The Nation Newspaper

Category: Emmanuel Oladesu

  • Rivers: What next after emergency period?

    Rivers: What next after emergency period?

    Like a flash of lightning, six months have passed since Sir Siminalayi Fubara temporarily lost his job as governor of Rivers State. Like a chicken beaten by the rain, he is now sober as he regained the seat two days ago, following the expiration of the emergency period.

    Members of the House of Assembly, led by authentic Speaker Martins Amaewhule, who suffered a collateral damage during the constitutional sanction, also returned to the legislative chambers with an eagerness to start legislation and oversight duties.

    The lawmakers have unveiled plans to review the “emergency rule budget” that guided the interim leadership. They are also likely to beam the searchlight on the alleged frivolous spending of N5 billion monthly before the declaration of emergency rule.

    But the lawmakers are now more likely to be conciliatory in an atmosphere of cooperative separation of powers and accompanying checks and balances, if the governor improves on the reconciliation or dialogue with them.

    In his absence, the state was kept afloat by a caretaker, Air Vice Marshall Ibok-Ete Ibas, an unelected person who managed to restore tranquility where the governor had failed woefully. This puts a question mark on politicians’ ability to manage a crisis before it gets out of hands. This is because democracy is also about problem-solving by an elected representative.

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    Also, the structure of the state, particularly at the grassroots, has changed dramatically. At the local government, Fubara has to reconcile himself with the inevitability of working with newly elected chairmen and councillors who were not created in his image but in the likeness of his estranged power-loaded benefactor, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike.

    Details of the underground reconciliation between the previously combative governor and the determined lawmakers, who enjoyed and still enjoy the backing of the godfather, are unknown.

    But it is expected that the state will not remain the same again. By now, the right lessons should have been learnt by the parties in the protracted political dispute. The lifting of the emergency is not the end of the matter. The nation looks forward to a cordial relationship between the Executive and Legislative arms. It is critical to the consolidation of peace and recovery of the lost grounds.

    On March 18, the President warned that the emergency period could be extended, if reason did not prevail and the combatants decided to further plunge the state into violence.

    The proclamation of the emergency rule became inevitable, following what that the President described as “a total paralysis of governance” in the state, which aptly manifested in the prolonged face-off between Fubara and the House of Assembly. The three-member House of Assembly presided over by an impostor masquerading as Speaker became a national embarrassment. Much havoc was wrecked when the fake Speaker, Victor Oko-Jumbo, presided over the screening of some elements who were erroneously sworn in as commissioners and special advisers.

    The protracted rift stalled the passage of budgets. Of course, the Assembly was in flames; crippled, desolate, helpless, and impotent. Protests became violent and properties were serially destroyed. The President described Fubara as the aggressor and autocratic leader who stood on the way of democracy by trying to prevent the parliament from performing its constitutional roles.

    The obvious collapse of governance prompted the Supreme Court to rule that there was effectively “no government” in Rivers at the time. Instead of closing ranks, some Rivers elders took sides in the clearly divisive issue, making outsiders to doubt their capacity for peace-building and gerontocratic monitoring.

    As the jungle was about to mature in Rivers, Nigeria and its constitution, ably deployed by a thinking President, averted the disaster. History will record that although Fubara was elected for four years, he could only effectively spend three and a half years in office. His place at the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and the Council of State was vacant for six months due to his inability to manage the power the electorate gave him on behalf of the state.

    For the first time in two years, peace reigned in the Southsouth state as the emergency period doused tension, the vituperation of anti-emergency rule campaigners in the media and other negligible litigants, notwithstanding.

    Administrator Ibas, who was recalled from his blissful retirement to restore order into the troubled state, was focused, firm, and goal-oriented, despite the empty threats and distractions by some aggrieved stakeholders.

    The emergency rule, having been ratified by the National Assembly, Ibas governed the state by federal parliamentary backing in accordance with the emergency regulations. It was, nevertheless, an emergency rule with a human face; no restriction order on any of the warring actors, no probe of the Fubara administration by any commission of enquiry and there was no witch-hunting of any kind, unlike what happened under the revious dispensations that introduced the same measure to avert anarchy.

    Reflecting on the period, President Tinubu noted that the positive signals made it unnecessary to extend the emergency rule beyond its initial six-month duration.

    For the period, Rivers was off the democratic radar. Popular rule was put on hold, but other forms of freedom were not tampered with. Gladiators were denied a battle ground. Bands of hired thugs and miscreants spoiling for proxy wars were automatically disbanded. Mass processions became ineffective and rival supporters of leading actors locked in the curious war of attrition were dispersed. The ordinary man on the street heaved a sigh of relief.

    Many observers believe that the emergency rule was a blessing in disguise for Rivers, and in particular its elected chief executive, who escaped the hammer of angry lawmakers plotting his impeachment.

    Unknown to Fubara, he was the man on the defensive, from the beginning of the logjam. His tenure was full of tension, and he would have been consumed by the fire, especially when the lawmakers unconditionally insisted on a pound of flesh.

    Had the governor fully embraced the peace deal brokered by President Tinubu, the calamity would have been averted. It involved making sacrifices, giving concessions and self-abnegation which only a statesman can attempt. Fubara dismissed the pact, saying it was mere advisory. A big opportunity for concessions, consensus, and ‘win-win’ was bungled without sparing a thought for the consequences. The pact collapsed and the combatants intensified the onslaught in a manner akin to mutually assured destruction.

    Wike was labelled as an over-bearing godfather always eager to impose his wishes on the governor. Some critics chided him for undue interference or meddlesomeness in Rivers affairs, in spite of his busy schedule as Abuja minister. Others alleged that he instigated the crisis, using the lawmakers as fronts.

    The minister’s argument was that the governor had deviated from the plan of the party that conferred on him the rare privilege. Wike explained that since he rode on a formidable structure to power, the structure should not be desecrated but strengthened in a manner that befitted a ruling party. In his view, Fubara was courting those who opposed his aspiration to the detriment of party members who laboured to put him in office. He frowned at the governor’s penchant for allocating positions and privileges to those who worked against his victory while neglecting members of the dominant camp who weathered the electoral storm with him during the 2023 polls.

