ONE DAY SEMINAR OF ONE COMMUNITY, ONE INDUSTRY INITIATIVE IN ILOBU; AREGBESOLA ASSURES PARTICIPANTS OF OSUN GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE

Tuesday the 12th of December, 2017 shall remain a day to remember among the people of Irepodun Local Government of Ilobu and Irepodun South LCDA of Erin-Ile. It was a day that the one day seminar of the now popular initiative of Mrs. Victoria Oluwaseun tagged One Community, One Industry was organised. The venue was the Ilobu Community Hall.

It was a hectic day for the One Community, One Industry team as the seminar recorded over one thousand participants, men and women, young and old. People started trooping to the venue of the seminar as early as 6:30am.

The governor of the state of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola was represented at the seminar by Mr. Olàdimeji Sunday Afolabi, the Executive Secretary Wealth Creation and his Director of Finance, Mr. Babatunde Afolabi. Also from the governor's office were Mr. Adebiyi Akintayo and Mr. Akinyele Akinlosotu. The Executive Secretaries of Irepodun Local Government, Hon. Anthony Abayomi Oyedeji and Irepodun South LCDA, Hon. Oloyede Adekunle and members of their caretaker committee were also at the seminar. The Iyaloja, All Progressives Congress Women Leader, HODs Socials in the Local government and the LCDA were all in attendance. Alhaja Salimotu Akuruyejo and little Oyindamola Philip were also present.

The one day seminar started with a talk from Mrs. Esther Akinlawon whose talk centre on processing locust beans into "iru" and adding value to the finished product. In her explanation, locust beans popularly called "iyere" in Yoruba. The seed is first cooked to remove the seed coat and then fermented to produce the desired result. When it is fermented, the Yoruba have a way of getting two types from it, the mashed type and the loose or free type called "iru oju" and they are used for different types of soups, but for the same purpose. She ended by showing the preserved and packed powdered form of iru that is an innovation of One Community, One Industry Initiative.

Mrs. JosephineOlayemi, a black soap (ose dudu) making expert from Aagba also presented a talk on the processes of traditional black soap making. For hundreds of years, africans made and used a vegetable-based soap to gently cleanse skin and hair, known as "ose dudu locally it is made with secret recipes passed down from generation to generation, the formulations she exposed is composed of plantain and or banana parts, cocoa pods that are first sun dried and then roasted at a consistent temperature until it turns into ash. The ash is then added to palm kernel oil. This mixture is then heated and hand-stirred for a least 24 hours until it begins to solidify before it’s scooped out and left to cure. Her exposition caught the attention of many of the participants.

Mr Ukonu Ukonu gave a talk .on snail farming that is considered to be one of the most lucrative agribusiness one can start with low capital. Yet, it is one of the most neglected animal rearing business. According to him, snail farming provides one of the finest opportunity to make money within a short period of time. He opened his talk by presenting different species of snails and he chose archachatina marginata, the common giant West African snail as his prefered choice for snail breeders because they can grow up to 20cm long, and live up to 10 years.

He elaborately simplify his exposition into the following headings:
1. Type of Soil For Snail Farming

2. Getting The Sails For Farming

3. Constructing the Snail House (Snailery)

4. Snail Food and Feeding

4. Harvesting and marketing the Snails.
To reach the audience conveniently, Mr. Olàdimeji Lasore did the interpretation from English to Yoruba.

Mr. Ayo gave details if broilers raising start from day old chicks elaborating on preparation of the broilers' habitat, to the necessary injections and drugs that they must take at the initial stage till they can be sold out to consumers that are always readily available. He highlighted on the profitablity of the project if carefully executed.

The seminar also featured talks from agricultural expert, Mr. Femi Anwo, from Osun state office of FADAMA. He extensively exposed the FADAMA innitiatives on massive production of cassava.

The initiator of the programme, Mrs. Victoria Oluwaseun in her presentation snowed the importance of adding values to our finished products through packaging. She presented the hygienically preserved and well packaged "iru" and black soap "ose dudu".

She also announced to the women participants a special empowerment package that has been put in place by the Osun Ministry of Women Affairs and Child Development, that Alhaja Latifat Abiodun Giwa in her position as Osun Commissioner for Women and Children Affairs has given a directive that some of the women that participated at the Ilobu one day seminar and formed themselves in to cooperative societies of at least ten members each shall be empowered financially to take off the massive production of the skill they must have learnt from the seminar and the subsequent practical training that will soon follow.

Mr. Oladimeji Sunday Afolabi who was the spokesperson for the governor Rauf Aregbesola informed the participants that the training was one of the integral plans of the state government and all the participants that underwent the training and decided to key into any of the exposed traditional skills shall be financially assisted by the state governnent so that they will have a life-changing experience. This will develop the human resources of the state. It is meant to teach the people "how to fish and not to give them fish,”. He further emphasised that the era of oil boom is gone and we have to take our hands to work. He showed his believe in the neglected businesses that were presented at the seminarthat he believes that many of our fore-parents used businesses such as iru making and black soap production and selling to achieve many good things in life such as educating their children, supporting the family and even building houses.

Recall that the One Community, One Industry's One Day Seminar in collaboration with the state government of Osun through the office of Enterprise and Wealth Creation has been held in Iragbij, Iwo, Ilesa, Ede and Ilobu. The train moves to Ile-Ife at a date to be announced.