In recognition of his sterling record of excellence and golden service to the entire world at large, the Esa Oke Community has decided to honour Dr. Edward Omotoso, a retired top official of the United Nations Organization (UN) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), with the high ranking chieftaincy title of Balogun of Esa-Oke Land.
The Owa Omiran of Esa Oke, HRM Oba Adeyemi Adediran, Atipa Owaji 11, in a letter to Dr. Omotoso, dated 6th September 2024, wrote: “It is with great honour and respect that I write to inform you of a decision taken by the OwaOmiran-in -Council, Iwarefa and myself, His Royal Majesty, the OwaOmiran of Esa-Oke land, that, after careful consideration and in recognition of your unwavering dedication, significant contributions , and steadfast commitment to development of Esa-Oke community, it has been decided that you shall be conferred with the prestigious title of Balogun of Esa Oke land.”
Eddy Omotoso has accepted the honour “with deep humility and profound respect”.
Eddy Omotoso has been known nationally since he was a very popular weekly columnist on the Sunday Times of Lagos, then the largest newspaper in Nigeria. His colleagues and friends in the Daily Times Group included Chief Segun Osoba, Tony Mommoh, Tunji Oseni, Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, Tola Adeniyi, Ray Ekpu, Dele Giwa and other legendary Nigerian journalists. His column was called “Letter from America”, or “Inside America – by Eddy Omotoso”.
Later, he was a columnist of the Daily Sketch and Sunday Sketch (now defunct), owned by the Governments of the five Western regional States of Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo and Ogun. That column was called “Eddy Omotoso at Large”.
At the Sketch newspapers, he worked with his friends Peter Ajayi and Felix Adenaike, Dayo Duyile, with whom he earlier worked as cub reporters (and he as a Sub-Editor)) in the Nigerian Tribune. He also wrote several columns for the Leadership newspaper of Abuja.
The installation is slated to be part of the activities scheduled for the week-long forthcoming Esa-Oke Day celebrations.
Dr Omotoso is the first personality to be conferred with the high chieftaincy title of Balogun after the former Governor of the old Western Region, General Robert Adeyinka Adebayo.
Biography
Eddy Omotoso was born in Esa Oke, into the large and famous Looyin/Saode/Omotoso family of Oke Esa Quarters. He retired as Director, UN Resident Co-ordinator and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in some African countries, a position described by the UN Secretary-General as “one of the highest honours that the United Nations can bestow upon an individual. He was Secretary of the Ministerial level UN World Food Council, in Rome, Italy, for four years. He served as Secretary or Executive Secretary, managing several major UN Conferences and gatherings around the world, including Commissions, Committees and other international bodies of the UN General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York, Geneva, Rome, Vienna, Nairobi, Manila, Philippines, Mexico City, Bucharest, Rumania and other locations in Europe, Asia, Africa and South and North America. He was the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Plenipotentiary Conference which created the billion-dollar International Fund for Agricultural Fund (IFAD), He signed the Legal Instrument creating IFAD on behalf of the UN Secretary-General.
His autobiographical book, entitled: “A Life Around the World: Surprise International Career Leads to Global odyssey”, was published in the United States in 2008.
On special leave from the UN, he worked for five years as a senior official at the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna, including as Head of the Organization’s Communications and External Relations Office. He often served as Officer-in-Charge of the whole of OPEC secretariat.
After retiring from the UN, he was a Board Member, and then President, of the Association of Former International Civil Servants (of the UN system) in New York (AFICS/NY), from 2008 to 2010. As an Emeritus President, he is now a life Honorary Member of the Association’s Governing Board. He has also served as a Member of the Governing Board of his alma mater, the Harvard Kennedy School’s New York Alumni Association, covering HKS alumni in the States of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut
He was educated at the United Missionary School, Esa Oke; Ebenezer African Church School, Ibadan; Ilesa Grammar School; the London School of Economics and Political science (LSE), University of London; the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University, New York City; and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
He is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of ESA-OKE TODAY magazine, which he founded in collaboration with his childhood friend, the late Chief Olaniyi Faseyi, JP. His Edward Omotoso Foundation, which, over the years, has awarded scholarships and bursaries to Esa-Oke indigene students in Universities and other institutions of higher learning in Nigeria, and has given grants to empower Market Women in Esa Oke, now collaborates with the ESA-Oke Central Union for the economic progress of the town. An online edition of ESA-OKE TODAY has now been launched.