The socio- economic and Industrial transformation of the sleepy town of Ota, Ogun State, South West , Nigeria before the enthronement of the present Olota of Ota, Prof. Adeyemi Obalanlege in 2017 can not be overemphasised.
Prof. Obalanlege has to pay the prize of losing his privacy to properly assume the custodian of the people’s culture, while Ota, now a City , attracts the attention of the President, Living Faith World Wide, Bishop David Oyedepo.
Born 53 years ago, Prof. Obalanlege attended Ansarudeen Primary School, Isolo, Iganmode Grammar School and Ansarudeen College for his tertiary education. Later, he attended Ogun State Polytechnic Abeokuta where he read Mass Communication.
After working as PRO with the Lagos State Polytechnic and Line Editor with Thisday Newspaper, Prof. Obalanlege went abroad for further education and studied Mass Communication at the University of Leister and then University of Adroit for his PhD.
Prof. Obalanlege had taught journalism at the University of Lagos and involved in the publication of African Guardian.
Back to Nigeria in 2014, Prof Obalanlege picked up an appointment with Crescent University ,Abeokuta as a Senior Lecturer in Mass Communication from where he was selected as the Olota of Ota.
In an exclusive interview with the STREAM, a Students’ Training Magazine of the Covenant University, His Royal Majesty, the Olota of Ota bares his mind on merging both the tradition and the western culture considering the kingship.
Excerpt “It’s a mixed feelings because I think I lost my privacy. This is mostly because my lifestyle changed completely. Prior to my selection as Olota, I used to go out with my friends , but once I got selected , I couldn’t do that anymore. Honestly, I am still trying to adjust because as of now, if I want to go out at my convenient time, I can’t.
I’m lucky, my family is abroad, so I have to go abroad to enjoy my family life.
I can still go out though, but seeing from the eyes of our tradition, we would have people who would be asking why the king is in the public restaurant. As awkward as it may seem, our culture is different from the western and as custodian of our culture, I have to project the culture and be organised .
Personally, I don’t see anything wrong in the king taken his family out to a dinner and going to a high class restaurant but the problem is in how our people see it. Alot of times, you ‘ll find that people would start passing judgement on you once you start doing thing like that . It’s because it is alien to our culture but I have the responsibility to see how we can modernise our culture as well “.
A member, Advisory Board of Media of Diaspora, Prof. Obalanlege said he would still keep up with his academic work and that the only problem he would have, was attending Conferences.
The Olota of Ota who believes in giving back to his Society, said he was still engaging his students.
On his vision for the community, the Olota noted that Ota which has now become a city in view of population and activities , should also be matched with development In terms of road network , communication and social
activities .
The traditional ruler emphasised on more good eateries ,recreational and sport Centres and majorly , Street light which are necessary for human development, but are lacking in Ota.
The Olota of Ota singled out Bishop David Oyedepo ,whom he said , has been taken care of the roads saying ” he has done more than the government in terms of road maintenance in Ota. I want to challenge, just last year , he sent the Planet Project to me for us to look at how to maintain the road and if he had decided not to do it , everywhere could have been a mess. So I want to thank God for having Bishop Oyedepo because without him, things would have been a mess. As a private individual, spending money on government roads and jobs , he should be recognised” the traditional ruler said.
The Olota of Ota called on other organisations and foreign bodies to emulate Bishop Oyedepo in terms of his corporate social responsibilities saying that he has done more than enough
The Kabiyesi expressed optimism that the new Administration headed by Dapo Abiodun , would make Ota city to become a greater city, more so that a son of Aworis now occupies the seat of Deputy Governor of the State.
