By Nofisat Marindoti
Governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has revealed that the major reason behind the Ijinle Entrepreneurship Heritage Project where some cadets were taught how to make Yoruba traditional wears is the endangerment of the Yoruba traditional and culture.
Aregbesola who disclosed this at the graduation ceremony of Osun Youth and Enterprise Scheme (OYES) cadets who just mastered the art of Yoruba traditional wears, added that the Yoruba fashion is under serious encroachment of foreign wears.
Ogbeni Aregbesola also used the occasion to highlight the achievements of his administration in the last eight years.
In his words, “As our administration gloriously winds down in Osun, this will be another legacy we are leaving behind – in a long chain of skill acquisition, entrepreneurship and youth development and empowerment.
“The parent body from which the graduates were drawn, OYES, is our flagship programme under which we engaged 20,000 youths in public works in the first 100 days of our administration. this was unprecedented anywhere. We have since tripled this figure to 60,000.
“The OYES cadets were not just left hanging, they were given soft landing in agriculture, (O’REAP, O’MEALS, O’BEEF, O’HUB, O’HONEY, O’BOP), O’CLEAN, teaching service, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and sundry other vocations that have become permanent jobs for them.
“The policy had ramifying micro-economic impact on Osun. The N200 million monthly allowance we were giving them percolated the grassroots in buying food, paying rent, transportation and buying household goods. Three things then followed. One, Osun recorded the lowest unemployment rate in Nigeria. Secondly, the crime rate in the state also fell to national lowest. Lastly, the GDP of Osun rose to become the seventh highest nationally.
“In August 2016, we set up Osun Job Centre. That agency, among other things, is providing an interface between applicants and employers. We introduced calisthenics into public schools. This is an innovation for physical and mental development of children and keeping them productively engaged and away from the destructive vices rampant in our society.
“We have provided empowerment for thousands of youths in skill acquisition and small businesses set up. For instance, between 2014 and now, our administration, in conjunction with the CBN provided interest free loans of N4.5 billion to 24,850 youths in diverse fields of commerce, agriculture, manufacturing, artisanship, education and health. We have concrete evidence that many of them are now millionaires and living in their own houses.
“We have sent two batches of our youths to Germany for training in modern agriculture and farming techniques. They are pioneering another revolution in cropping and animal husbandry.
“Our motivation for setting up this programme consists not just in positively engaging the youth but to revive the endangered aspect of the Yoruba culture, fashion. Yoruba fashion is under serious encroachment of foreign wears. This is not good for us. Once you lose your fashion, you irretrievably lose a part of your identity. At the face value, you have acquired the identity of the culture whose clothes you adorn.
“These 15 graduates will form the nucleus of the revolution that will come to Yoruba traditional fashion from the Osun epicentre as it spreads to the rest of the world,” he added.
