Celebrating the 13th anniversary on the throne, these are good times in the royal home of Oba Elegushi (Dr) Saheed Ademola Elegushi(Kusenla iii) ,Under his leadership, the Ikate Kingdom has witnessed significant progress in various areas of development, particularly in the areas of education, healthcare and infrastructure.
In his commitment to contribute to Lagos state and Nigeria, Oba Saheed Ademola Elegushi has establish a Centre for the study of Lagos History at the Lagos State university.
The establishment of this purpose-built centre was borne out of the need to have an institutional body that would serve as a research and reference centre for Lagos studies. It has been observed that the migrants and the settlers have no adequate knowledge of historical evolution as well as the transformational history of the major groups in Lagos despite the plethora of literatures on Lagos.
The Aro of Ikate land, Chief Lekan Bakare, Vice President of the council expressed that at a point in time in history due to some political misadventure, the north history entirely was out of the curriculum but now the society has successfully returned to the curriculum with the support of the Lagos State government and history is taught at each level.
Chief Lekan Bakare accepted that a lot of challenges were faced during the process before it was finally integrated into the system, and there, every aspect of history would be taught.
He stated that writing and illustrations would be encouraged so much that a primary pupil would be interested in history with the aid of illustrative diagrams for comprehensive learning.The council member of the society has made provisions and still making provisions and also encouraging school excursions and visits on history.
The Kabiesi Oba (Dr) Saheed Ademola Elegushi(Kusenla iii) is currently involved in a blue scoop project with LASRRA.it is about visiting schools in Lagos and pupils are educated on importance of climate change, recycling, life under water and how we conserve our marine life , not only that, there is also a book on the history of Lagos in conjunction with LASRRA and a day was chosen for the book reading , it was an interactive day with the children , the book titled “Aina on its own Island”.
The mission is to bring back history to every age group with no exception of the children so they can grow up with a historical mindset ,bringing it down to as low as the primary one.
Ms Aiki Odiawa Director of Elegushi Foundation confirmed that his royal highness supports sport, and his contribution is present at Ikoyi Club, National Stadium, Nigerian Olympic Club, and more. His royal highness has awarded countless scholarships and also pays the school fee of a lot of student, as a custodian of culture, he promotes art and culture.
Ms Aiki Odiawa said a lot of people miss out on culture not only in Lagos but the country as a whole, kabiesi made it his responsibility to encourage culture and tell the story to let people know about who we are and what we stand for .This is why this historical center is so relevant not just for lagos state but the entire world because this is going to a bank of cultural information. It is not just about Lagos.We need to have the interrelationship pointed out, straightened out,let’s correct the narratives and all this would be based on evidence that one would see there.
An example is the Benin and Lagos and the Aworis, there is an interlink there,let’s clarify ,let’s have supportive document that would forever erase any doubt in people’s mind.knowledge is very powerful, it could stop wars, it could stop killings, it could stop a whole lot of things and start a whole lot of things. once we have that knowledge regained, that’s what we are putting up there, people are free to come from all over the world to acquire more knowledge of history and culture.
Everyone on board supports his royal highness and would urge the general public to support his effort, let’s take ownership of our society, and let the narrative come from us, we cannot let people tell us who we are, we know who we are, we should be able to tell our children who we are, the children should have access to know who they are so that we can all be proud of ourselves, proud of where we come froma and proud of what we are doing.
The process of construction of this building has commenced; the ground-breaking will be taking place in few days and work will start immediately, to ensure timely completion and commission of the building for the benefit of LASU Community and humanity.