“ As The Silk Roads will show, this is how new civilisations emerge. Also, these historical accounts show that situations don’t last.”
How are you today? I hope you are doing your best to be a good representative of God and country in your everyday life.
The past two weeks have been full of activities for me. I had fully intended to beat the 8-week mark I had given myself to have a cabinet in place.
So, last time I wrote you, I said we would have all names ready and the cabinet in place before I write you again. Well, I was not able to accomplish that.
Thankfully, I have another two weeks to complete this task. By God’s grace, most commissioners will be named by then.
Despite my busy schedule, I have finally settled on reading another book. My book of the month is titled, The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan.
This book presents the history of the world –the past 3,000 years –and the writer’s perspective on the events that have shaped our world.
You may have read about the Silk Roads, which was a network of roads that were used to transport goods and ideas through various middlemen between the Eurasian route.
Book Of The Month
It would be great to learn about the evolution of these civilisations. Culture has never been static, and it is the custodians of culture that decide how it should evolve, just as what happened in Oyo State.
Following the elevation of 11 high chiefs to obas by the Olubadan and Olubadan-in Council, 10 of them are now kings wearing beaded crowns.
We have seen mixed reactions to this decision. But as I have always stated, the traditional rulers are best positioned to reform the traditional system.
If we have faith in the people occupying these roles, we can trust that any decisions they collectively reach are in the best interests of the traditional systems.
Let me also use this opportunity to thank those who continue to write in response to our newsletters. We also thank those who speak out when things are not going right.
As promised, under Omituntun 2.0, we will continue to work to make things better. Of course, there is only so much that any government can realistically do, given that we have limited resources.
But we promise to maximise the use of these resources for the benefit of the people of Oyo State.
Truly, it takes a combination of praise and constructive criticism to foster growth, whether we are talking about personal growth or the growth of a nation.
And we must continue to provide both in good measure. As The Silk Roads will show, this is how new civilisations emerge. Also, these historical accounts show that situations don’t last.
We just have to make the most of the good and the bad and keep pressing on. So, I look forward to reading this book and sharing further thoughts with you.
•Newsletter series of the Oyo State governor, Engineer ‘Seyi Makinde.
