*ODIDIOMO SAW TOMORROW AND BROUGHT IT TO OUR CHILDREN’S CLASSROOM* Prof Omoluabi Ojewola Olawale Ex SA to Hon Remi Oseni 

Amina is in JSS 2 at Peoples Girls Grammar School Molete. Until last year, she had only seen a computer in a picture book. She had never touched one inside her own school.

Today, Amina types with confidence inside a solar powered ICT centre built in her school compound.

That change has a name. Rt. Hon. Adedeji Dhikrullahi Olajide, Odidiomo.

Odidiomo is the Member representing Ibadan Northwest and Southwest. He chairs the House Committee on Digital and Information Technology. But he did not keep that knowledge in Abuja. He carried it home.

In Ibadan, we have a saying, you do not give a child fish and call it love, you teach the child how to fish. Odidiomo has taken that saying literally. He is teaching thousands of our children how to fish in the digital river that will feed the next fifty years.

Go to Community Secondary School at Ayorinde Street in Ekotedo and you will see it. Go to Adifase High School in Apata and you will see it. Complete solar powered ICT centres, fully equipped, running on solar energy so that learning does not stop when NEPA takes light.

He built and equipped an ICT Hub at Comprehensive High School Oke Bola. He did the same at Oba Abass Aleshinloye Grammar School Eleyele. He provided Digital Learning Centres at Bashorun Ogunmola High School Ring Road, Baptist Secondary School Oke Ado, Our Lady of Apostles Odo Ona, African Church Grammar School Apata, Ibadan Boys High School Oke Bola, Army Barrack Grammar School Eleyele and many other schools across the constituency.

For a child in Apata who dreams of becoming a software developer, this means she no longer needs to travel to Lagos to see her first computer. For a boy in Molete who wants to learn coding, his classroom is now his starting line.

But Odidiomo understood that a building without skills is just furniture. So he moved from buildings to people.

In September 2023, he organised digital skills training for 50 artisans. Not university graduates. Tailors, bricklayers, mechanics, hairdressers. People who use their hands daily to feed their families. He showed them how a phone and digital literacy could bring more customers to their shops.

In November 2024, he organised training for youths on data processing, data controlling, data security and data protection. He sponsored five constituents to a three day national training on data protection organised by the Nigeria Data Protection Commission. He registered one thousand people from Ibadan Northwest and Southwest for training in digital literacy, data protection, cyber security and introduction to Artificial Intelligence.

One thousand people from our own constituency given a free entry into the new economy.

He organised digital literacy and empowerment for over 200 youths. Together with the Federal College of Horticulture Dadin Kowa and the NDPC, he trained 600 constituents on how to gather data, analyse data and protect data. He did not leave them with certificates alone. After digital marketing training, he provided 360 laptops and stipends to help them start. In another two week training, participants went home with free laptops.

He supplied five all in one desktop computers and UPS to the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training at Moor Plantation Apata to support research. He provided laptops and iPads for youths across the constituency. He ran trainings on Artificial Intelligence, cyber security awareness, start up support and data protection capacity development.

This is leadership that understands time. While many were still debating whether our children are ready for the digital world, Odidiomo had already placed the tools in their hands.

And while building for the future, he repaired the foundation.

At Urban Day Secondary School at New Adeoyo GRA, he constructed and furnished six blocks of classrooms. At Special Basic School at Adeoyo Hospital on Ring Road, he facilitated the renovation of three classrooms. In his earlier term, he rehabilitated three blocks at Ratibi Primary School Molete, two blocks at UMC Basic School Molete, two blocks at St Patrick Primary School Idikan.

He provided classroom furniture to Anwar Ul Islam Primary School Eleyele, Salvation Army School Ekotedo, Community Primary School Olopomewa, Baptist Primary School Nalende, CKC Basic School Odo Ona, UAMC Basic School Eleja Odo Ona, St Michaels AC Basic School and several others.

He paid WAEC fees for 100 students. He gave educational grants to 50 students who gained admission to university. He provided 200 JAMB forms. He quietly paid school fees for many families who could not afford it, without calling a press conference.

If you walk through Ekotedo, Apata, Oke Bola, Eleyele, Molete and Odo Ona today, parents will tell you the difference is clear. The children have what their parents did not have. The solar panels are shining. The computers are humming. Learning is happening.

That is the work of a man who sees ahead and acts now.

He saw tomorrow yesterday. Imagine what he will do next.

*Compiled by:*

Omoluabi Ojewola Olawale

*For:*

Omoluabi Political Movement

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