    Fubara’s reliance on Oko-Jumbo’s three-member House of Assembly stood logic on its head.

    The illegal House of Assembly screened the commissioner-nominees and passed the 2024 and 2025 budgets. Illegal council polls were conducted and violence engulfed the state.

     Although the governor claimed that the 27 members, led by Amaewhule, had defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the court disagreed.

    The court also declared that Rivers had no budget and those in the illegal state executive council were carrying out the duties of commissioners and special advisers in error.

    At that stage, the handwriting was boldly on the wall. Yet, it was ignored. But the end of impunity was near.

    Fubara could be said to have seen the lightning. The thunder that followed evoked fear and produced a shock wave. It could also be a warning. So also was the avoidable mistake that heralded the loss of political control. To men of wisdom, such a folly should never be repeated.

    The lessons of the entire saga are very instructive. The imbroglio in Rivers boils down to two issues. The first is the peculiar predecessor-successor crisis due to wrong calculation or a faulty succession plan. The second is the violation of the constitution and the rule of law in the governor’s  bid to consolidate his hold on power.

    Now is the time for the warriors on both sides to sheathe their swords in the interest of the state. The governor, despite wielding executive power, should appreciate some limitations to his powers. The delicate parliamentary/executive balance is a major test for the actors on both sides.

    Dialogue, which was once rejected, is still the way forward. In democracy, it should be continuous. There is a need for him to reconcile with the lawmakers who will screen his commissioner-nominees. Fubara would need an experienced and competent parliamentary liaison officer or adviser who is versed in the intricacies of executive/legislative relationship in a presidential system. He would also need a good legal adviser who should always interpret the law correctly so that he would not be misled. The advisers should not be partisan elders who can lead him astray because they have scores to settle with Fubara’s predecessor.

    Some aspects of the discarded pact that are still relevant to the search for amity should be sincerely implemented.

    There should no room for vendetta by either the executive or the legislature. Vengeance would lead to renewed discord and escalation of repressed tension.

  • Towards a peaceful Ekiti APC primary (1)

    Towards a peaceful Ekiti APC primary (1)

    Nigeria’s Fountain of Knowledge, Ekiti State, is on the cusp of making a peculiar political statement. Whichever way the governorship primary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ends, Ekiti is set to tell the world something worth paying attention to.

    If the incumbent wins the contest, he would have broken a jinx that erected a barrier on the path of his predecessors from securing two straight terms. But if he loses the primary, it would be a foregone conclusion that the state is haunted by a second-term spook. 

    So far, there is nothing to show that victory would elude the incumbent.

    As preparations for the primary intensify, there is no doubt that the wheat will be separated from the chaff, ultimately. The main contender and the pretenders will be known on October 27.

     After the exercise, the losers, with bruised and deflated ego, would reconcile with the predictable winner. The lessons of the contest would be very instructive, although they may be lost on the gullible and those who draw the wool over their eyes.

    The primary is the first critical step in the ruling party’s push for continuity. The bigger game is next year’s poll, which will herald a similar contest in the neighbouring Osun State involving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and APC.

    These elections would lay the foundation for the 2027 general election, which is nearer than imagined. Thus, the governorship polls may have a predictive value.

    Morning shows the day. While other contestants appear to be spoiling for war in a no-war zone, engaging in character assassination and indulging in curious revisionism in the Ekiti APC, the expected winner has remained focused. He is consolidating his hold on the party as he looks forward to the contest with confident hope and optimism.

    There are, understandably, few deserters from the vehicle to the primary. But that partisan behaviour is not really a foul play. The transient shift in loyalty may be a normal element of intra-party contest that does not totally pale into anti-party activity.

    What is striking in Ekiti APC is that a few alarmists are creating the impression of a looming stiff contest. Although the chapter is not threatened by external forces – the PDP, the relic of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and the split PDP masquerading as the African Democratic Congress (ADC) – it may be battling with some negligible internal contradictions.

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    After the statewide endorsement for Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO), the coast was clear that a vacancy does not exist for now at the Government House in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital. But a tiny fraction of those who initially were part of the endorsement are exercising their constitutional right to look for temporary trading opportunities with other contenders ahead of the primary.

    Politics is in the air in the rustic, far-flung hilly state. Eyes are on a sub-regional unit where principled actors are wrongly labelled by outsiders as stubborn folks. Everybody’s attention is on the imminent battle. There are permutations, series of cajoling, rumour mongering and propaganda by hired consultants and spin doctors.

    Gladiators have returned to the drawing board to perfect strategies for intrigues. Social media warriors are locked in reputational damage. There are accusations and counter-accusations by antagonistic supporters and followers.

    Lightweights are showing nude bravado, building castles in the air. It is one of the wonders of the game that the weak is trying to bully the strong while simultaneously resorting to direct blackmail, with their ‘disarticulated’ followers crying foul where there is none.

    Facts are also deliberately distorted. Some storytellers are trying to rewrite the history of Ekiti State’s creation. It smacks of jealousy. As they try to dismiss the governor’s involvement in the historic agitation as scanty or negligible, observers find fault with their claim. The questions are: where were these opponents during the popular clamour for state creation? What was the contribution of these adversaries? Are they entitled to any footnote when the history of state creation is fully written?

    To those who keep records, these scenarios are not new. Politics is about competition and antagonism. In some quarters, the elements of ‘do-or-die’ cannot be totally ruled out by bitter actors. The point of departure is that that unruly partisan behaviour connotes political immaturity.

    But should the sordid past be re-enacted?

    The Ondo-Ekiti axis was usually enveloped in tension during governorship primaries in the progressive bloc. The only exception was the 1979 primary of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) involving Chief Adekunle Ajasin, Senator Ayo Fasanmi, and Rev. Iluyomade, a former Principal of International School at the University of Ibadan (UI).

