By Lanre Ogundipe
Now that the push has come to shove – the elders – Igbimo Agba Ile Yoruba – would you continue in your comfort and allow what your forebears bequeathed on the Yoruba race to be denigrated and destroyed? Is it not the elders who say: a strong and peaceful extended family house is one in which the illegitimate children are still young. It is now evident that such illegitimate offsprings have matured and are now on stage to wreck havoc on our cherished traditions and customs buoyed by a warped mentality and exaggerated importance of who they are.
Oyo State, unfortunately, hosted this show of shame where Yorubas’ valued traditions were disparaged – it’s disgusting seeing our crown heads subjected to public ridicule. Royalty stripped with thumb and chest trumping. Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, is now toeing a dangerous path and Olusegun Obasanjo has thrown his weight behind this regretable venture.
The incident which took place in Iseyin on Friday between Obasanjo and Obas in Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State wouldn’t have happened if the Alaafin, Iku baba yeye, were to be alive. That unruly scumbag, would take the royal-heads to the cleaners publicly and order them to stand and sit – like kindergarten school children.
Our history has never ever recorded such an odious and detestable act! I am sure there would have been a repeat of history of what befell ‘Arobafin.’
The storylines would have been different, and it would have signal to the fact that the mythical powers that the Yoruba Obas commands cannot be rubbished by a mere mortal. The ‘arobafin’ would have been ‘baptised’ with the barking syndrome of the episode of the early 1950s, when an affront was aimed at the royalty of an Oba. The latter barked till he died – o gbo ku ni bi aja.
Obasanjo would have met his match if our royal crown-heads had not dipped their hands into sacrilegious and perfidious acts that have now stripped them of the royalty powers of the ancient times… – “eni ba f’oju d’oba, awowo a wo. Bi igba Obasanjo ba f’oju di Oba awowo a wo. Eni o ba f’oju ana w’oku; ebora a si gba aso l’ara eni o hun!”
Can ‘Arobafin’ Olusegun Obasanjo try this with the Oba of Benin and Olu of Warri? I knew he dares not with the Emirs – the North never played nor joked with its traditional institutions. Suppose any of the Obas present at the occasion refused to dignify his order, what would have happened? The worst would have been that OBJ would have resorted to hide under Seyi Makinde’s executive powers to harass, intimidate and embrass the spineless group with their flowing agbadas.
From sources, Obasanjo latched on the invites extended to him to vent his spleen on the Obas, because few of the Obas had crossed his path. Knowing Obasanjo for his pettiness and non-forgiving spirit, he was battle ready to vent on them, what he would call ‘hit-me-I hit -you.”
The outburst was a deliberate one, and not accidental, as people assumed. It was a deliberate ploy to ridicule the traditional rulers.
One feels Obasanjo should have been more circumspect in his approach. The childish act ought not to have been directed at the entire Obas. The words on marble with Yoruba says, ‘Kannakanna ti na omo ega, ija mbo, ija o de…’
Meanwhile, shall we not give kudos to Obasanjo’s native juju person – the ‘adahunse’ practitioners from Ota – who gave him a fresh and potent ‘olugb’ohun’ to use. I’m sure his charm has tested positive. He may not be that lucky next time…let him who has ears listen!
•Ogundipe is a former President of the National Union of Journalists, NUJ.
