Former Lagos State Governor and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN, stood shoulder to shoulder on Thursday with captains of industry and Humanitarian Aid Fellows, to honour Otunba Lai Oriowo as Honourary Patron of the African Refugees Foundation, AREF.
The ceremony was held in Lagos, under the theme World Refugee Day…..“Until Everyone Is Safe”.
Otunba Oriowo headlined his speech as Humanity Has No Borders”, the event which became more than an award, was a convergence of policy, private capital, and field action elders, executives, and the next generation of humanitarians speaking with one voice.
At an event where the Group Director of Odu’a Investment Company Limited, Otunba Lai Oriowo was in attendance, to represent the Group Chairman of Odu’a Investment Company Limited, Otunba Bimbo Ashiru, he delivered his keynote speech, which he drew directly from his roots, Ijesaland.
Speaking as a prominent Ijesa son, Otunba Oriowo stripped refugees of statistics and returned them to humanity. “A refugee is a mother who packed only her children and hope. A father who left his farm because war left him no choice. They didn’t choose to leave home, home left them,” he said.
He then laid down a 3-point framework from his speech, which includes dignity-driven care, shelter and safety first, because healing cannot begin without security; dignity, not pity, because a refugee doctor, teacher, or trader is an asset, not a burden; and deliberate inclusion, because loneliness breaks people faster than war.
Drawing from his country home’s proverb bank, Otunba Oriowo invoked the famous Ijesa proverb “Ọmọdé níí gùn wá, àgbà níí gùn wọ́n lọ”, the young come in, the elders send them off, to argue that Nigeria’s greatness has always been in receiving strangers, protecting them, and releasing them stronger.
AREF then presented him with a certificate of honour for “outstanding dedication and commitment to humanitarian causes/services”. The organizers, under the leadership of the CEO, African Refugees Foundation, AREF Olujimi Olusola III, described the presence of former Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola SAN, industry executives, and Humanitarian Aid Fellows as the bridge, that AREF will ride to move refugee support “from dump site to deployment” ahead of World Refugee Day.
The message is clear: the question is not how many refugees Nigeria can take. The question is what kind of people we choose to be.
