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Over the past few
days remarks made by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the former Chairman of EFCC
during his lecture at the late Bola Ige birthday event have earned a
caustic response from the Oyo State government through Chief Gbade
Ishola.

I think it is a
welcome thing that regeneration of Ibadan has become a topical issue.
It is however an issue that requires a different discourse than that of
a partisan political nature. I will avoid choosing sides because what
is at stake is far more significant than who is right or wrong nor is
it about the coming election.

The city of Ibadan
represents a totally unique space in the history and potential future
of the nation. It has been the largest indigenous city of its kind in
Africa but also the intellectual cradle of the Nigerian state. If we
valued anything in our current transactional mindset it would be this
city that evolved through a unique, meritocracy into a warrior republic
using a constitutional experiment that remains largely intact today.

She carries three
powerful dimensions for our future; a habit of cultural innovation that
includes the first television station; a platform for intellectual
curiosity and academic expression that spawned the first university; a
network of informal commerce that is translated into scores of open air
markets including the largest market for indigenous textiles in Oje. To
say that Ibadan has regressed is not to focus blame on any one party in
what should be a partnership to preserve her legacy and generate a
vision to renew her.

Ibadan is perhaps
the only city in Africa that is bucking the trend in urbanisation
especially in the number of young people she has lost. The downward
trend for the city started with the much vaunted Structural Adjustment
Programme of the Babangida regime in the mid 1980s.

This policy that
decimated the Nigerian middle classes destroyed the vibrancy of Ibadan
which was the most middle class of all cities in Nigeria.

The disdain in
which the universities, research institutes and that almost uniquely
local focus – publishing- was treated, wiped out the intellectual
values, skills and industries. The lack of priority for education also
destroyed the place as an education destination for the country.

The middle class
values of community, perseverance and long term effort were killed and
replaced with neo liberal individualism leading to the triumph of the
hustler class. Shame died and became replaced with wanton materialism.
Ibadan has never recovered.

Subsequent
governments, local and national have neither had the desire nor have
had the resources to prioritise Ibadan above other things they feel
necessary. It does not start with the present government in Oyo State.
There is of course the inevitable structural problem of a potential
world centre in a largely rural, agricultural state.

Maybe the challenge
of renewing Ibadan might be a drain to development in other parts of
the state? The false divisions amongst the citizens of our metropolis
have not helped these challenges. The identification of indigene versus
resident is a very poor choice. The founders of our great city came
from all over Yoruba land to find fortune through valour and might
rather than from birthright and bloodline. Nowhere was merit more
forcefully enforced as the standard of excellence than in the ancient
home of Oluyole.

We as citizens have
also failed our city in not creating a large enough umbrella as is our
tradition. We failed to make talent, excellence and love for the
betterment of our land as the only standard for determining whether one

qualifies as Ibadan
or otherwise. No great city is a creation of government alone, but a
result of the collective vision and contribution of her people,
businesses, civic organisations and government in partnership.

Even if the Oyo
State government believes it has done some things, the honest truth is
that there is a lot more to do. Our city now has a shop front in every
house; our roads struggle to absorb traffic because of the number of
cars struggling for space. Nowhere are there more research institutes
than in Ibadan but they are not connected by the highway of this
century in fibre optic broadband.

The publishing
industry on Magazine Road is a very pale shadow of the capital of West
Africa that it was. I know from Mallam Ribadus comments that he cares
and I know from my limited interaction with Chief Gbade Ishola that he
is passionate about Ibadan. We can have a civil dialogue about the best
way ahead.

Last year we started this process with the Mesiogo initiative (outside of government and

politics) to work
across stakeholders for long term regeneration for our city. Lets
continue this dialogue and effort without succumbing to self-serving
partisanship. No one has a monopoly of ideas or responsibility as we
strive to continuously evolve Ibadan not just to the greatness of her
pioneering past but also to the possibilities of prosperity for many
more generations to come.

Adewale Ajadi is a social entrepreneur and Ibadan is his hometown.