THE IMPORTANCE AND OBJECTIVES OF YEWA ECONOMIC SUMMIT – 2013. “La Ona Ti Omi Yio Rin, Ibe Ni Yo Si Rin” Yewa Day – London 2013 celebration in United Kingdom, the first of its kind, is few weeks away and we hope this will not only become a permanent feature of our socio-cultural landscapes, to which all of us look forward to with feverish anticipation but also attained very high standard in terms of participation by indigenes and non-indigenes of Yewaland. Judging from the responses from Yewa friends and well-wishers, the historic occasion will surely be well attended. I am indeed grateful for this overwhelming enthusiasm, and I believe it is a wonderful epoch that is happening in our time. THE VISION Our vision is to build Yewa communities in collaboration with private sectors that is economically independent, harness the human and natural endowment of Yewaland, socially and culturally organized with equal opportunities for everyone. OUR MISSION It is our mission to work towards poverty reduction, ill health, generate employment, create wealth, and orientate Yewa value through agriculture, education, health, integrated rural development, industrialization particularly those based on agriculture and natural resources as raw materials; creating wealth for our people, thereby giving new hope through responsive governance that works with citizens and collaborates with investors in an atmosphere of mutually beneficial to all. OUR VALUES Yewaland derives her value system from the diversity of its people and culture. The element of the value system includes hard work, respect for humanity, human dignity for legitimate authority, fairness, honesty and integrity, the dignity of labour, accountability, fear of God, respect for positive moral and religious values at home, in the schools and community. OUR GOALS WILL BE Reduction of poverty among our people through a deliberate, coherent, cohesive and comprehensive suite of programmes. Pursue vigorously the accelerated development of Yewaland economy. Pursue and aim to achieve the fastest rate of economic growth among many groups of people in Ogun State. To mobilize the abundant human and natural resources that God has giving to us for investments and the generation of wealth for our people. Aim to create an environment that will enable peace, orderliness and unity to reign in Yewaland and promoting and propagating the rich culture of our people. Build a strong, transparent and formidable foundation for the sustenance and advancement of societal growth as achieved by late Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the old western region that includes Yewaland with morality, accountability and responsive traditional administrative system. Creation of an enabling environment for the private sector to play a leading role, and re-defining the government role in the economy of Yewaland. Investment in our community’s greatest assets (the people and land), and laying foundation for future improvement in human capital. HOW DO WE ACHIEVE ALL THESE? The agenda before us is a ‘tall order’ that can only be achieved by the coming together of all Yewa people, laying the foundation to alter the political and economic incentive system and hence change the value and culture towards entrepreneurship, efficiency and selfless service. The thrust of our activities will aim towards putting together a highly respected, credible think-tank of Yewa indigenes that is very influential in directing the economic development of Yewa people. This group shall be intellectual, not theoretical but highly practical. Reasoned and analytical opinions on issues that support the economic interest of Yewaland, and promoting our culture shall be at the fore-front of the agenda. The group will actively mobilize, identify, promote, protect, invest in and celebrate genuine contributions from stakeholders. These we will achieve through brainstorming sessions, workshops, seminars and conferences, events, investments and advocacy. In analyzing growth and development, economist often concentrate on the sources of growth and the importance attached to such factors. With the advancement in economic knowledge, it is now fashionable to talk to the sources of growth as arising from such factors as labour, capital and technology. It is generally as a result of such factors that different countries grow at different rates. The factors that are important to the growth of nation in recent times have however concentrated on policies and institutions as important in directing the growth respects of countries. Sticking to the theory of comparative advantage, which I had talked about before, this summit will be on the comparative advantage for the rapid development of the Yewaland. Agriculture is identified as the major source from which agro-allied industries can be developed. The economic summit intends to emphasize on the institutions and policies that will assist and support the economic development of Yewa. Permit me to say modestly upfront that Yewa Descendants Union or any group does not pretend to have all the solutions for the development of Yewaland. Our intention is to put on the table some important points for discussion about the development of the Yewa kingdom. The points mentioned herein however can go a long way to achieve the laudable goal of developing Yewaland. The Yewaland Economic Summit – 2013 will be used to achieve the following objectives: i. To identify the needs and the resources of the area and use same to plan the area’s development because to fail to plan is to plan to fail. ii. To open the identified resources for full exploitation for private sector driven economy. iii. To use the product of the maiden economic summit as basis for the production of an Economic Blue-Print that will be used for launching the area – Yewaland on the smooth path of rapid, systematic and sustainable socio-economic development. iv. To attract off-shore and on-shore investors to the area for the purpose of establishing manufacturing industries and other primary production functions in Yewaland using as an advantage our closeness to Lagos State the commercial capital of Nigeria and the border posts to Benin Republic and other neighbouring countries. v. To attract both the State and the Federal Government to compliment the efforts of our Local Governments in creating the necessary enabling investment-friendly environment for private investors to do business in Yewaland. vi. To identify the engine for growth that will be used to jump-start the area’s socio economic development. vii. To make all the sons and daughters of Yewaland to be part and parcel of the process of transforming Yewa from underdevelopment to a great and vibrant land. viii. To use the Economic and Industrial Blue-Print as the bench-mark for assessing the people we give the political mandate to rule us both in the state and local levels, so that objective appraisal can be made from time to time, and necessary corrective measures taken to return the derailing leader to the known road-map so as to reach the end of the journey successfully. The idea of this vision is to move the Yewaland to the status of a well-developed twenty first century community through a coordinated and very systemic physical developments where each of the entire populace will take a part to achieve the much vaunted vision from the present status quo to a purpose-built urban communities that could stand on any platform with any community of its kind in any parts of the world. The primary objective of the entire idea is to tenaciously develop Yewaland in such a way that it would be transformed into a mega community for the benefit of generations yet unborn. The Vision is a massive project on its own. It is a vision of colossal magnitude that is comprehensive enough to harmonise the strengths of the entire Yewa community as a whole to effect such developmental ventures that would catapult our land into a stratosphere of unforgettable experience in urban development. There is no doubt that this vision will indisputably change the lives of every sons and daughters in the ancient Yewa towns. The implementation of a road map at Economic Summit will see to it that consequential developments are made in every fabric of life in Yewa and ensure that modernisation projects are realised for the benefit of all. We envisage a “leverage on all available human, technical and institutional resources, nationally and internationally, towards the development of Yewaland.” The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threat (SWOT) of the vision project cannot be overemphasised. When taking the SWOT analysis into consideration, it is noteworthy to say every indigene of Yewaland both at home and in the Diaspora support the visionary idea, and the Ogun State government is also in support of comprehensive community projects in the Yewaland. We are looking ahead to make deals happen as the Economic Summit will bring together major international companies in Diaspora and Nigeria. There are too many talk shops where insufficient time is given to the process of discussing real opportunities, and, it is also not good enough to say to investors come to Yewaland and invest and then leave the investor with all the work. What is left for us now in Yewaland is to be radical thinkers, researchers in social-economic issues, bold writers on economic topical topics, good mobilizers and coordinators that will constantly examine above issues and many others from time to time so as to be in firm control of the prevailing situations and circumstances to achieve the collective goal of having the necessary infrastructural development that would transform Yewaland. Our communities, Ogun State government and the entrepreneurs must come forward with valid plans that can be assessed; then where the investors hit a sweet spot, they can be happy to take discussions forward. Yewa a gbe wa o……..Amin.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 11:48:40 +0000
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