50th Birthday: Ooni inaugurates foundation to address truancy, out-of-school syndrome in South-west

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, has inaugurated a foundation for traditional rulers’ intervention in truancy prevention, school enrollment and engagement.

The foundation is expected to officially unveil plans and programmes to combat the out-of-school menace in South-west Nigeria, with the addition of Kogi and Kwara States, ahead of his 50th birthday anniversary in October this year.

The foundation, headed by Eburu of Iba, Oba Adekunle Adeogun-Okunoye, has as members other traditional rulers across the six South-west states and Kogi and Kwara States.

They are the Onigogo of Igogo (Ekiti State), Larooka of Wanikkin Ife (Osun State), Olukotun of Ikotun-Ile (Kwara State), Adeboruwa of Igbogbo (Lagos State), Oloba-Uso of Oba-Uso (Ondo State), Onpetu of Ijeru (Oyo State) and the Olujumu of Ijumu (Kogi State).

Ooni’s director of media and public affairs, Moses Olafare, will serve as deputy secretary of the foundation.

Briefing journalists on Wednesday shortly after the inaugural meeting held at Ooni’s palace in Ile-Ife, Oba Adeogun-Okunoye explained that the Ooni had put in place the foundation for the fulfilment of his quest to ensure that the traditional institutions in Nigeria and Yoruba states in Nigeria particularly, work for the masses by complementing government’s efforts in curbing truancy and out-of-school syndrome in the society.

“This organisation is a creation of our father, the Ooni of Ife, as the overall leader of all the traditional rulers in Yorubaland, which covers the present six South-west States and Kogi and Kwara states.

“We have been saddled with the responsibility of implementing a programme for traditional rulers’ intervention on truancy prevention, school enrollment and engagement. With this development, the Ooni will be engaging all traditional rulers in Yorubaland in the implementation of a community-based traditional approach to solve the menace of truancy and out-of-school children,” Oba Adeogun-Okunoye said.

The monarch, who doubles as the foundation’s Director-General, further explained that Ooni had premised the programme on the on-going agitation of the traditional rulers for a constitutional role and the persistent efforts of traditional rulers to work with the government in addressing challenges, especially those that directly affect youths and girls.

In his remark, the secretary of the foundation, Michael Adeyeye, a professor, described the initiative as a veritable strategy to give traditional rulers meaningful, measurable, and effective eligibility and competence for constitutional roles in governance while the National Assembly is still working on reviewing the constitution to recognise the important roles being performed by the traditional institution.

“The innovative programme will enable us to harness the opportunity provided by the established traditional structure to work with the school systems to prevent and control truancy, increase school enrollment and bring all stakeholders together for the overall success of school children,” he stated.

With 18.3 million out-of-school children, Nigeria has the unenviable record of the country with the highest number of out-of-school children globally, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).