By :: Bayo Olupohunda
The deplorable state of the once flourishing and
functioning Okitipupa, a sleepy town in the south
side of Ondo State is a sad metaphor of the
Nigerian condition. Okitipupa, the palm oil rich
town is home to the indigenous Ikale people, a
micro-ethnic Yoruba group to which I proudly
belong. According to the 2006 census, the town
has a paltry population of just over 200,000
people. But it is a melting pot. The town
welcomes strangers. In the years that I spent
there as a teenager, even while I had not travelled
to various parts of Nigeria, I had been aware,
through contact with other Nigerians, that the
country is a multi-ethnic nation.
I remember with nostalgia how people from the
neighbouring Ilaje, Ijaw and the Urhobo flocked
into the town to be part of its growing
commercial activities. The riverine Ilaje, a
predominantly fishing people with a common
variant of the Ikale language with the Ikale
complemented the Urhobo. The Urhobo had also
long established themselves in local palm oil
production. The geographical location of
Okitipupa which lies in the mid-section between
the South-South and the South-East makes it a
port of call for traders and travellers alike.
The town can easily be accessed by land and
sea. In my childhood years, I remember how the
Hausa population mingled freely with the
indigenes and other ethnic groups. As a teenager,
I had the first taste of the Suya and Kilishi
delicacy in the Sabongari area of the town where
the local mosque also stands adjacent the
Anglican Church. Religious rancour was unheard
of. The Igbo population characteristically engaged
in trading. They provided the goods that the
indigenous people cannot easily access. There
were other ethnic groups who lived in harmony
with the indigenes. Inter-ethnic mistrust which is
gradually tearing the country apart was unheard
of.
The idyllic setting of Okitipupa also made it
conducive to the British colonialists. During the
British rule and in the years before Independence
from the colonialists, the palm oil-rich town
provided the raw materials that fed the industries
of Europe. It can also be safely said that the
wealth that built the British Empire was sourced
from the sweat of the Ikale people and their palm
oil. But that is the story of Africa.
The story of Okitipupa during colonialism was
that of exploitation and neglect. Its mineral
resources were exploited to develop Britain. But
its people became the “wretched of the earth”.
However, the resurgence of the town came after
the British left our shores. The period after
independence saw the rebirth of a town that was
on the throes of extinction. Obafemi Awolowo
regionwide development efforts had rubbed off on
the town. Okitipupa became a model town. As the
headquarters of the Old Ikale area, it attracted
development from the centre. Awolowo’s
development model was felt instantly. Even in the
late 1980s, Okitipupa still bore the development
imprints that stood the South-West out. I grew
up to see well-connected road network. The
streets were paved. The waterworks piped water
to every home. Light was constant. The Post and
Telecommunications delivered letters and returned
them promptly. It was in those years that we
wrote letters to our pen pals in distant lands. The
public hospitals had qualified doctors. Drugs were
in abundance. I attended a public school that
provided good education. There was a sports
centre known as the Government Field. It was
there I first saw Nigeria’s Second Republic
President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, who had come on
an official visit. Okitipupa was that important that
even Awolowo came often for campaigns. The
Technical College in the adjoining town of Idepe
supplied graduates who upon leaving school
established small scale industries that also
created employment. The town was also an
industrial town. The oil palm industry created by
Awolowo’s Western Region produced palm oil in
commercial quantity. Massive oil palm plantation
that served the industry was cultivated in all
parts of Ikale. These in turn created employment
for oil palm farmers. The sector also encouraged
private partnership in oil palm cultivation and
production. In the mid-1980s, the establishment
of a glass sheets manufacturing plant drastically
changed the face of the once sleepy town. With
the arrival of expatriate workers, the town was
transformed. Oluwa Glass Company produced
glass sheets in commercial quantity. The sheets
were exported to other states across the
federation and other neighbouring countries. The
effect of the industry on the local economy was
instant. In a few years, qualified Ikale youths
returned home to take up employment in the
company. Its subsidiaries also created
employment. Meanwhile, roads were repaired.
