The Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII), the umbrella body of all Ibadan Indigenes, clubs, and associations at home and abroad, has commended the Chairman/CEO of Erudite Group, Chief Saheed Oladele over the remarkable roles he has been playing in the educational development of Ibadan land and the country in general.
The body made this declaration during the opening of the Office of the Baàmẹ̀kọ́ of Ibadanland on Saturday, January 20.
The office was formally opened by the President-General of CCII, Ajeniyi Ajewole.
The colourful programme held inside Erudite International Knowledge Village, New Bodija, Ibadan coincided with the decoration of Saheed Oladele as the Grand Ambassador of Ibadan Culture and the inauguration of directors of different departments drawn across professions.
The event had the executives and over 50 committee leaders and members of CCII, the newly inaugurated directors in the Office of Baàmẹ̀kọ́, friends and families of the Ibadan Chief in attendance.
Speaking, CCII President-General, Ajewole noted that the decoration of Chief Saheed Oladele was because of his sterling contributions and remarkable impacts as a major player in the educational sector of Ibadan and Nigeria.
He said: “The Baàmẹ̀kọ́ of Ibadanland has distinguished himself as a promoter of quality education in the country. He is someone who is worthy to be decorated as the grand ambassador of Ibadan culture.
“Many people may wonder why we have chosen to decorate him, we are decorating him because education is part of Ibadan culture. The first university in Nigeria is in Ibadan.
In his words, the Vice President-General 1 of CCII, Dr Tirmisiyu Oladimeji said Oladele is tested and trusted, saying, “We first sent one of our children who is about to complete his university education to his school, Erudite Millennium Limited, and we are happy with his performance.”
In his address, the chairman of the 2024 Ibadan Cultural Week, Balogun Gaphar Ojetola, noted that he got the information about the groundbreaking records and success of Saheed Oladele’s school in the far away United Kingdom.
He said that he was surprised to know of the activities of the Erudite Chairman from overseas.
He noted: “I got to know about Erudite Millennium in the UK. I was surprised that someone in Ibadan is doing something great like this, putting Ibadan on the world map of 21st-century education. It was when I came back and I began to see his Baàmẹ̀kọ́’s billboards around Ibadan that I asked about him.”
Oladele while speaking, said: “I will use the Office of Baàmẹ̀kọ́ of Ibadanland to rally round support to renovate schools in Ibadan.
“Many schools are windowless, doorless, and the students are learning in an unpleasant environment. We will work with relevant stakeholders to reduce the number of out-of-school children in Ibadan.
“I recently learnt that Oyo state has over 700,000 out-of-school children and this is unacceptable.
“We want to use our office to promote training and entrepreneurial skills. We want to give scholarships to brilliant and indigent students in (public) schools. Some of them are brilliant but the brilliance will just end there if they do not have the right support system. With your support, we will give them scholarships.
“Being a student of public school should not stop you from acquiring 21st century education. We have a lot of programmes.
“We will promote Yoruba language and culture and wage war against vernacularisation of Yoruba language in Ibadan schools. We will equip Ibadan secondary school students with reliable entrepreneurial skills and improve teachers’ efficiency through continuous professional development (CPD).
“Our goal is to raise funds to provide different categories of scholarships for talented, brilliant and indigent students across Ibadan and get the over 300,000 out-of-school children in Ibadanland back to school and rehabilitate them. In addition, our school quality assurance and cultural advocacy team will wage war against examination malpractices in Ibadan schools and raise the bar of discipline among students.”
The Baàmẹ̀kọ́ of Ibadanland used the occasion to seek partnerships, collaborations and support from well-meaning Ibadan indigenes and other lovers of Ibadan towards the actualization of the goals.
