Kunle Adelabu
-Immediate past chairman receives commendations
The newly elected chairman of the Ikorodu Zone of the Hoteliers Association is set to increase the membership of the association by embarking on a membership drive to bring back old ones and ensure that new hotel owners too are brought on board.
The newly elected chairman, Mr Ademola Shotunde, in his acceptance speech after being elected and inaugurated alongside other members of the excos, said that the other task that the association will be facing frontally is the recovery of the association’s land.
Mr Shotunde and other executive members of the hoteliers association were elected and inaugurated during the body’s maiden Annual General Meeting which was held at De Sleek Hotel, 1, Tunde Gbolade Street, off Babajimi Benson Road, Igbe, Igbogbo on Friday, May 28, 2021.
The new President commended the past executives, especially the chairman, Mr Tunde Gbolade, who spent eight years as chairman of the association, for the achievements recorded during his tenure.
While charging members to brace up for more tasks ahead, the new chairman said that his administration will focus on membership mobilization and recovery of the association’s land.
“First, I want to thank God for making today possible and I want to also thank my immediate past chairman for all the things he has done and for encouraging me to wait for my turn and that turn has come today”, he said.
“We have so many things ahead of us, one of which is the mobilisation of the old and new members. Thank God we are seeing some of the old members here today. Some of them I personally called.
“We are looking forward to having them around so that we can run this association together. According to my past chairman, Directors should be responsible for whatever happens in their hotels. We know we are always busy but we can delegate power”, the Chairman said.
“We are also trying to reach out to other Directors.
“We have been talking about the land issue and the first thing I am doing today as my first official assignment is to constitute a committee to look for the resuscitation of our lands’ issue and recover it from the agent”, he disclosed.
“I am going to call on my past chairman, Mr Gbolade, to be the chairman of the recovery committee because he knows about the history of the land. Chief Okeowo who knows much about the Itowolo area very well, will also be on the committee.
“Also, we will need the experience of Engr. Biliamin who is one of the land owners around the area to assist us. We will also need Alhaji Nojeemu Olugboyega to use his resources and experience to assist us.
“We are also going to carry other hoteliers along because that was the gap my President noticed and he has spoken about it and doesn’t want to dwell much on it. We are going to work very much on it and ensure that everybody is carried along.
“It is not just going to be the exco affairs only. Anything that we discover that we won’t be able to agree on will be thrown to the general house for deliberation”, he said.
President of the Lagos Hoteliers Association, Mr Olumo Jamiu Talabi, described the hosting of AGM and election by the Ikorodu zone as a good development.
“lt’s a welcome development. For a zone to have organized an annual general meeting, it is a good development.
“I so much appreciate them and of course, we still have a long way to go, considering how large Ikorodu is. I am sure the number of hoteliers we have here today is very insignificant. So, I am challenging the new excos to move and mobilize hoteliers from every nook and cranny of Ikorodu and not just within the Ikorodu Local Government but also across all the LCDAs”, he charged the new excos.
“We need to galvanize; we need to come together. There is strength in unity and good numbers. We should speak with one voice.
Assessing the performance of the immediate past executives, the State President described it as excellent.
“Excellent, and like I said earlier on, the immediate past chairman has performed excellently well. I remember when he was inaugurated because I was at the event, I saw the situation of the association then and again, I am here today. He has performed excellently well”, he said.
Mr Tunde Gbolade, the Chairman of De Sleek Inn and Arena and the immediate past Chairman of the Hoteliers Association, Ikorodu Zone, said that all the achievements of his administration were collectively achieved.
Mr Gbolade, who is also the Internal Auditor for the State body of the association, also charged the new executives to do better than his administration.
“All the achievements we recorded were through collective efforts.
“I read out all the achievements of our administration, we were able to collectively achieved about 18 or 20 key things as read out during the AGM.
“The most important of them all is that we have stabilized the association and made it to be reckoned with by the state chapter. Honestly, Ikorodu is the livewire of the association at the state level.
“I am glad that I was able to run the association for 8 years and willingly decided not to run again. I believe that some other people can do it better than me”, a fulfilled Mr Gbolade said.
Advising the new executive council, the immediate past chairman said:
“For the new excos, I charge them to do better than we did. When I was made the chairman sometime in 2013, the association was at zero level financially but I have brought it to the level of having N6 million in savings. So, the incoming should do better than that”, he charged.