    The primary of 1982 contested by Ajasin, Chief Akin Omoboriowo, and Senator Banji Akintoye divided the progressive camp. But those who defected from the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) to the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) never recovered from the public opprobrium that followed their action.

    In the Third Republic, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) primary was fiercely contested among aspirants of Ekiti origin – Evangelist Bamidele Olumilua, Dr. Kunle Olajide, Prof. David Oke (Pick a Gem), Akinyemi, and Prof. Opeyemi Ola – after the ticket was zoned to Ekiti. Ajasin gave instructions from his Owo bedroom that delegates should vote for Olumilua, who won.

    In 1999, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) primary between Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Chief S. K. Kolawole was moderated by Lagos-based Afenifere leaders of Ogun State origin. It generated bitterness. Babalola, an Awoist, surprisingly left for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He never returned to his natural political habitat.

    In 2007, Ekiti AD/Action Congress (AC) was in turmoil after Dr. Kayode Fayemi won the ticket. Other aspirants – Prince Dayo Adeyeye, Ayo Arise, and Joseph Odetola – hurriedly defected to the PDP. The governorship poll that followed was chaotic. The result was disputed. For the next three years, peace took a flight from the state.

    Also, anxiety enveloped Ekiti APC during the 2017 primary. No fewer than 30 chieftains showed interest. On the eve of the primary, there was commotion. The national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, who was taken aback by the rancorous atmosphere, wondered why the National Leader could not rein in his ‘boys’ in Ekiti. It took the wisdom of party elders to restore order in a state of pandemonium.

    However, three years ago, there was a semblance of orderliness. The handwriting on the wall was clear to featherweights who initially threw their hats in the ring. The party was in one accord when BAO got the ticket and won the poll.

    In all these shadow polls, a key element of success was the structure of the aspirant. This factor, among others, will shape the anticipated exercise, which may be through a direct or indirect method, since the consensus option has been ruled out.

    Other associated issues, which also have a linkage with the structure of the contenders, are personal and political networks, relationship with the party, service to the political family, experience, record of performance in public service, and financial war chest.

    Others are: the incumbency factor, support of the four predecessors, public perception, and the guided position of the delegates.

    All these factors, without mincing words, comparatively favour Oyebanji more than his rivals. If other aspirants challenge the governor to a debate, he would be rated above them in terms of public service experience, knowledge of the state, and a good understanding of its multiple problems.

    While the governor is in a vantage position to tender his scorecard, his rivals would have nothing comparable to show.

    Contestants Kayode Ojo and Abimbola Olajumoke have attained good heights in their chosen professions. As Nigerians, and indeed, indigenes of Ekiti, they have the inalienable right to seek the ticket. But the political gap between the governor and the two contenders is wide. Many party stalwarts perceive them as starters who would be making promises to Ekiti on what they intend to do, unlike the governor, who has applied for mandate renewal based on what he has accomplished, and what more he is still doing as an incumbent.

    The Ekiti APC is the dominant structure that is critical to the primary. It would not be strange if over 80 per cent of the membership queues behind BAO if the exercise is based on the delegate system.

    Oyebanji has been an important and faithful member of the family from the inception of the Fourth Republic and throughout his political career as a Personal Assistant, Chief of Staff, Commissioner, Director-General, Secretary to the State Government, governor and state party leader.

    Undiluted loyalty is key to the structure. In times of storm, stress and tension, members of the structure have often elevated group interest over personal agenda. BAO is a product of the time-tested tradition.

    Loyal stalwarts have always embraced intra-party crisis-resolution mechanisms in the chapter. These committed and dedicated chieftains are poles apart from political neonates who opted to take the party to court to ventilate grievances before and after elections.

    The party knows BAO, who also knows the party leaders across the wards, local governments, constituencies, and districts, unlike his challengers, who have to be newly introduced to critical stakeholders in many local councils and at the state level.

    However, to avoid a post-primary crisis, the national leadership should endeavour to conduct a free and fair primary, leaving no room for any loophole that can be capitalised upon by the symbols of internal contradiction in the chapter.

  • Royal rivalry in Yorubaland (2)

    Royal rivalry in Yorubaland (2)

    Ahead of independence and after independence, many Yoruba sub-ethnic groups never perceived themselves as equals. The Egba, the Ijebu, and the Ibadan would refer to Ekiti, Akoko, Igbomina, and Ebolo as “ara ilu oke” (natives of yonder).

    Traders in the days of yore trying to cross Ijebuland to the Ejirin market and Lagos coast suffered in the hands of fellow Yoruba brothers who imposed levies on them. Proximity to the sea was a mark of class and distinction.

    Even, in a civilised era, lawyer and Agent-General Apena Toye Coker sighted Regional Minister Chief Oduola Osuntokun and exclaimed derisively: ‘Ekiti Kete.’ Osuntokun, a very educated and intelligent Ekiti man, rejected the label of group inferiority and protested instantly. Sensing the brewing trouble, Premier Obafemi Awolowo cleverly introduced a new topic to divert their attention and restore peace.

    Many Yoruba traditional rulers were divided by political leanings in those days of hot politics. After the split in the Action Group (AG) in 1962, monarchs who supported Awolowo, Leader of Federal Opposition, became the foes of their brother obas who gravitated towards Chief Ladoke Akintola, Premier of Western Region.

    In ancient towns, there are unresolved age-long suspicion and repressed tension over the inexplicable and unfading dichotomy between townspeople who perceived themselves as aborigines and others who were classified as settlers. According to observers, that rivalry shaped the relationship between Oba Adeyemi 111 and the late Ashipa of Oyo, Chief Amuda Olorunkosebi.

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    Up to now, the descendants of founder of Ago Oja are unrelented in their agitation for a crown, even if is a lesser one, as a tribute to the pathfinding and pacific exploits of their forefathers.

