The Obafemi Awolowo Foundation (OAF), led by its Executive Secretary, Dr Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, took its resolve to engage pertinent issues for Nigeria's development a step higher on Wednesday, as it dedicated the Awolowo Foundation House built by the Executive Secretary.Located at Gbagada Phase II in Somolu Local Government Area in Lagos State, the OAF House played host to eminent Nigerians from far and near who have continued to key into the ideas and programmes of the foundation since its inception in 1992, including former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, in whose administration the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, served as the coordinating minister of the Nigerian economy; the symbol of Yoruba race, His Royal Majesty, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, the Ooni of Ife; the Yeye Oodua, Chief (Dr) Mrs HID Awolowo; Right Reverend (Dr) M.O Fape; Reverend (Dr) P.A Adebiyi; Chief Ayo Adebanjo; Chief Olaniwun Ajayi; Senator Anthony Adefuye; Senator Olabiyi Durojaye; the Alakenne of Ikenne, Oba Adeyinka Onakade; Reverend (Mrs) Tola Oyediran; Professor Akinkugbe, among others.Built by Dr Awolowo-Dosunmu as part of her own contributions to the foundation and its ideals, the OAF House is seen by many as a demonstration of the fact that the OAF will endure, as well as a measure of the seriousness and profundity characterising the activities of the foundation as a power house for driving the ideals of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, one of Black Africa's most treasured thinkers, politicians, philosophers and statesmen.While dedicating the house, Dr Tokunbo-dosunmu said it was built in line with the vision of the sage in transforming the life of the under-privileged and downtrodden. She observed that the foundation had, since inception, experienced no setbacks because God had been its pillar. She also revealed that the foundation had scheduled for this year, seminars/lectures on topical issues, with the resource persons drawn from various disciplines.The foundation's activities have anchored on setting the tone for democratic discourse and political re-engineering in the country, and this is perhaps its most abiding achievement, even though it also awards bursaries to students, among other humanitarian gestures.As has been noted, the OAF has become a reference point in the polity not only by virtue of its place as an intellectual powerhouse for the projection of the revolutionary ideas of the sage as a roadmap for Africa's development, but also as an organisation which holds timely national discourse on germane issues on governance, democracy, rule of law, culture/the arts, national development and a broad range of other topics, all geared towards the themes of human capacity development, democracy and good governance, ethics and the emancipation of the African continent from the shackles of neo-colonialism. It is against this backdrop, as noted elsewhere, that the lectures, symposia, books, etc, produced by the foundation are not so much about the personage of Obafemi Awolowo as they are about the primary constituency to which the sage dedicated his entire political career spanning at least five decades and recording landmark achievement probably yet unmatched by any other African legend in recorded history: the underprivileged and largely misgoverned populace.The intellectual locus of the foundation's activities have, no doubt, been illuminated from the 3rd Awolowo Foundation lectures in December 1994 where former Anambra governor, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, former governor of Anambra State, described the sage's thoughts and actions as flowing from a base of correct and sound principles, which principles provided light, illuminating the paths of his followers, exceptional light that made following him a delight; to the Obafemi Awolowo Centenary Celebrations, 'Africa in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities (March, 2009), held at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Victoria Island, Lagos, where former Secretary General, United Nations, Kofi Annan, distilled part of the essence of the Awo discourse as deriving from the sage's observation that the African continent is too richly blessed in human and natural resources for its people to fear the future.There was also the 2009 Obafemi Awolowo Foundation Centenary Lecture entitled 'Between Nationhood and Nation Space'' delivered by Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, which dwelt on the altercation between Nigeria's quest for integration/ nationhood and the tensions from its multi-ethnic nationalities, the missed opportunities to unite the nation and forge a common identity, particularly through the ground-breaking June 12, 1993 presidential election which was annulled by former dictator. And there was the symposium tagged 'Free Education in Nigeria: 55 Years on'' organised by the OAF and held at the NECA House, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos, in January, 2010, and last year's OAF lectures at the Obafemi Awolowo country home in Ikenne, where speakers such as Professor Itse Sagay, Professor Pat Utomi and others attempted to chart courses for Nigeria's political, economic and cultural emancipation, among others.Also, while keying in on education as vehicle of national development, the foundation has organised discourses which illuminate the sage's concept of education as a cultural and holistic tool which involves the development of the total person. He defines education in Voice of Wisdom as '' a systematic course of instruction involving giving intellectual and moral training to persons, bringing up the young, helping the young to develop, to lead out the best in him, and to evolve an integral personality .''Thus, as noted by a scholar, Oladele Balogun, ' Awolowo's conception of education lays emphasis on the three most important aspects of human growth, namely, mental development, spiritual self-realisation and physical well being.''The Obafemi Awolowo House is bound to add fuel to the considerably charged intellectual climate in the country. In the final analysis, it is all about building the nation through intellectual empowerment.
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