don’t have money.’ (Hopelessness)
It might be funny but it’s not funny, this is what is going on in our community, they don’t think in the right direction. They need nothing but enlightenment from You & I. We need to get across to this kind of people and tell them the value of education in our society. We need to update them that this is one of the problems we have in Ikeji Ile Ijesa, the people are illiterates, and the learned don’t want to come home because they never imagined themselves associated with illiterates. They need You & I to show them the real world.
Ikeji Ile Ijesa needs You & I to create a space for Progress!
An adage says “A river that forgets it source will dry up.” Forget Not Ikeji Ile Ijesa. You may be enjoying in London, Paris, Dublin, Washington D.C, even in Accra, est., please try to remember where you come from, try to sit down and make a retreat about your beginning, your contribution to the development of where you’re from. Ikeji Ile Ijesa needs You & I to contribute our own quota to her Progress and Greatness!
Don’t think only about how get money across to Mum and Dad; remember that an adage says “A rich person in the middle of 7 poor people is also a poor person.” Think of how to develop Ikeji Ile, if Ikeji Ile develops, your Mother and Father will also develop. This is a bitter truth I must say; I don’t care where it hits you. Thank God am a Truther, What about You?
Ikeji Ile Ijesa is our Zion, our own Jerusalem here on earth. This haven needs our help, let’s build it together. Let’s make an Ikeji Ile Ijesa which everyone will be proud of. Let’s build an Ikeji Ile Ijesa which everyone of us will be free and happy to put in our hometown here on facebook (many of us here don’t put Ikeji Ile Ijesa in our hometown, even me, because we think people will see us as inferiors).
Let’s build an Ikeji Ile Ijesa that we will be boastful of, let’s build an Ikeji Ile Ijesa that will be smooth to say in our mouth anywhere we’re asked to introduce ourselves. Let’s build an Ikeji Ile Ijesa that Lagosians and even Americans will be jealous of. Let’s build an Ikeji Ile Ijesa that will be the Capital of Nigeria and even Africa (if we have).
Let’s build an Ikeji Ile Ijesa that will be the centre-point of this country’s progress. It is You & I that recognise as Ikeji Ile Ijesa itself, it is you and I that will make ourselves great. I remember a Quote that Says “If American did not make America great, Can it be the world power? If English did not make England great, can we be hearing of their greatness today?” So therefore, it is You & I will/must make Ikeji Ile great. Together We Can Make Ikeji Ile Ijesa Great!!!

Who tells you that Ikeji Ile Ijesa can’t be great? Who tells you that Ikeji Ile Ijesa can’t be the world centre-point? Who tells you that Ikeji Ile Ijesa can’t be a place that the ‘Oyinbos’ will be dreaming of visiting? Who tells you that Ikeji Ile Ijesa won’t grow? Who tells you that Ikeji Ile Ijesa can’t turn from Village (maybe town as they do call it) to City? Who tells you that Ikeji Ile Ijesa people can’t be a kind of people the world will be dieing to see?
Who tells you that Ikeji Ile Ijesa won’t be a place where this country we depend-on in the production of ‘Ege (cassava)?’ Who tells you that Ikeji Ile Ijesa won’t produce Great Men and Women? Who tells you that an Indegene of Ikeji Ile Ijesa can’t rule this country? Who tells you that Ikeji Ile Ijesa Indigenes will ever remain impoverished? Who tells you that Ikeji Ile Ijesa will ever remain in darkness? Who tells you that Ikeji Ile Ijesa will ever remain Stagnant? Who tells you that Ikeji Ile Ijesa will never progress?
Ikeji Ile Ijesa! Ikeji Ile Ijesa!! Ikeji Ile Ijesa!!! My Beloved Jerusalem!!!
Loke loke Ni ilu Ikeji Ile Ijesa a maa lo, Ase Ooo…!
Above all, Ikeji Ile Ijesa needs Our Prayers!
The Dry Bones of Ikeji Ile Ijesa Shall Rise Again!
Arise, Ikeji Ile Ijesa is calling you!
Ikeji Ile Ijesa needs You & I at this critical moment!
Heed to the Clarion’s call!
Its time for a call to duty!
I will like to drop my articulate pen here because my fingers are already aching, when next am inspired to write about Ikeji Ile Ijesa, I will do just that. Ikeji Ile Ijesa must/will progress during this our own generation.
God Bless Ikeji Ile Ijesa!!!



© Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde,
E3, Boyinde’s Compound,
Oke Oja / Odo Ipo Street,
Ikeji Arakeji Road,
Ikeji Ile Ijesa.