EndSARS: Nigeria Requires Genuine Restructuring-Olanipekun
A legal Icon, Chief Wole Olanipekun(SAN), has said the EndSARS protests was an indication that the nation, needs a genuine restructuring. He said the crisis was a tip of the iceberg compared to what awaits the nation if the needful is not done urgently to address the social, political and economic imbalance in the nation.
The Lagos based legal luminary expressed regret that the two police stations that were set ablaze in his Ikere Ekiti country home during the crisis, had put policing system in jeopardy due to tactical withdrawal of the police from the community.
Olanipekun called on individuals to partner governments to resolve youth unemployment and the attendant restiveness, saying his foundation would expend a sum of N15 million to empower 300 youths and N9 million on the aged and widows resident in Ekiti.
Olanipekun said this in Ikere Ekiti, over the weekend while awarding scholarships to 143 students to mark the 2020 edition of his scholarship scheme and the launching of the Wole Olanipekun Foundation to empower youth and downtrodden masses in Ekiti.
According to him, “whatever might have been the outcome of EndSARS protest, the bitter take away there is that we must honestly, sincerely, impassionately, unpretentiously take step to reawaken Nigeria, to rethink Nigeria, to rebuild Nigeria , to rehabilitate Nigeria ,to reorientate Nigeria, to rekindle Nigeria , to readjust Nigeria and to revitalise Nigeria.
“The bitterness among ethnic nationalities is so deep, and we need genuine reconciliation and restructuring of the polity. That small sore has become cancerous and we need a radical surgery to extract it”. Olanipekun said a total of 143 students with 67 at the secondary school cadre, 73 university undergraduates , three law school students and a PhD candidate, would benefit from the 2020 edition of his scholarship scheme.
Olanipekun added that the just officially launched foundation will kick off with the empowerment of 100 youth and 100 widows and aged that would benefit between N50,000 and N30,000 each to establish small scale businesses, to reduce poverty in Ekiti .
“Under the Wole Olanipekun Foundation Youth Empowerment Programme, while 100 youths will have a grant of N50,000 each in 2020, another set of 100 youths will be entitled to same amount in 2021 and 2022 translating to 300 youth, while each of them will be entitled to non-interest yielding loans from the middle of 2021.
“For the widows and the aged people from 75 years of age, 100 of them will be empowered with N30,000 each under my foundation as party of poverty alleviation programme”.
Olanipekun urged the well-meaning indigenes of the town to partner Governor Kayode Fayemi’s government to ensure a smooth take-off of the proposed University of Education, Science and Technology in Ikere Ekiti, for radical economic development of the town.