    In the eighties and nineties, there was commotion in the Oyo State Council of Obas. The Alaafin rejected the permanent chairmanship position allotted to the Ooni. When Osun State was created, the Owa also raised the same complaint. In Oyo State, the Olubadan said the Alaafin cannot be the permanent chairman of the Council of Obas. The monarchs wanted rotational chairmanship, which the Alaafin rejected in Oyo and the Ooni rejected in Osun.

    Now, long standing politician, former governor and Olubadan-designate, Oba Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, has jocularly sent a notice that on rotational chairmanship he stands, and that since the matter is within the purview of the Oyo State House of Assembly, people should know that the highly populous Ibadan, with 16 of 32 members, and in a situation where the Speaker would not vote, would always have an edge in any contest.

    But in the pre-colonial and colonial days, Alaafin usually sent his choice ‘Ilari’ to place ‘ewe akoko’ on the head of Ibadan ruler, signalling his installation either as Balogun, Basorun, Aare or Baale. In the 20s, an Alaafin even deposed Baale Shitu (Omo Aare) of Ibadan. A high chief of Ibadan, Adebisi Idikan, had to beg an Alaafin for his life with lots of money and gifts for appearing in a more expensive costume during the unveiling of Mapo Hall in Ibadan where the Alaafin was guest of honour. The rich businessman was accused of stealing the show during the ceremony.

    In Osun, caution was thrown to the wind when the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba AbdulRasheed Akanbi, Telu, allegedly beat up another traditional ruler, the Agbowu of Ogbagba, Oba Dhikrulahi Akinropo, claiming that he had interrupted him during his speech at a meeting by calling him a madman.

    In many communities, many obas also oppressed their chiefs by treating them as  personal assistants. Protest, in many cases, led to suspension or dethronment.

    Eminent Yoruba leaders should not take sides in the Ooni/Alaafin feud. They should appeal to the two influential rulers to bury their hatchet and allow the sleeping dog to lie. The two foremost obas should cooperate. Today, the Ooni is establishing industries all over Yoruba land and creating jobs for youths. The Alaafin should complement this effort. The two royal fathers should be concerned about the plight of the Yoruba in Kwara and Kogi states, who are politically marginalised. They should be concerned about the Yoruba language that is going into extinction. What should bother them is the collapse of moral values among the young population.

    The Yoruba race needs to embrace the reality that it has two towering monarchs with antagonistic claims of supremacy. It is not illogical that both are usually right when they tender their facts, which nobody can contradict. In short, the Yoruba race has two fathers – the Ooni and the Alaafin.

    There should be a proposal along the line of a symbolic collegiate monarchial order in Yoruba land. This should be organised in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

    The historical records show that the Alaafin was acknowledged as the King – political and administrative head – of the Yoruba by the colonial authorities, being the head of the Oyo Empire. The British Government signed the treaty with him. While inviting the British to assist him in ending the 16-year-long Kiriji War, Alaafin Adeyemi 1 said the Yoruba race was a gift to his forefathers from God.

    The Alaafin installs the Aare Ona Kankanfo of Yoruba land, the Iyalode of Yoruba land, and even the Mayegun of Yoruba land, and there is no controversy or dispute. The Alaafin keeps a deep memory of the ancient Oyo Empire of his illustrious forebears. That kingdom no longer exists. But the past cannot be obliterated.

    The Ooni installs the Odole of Ife, or the Odole of the Source; the Yeyeoba of Ife, or the Yeye Oodua. But when the late Alayeluwa Okunade Sijuwade wanted to install Chief Tom Ikimi as the Akinrogun of Yoruba land, the late Alaafin Lamidi Adeyemi III objected and his complaint was upheld by the government. He said the Ooni could only install an Akinrogun of Ife. He delved into history, emerging with the evidence of how the title of Akinrogun can only be conferred on an Egba man.

    Yet, the Ooni also elicits awe, reverence, honour, and admiration of all and sundry as the custodian of Ile Ife, the “Orirun.” He is recognised and respected as the father and head of the ancient town and giver of crowns to Yoruba obas.

     When Owoni Adenekan Olubuse was invited to Lagos by the British to shed light on some knotty problems of crown and land ownership in the Ijebu axis, the Yoruba nation knew that he took up the assignment on behalf of the race. As Owoni Olubuse left his palace, all Yoruba obas, including the Alaafin, left their palaces and resided in their “ehin odi” as a mark of respect, until he returned to Ile-Ife, the cradle. That was in 1901. The venerable Obanikoro of Lagos, High Chief Ajayi Bembe, was the interpreter between the Colonial Governor William MacGregor and the Owoni.

    In fact, the British Government bore the expenses of the unusual journey from Ife to Lagos. Goats were slaughtered as sacrifice whenever Ooni was about to cross any river.

    All the foremost Yoruba rulers, including the Alaafin, trace their backgrounds and crowns to Ife. An account even said that Oranmiyan, the grandson of Oduduwa, founder of Oyo Kingdom and progenitor of the Obas of Benin, was buried at Ife. Up to now, there is “Opa Oranmiyan” at Ife. In fact, Ooni presided over the rotational meetings of Yoruba Obas from 1934.

    It is to the credit of Ooni Sijuwade and Eleko of Lagos Oba Adeyinka Oyekan that some high chiefs and baales were elevated to obaship in sensitivity to the fact that the clamour for autonomy, as it were, and the preservation of identity are the anthems of the millennium.

    It is only in Yorubaland that the royal rivalry is serious, protracted and destabilising. Some scholars have even attributed the division among Yoruba to the curse that oozed out of the mouth of Alaafin Aole during the dispute between him and the legendary Aare Ona Kankanfo Afonja of Ilorin.

    Other ethnic groups tend to manage the clevages better. In the North – the Muslim North – the Sultan of Sokoto, who calls the shots from the Caliphate, is the undisputed Number One. He is the Commander of the Faithful. His deputy is Elkanemi, the Shehu of Borno. Other revered monarchs, nevertheless, have their local sphere of influence in the vast North. The Ohinoyi (or Attah) is the overall ruler of Ebira land, comprising five local governments in Kogi State. The Tor Tiv is the leader of the Tiv nation, the dominant ethnic group in Benue State. Attah is the ruler of Igala nation. The Lamido reigns supreme in Adamawa. Etsu Nupe is the paramount ruler of Nupe Kingdom.

