By Yinka Fabowale
When he departed Nigeria for the United States some 20 years ago, Olalekan Oladotun Ayorinde left with memories of a country in which things – social infrastructure etc still worked and where life was comparatively abundant in regard to present realities.
Hitting it big in America as head of a billion dollar Bio-pharmaceutical company, the Ibadan -born Mass Communication graduate was oblivious of the deterioration of conditions back at home, or probably imagined it not to be too different from the developed society he lives in.
That was until the pastor of his church, Pastor Lucille Rossea, called him aside after an afternoon Sunday church service and drew his attention to the worsening plight of Nigeria and challenged him and other successful high-flying Nigerians in the US to intervene and salvage the country of their birth and its ailing economy from collapse.
That encounter and a subsequent visit to the country led to a rude awakening and fired a patriotic fervor in Ayorinde to help arrest the slide and steer the nation on development track.
Now, the US-based industrialist dreams not only of a renaissance of his growing days in Nigeria, but is actively involved in a mission towards providing a model of functional leadership and good governance responsible for the trans-formative development of his land of sojourn.
Ayorinde has chosen his home state, Oyo, to pilot the laudable initiative and its beneficial spin-offs. He’s running for the state’s governorship as candidate of the Abundant Nigerian Renewal Party (ANRP) in next year’s election.
He’s my guest on Monday, November 26 edition of Hard Talk on Space FM 90.1, Ibadan.
Tune in between 2:30 pm and 4:00 pm as he dissects what the issues and challenges are and how he hopes to tackle them.
You don’t want to miss out on this!!
