Kunle ADELABU
The Chairman of Ikorodu-Oga Development Association (IKODASS), Otunba Olusegun Ganiyu Abiru, has called on the business community in Ikorodu division to discharge there Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) and also join hands with other stakeholders in moving the division forward.
He also challenged the council chairmen in Ikorodu to discharge their responsibilities towards the development of Ikorodu division
He made the appeal during the first Ikorodu-Oga Cocktail Night with Business Executives held at the Ayangbure palace on Friday, November 2, 2018.
The event was supported by Finger King and Suave Records
Otunba Abiru, who is a former Clerk of the Lagos State House of Assembly, challenged the corporate organizations to be alive to their responsibilities by discharging their duties to host communities.
“We also want corporate organizations to be alive to their responsibilities since government alone cannot do everything. We need them to be alive to their corporate social responsibilities. I say, with every sense of responsibility, that corporate and business organizations in Ikorodu have not been discharging there corporate social responsibilities to their host communities across the division.
“How many can boldly say that they have renovated some schools; rehabilitated damaged roads in their areas of operations or do something to uplift the people in that community? How many scholarship and bursary have they also offered? These are corporate social responsibilities that we expected from these organizations.
He stated that the platform (Ikorodu- Oga Cocktail Night with Business Executives) was created to discuss issues bothering on the corporate environment and finding solutions.
“I want to believe that at the end of the day, we will agree on the need for the organizations to discharge there corporate social responsibilities as expected.
“We are appealing to them that this is the time to discharge their responsibilities and join us in moving Ikorodu forward.
“The cocktail dinner is not all about engaging in talking but an opportunity to review the state of Ikorodu’s business community without ignoring the welfare of the host community.
Otunba Abiru, while enumerating the human and natural resources potentials of Ikorodu division, informed the gathering that the division remains the best destination for commerce in the country.
“Ikorodu remains the best destination for commerce. I need not disturb you with the human and natural factors that make this division the best choice for any form of business you may desire to engage in.
“However, despite the presence of various organizations in this division, it is an undeniable fact that the commercial organizations have not been truthful and diligent in their corporate social responsibilities”, he added.
“I am happy that we have representatives of some of these organizations here today and I believe that what we are going to say here today will be taking back to their various organizations and have a change of heart.
The IKODASS Chairman also stated that the community is aware of the challenges being faced by the business owners in the division but expressed confidence that such challenges are surmountable with cooperation from both sides.
“Those of us in the association are not unaware of the challenges confronting business organizations in the division. We have to make concerted efforts because these problems are surmountable.
He called for modalities for tackling security situation which he stated is critical to economic development.
“Let me say here that the issue of security is very key to any business enterprise and therefore, will like this gathering to at the end of the day come up with a modality to tackle the issue with our own Security Endowment Fund.
He deplored situation where police, which are saddled with the responsibilities of protecting lives and properties, are without adequate equipment to work with.
He also called on the business owners and stakeholders to intervene in helping the security arms in the division.
“We have problems in Ikorodu concerning security. Some of us would have been seeing the rickety vans being driven by our police. How do you expect them to discharge their duties efficiently with these kind of vehicles which of course means that they need our assistance?
“The state government has been trying its best and we have to assist.
“Vigilance groups like ‘Onyabo’ have been doing wonderfully well and we need to assist them and the only way we can be of assistance to them is to assure them that at every month, they are entitled to something at the end of the day.
“As it is today, they don’t have anything that can be adjudged as their entitlement despite risking their lives for most of us to enjoy the comfort of our homes while they fight the cultists, thieves and other menace and yet, there is no compensation for them.
“It is time for us to look at this issue deeply”, he challenged.
Describing motorcycle operators as threat to the community, Otunba Abiru called for an effective system to checkmate the activities of the motorcycle operators most of whom he said are no-indigenes.
“We are all aware of the incessant accidents on okada in Ikorodu. About 90% of the riders are not from this side of the country and nobody as at today is looking at the security implications of the situation.
“Out of every ten Okada riders, you will discover that nine of them are from the other states and you will see them assembling in a particular place in a given community, an action which poses a security threat for us. All of us have a responsibility and we have to wake up to that responsibility in order to make Ikorodu a secured place for us all.
“We are not saying that people from other states cannot come here and do businesses but these are people without knowledge or skill about okada riding. They were usually brought into our community with trailers and transformed into okada riders”.
He challenged traditional chiefs to take charge of security situation in their respective domains.
“The Baales have a role to play in all of these. They need to be incharge of the security in their communities. Any community that we have the conglomerate of all these Hausas riding motorcycles, it is incumbent on our Baales to get them registered so that at any point in time, we would know what is happening to them.
