The Management of the Olusegun Okanlawon Foundation has said that it is not a political organisation and therefore can not pacify politicians and their cronies by engaging with them.
This was said in a newsletter released by the organisation on Saturday, January 9 2020.
Recall that the organisation had earlier released a newsletter where it claimed that a honourable representing the Ibarapa area of Oyo state is frustrating its effort at bring National Identity Number (NIN) closer to the people for ease of registration.
The newsletter read: “It is unfortunate that someone whose positional title is “Honourable” will descend so low into intentional falsehood to validate his ill-fated attempt to stop a program that benefits all Ibarapa indigenes and residents, without fear or favour.
Here, we present some facts that can help the discerning make proper judgement on the issues at hand:
- In early 2020, we got information about the difficulties our people encounter in order to register for the National Identity Number (NIN) because the only active registration point in Ibarapa was in Igboora. The Foundation, through our Chairman, investigated how we could resolve the issues. To ease the stress and cost of travelling, and to ensure that more enrollees had access, we arranged that the registration personnel and equipment should go across the seven towns in Ibarapa, spending two weeks in each. The Foundation agreed to provide/facilitate logistics, accommodation and other resources needed. We also found out that the computer at the NIMC registration point at Igboora was bad, and the State Coordinator graciously facilitated access to another computer for the exercise. Hence, in February 2020, we announced the commencement of the exercise for March 9, 2020.
We suspended the exercise due to the Covid-19 pandemic, to ensure personnel and residents are not exposed to unnecessary risks. The registration resumed (with adherence to Covid-19 prevention protocols) late last year, after things started returning to normal.
- The NIMC officials have spent two weeks in each of six communities and are in the seventh community (Lanlate) without any security threat nor any incidence of insecurity. Instead, Ibarapa residents have welcomed them heartily, knowing that their presence in each community was to make obtaining the NIN easier for them.
Apart from the general security threat that everyone in Ibarapa has been subject to, we are not aware of any specific security threat to the personnel and equipment, except if those alluding to such are part of any plot against them. It is interestingly ridiculous (and suspicious) that someone who has kept silent these two years that we have been calling on the government to stop kidnappings and killings in our region is now pretending to care because “both the officials and the materials are endangered.” - Before this exercise started, the NIMC office in Igboora hardly had 20 people come for registration in a week. Through this exercise, we have registered well over 8,000 people, averaging over 130 people in a day and over 650 in a week. Instead of praising the dedication of the Federal Government officials who devoted themselves to making sure that his people are enrolled, their representative is spewing unfounded criticism. It should be noted that these people would still have been paid their salaries if they had stayed back and registered only ten people in a week. To these dedicated officials and their boss who authorized their outreach, we express profound gratitude on behalf of all the indigenes and residents of Ibarapa.
- It is a shame that someone representing us in one of the hallowed chambers at Abuja claimed that the ongoing exercise is for one political party. How under heaven will someone discredit the diligent work of those NIMC officials? On the minimum, this goes to show how far removed our “representative” is from the constituency he represents. On the other side, this shows the extent a person can go into being dishonourable with fabricated facts and intentional falsehood. Who knows what other lies have been or are being peddled by our representative?
We do not blame this reactionary effort to stop a social impact endeavour and to blackmail the Olusegun Okanlawon Foundation. We believe that after seeing the impact of this Foundation and the immense goodwill of Ibarapa towards the Founder, some persons are just waking up to the things they should have been doing all the while they have been supposedly representing us.
We excuse the ignorance of the said Special Assistant on Media: he is doing his job; and he has to do his employer’s bidding using the information shared with him by his boss and associates.
We are not a political organization, and we will not pacify politicians and their cronies by engaging them. Our focus is on development, and we have a lot of developmental issues at hand. We hope they still have what it takes to focus on the responsibilities laid upon them by oath they took.
We urge everyone to judge this matter by themselves.”
