Great Minds,
It is indeed a thing of great joy for me to, on behalf of the Okun Council of Elders and the Okun Development Association (ODA) National Executive Council, welcome you to our website.
This site is the official and authorized site hoisted by the Okun Development Association, the umbrella Socio-Cultural and Developmental Organization that is the sole organ of the Okun people (the Yoruba people of Kogi State), with authority to speak and act on behalf of the people on matters affecting our interests, governance, development and sustainable livelihood.
This site is designed primarily to provide a window, through which any interested party in any part of the world will be able to catch a glimpse into diverse subject matters that affect, influence, and define life in Okun land. Hopefully, the materials that will be featured in this site will reflect events and interests in all the local governments and people that make up the Okun Nation of Kogi State. It is our hope that all Okun sons and daughters in the Diaspora will find the site particularly refreshing for obvious reasons.
Be assured that the site will adequately be secured to ensure that only authorized materials will ever get to the site. All materials to be uploaded will be processed through our quality assurance framework to ensure that such materials will only advance the cause for which the ODA was set up and promote the peace, unity and oneness of our people.
Every effort will be invested to guarantee a sustainable, robust and active website. We intend to make it a living phenomenon. This can only happen with your active support and participation. We therefore appeal that you please feel free to make materials available to us with which to feed the site.
We should please bear in mind that we never had a website before now. It should therefore not be a surprise that we emphasize the need for you as visitors to the site to give us your honest and goal-oriented suggestions that will ensure continuous improvement and enrichment of the site.
I want to put it on record that this website would have remained a mere dream but for a God-sent Okun Brother and Friend in the Diaspora, Dr. Adeolu Ireyomi. Our previous attempt two years ago to see it to fruition failed. Somehow, God recently brought us into contact with Dr. Ireyomi and I shared our vision and our constraints with him. He immediately bought into it and volunteered to make it a reality at no cost to us. He immediately set up a Project Team under the Leadership of another amiable and humble Kwara Brother and Friend, Mr. Taiwo Gideon Iranloye, the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Calm Global Information Technology Ltd, with Simeon Taiwo, Ajayi Oladimeji, Kolade Otegbade, Adewale Odufuwa and Promise Ihunna as Project Team Members. These are the burden bearers God sent our way.
How do we begin to thank these people?
Dr. Ireyomi, even though you and I are yet to meet or know each other, you have made so much impression on me from our various online interactions. Okun is blessed to have you as one of us. Your name, Ireyomi, is already a prayer in a way. This project is evidence that you are living it. Be assured, God will always answer.
Mr Taiwo Iranloye and our other Project Team Members, it is only God that can reward you, and He will. All of us at the National Executive Council of ODA say a very big thank you for your contribution to our efforts.
And to you great people of Okun Nation, now that our website is up and running, we owe ourselves and posterity only one thing: TO KEEP THE SITE ALIVE AND ACTIVE FOREVER.
Together, We Can.
Femi Mokikan
National President Okun Development Association (ODA)
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
The president of Okun Development Association (ODA), the premier Okun advocacy organization, Barrister Femi Mokikan, in a joint press conference issued with Dr. Lawrence Akin-Adeyemi, has announced that in furtherance of the ODA efforts to unite all Okun sons and daughters worldwide, the ODA has been registered in North America.
ELECTION OF THE FIRST EXECUTIVE ODA OFFICERS IN NORTH AMERICA.
We therefore want to inform the press and the general public that the Okun Development Association North America (ODA-NA) has elected its first set of executives in North America.
Dr. Lawrence Akin-Adeyemi, who is currently retired from active career as a former Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle and Central Washington University, Ellensburg, Washington was unanimously elected as it’s President. He had worked for public sector agencies as a Project Engineer and Senior Project Manager and Public Infrastructure Management Professional. With the interest of African immigrants in mind, he has also been a former publisher of a monthly newspaper, the African Forum News (AFN) based in Seattle, Washington.
Other elected members of the executive are:
Professor Victor Oyinbo, Vice President.
Dr. Adeolu Ireyomi, General Secretary.
Mr. Logbon Omopariola, Assistant General Secretary.
Dr. (Mrs.) Gloria Ajayi, Treasurer.
Dr. (Mrs.) Funmi Bolonduro, Financial Secretary.
Pastor Lanre Ejibunu, Publicity Secretary.
Pastor Victor Hambolu, Auditor.
Barrister Tunde Aribido, Legal Adviser
An Okun Nation that ensures the total integration of all her people, leave a sustainable economy for our future generations, develop a culture where every citizen of Okun Land has equal opportunity to achieve Economic, Political and Socio-cultural development and have a sense of pride being an Okun anywhere in the world.
To provide every Okun citizen the opportunity to access and enjoy a high quality of life, eliminate poverty and achieve balanced lifestyle through the development of our people especially Women and Youth in our communities, so as to possess the power to harness available opportunities for themselves and others as obtainable in other developed part of Nigeria.
Be one of the most improved, respected and recognized people in Nigeria in terms of political, economic and socio-cultural development.
Create a private sector-driven, market-based economy capable of competing effectively within Nigeria and globally
Effectively deploy information and Communications Technology to lead other tribes in the country in the creation of a knowledge-based economy
Be an economic, Industrial and tourism hub of Nigeria by 2030 by taking advantage of our location, other natural resources, and the enormous industrial and tourism potentials available in Okun Land
Be a powerful political force that can ensure equity, fairness and justice in the governance of Kogi State
Create a safe and secure environment to drive the growth and development of Okun Land, Becoming the country’s preferred investors’ destination
