The Chairman Committee for the Creation of Ekiti State in 1996, Chief Oladeji Fasuan, on Friday declared that he was fulfilled to see Ekiti functioning as a state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state was created 20 years ago.
Fasuan told NAN at Afao-Ekiti that the state was created due to the epic struggle by patriots, including himself, who came together and worked hard to see the dream of the people of the area fulfilled.
“During our struggle for the creation of Ekiti State, we travelled to Abuja 13 times; we saw the Sultan of Sokoto, the Emir of Ilorin, and the Emir of Zaria.
‘’Others were the late Dr Olusola Saraki, there was nobody we did not see to persuade the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, on the need for the creation of the state of our dream.
‘’We presented 24 papers– which we took to Abuja to the then Provisional Ruling Council members.
“Chief Afe Babalola presented our memorandum brilliantly before the Arthur Mbanefo-led Committee on Local Government and State Creation,’’ he said.
The octogenarian, however, expressed concern that the state was yet to fulfill the dreams of its founding fathers.
Fasuan said that the state had had to contend with 17 years of perennial political instability, a development he said saw the state producing no fewer than 11 governors in 20 years.
The elder statesman advised Ekiti people to shun “childish views and pedestrian thinking in their thoughts and vision.”
He added that envy, character assassination and destructive tendencies had for some time drawn back the development of the state.
The senior citizen urged the people of the state to learn to tolerate one another in the interest of the development of the state.
‘’Despite all the litany of woes, one fact remains: as long as there is an entity called Nigeria, there will be a state called Ekiti, that is my consolation.”
Fasuan also urged Nigerians to be patient with President Muhammadu Buhari, adding that the President and his lieutenants were trying their best to turn around the nation’s economy for the better.
According to him, the ills of the last 17 years in Nigeria cannot be cured within just 15 months.
“The cumulative effect of bad governance, misrule, manipulations, looting and interplay of the effects of mono-product economy, is what we are seeing now.
“Who is that magician that can change it so soon?”.(NAN)