New ones were built. The town also wore a new
look as many of the employed youths
rehabilitated the homes they grew up in – the
homes of their parents.
Those were the glorious years. People came from
far and near to trade and to build houses.
Okitipupa was fast turning into a big city. It was
in that environment I spent my teenage years. But
soon, like every young people, I soon got
admission into the university and left the town. I
left with the impression of a town fast developing
into a modern city. But it was a fairy tale story
that was not scripted to a happy after ending.
Within years, the town began to suffer decline. Its
demise came to a head during the military
government of Ibrahm Babaginda. I remember
visiting as a young undergraduate to behold the
forlorn faces of inhabitants. The romance with
development did not last long. Their hopes had
disappeared like the morning mist as day light
approaches. The glass sheets company had
folded up. In all of the years the military was in
power till 1999, all attempts to revamp the
companies came to nothing. Now they lie
comatose, all their assets wasted away. The oil
palm company has also stopped producing palm
oil and other allied products. The company that I
visited on excursion in my secondary school years
had become a shadow of its former self.
The change I saw on a visit recently was
shocking. The town has become such an eyesore.
The roads are nothing to write home about. The
once enviable public schools have become so run
down that parents now send their children to
private schools. Even Okitipupa now has private
schools. It is scandalous. What happened to the
missionary schools that we went to? The
specialist hospital where I was treated for a dog
bite as a six-year-old has become worse than a
consulting clinic. The waterworks have dried up.
Now to make matters worse, many young men
have become commercial motorcyclists. The
demise of the once promising town of Okitipupa is
the sad metaphor of our country. Youth
unemployment, broken infrastructure, dilapidated
public schools, moribund industries tell the
heartbreaking story. The coming of democracy
seems to have, ironically, impoverished the town
and its people the more.
More than 14 years of democratic government has
done nothing to revive the industries that once
provided huge revenue for the state government.
Even the oil palm plantations in the whole of
Ikaleland have all been taken over by weeds. That
is the tragic story of my once beloved town. A
town ruined by those who had the good fortune
of ruling the state in the past.
The deplorable state of the once flourishing and
functioning Okitipupa, a sleepy town in the south
side of Ondo State is a sad metaphor of the
Nigerian condition. Okitipupa, the palm oil rich
town is home to the indigenous Ikale people, a
micro-ethnic Yoruba group to which I proudly
belong. According to the 2006 census, the town
has a paltry population of just over 200,000
people. But it is a melting pot. The town
welcomes strangers. In the years that I spent
there as a teenager, even while I had not travelled
to various parts of Nigeria, I had been aware,
through contact with other Nigerians, that the
country is a multi-ethnic nation.
I remember with nostalgia how people from the
neighbouring Ilaje, Ijaw and the Urhobo flocked
into the town to be part of its growing
commercial activities. The riverine Ilaje, a
predominantly fishing people with a common
variant of the Ikale language with the Ikale
complemented the Urhobo. The Urhobo had also
long established themselves in local palm oil
production. The geographical location of
Okitipupa which lies in the mid-section between
the South-South and the South-East makes it a
port of call for traders and travellers alike.
The town can easily be accessed by land and
sea. In my childhood years, I remember how the
Hausa population mingled freely with the
indigenes and other ethnic groups. As a teenager,
I had the first taste of the Suya and Kilishi
delicacy in the Sabongari area of the town where
the local mosque also stands adjacent the
Anglican Church. Religious rancour was unheard
of. The Igbo population characteristically engaged
in trading. They provided the goods that the
indigenous people cannot easily access. There
were other ethnic groups who lived in harmony
with the indigenes. Inter-ethnic mistrust which is
gradually tearing the country apart was unheard
of.
The idyllic setting of Okitipupa also made it
conducive to the British colonialists. During the
British rule and in the years before Independence
from the colonialists, the palm oil-rich town
provided the raw materials that fed the industries
of Europe. It can also be safely said that the
wealth that built the British Empire was sourced
from the sweat of the Ikale people and their palm
oil. But that is the story of Africa.
