The Founder of the Tunji Olowolafe Foundation and Chancellor of Ekiti State University, Dr. Tunji Olowolafe, has challenged Ekiti State to move beyond its celebrated intellectual tradition and translate its enormous human capital into industrial growth, employment and sustainable wealth creation.
Olowolafe made the call on Wednesday at the Ekiti at 30 Future Summit held at the Obafemi Awolowo Civic and Convention Centre, Ado-Ekiti, where he delivered the lead paper titled, “The Path to Ekiti’s Greatness: Opportunities, Choices, and Imperatives for the Next 30 Years.”
Speaking before an audience of government officials, academics, professionals, traditional and community leaders, Olowolafe said Ekiti’s first 30 years had demonstrated that the state could survive and build itself, but the next phase must establish its capacity to lead.
According to him, Ekiti possesses the essential ingredients for development, including a strong culture of education, highly skilled professionals, tertiary institutions and a disciplined workforce, but must now deliberately connect knowledge with productive power, vocational skills, enterprise, infrastructure and global markets.
He said the central question before the state was no longer whether Ekiti had intellectual capacity, but how that knowledge could be converted into practical solutions capable of lifting communities out of poverty and creating sustainable prosperity.
Olowolafe identified reliable electricity, practical vocational education and direct connections to industrial supply chains and global markets as three fundamental requirements for Ekiti’s industrial takeoff.
He proposed a ward-by-ward technical audit of the state’s 177 political wards with a view to establishing renewable energy-powered microgrids capable of providing electricity to schools, health centres, workshops and small businesses.
According to him, a solar microgrid of between 300 and 500 kilowatts could provide productive power to a cluster of essential facilities and businesses in many communities, describing the projects as bankable and within the state’s execution capacity.
He also called for a major expansion of vocational education in Ekiti, stressing that the future economy would increasingly reward practical competence in areas such as solar installation, welding, fabrication, machinery repair, food processing and other high-value technical trades.
While acknowledging the six government technical colleges already established by the state, Olowolafe argued that their present capacity was insufficient to meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of young people across the state’s 16 local governments.
He advocated the recruitment of experienced vocational instructors from countries with strong technical education systems, including Switzerland, Germany, Canada and South Africa, to train teachers, modernise curricula and strengthen the connection between technical colleges and industry.
He further urged major industrial companies to become active partners in technical education by participating in curriculum development, sending engineers to teach and recruiting directly from technical institutions.
Olowolafe cited the practical training of Ekiti State University civil engineering students on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway as an example of how industry and education could work together to produce graduates with practical experience.
He said the ultimate goal should be a situation where major industrial establishments routinely recruit certified welders, fitters and instrumentation technicians trained in Ekiti, thereby changing public perception of technical education and positioning skilled trades as high-value careers.
The medical doctor and corporate practitioner also highlighted the importance of infrastructure and global connectivity in Ekiti’s development strategy.
He commended the continuity of leadership behind the Ekiti Knowledge Zone and the Ekiti Agro-Allied International Cargo Airport, noting that different administrations had contributed to the development of the projects.
According to him, the Knowledge Zone, conceived under former Governor Kayode Fayemi and being implemented by Governor Biodun Oyebanji, would provide young Ekiti residents with an environment to build technology ventures and serve clients around the world without leaving the state.
He described the completion of the agro-allied international cargo airport as another example of what continuity in governance could achieve, tracing its conception to former Governor Segun Oni, the acquisition and clearing of the site to former Governor Ayodele Fayose, the commencement of construction to former Governor Kayode Fayemi and its completion under Governor Biodun Oyebanji.
Olowolafe also acknowledged the intervention of Governor Oyebanji and Senate Majority Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, in securing the award and commencement of work on the Ado-Ijan-Ilumoba-Ikole federal road, expressing appreciation to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the development.
Turning to the importance of empirical knowledge and innovation, Olowolafe used a personal childhood experience involving a snakebite to illustrate the need for Ekiti to respect tradition while remaining open to scientific inquiry.
He recalled how his grandmother treated him with traditional medicine after he was bitten by a snake, while his late uncle, Professor Femi Elegbeleye, later took him to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital for clinical antivenom treatment.
The experience, he said, taught him that traditional knowledge should not necessarily be dismissed, but that when lives, health and livelihoods are at stake, society must be prepared to seek the best available evidence.
He said that same philosophy informed the work of the Tunji Olowolafe Foundation, particularly its interventions in education and technology.
In Are-Ekiti, he disclosed that the foundation had responded to the needs identified by the Are-Ekiti Progressive Union by supporting the establishment of the Gbemisola Olowolafe Memorial Community Secondary School.
