Celebrating Olu of Lisa, Oba Najeemdeen Oladele Odugbemi at 66.
Kaabiyesi, Oba Nojeemdeen Oladele Odugbemi, the Olu of Lisa kingdom in Ifo local government area of Ogun state clocks 66 today.
The question is, what has been his admiration to his people upon ascending to the throne of his forefathers as Baale of Lisa on July 16, 2006 and installed by Alake and paramount ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo and later upgraded into Oba in 2019 by the state government in order to bring succour to his subjects.
Oba Odugbemi as Baale of Lisa removed the village from an ancient clan to urban town through lots of basic amenities people are looking for in the urban areas such as markets, health care services, schools, security posts like police post and so safe office among others. These amenities, singularly funded by him are meant to make life more comfortable to the people of the community and beyond.
Lisa community, has been placed on a global world map as a result of the Bellview Flight 210, which crash landed in Lisa on October, 22nd, 2005, yesterday was eighteen years ago when 117 men and women, young and old of destiny were buried alive by an act of fate inside the bowel of the land at Lisa village.
Since then, Lisa has been transformed beyond the village setting alongside the villages around it. It is just a case of the dead impacting life on the living.
Lisa became a pilgrimage of sort. People from all walks of life began to pay a visit, which included the families of the victims, aviation industry members, government officials including the then President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Then, decisions were reached to immortalize the victims by giving symbolic mass burial and construct an arcade at the site with the names of all the victims inscribed on the concrete. A monument was created.
The access road to Lisa from Ijoko was not motorable and became an headache. The federal government was to construct the road from Ijoko to Lisa by the directive of President Obasanjo but was later done by OGROMA, a road maintenance agency under Governor Gbenga Daniel which was badly and hurriedly done, as it could not stand the test of time.
After eighteen years of construction, the road has become a death trap that couldn’t meet the desired result of turning the Lisa arcade to a national tourists centre because of the bad road to Lisa.
Since that ill- fated plane crash, Oba Odugbemi has been crying to both the federal and state governments to come to the aid of the people by reconstructing the road so that the families of the fallen heroes can have access to the arcade where their loved ones were buried alive.
Oba Odugbemi, who is 66 years today apart from making life more meaningful to the people in the community, he also institutionalized a foundation to cater for school children in form of scholarships, funds for the aged and the widows. All his efforts is to avert rural – urban drift.
Even, Oba Odugbemi with passion for his people, he always ensure that any intervention from the government is done in Lisa without taking pains to travel outside the community. Such interventions like NIN registration was done in the town by moving staff of NIN to Lisa amongst others.
Prior to October 22nd, 2005, Lisa village was not known beyond Ifo local government, with the community around that axis barely existed and commanded no government attention.
Today, Lisa with a recognized traditional head and the villages around it are now semi urban settlements with a big thanks to the exposure given to it by the plane crash.
Now that, Olu of Lisa, Oba Nojeemdeen Oladele Odugbemi, Ali Odu 1 is now 66 today, the kaabiyesi has promised to use its remaining entire life for Lisa community to move Lisa community from semi urban to full fledge urban settlement with more impactful amenities and also use his closeness to the government to bring rapid development to Lisa Town.
To Oba Nojeemdeen Oladele Odugbemi, real construction of the road from Ijoko to Lisa will surely bring development to Ogun state and therefore appealed to the state government under Prince Dapo Abiodun to take the advantage of constructing Lagos – Abeokuta expressway as approved to the state government by the federal government at the federal executive meeting to extend the construction to Ijoko to Lisa communities.
Thanks to Oba Nojeemdeen Oladele Odugbemi at 66 who is very passionate about turning Lisa community into a land flowing with honey and milk. We pray that God will continue to spare the life of Oba Nojeemdeen Oladele Odugbemi to continue to do more humanitarian gestures to the people of his community for better growth and development.
