Ondo @50: Leaders Must Lead By Example : Reviving Omoluabi To End Our People’s Suffering
By John Akinmurele
Ondo State at fifty is a moment of ecstasy, but also a moment of painful reflection. A state so richly blessed in people, culture, land, and intellect has not yet become what it could and should be.
Standing with Our People’s Suffering
Today, I identify first with the suffering of our people, from Ese Odo/Ilaje/Okitipupa to Irele and Odigbo, from Ondo/Bolorunduro/Ileoluji to Idanre/Ifedore/Akure, from Owo to Akoko/Ose and every corner. Families battle joblessness, insecurity, poor roads, underfunded schools, and hospitals that test their faith daily. Young people flee not from hate for Ondo, but fear that their dreams may die here. Lofty visions of respected past leaders. Ajasin’s selfless governance, Adefarati’s education legacy, Agagu’s roadmap to progress, Mimiko’s health initiatives were sacrificed on the altar of partisan politics and mediocrity. Those now around 50, primed to inherit prosperity, are reduced to “data boys” without economic independence. What will the next 50years be?
Our traders, farmers, artisans, teachers, civil servants, and retirees carry burdens they did not create. Honest celebration demands we face this reality.
Omoluabi: Our Enduring Heritage
Yet Ondo has not lost its soul. We are sons and daughters of knowledge, courage, and dignity. Our ancestors gifted us more than oil or minerals they gave us omoluabi: character, integrity, respect, courage, hard work, and communal responsibility. This is no slogan; it’s a leadership philosophy and development strategy.
Ondo’s problems are no mystery. They stem from visionless leadership, conscienceless politics, and discontinuous governance. Without purpose, resources waste, projects abandon, institutions weaken, and people suffer. When politics turns business, the state bleeds while few feasts.
The Antidote: Leaders Must Lead by Example
Our leaders must lead by example. The cure is not despair, but rebirth through omoluabi and purposeful leadership, starting at the top.
Omoluabi demands leaders live it first: treat office as sacred trust, not private ATM. Cut personal luxuries before cutting community services. Make the State’s budget very transparent and accessible to citizens. Drive on the roads they build. Send their children to the public schools they fund. Patronize the markets they secure. Appointments by competence, not godfatherism. Budgets for the poorest, not elite comfort. Truth over convenience, promises kept unseen. Lead by example, and the people will follow.
Purposeful leadership crafts and sustains vision beyond elections:
Serious education investment for every child, creeks to hills.
Modernized agriculture and blue economy for farmer prosperity.
Enduring infrastructure connecting communities.
Intelligence-driven security ensures safety everywhere.
Youth entrepreneurship tools ending job hunts.
Our Collective Responsibility
This starts with leaders modeling omoluabi, then us demanding it in homes, business, and politics. Reject #10,000 vote buying syndrome, demand character, competence, courage.
At fifty, Ondo faces a crossroads: mirage of progress or values-rooted path. We lack neither capital nor ideas, only resolve to enforce omoluabi minimums led by example.
A New Age Beckons
My heart goes to every mother losing children to insecurity, jobless graduate, burdened farmer, deprived community. I see you. I hear you. I stand with you.
Ondo at fifty must launch a new age: integrity fused with modern governance, where leaders exemplify sacrifice first. The world will see our triumphs built.
Our history glorifies. Our present challenges. Our future is ours if our leaders lead by example.
May Ondo rise these next fifty years on its people’s strength, culture’s depth, and leaders embodying omoluabi’s spirit through purposeful, exemplary service.
