Lisabi Day Festival Is A Symbol Of Courage In Egbaland
A progressive minded businessman turned community leader, High Chief Abdul Akeem Mustapha has described the annual Lisabi day festival as a symbol of courage for the people of Egbaland.
Speaking during an interview, the Asiwaju of Ijemo who also doubles as the Balogun of Ilogbo x-rayed the significance of the annual Lisabi Day Festival to the people and also spoke on his aspirations to represent the people at the State House of Assembly. Excerpts
Q: In summary, your profile sir?
A: I am a native of Ijemo here in Abeokuta, Egbaland. I had my primary and secondary school education in Ogunmakin School here in Ogun State before I travelled abroad for my tertiary education. I worked in some multinational companies before I ventured into private business, creating wealth through my God given talent and empowering the people.
I obtained several chieftaincy titles in my domain to appreciate my contributions to the development of my fatherland, most especially in the area of security as efforts were put into place to ensure that the people could sleep with their two eyes closed. These titles include, the Asiwaju of Ijemo, Balogun of Ilogbo, Afewatolu of Egbaland among others.
I decided to venture into politics so as to add value to my people and also make a positive impact in the affairs of the state.
Q: Poverty and hunger are bi-products of unemployment, what do you think could be done to address these challenges?
A: When our society is secured, investors will have confidence to create jobs through their investments and this we will pursue if given the mandate to serve our people.
On this note, I must let you know that the private sectors are job creators and not the government. The government does not have any business creating jobs; what they could only do is to provide the enabling environment and basic infrastructure for business to thrive and the government gets taxes to build additional infrastructures for the people.
What we have in Nigeria is a mismanaged orientation, everybody cannot work in the federal and state ministries. When the private telecommunication was introduced in Nigeria, it was very expensive for the people to use but as time goes on, competition came in and jobs were created and value was added to the economy as people does not need to travel everyday to make contact; what they needed to do is to recharge their lines and make contact.
At the beginning, people were saying, no, it will create unemployment but the market forces have provided a robust business expansion.
Some people felt government is the solution while some felt government is the challenge that they should get out of the way with their policy driven system and the economy will improve.
Basically, what we need to do as a country to reduce the level of poverty is to construct good road networks and provide 24hours power supply but we are at a vantage position; Nigeria still relies on what we call hydro electric. Other countries of the world have coal, nuclear, and renewable energy which we have abandoned.
If you go to the north, what do we have there? Wind energy, but why are we not tapping into these resources? If a company has diesel to power their production, you can imagine how much they are going to sell their product.
If we have a 24 hours power supply, it will engineer the economy and the people will have jobs which will reduce poverty.
Q: Stakeholders in Nigeria believe the presidential system of governance is too expensive. Are you in support of the parliamentary system of government?
A: The system of government is not the challenge. Yes, the presidential system of government is very expensive; what matters most is the integrity of the people running the system of government. If you have a parliamentary system of government and you don't have competent hands managing the process, we will continue to tell the same story.
What we need in Nigeria is good leadership and good followership, leaders should be made accountable to the people. The followers need to hold their leaders accountable to them, they should not be made to operate unchecked; they must understand the fact that they need to provide selfless services to the people and not to enrich their pocket.
Q: As a stakeholder in Egbaland, what is your perception as regards the annual Lisabi Day Festival?
A: The late Lisabi is a good example of one who fought gallantly for the liberation of his people.
He was a man who looked for a solution to a lingering challenge when we were still under the old Oyo empire. He saw the injustice that is being done to his people.
He does not have a military team, he was an ordinary farmer like everyone of us. He doesn't have an army that could match the old Oyo empire but with courage, Lisabi does not sit down and complain like most of us but was able to work hard for the liberation of his people and it is worthy to celebrate his efforts for the people of Egba on an annual basis. We need to celebrate him as a symbol of courage for the people.
He shows to the world that with courage you can move mountains. The government cannot do everything, hence the need for corporate organisations and well meaning personalities to reinvigorate the annual festival and position it on the global map.
Q: What is your message to the public?
A: My message to the public is that they should not lose hope and get involved in the democratic tenet so that they can make positive changes. I keep telling people, hope is not a strategy; what we need to do is to position competent hands in the right places and we will get good results. Positive changes are inevitable and we will get to the promised land.
