Stakeholders from the Kwara South Senatorial District recently converged on the ancient city of Esie, Irepodun local government area of Kwara State to discuss the way forward for the district.
Tagged 'Kwara South Emancipation,' speakers at the event lamented the political and infrastructural under-development of the district.
They attributed the problems to disunity among the indigenes.
They also put the blame on the footsteps of irreconcilable political differences and selfishness of some politicians from the area.
The event was sponsored by an American-based aerospace engineer, Nurudeen Adeyemi. Adeyemi in the initiator of Igbomina mobile clinic.
An elder statesman, Chief James Sogo, blamed the backwardness of the district on over-dependence of get-rich-quick syndrome.
He said: "We want the long-suffering Kwara South to move forward. I urge you all to help solve this problem. I also pray that come 2019 one of us we occupy the Kwara state Government House."
The former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo, said Kwara South has many challenges.
This according to him "is because our yesterday was better than our today. Any community that celebrates its yesterday over today is undergoing decay.
"The wisdom in this gathering is great. I must concede that we have problems in Kwara South. This is because our yesterday was better than today. Yesterday truth was commonplace. These days hard work is a scarce commodity as people are looking for short cut to success. Politicians of today are not interested in wooing people to their camp. They even win elections without the people voting for them.
"From 1999 till date, Kwara South politics has diametrically changed as money bags have hijacked our politics. As a result many people have lost confidence in the system. There is no principled politicians.
"We also have problem religious discrimination. People use religion as a ladder to get offices. Money politics is significantly Kwara state made’s contribution to Nigerian politics."
Oyedepo said that the district is divided on the basis of communal interest.
He said: "We need to sensitise one another. That is why the PDP is taking the lead in radio sensitisation.
"The best way to bring one another together is for all of us to know that we are collectively being trampled underfoot.
"The unity of Kwara South will Herald the unity of the state and it will ensure the freedom of the state. Even though, we are poor in resources, we are richer in population."
Earlier, Adeyemi who is also President, Igbomina Community, North America said "the reason for today's gathering is to reappraise the floundering unity amongst the old Igbomina-Ekiti.
"Our brotherhood in the entire Kwara South used to be very strong but over the years we have fractured and broken away from one another. The gathering is to enable us reconnect to one another and bury our differences. Lack of development and progress is a source of problem for all of us regardless of our differences.
"But some of us that are coming from behind we cannot come here to lecture our elders that had been on this struggle.