The school, which was approved and is managed by the Ekiti State Government, opened in September 2025 with 100 students and had grown to more than 170 students.
Olowolafe said the ambition was to develop the school into a world-class institution with 600 students, with emphasis on science, technology, languages, arts and sports.
An ICT centre, GOMTECH, located adjacent to the school, is already providing training in artificial intelligence, coding, graphic design and Mandarin.
With characteristic humour, Olowolafe explained why he had not prioritised building a large personal residence in Are-Ekiti.
He said he would rather build a school where a child could discover his or her potential, expressing the hope that one of the school’s graduates would eventually become successful enough to build him a beautiful home in Are-Ekiti.
“That would be a return-on-investment worth waiting for,” he said.
At Ekiti State University, where he was appointed Chancellor in 2024, Olowolafe said the foundation was also supporting initiatives designed to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and practical application.
He disclosed that Project Digi-Teach EKSU was working to bring all 650 lecturers to full digital teaching proficiency, while the university’s Trading Room had evolved into a Senate-approved diploma programme in financial markets.
He added that high-speed Starlink internet had been installed at 12 locations across the university campus, including the library, faculties and ICT Experience Centre.
According to him, the objective was to ensure that EKSU graduates leave the institution with practical, digital and industry-ready skills.
Olowolafe also challenged Ekiti’s intellectual community to apply its knowledge to the state’s agricultural economy.
He recalled watching cocoa farmers dry their beans on roadsides as a child, with goats sometimes eating portions of the harvest.
But what was once amusing to him as a child, he said, had become a serious economic concern as an investor.
“Ideregbes are eating dollars,” he remarked, challenging Ekiti’s universities, engineers, scientists and artisans to develop affordable solar-powered cocoa dryers for cocoa-producing communities.
He disclosed that Ekiti produced about 4,500 tonnes of cocoa in 2025, according to the state Ministry of Agriculture, and called for a deliberate policy to ensure that cocoa is processed into chocolate within the state rather than exported as a raw commodity.
He equally advocated value addition to the state’s solid mineral resources, aligning with the national push to end the export of raw minerals and strengthen local processing capacity.
As part of that effort, he disclosed that the Tunji Olowolafe Foundation was collaborating with Ekiti State University to modernise the Department of Geology through the provision of solar power, high-speed internet, computer hardware and advanced field-testing equipment.
He said the foundation’s ambition was to help transform the department into the premier geology faculty in Africa within five years.
Looking beyond the 30th anniversary of the state, Olowolafe argued that Ekiti could achieve much of its long-term development ambition within the next decade if it remained focused and disciplined.
He proposed that the state should convene a progress review every two years to assess its achievements, identify gaps and hold itself accountable for its commitments.
Reflecting on the history of Ekiti State, he reminded the gathering that 30 years ago, the state’s founders did not wait for perfect conditions before beginning the work of governance.
They raised funds among themselves, moved teachers and government officials at short notice and commenced some government activities under the trees at Christ’s School.
For Olowolafe, that history should inspire the present generation to demonstrate the same courage and determination.
He subsequently announced three major commitments by the Tunji Olowolafe Foundation to the development of Ekiti State.
First, he said the foundation would work with the state government, on a case-by-case basis, to install and upgrade modern ICT centres in the six government technical colleges, modelled after GOMTECH, with each centre powered by solar energy and connected to high-speed Starlink internet.
Second, the foundation would recruit international vocational training experts to support teachers, train students and assist with curriculum reform, with success measured by the number of graduates who become certified, employed or establish their own businesses.
Third, the foundation would partner with leading mining schools in Canada and South Africa to help transform the Department of Geology at EKSU into the best in Africa within five years, while strengthening its curriculum and creating vocational certificate pathways for geological technicians and mine safety officers.
Olowolafe said the foundation did not intend to create a parallel system, but rather to strengthen existing institutions and build on what Ekiti already had.
He said the state had mineral resources, cash crops and excellent human capital, stressing that the first 30 years had proved that Ekiti could exist, while the next 10 years must prove that it could lead.
“The opportunities are before us. The choices are in our hands. The imperatives are not optional,” he declared, urging the people of Ekiti to make the right choices and begin the transformation immediately.
He expressed the hope that 30 years from now, the next generation would look back and acknowledge that the present generation answered the call of destiny.
Concluding his address, Olowolafe called for collective commitment to building an Ekiti where knowledge translates into innovation, innovation creates enterprise, and enterprise generates prosperity for its people.
“Ekiti has mineral resources, cash crops and excellent human capital. Our first thirty years proved that Ekiti could exist. The next ten must prove that Ekiti will lead,” he said.
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