    In the Southsouth, The Olu, whose kingdom has links with Yorubaland, is the ruler of Itsekiti and Warri. The Obong of Calabar is the king in his town and its environs. Opobo is ruled by the Amanyanabo. The Igbo society is presumed kingless; only warrant chiefs subsist in the area. The community elders are in charge. This age-long system works for their society.

    The Yoruba need to agree that they have two fathers who are from the same source, Oduduwa. The two have incontrovertible claims. There is no need for rivalry. The two royal fathers, and indeed, all royal fathers in the country, should also constantly acknowledge the restrictions on their influence by the ‘republican order.’

    The people of Yoruba land should maintain an abiding fidelity to tradition, history, and precedence in an atmosphere of mutual respect and brotherhood. If there are other grey areas that fuel conflicts, eminent Yoruba leaders should reconcile the two topmost monarchs. Miscreants in the social media should pull the break and halt indecent postings and portrayals. Yoruba deserve its peace.

    So, between the Ooni and the Alaafin, who is superior? More questions, elusive answers.

    The questions may not be necessary after all.

  • Royal rivalry in Yoruba land (1)

    Royal rivalry in Yoruba land (1)

    The rivalry between Oonirisa Adimula of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, and the Alaafin of Oyo, Iku Baba Yeye, Oba Akeem Owoade, Elewu-Etu, has polarised the Yoruba land.

    Many sons and daughters of Kaaro Oojiire have become self-acclaimed professional historians, taking sides in a clearly divisive issue, apportioning blames and dragging the institution of kingship in the mud.

    The supporters of the Alaafin are upholding his claim to the overlord of Yoruba land, based on the reality of the ancient Oyo Empire, where his illustrious forebears were undisputed Suzerain. Therefore, they fire salvos at the Ooni for overstepping his bounds by allegedly conferring an honorary chieftaincy title of ‘Okanlomo of Yoruba land’ on the Ibadan rich man, Chief Jubril Sanusi ‘Ilaji.’

    Derisively, some of them invented their own version of history, describing Oonirisa as a mere ‘Arole,’ ‘acting father,’ and keeper or custodian of deities in Ile-Ife, the cradle of the Yoruba race.

    The supporters of the highly revered Ooni are offended by what they see as demeaning remarks from the Oyo axis. To them, the Ooni is the number one ruler, the undisputed head of the household of Oduduwa, the progenitor of the entire race. Also, they point out that Oduduwa was the father of Okanbi, who gave birth to Oranmiyan, the founder of Oyo.

    Mercifully, despite the contrasting claims, the supporters of the two royal fathers agree that Ife is home.

    Not even the clarification that Sanusi was conferred with ‘Okanlomo Oodua’ or Okanlomo of Ife or Okanlomo of the Source has doused the controversy and tension. They are angling for a definite pronouncement on who between the two monarchs is superior.

    The result is that Yoruba land is taken back to the pre-colonial epoch; the primitive days of cruelty, adversaries, adversity, and enmity.

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    Back then, the Yoruba land was in turmoil. Wars and rumours of wars characterised daily life. Kith and kin were callously sold into slavery. Human sacrifices, which are an eyesore in contemporary times, were part of a cherished tradition.

    The historical accounts are awful. In some ancient communities, child immolation was a critical element of the burial for a chief or warrior. An aged traditional ruler would die peacefully, and those who should survive him were buried with him. They were described as messengers mandated to announce his passage to those who had gone before him. When Alaafin Atiba tried to put a stop to it, Aare Ona Kankanfo Kurunmi of Ijaye resisted. It led to a war that ended the life of the Generalissimo and his sons.

    It was a barbaric life. Stronger communities led by war-mongering chiefs were terrors to weak neighbours who became victims of unprovoked attacks. Their farm produce was hijacked. They were deprived of the fruits of their labour. Their young ladies were forcefully captured and married away in captivity.

    Seizing caravans was a threat to peaceful trading. Illegitimate tolls were erected by traditional rulers, and travellers were deprived of their cowries, the old legal tender, goods and other possessions.

    Powerful Yoruba towns colonised their vassal villages and sent ‘Ajele’ (Resident), who became troublers of the hinterlands and thorns in the flesh of natives. They demanded ‘isakole’ and other burdensome levies that must be paid to the paramount rulers. Resistance was met with brutality, killings, imprisonment, and banishment into exile.

    Boundary disputes were common. They were only resolved after a bloodshed. Usually, it was the triumph of might over right. It was one way of showing supremacy in kingdoms and chiefdoms in inter-tribal relationships. These acrimonies dragged on till modern times when monarchs like the Deji of Akure and the Owa of Idanre agreed that the court should be the arbiter on land disputes.

    Many monarchs were locked in protracted feuds, conspiracies, competition, hate, and other petty matters, which were mostly settled on the battlefields. A traditional ruler invited his colleague to an annual festival. His chiefs insisted that the visitor or guest should die. His offence was that he stormed the town in a dress that was adjudged superior to that of the host.

    The people of Benin, whose rulers are Yoruba, in their quest for territorial expansion, travelled miles to conquer Lagos and set up a monarchy.

    In Lagos, a chief dug up the corpse of the mother of a rival and dispersed it into the lagoon. When the superior rival regained the throne, he bundled the chief in a drum, sealed it, and threw it into the lagoon in vengeance.

    The Ijebu and the Egba fought many needless wars that resulted in the death of numerous able-bodied men in those dark days.

    The Ijesa invaded Ekiti towns at will to foment trouble. In fact, an Owa once portrayed himself in an old almanac as a Lion, surrounded by Ekiti kings, who were depicted as sheep. The calendar drew fear into the rulers of the far-flung Ekiti, who declined fraternity with the potential oppressor.