The story of Okitipupa during colonialism was
that of exploitation and neglect. Its mineral
resources were exploited to develop Britain. But
its people became the “wretched of the earth”.
However, the resurgence of the town came after
the British left our shores. The period after
independence saw the rebirth of a town that was
on the throes of extinction. Obafemi Awolowo
regionwide development efforts had rubbed off on
the town. Okitipupa became a model town. As the
headquarters of the Old Ikale area, it attracted
development from the centre. Awolowo’s
development model was felt instantly. Even in the
late 1980s, Okitipupa still bore the development
imprints that stood the South-West out. I grew
up to see well-connected road network. The
streets were paved. The waterworks piped water
to every home. Light was constant. The Post and
Telecommunications delivered letters and returned
them promptly. It was in those years that we
wrote letters to our pen pals in distant lands. The
public hospitals had qualified doctors. Drugs were
in abundance. I attended a public school that
provided good education. There was a sports
centre known as the Government Field. It was
there I first saw Nigeria’s Second Republic
President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, who had come on
an official visit. Okitipupa was that important that
even Awolowo came often for campaigns. The
Technical College in the adjoining town of Idepe
supplied graduates who upon leaving school
established small scale industries that also
created employment. The town was also an
industrial town. The oil palm industry created by
Awolowo’s Western Region produced palm oil in
commercial quantity. Massive oil palm plantation
that served the industry was cultivated in all
parts of Ikale. These in turn created employment
for oil palm farmers. The sector also encouraged
private partnership in oil palm cultivation and
production. In the mid-1980s, the establishment
of a glass sheets manufacturing plant drastically
changed the face of the once sleepy town. With
the arrival of expatriate workers, the town was
transformed. Oluwa Glass Company produced
glass sheets in commercial quantity. The sheets
were exported to other states across the
federation and other neighbouring countries. The
effect of the industry on the local economy was
instant. In a few years, qualified Ikale youths
returned home to take up employment in the
company. Its subsidiaries also created
employment. Meanwhile, roads were repaired.
New ones were built. The town also wore a new
look as many of the employed youths
rehabilitated the homes they grew up in – the
homes of their parents.
Those were the glorious years. People came from
far and near to trade and to build houses.
Okitipupa was fast turning into a big city. It was
in that environment I spent my teenage years. But
soon, like every young people, I soon got
admission into the university and left the town. I
left with the impression of a town fast developing
into a modern city. But it was a fairy tale story
that was not scripted to a happy after ending.
Within years, the town began to suffer decline. Its
demise came to a head during the military
government of Ibrahm Babaginda. I remember
visiting as a young undergraduate to behold the
forlorn faces of inhabitants. The romance with
development did not last long. Their hopes had
disappeared like the morning mist as day light
approaches. The glass sheets company had
folded up. In all of the years the military was in
power till 1999, all attempts to revamp the
companies came to nothing. Now they lie
comatose, all their assets wasted away. The oil
palm company has also stopped producing palm
oil and other allied products. The company that I
visited on excursion in my secondary school years
had become a shadow of its former self.
The change I saw on a visit recently was
shocking. The town has become such an eyesore.
The roads are nothing to write home about. The
once enviable public schools have become so run
down that parents now send their children to
private schools. Even Okitipupa now has private
schools. It is scandalous. What happened to the
missionary schools that we went to? The
specialist hospital where I was treated for a dog
bite as a six-year-old has become worse than a
consulting clinic. The waterworks have dried up.
Now to make matters worse, many young men
have become commercial motorcyclists. The
demise of the once promising town of Okitipupa is
the sad metaphor of our country. Youth
unemployment, broken infrastructure, dilapidated
public schools, moribund industries tell the
heartbreaking story. The coming of democracy
seems to have, ironically, impoverished the town
and its people the more.
More than 14 years of democratic government has
done nothing to revive the industries that once
provided huge revenue for the state government.
Even the oil palm plantations in the whole of
Ikaleland have all been taken over by weeds. That
is the tragic story of my once beloved town. A
town ruined by those who had the good fortune
of ruling the state in the past.
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