“We must have an agency that must be looking into the activities of these okadas riders. Their menace is unbearable and it is high time we do something about it.
The IKODASS Chairman also called the attention of the stakeholders to the activities of articulated vehicles around the mini-terminal at Ipakodo which he said is capable of re-enacting the Apapa gridlock in Ikorodu if the situation is not timely addressed.
“Let me invite your attention to the monster that we are consciously and unconsciously breeding. We are nurturing it and we don’t know. That Terminal at Ipakodo was in comatose some few years ago but now alive with danger to our people and the entire community.
“Every morning and afternoon, there are always articulated vehicles filing along the road and restricting two lanes to one for other vehicles in the process. The roundabout near the terminal are full of articulated vehicles which makes it dangerous to drive along that axis especially in the evening.
“Somebody somewhere is not doing his job. I believe that the local government should be alive to its responsibilities.
“For the fact that we want that mini-port to be alive and engaging in commercial and business activities, that should not in any way jeopardize the interest and safety of our people. Something urgently must be done.
“I witnessed a long stretch of articulated vehicles last night (Thursday night) while I was going back to Lagos. That is very dangerous. If care is not taken, we are going to replicate the Apapa gridlock here in Ikorodu. What we are experiencing in Apapa is what we are consciously and unconsciously nurturing at Ipakodo.
“I want to appeal to our Kabiyesis that something urgent must be done to correct the situation because if we leave the situation unattended to, it would affect our people and other businesses.
“We cannot let people suffer because we want the business at the mini-port to go on.”
Otunba Abiru also stated that the six local governments in the division have not been discharging there duties and called on stakeholders in the division to continually engaged them.
“The local governments have their responsibilities but how many of us can boldly say that those incharge are discharging these responsibilities?
“Apart from the encumbrances which they may have, I am not impressed with the performances of the local government in Ikorodu division’s communities. They are not doing some of the things that they should do and we have to start telling them the truth.
“We must begin to tell them that what they are asked to do is quite different from what they are doing.”
He condemned the council for their inability to do palliative intervention on roads that are impassable across the division.
“All our roads are bad and yet, they are unable to do simple palliative measures. I was once incharge of the local government and within three months, I knew what I did. With small allocations, I still believe that they can still make a difference.”
Otunba Abiru said the Baales as head of communities also have roles to play in this. They can gathered themselves and visit the councils to charge the officials on development in their various localities.
“It is time for us to force these people to work. They will tell you that there is no money and if that is the case, why are they coming for re-election?”
He added that the councils are not allowing the division to fulfil its potentials because they are not discharging their duties as expected.
“Ikorodu has all the trappings of a mega town with population, responses and disposition of our people to development are fantastic and location of the division to business and commerce is also okay. Let us address our conscience and the local government representatives that are here should go back and tell their chairmen that the Ikorodu people are not happy with them and let it be said that at this forum, we established that.
More so, he appealed to the members of the business community to join the Ikorodu Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the interest of their businesses and that of the division.
“We have the Ikorodu Chamber of Commerce and Industry which is an institution designed to take care of the interest of business organizations. It has been existing for a while and has done everything possible to reach out to organizations and business owners to be part of it yet, many of these organizations are feeling reluctant to join.
“I, therefore, want to appeal to you to reconsider your position and join the Chamber because there are lots of opportunities in it. If the business community comes together collectively as one united force, we can make a difference.
Some of the guests at the maiden edition of the Ikorodu-Oga Cocktail Night With Business Executives were His Royal Majesty Oba Kbairu Shotobi, the Aayngbure of Ikorodu,his wife, Olori Kudirat Shotobi, His Royal Majesty Oba Semiudeen Kasali, the Adeboruwa of igbogbo, Hon. Babjimi Benson, Member, Federal House of Representatives, Dr Bawa-Allah, Aremo Adeniyi Ogunsanya and wife, Otunba Ayodele Elesho, former Commissioner for Information, Lagos State, Engr. Adekunle Oduborisha, Engr. H.O.B. Lawal, President, Ikorodu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr Timothy Okeowo, Senior Lecturer, Department of Agriculture, Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu Main Campus, Otunba Adeowo Tajudeen, Chief Executive Officer, Finger King, Dr Abiodun Fatai-Abatan, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Lagos State University, Mr Ola-Oluwa Godwin, an Economist and Mr Bayo Oteju, a Senior Legislative Aide to Hon. Benson, Mr Oluwakemi Hassan, Chief Executive Officer, Suave Recordsas well as representatives from Ikorodu business community among others.