    Ibadan loomed large over the rest of the Yoruba race, although its warriors also saved the race from the oppression of Fulani expansionists who planned to dip the Koran in the lagoon. The invaders were stopped at Osogbo by Balogun Oderinlo, whom Aare Ona Kankanfo Latosa sent to halt the external aggression.

    But Ibadan warriors, who were the armies of the Alaafin, head of the Oyo Empire, also terrorised many rulers in Yoruba land. They waged war against the Egba and the Ijebu. But they also waged war against their Oyo brethren. Thus, Oluyole oppressed the Prime Minister of Oyo, Gbenla, by hijacking his Basorun title. Latosa also hijacked the title of Aare Ona Kankanfo from Ojo Aburumaku of Ogbomoso.

    As the emergency overlord, Ibadan appointed Ayikiti as the Owoni of Ile-Ife. At a time, only the candidate approved by Ibadan could ascend the Owa stool among Ilesa princes.

    The foray of Ibadan forces into Ekiti was disastrous. Ekiti resisted, leading to the Kiriji war. For 16 years, the fire raged. However, despite the unity of the Ekiti Confederates, there was also a war at home. Ado-Ekiti and Ikere-Ekiti could not participate in the Ekiti Parapo expedition because they were fighting over the boundary.

    The greatest contribution of the British colonial masters was the abolition of wars and slavery, which served as a motivation.

    The war ended and the empire collapsed, but the acrimony and rivalry among the traditional rulers have persisted. Driven by economic interests, the British interlopers erected their indirect rule on ‘divide and rule.’

    Ogedengbe Agbogungboro returned from the war to embark on a rebellion against the Owa, until he was pacified with the title of Obanla. His compatriot, Prince Fabunmi, returned to Okemesi to start fighting the Oloja-Oke. A kingdom was arranged for him at Imesi-Ile so that peace could reign.

    In the later days of colonialism, Yoruba obas took their rivalries to their British conquerors. An Akarigbo of Remo, Oba William Adedoyin, once took his case against Awujale Gbelegbuwa Adesanya of Ijebu-Ode to the Privy Council for Remo to get freedom from Ijebu. The legendary Deji of Akure, Oba Afunbiowo, asked the colonial Resident to carve his territory out of Ekiti Pelupelu (Confederation) to avoid repeated insults from Alaaye Adeniran Kekereata of Efon-Alaaye. Ikorodu (Remo) and Epe (Ijebu) conflict raged over a boundary dispute, which the British later settled by force. For decades, the Olukare of Ikare and the Owa Ale never saw eye to eye. The feud between the Ogoga of Ikere and the Olukere lingers…….

  • ADC: Failure at first test

    Politics is a game of numbers and strategies. It works best when the players focus on doing good for all and not on a mission to hunt fellow players like games.

    For the now rebranded African Democratic Congress (ADC), the party’s leadership seems to focus mainly on how to shoot down the ruling party’s leading lights. Their antecedents, actions, and utterances show a lack of depth. The party’s outing in last week’s by-elections proved disastrous. Despite its effusive self-congratulations ahead of the polls, ADC could not fly.

    It has no identifiable programme. Its leadership has been grandstanding. Nigerians are not taking the political experimenters in the coalition very seriously. There is no impact yet. ADC is not new. What is striking is that it has been loaned to new investors who have acquired its liabilities. But the returns on the investment are not forthcoming.

    During the recent by-elections in two senatorial districts, seven federal constituencies, and eight state constituencies, the party lost its deposit, despite the bravado of its loquacious leaders.

    ADC was off the radar on poll day. The noise-making briefly subsided. Then, after the announcement of the election results, the party’s leaders cried foul. But its lamentation did not elicit any sympathy from observers.

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which they decimated through self-imposed ostracism, still exhibited some strengths. It won a critical federal seat in Oyo State, which it had lost in previous elections, thereby affirming the indisputable leadership and influence of the governor, Seyi Makinde.

    The PDP also came second across the board, which means that despite its weakness, its structures are not dead. They are only ailing, fragile, and fragmented.

    The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) of Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo tried to maintain dominance in its sphere of influence, unlike the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, which seemed to have lost its grip on some constituencies in Kano State. While APGA won the Anambra South senatorial seat, NNPP could not win the House of Assembly seats in its supposed stronghold. The party, in utter dejection, is threatening litigation.

    APGA recognises its limitations. It is not a national party. It is the legacy of the Great Ikemba Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu of Nnewi. Its ambition is limited to maintaining dominance in Anambra, and nothing more.

    Read Also: ADC coalition deceiving Nigerians, says Datti Ahmed

    The NNPP is a one-man party woven around the personality of the Kwankwasiya leader, who is really not looking for an ally, as long as the party remains in control of the poll-confident Kano.

    The crisis-ridden Labour Party (LP) of former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi and his adversary, Julius Abure, was nowhere to be found during the election. Its chances were sacrificed on the altar of internal division, protracted conflict, and glaring self-destruction, which no court judgment on the leadership tussle can avert.

    Why the coalition’s curators cannot spy on the APC blueprint and replicate its fusion strategies by bringing together PDP, LP, APGA, NNPP, and ADC to form a formidable mega party is confounding. The corollary of the situation is that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar lacks the semblance of political stamina and bridge-building acumen, sagacity, persuasive talent, and leader-servant virtues that have made Asiwaju a towering figure in the polity.

    ADC’s motive was the liquidation of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Its intention is to  displace the ruling party in the 2027 presidential poll, and with last week’s by-election as a dress rehearsal.

    But the ruling party never slept on guard. National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda led the inspiring campaigns. All APC governors supported the chapters involved in the by-elections. Nothing was left to chance.

    At the close of polls, the ruling party checkmated ADC’s planned incursion to the chagrin of the boasters. APC won the Edo Central senatorial seat vacated by warrior Governor Monday Okpebholo, and the Ovie Federal seat vacated by his deputy, Denis Idahosa. Overall, APC consolidated as the ruling party through its huge victories, sending signals about its capacity to repeat the feat in future contests.

