Ilese Day Festival Has Retool Our Domain - Otunba Odusanya
The Bobatolu of Ilese, who doubles as the Baba-oba Elese, Otunba Rufus Olukayode Odusanya, has described the annual Ilese Day Festival as an annual event that has enhanced transformational growth in the community.
Responding to questions from a newshunt in his Ilese country home, the retired federal senior civil servant said Ilese Day Festival has been positioned on the tourist calendar and extention retool the community for maximum growth . Excerpts.
Q: Baba Ijo, Ilese Day Festival is around the corner, how do you feel with this development?
A: We appreciate God for giving us the insight and wisdom to start the annual Ilese Day Festival in 2003, and the essence of the festival is to bring sons and daughters to Ilese together, including those in the diaspora, and this has created the much-needed platform for our community to champion grassroots development.
During the period under review, several projects of great importance to the community were undertaken and this include the police station, the palace in the community, among other self-help projects.
The annual event has given global recognition to Ilese. More importantly, the carnival group add flavour and glamour to the event as they entertained guests from different approaches.
The economic value of the event is also significant, as traders and other businesses make good profit during the festival as a result of huge patronage; hotels, joints, market men and women smile to the bank during the event.
We thank God for the establishment of a polytechnic in Ilese; it has increased the population of people in the community and made houses and land appreciate.
Q: Sir, kindly give an update on your scholarship scheme?
A: The essence of the scholarship scheme is to give helping hands to the children of the less privileged in the society, and it was started on a small scale but my children have expanded the scheme to accommodate more beneficiaries.
We now have a website for the scheme which is beneficial to indigenes of Ilese who are schooling in all parts of the country, and I am hopeful that the scheme will be sustained for several years. Therefore the scheme is open for all indigenes of Ilese who have some financial constraints in the process of acquiring tertiary education.
Q: What is your message to the people of Ilese?
A: My recommendation to the indigenes of Ilese, both home and diaspora, is that they should take keen interest in the development of their fatherland and they should not allow the annual Ilese Day Festival to decline.
Yes, it is good to explore the internet and attract communities for investment, but East or West, home is best. We need to continue to look inward and leverage on available opportunities which will upscale our fatherland.
