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A Special tribute to Great Ita David Ikpeme
Air Force Captain Ita David Ikpeme was the most incorruptible and the best Military Administrator/ Governor of Ondo State since its creation in 1976 with the Capital in Akure.
I celebrate “Asode Sao” Air Force Captain Ita David Ikpeme the first Military Administrator of Ondo State who had just changed mortality for immortality back home in Nigeria.
He was the individual who with Pa Michael Adekunle Ajasin the first Executive Civilian Governor, had laid a sound foundation for Ondo State better than of their peers in Government, if the truth told and based on their track record.
I came to that conclusion as the pioneer Federal Assigned Director of Foods. , Roads and Rural Infrastructures (DIFFRI) in Ondo State in 1986 under two of those Military Governors in late Naval Captain who was later promoted Rear Admiral and the number 2 to Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar.
General Abubakar and Okhai Mike Akhigbe had both handed over to General Matthew Aremu Olusegun OkikiOlu Obasanjo in 1999
The late Admiral was succeeded in Ondo State by Colonel Ekundayo Opaleye who was later promoted to a General before his death
In my capacity as Director of DIFFRI, I was privileged to travel far and wide in all of the 18 Local Governments of Ondo State and I was able to know Ondo State at the grassroots level before Ekiti State was carved out from the State in 1996.
I tested the summary conclusion or judgement I made in this article with all of the Chairmen of the 18 Local Government I worked with and they all with unanimity agreed with me that the two individuals Ikpeme and Pa Ajasin remained the two best Governors of Ondo State till now .
Naval Captain Ita David Ikpeme could easily have diverted all of the money put in his charge to lay a solid foundation for Ondo State to his own private use or he could easily have allowed his First Lady to divert much of the assets of Ondo State to her own state of origin.
Ikpeme did not do that.
The gentleman was just too honest and too disciplined to do that.
He had wisely deployed and spent all of that cash with integrity to build one of the most beautiful Secretariat in Nigeria at the GRA which became a valuable asset to all of his successors in Ondo State.
Pa Adekunle Ajasin who had succeeded him as the first civilian Governor never built a single house beyond his private home in Owo he had built as the pioneer and the longest serving Principal of the great Imade College Owo. Pa like his much younger predecessor was an epitome of Honesty and a gentleman to the core.
Mention any of the Economic and physical development of Ondo State that does not have the imprimatur of Pa Adekunle Ajasin.
All of us cannot think of one. Those imperishable assets include the great Owena Bank which he founded in partnership with some Lebanese Businessmen, as the Shehu Shagari- led NPN Federal Government had placed all obstacles on the newly created Ondo State as a UPN controlled State which must not be allowed to thrive and prosper just to break the myth and the powerful and monumental influence of Pa Obafemi Awolowo as the most dynamic and the successful politician/ statesman and “the best President Nigeria never had in the fertile imagination of Oxford – trained Chukwu Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
Pa Awolowo till tomorrow has a track record that none of his peers and political associates have been able to match. I served under him briefly and I came to know him better than many of my friends and colleagues in the Federal Civil Service when he served as Federal Commissioner for Finance and Deputy Chairman of the Federal Executive Council headed by General Yakubu Gowon.
This eulogy belongs first and foremost to Air Force Captain Ita David Ikpeme but the tribute and eulogy cannot be complete or meaningful without the mention of Pa Adekunle Ajasin and few of the other past Governors who have made a difference in Ondo State like Navy Captain Anthony Onyearugbulem who built the Shopping Mall or Market at the Ilesha/Owo Express in Akure.
Onyearugbulem had built more roads in the State Capital than any of his peers. I can also say the same Governor Olusegun Mimiko whose State Capital Development and Beautification and the Mother and Child Hospital in Akure had become a Sui generis and an innovation that had become one of his imperishable legacies in Ondo State till now. We are talking about those accomplishments today because it is the truth.
I also give some credit to Governor Olusegun Agagu who had
pioneered the building of a University in his own Senatorial District of Ondo South and Governor Rotimi Akeredolu who who had laid the industrial take -off of the State by building a Truck Assembly Plant and the Flyovers in the same Ore Ore, and who in collaboration with other Southwest Governors had created and actualized the most successful Amotekun Vigilante Outfit to protect our people and to provide a level of security when the Fulani kidnappers had become a scourge and a nightmare for our people across the board in Ondo State. I acknowledge the all of the other Governors including our only son of the soil, Navy Commodore Michael Bandele Otiko of blessed memory.
Those who are familiar with the unforgettable composition of the late Elemure Ogunyemi titled “Asode Sao” and how the legendary Hunter Elemure had sung about had met his “Aseranko- S’Enia” wife in the Forest and how that chance meeting had transformed the Hunter’s life.
Fortune and good luck had smiled on Ita David Ikpeme when he was suddenly picked to be the Military Administrator of the Intellectual Center of Nigeria and when he had to work with some of the best civilian intellectual giants and civil servants like the Great Jurist in the great Erinmilokun Akinola Aguda who had become the first Chief Justice of Ondo State.
I eulogize the amazingly bright Iwajomo who became the first Secretary to Government of the nascent Ondo State and individuals like Chief Augustus Adebayo from Igbara Oke and individuals like Chief Akingbade and many seasoned and distinguished civil servants who were assigned to join the Military Administrator in turning the Sunshine State into a leader among the 7 additional States created by the Murtala Mohammed and Obasanjo Regime in 1976.
The whole Ondo State gladly join our current Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa in celebrating not mourning the great Administrator and leader of men who had served our State with integrity, honor and humility and who deserve to rest in peace as he returns to his maker till we all meet to part no more.
The handsome young man shown in the pictures above would forever remain our Hero in Ondo State.
Prince Dr Wumi Akintide writes from Oyemekun Terrace New York City USA
