Dotun Babayemi, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun, has urged residents to see the state as a common heritage that must not fail.

Mr Babayemi said this in his congratulatory message on the 32nd anniversary of the creation of the state.

“Osun is our common heritage and as such, we should always ensure that we contribute our own quota towards making it the envy of other states in the country.

“We must ensure that the lofty dreams of the founding fathers about the state is brought to fruition,” he said.

Mr Babayemi, a former PDP governorship aspirant in the state, noted that the state was envisioned to succeed for the good of its people and never meant to fail, nor become a basis for regret by those who were against its creation.

“Osun State at its creation and even after, was never envisioned to fail.

“Those who cooked the idea of having a state being enjoyed by all of us today had lofty dreams of equity, justice and fairness, that would engender the needed developments for the common good of the indigenes and non-indigenes,” he said.

Mr Babayemi said that although the state was blessed with human and material resources, “it has not yet been where it ought to be.”

According to him, this is due to the inability to properly interpret the dreams of those who fought for its creation.

“In the true sense of the word, 32-year-old child has come of age.

“But regrettably, our age of creation as a state has not truly matched with who we are as a people and what we have in terms of abounding material resources.

“Sadly, we are still proverbially jiggling like a toddler,” he said.

While commending all the leaders who had paddled the affairs of the state for nurturing it from scratch till date, Mr Babayemi called on the people to always seek and do things that would promote the good of the state.

“This is because the state belongs to us all. We are all stakeholders and it is never and can never be an exclusive preserve of a few,” he said.

Osun was carved out of old Oyo State on Aug. 27, 1991, by the former military head of state, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.

(NAN)