    Predictably, it was wailing galore in ADC as its leaders regressed to defence mechanisms, attributing their failure to imaginary malpractices and other forms of inexplicable irregularities.

    Morning shows the day. The beginning, particularly a false start, can predict a future doom.

    A month after hijacking the ADC from its original members, the Atiku forces have not broken new grounds. Its membership drive has been hectic as split followers at PDP chapters in some states only reluctantly gravitate to the ADC. The few that left for ADC did so with  reservations.

    If ADC claimed to have an ideological background or leaning, it has either been damaged or polluted as there is no unifying idea other than fighting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu without tendering sound, objective, constructive, and reasonable alternative solutions to the socio-economic and political challenges. The motive of the prime mover is not nation-building or development. It is the desire to fulfill the ego of getting power and occupying the coveted seat by all means and at all costs.

    Neither has the ADC found internal peace since the invasion of the party by the new tenants. Apart from the cracks within, as exemplified by the bitter struggle between the divided old handlers and the newcomers, there is also a suspicion between the acclaimed intellectual wing responsible for the spade work and the ageing politicians itching to fulfill their long-standing presidential ambitions.

    A crisis is also brewing in the crawling party over the disagreement on zoning. The general feeling in the country is that the South deserves four more years after 2027. The puzzle, then, is: which bloc zone of the country should take the ADC presidential slot – North or South?

    Lacking the courage, foresight, strategy, and wherewithal to raise a new party or mobilise successfully for fusion or alliance of political parties, the only option left to the Atiku forces and their tiny club of collaborators was the adoption of ADC as a borrowed platform.

    Former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, a former Transportation Minister, was said to have unveiled himself as the visioner and missioner of the feeble opposition crusade in a video last week. He is indirectly throwing a challenge. The early disclosure may be a signal that an internal rift is imminent over the presidential ticket, which ADC chieftains from the South have the legitimate right to demand, based on the subsisting agitation for zoning.

    Unlike the open consultations among the like-minded legacy parties that formed the APC in 2014, the ADC coalition settled for the style of a secret cult. The party was not a product of group mobilisation but an alliance of aggrieved and disgruntled individuals in the PDP who were locked in the supremacy battle, and a few stalwarts of the APC who have an axe to grind with the President.

    The main grievance of the few APC collaborators was that they were not picked as ministers by the Commander-in-Chief.

    What have the ADC leaders done for Nigeria to make them think that Nigerians would see the party as a credible alternative? Were the ADC leaders not part of past PDP governments that were rejected by voters in 2015, 2019, and 2023, after 16 years of profligacy, ineptitude, and maladministration? Have they repented?

    With Atiku in ADC are politicians of his time: they may be finding it somehow difficult to penetrate the nooks and crannies of the vast country, apart from battling with fading influence at home. In the past, they were big names in the polity. Now, they cling on to an old reputation and the glory of their illustrious past.

    Senator David Mark, Army General, former military governor, ex-minister and Senate President for eight years, is from Benue State, which is now controlled by the APC. His disciple or mentee, Senator Abba Moro, who objected to the balkanisation of the PDP, has vowed not to jump ship along with his former leader.

    Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, eminent public servant and Third Republic governor of Edo State, is a former national chairman of the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP). He became APC National Chairman after the Tinubu/Akande/Osoba forces prevailed on the late Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, following a serious protest and resistance to his candidature. It is doubtful if he or his compatriot, Chief Tom Ikimi, can now be a factor in political mobilisation in Edo State and the Southsouth region, where ADC was routed by Okpebholo’s APC. It is the same awful picture in the Southwest, where the ADC Interim National Secretary, Rauf Aregbesola, is now complaining of being hunted.

    The only harm ADC has done is to further reduce the chance of the PDP at the polls, following the split.

    APC has not lost any members. It operates in an advantageous position. It has less headaches than the PDP and ADC.

    Serial defectors who left the PDP are now hibernating in ADC. After the 2027 poll, they are likely to retrace their steps to the PDP, as usual, and work out a reconciliation plan.

  • Ogun 2027, Yayi and zoning

    Ogun 2027, Yayi and zoning

    The zoning debate is on the front burner in 49-year-old Ogun State, where the struggle for the governorship ticket on the platforms of ruling and opposition parties has been intense since the Second Republic.

    Although zoning is not a constitutional matter, it is believed that the rotation of the governorship seat among the three senatorial districts would ensure equity, fairness, justice, and a sense of belonging. The convention in the Gateway State has often been discarded to the detriment of one district, which is now struggling to remove the yoke of oppression, marginalization, and inferiority.

    Unlike Ekiti, which is a one-zone state, Ogun comprises three zones – the Central, the East, and the West. The zones have their distinct identities, although the majority of the people generally belong to the Yoruba stock.

    In the East are the Ijebu and Remo, who speak almost the same dialect. This reality led the colonial masters to lump them into one province. But that action prompted Oba Christopher Adedoyin, Akarigbo of Remo land (Sagamu and its environs), to fight the identity battle, which he won at the Privy Council in London.

    Despite the age-long gulf, rivalry, and repressed tension, the Ijebu and the Remo have always achieved a workable consensus on politics.

    The Central is Egba land, the home of civilisation and organised pre-colonial order – a unique confederation of Ake, Owu, Ibara, Oke Ona and Gbagura – envied by the colonial interlopers. It is the most enlightened and united, as underscored by the dictum: “baawa,” which translates to “us” or “we”. The corollary is that the Egba, who have been united by their battles for survival and relevance since the days of Yoruba inter-tribal wars, never contradicted themselves. They have always got along on what unites them.

    The third, and the most problematic, is the West, referred to in those days as the Egbado but later christened Yewa, in rejection of the superiority complex of Egba and the old thinking that the whole territory – from Ilaro through Ado-Odo/Ota, Imeko Afon, Ipokia to Benin Republic border, was an addendum or extension of Egba land. That perception is demeaning.

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    The West is not wholly identical. In the zone are the Yoruba and their sub-national dialects of authentic Yewa, the Awori, and the Egun (also called Ogu or Ogun), who are not bound by deep cultural ties. That is why the harmonisation and coordination of interests are sometimes difficult. Even among the traditional rulers, unity is not total.

    The subjugation or exclusion of the zone is an understatement. Since the Second Republic, the district has not produced a governor. Only the role of a second fiddle or spare tyre is marginally conceded to them, with the disunited members of the political class there fighting for the crumbs.

    While the Ijebu Division had produced Governor Olabisi Onabanjo, the Egba Division produced Aremo Olusegun Osoba and Senator Ibikunle Amosun, and Remo Division produced Otunba Gbenga Daniel and Prince Dapo Abiodun, the Egbado Division has been left in the cold.

    In 1979, two Yewa politicians – Senator Jonathan Odebiyi and Dr. Tunji Otegbeye – were in the race along with Onabanjo from Ijebu and Soji Odunjo from Egba. Pleas to the Yewa aspirants to step down for each other fell on deaf ears.

    At the Electoral College for the primary, the Egba voted for Odunjo, giving all the 22 votes of their division to him, and 22 votes from Ijebu/Remo went to Onabanjo.

    However, the 10 votes by Egbado delegates were split into two. At that first round, they were wasted. A tie was recorded between Onabanjo and Odunjo, necessitating a second ballot. Egbado delegates gave their votes to Onabanjo, who won the poll. Although there was a gentleman’s agreement that the Ijebu would give their votes to the Egbado in the next governorship election in recognition of the good gestures, it never happened. Onabanjo consolidated his hold on the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) chapter and was re-elected.

    In the Third Republic, Osoba also defeated the eminent scholar, Prof. Afolabi Olabimtan, in the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) governorship primary.

    In 2011, the ambitions of Yewa candidates – Gen. Tunji Olurin of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), backed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and Gboyega Isiaka of the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), backed by Daniel – crumbled.

    Since then, major political parties have never looked in the direction of Ogun West, despite the persistent agitations for zoning.

    Ahead of 2027, zoning, if it were to be considered, favours Ogun West. But it should be noted that only in the All Progressives Congress (APC) is the sentiment gaining traction. It is not being discussed in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) circles in Ogun State.

    There is no shortage of qualified, competent and patriotic indigenes from the district to succeed Abiodun at the Oke Mosan State House in 2027. Four aspirants are already on the field, deepening consultations and mobilisation. As it is with politics, they are working at cross purposes.

    On the slippery political field are Abayomi Hunye, Special Adviser on Environment and Managing Director of Ogun State Waste Management Authority (OGWAWA); Isiaka, a member of the House of Representatives; and Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola.

    But the Egba are also ‘coveting’ the slot. It is being speculated that a former minister and diplomat, Sarafa Ishola, is warming up, like Senator Afolabi Salisu, who represents Ogun Central.

    In the PDP, the dominant aspirant is the serial contestant, Ladi Adebutu. More aspirants may still join the list in the two dominant parties.

    Evidently, the aspirants are prepared for the naira or dollar war that may characterise the nominations, which can either be through direct primary, indirect option, and consensus; the last method being very remote.

    The shadow poll, and even the main election, will not be a walkover for any aspirant or candidate. There are hurdles to cross. There are obstacles to overcome.

    Every governor prefers to install a successor. The Ogun governor could not be expected to be aloof or indifferent to the nature and tendency of his would-be successor. But historically, no Ogun governor has installed an anointed candidate. Onabanjo’s second term was brutally terminated by the military. Osoba was stopped after the first term when a political earthquake swept the Southwest in 2003. Daniel and Amosun could not install Isiaka and Akinlade, respectively.

    But zoning also is not sacrosanct, except for the party that insists on the convention. All the aspirants from the three districts have the constitutional right to contest. However, for 2027, it is more crucial and strategic for Ogun West to put its house in order by collectively adopting an acceptable aspirant or candidate and liaise with the two districts, instead of going into the primary together, with the peculiar prospects of defeat and failure.

    Also, overconfidence on the part of any contender could herald a fall or disappointment in succession politics.  Getting the ticket and winning the election would depend on the candidate’s personality, track record, networks, capacity for proper negotiation and consensus building,  mobilisation capability, persuasive talent, financial war chest, godfatherism, support from majority delegates, unforeseen circumstances, and the grace of God.

    Without dispute, in Ogun State of today, only God can predict tomorrow. All eyes are on the crowd puller, Adeola, popularly called Yayi (meaning: the vivacious), a symbol of his political brand, associated with positive attributes, including accessibility, generosity, hard work, and responsiveness to the needs of his constituents. The moniker is widely used for him in Lagos and Ogun states, and even beyond, as a term of endearment and a way to express support for his leadership.

    A former state lawmaker, House of Representatives member, and senator through the wishes of Lagos West and Ogun West, Yayi has successfully weathered the storm of derisive partisanship of being a Lagosian from Ogun State, a propaganda fueled by his adversaries. His closeness to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu makes his co-contestant livid with envy and jealousy. It should be noted that Asiwaju has apparently been grooming or nurturing his boy since he was in the Lagos State House of Assembly and found him to be consistently loyal, effective, patriotic, and effusively competent.

    Yayi, a household name, is a politician with a huge brain and capacity, a great mobiliser, a big spender, a philanthropist, and a progressive to the core.

    With his years of experience in progressive politics, he is good to go. Given his popularity in Ogun State and the strength of his party, especially, Yayi could have just a little partisan battle to fight and win on his way to Oke Mosan.  

    If the slot eludes Ogun West in 2027, the district would only become, politically speaking, a foot note in Ogun State.

  • The challenge of constitution review (2)

    The challenge of constitution review (2)

    THE 45-man Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, with the Deputy Senate President Barau Jubrin as Chairman and Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele Vice Chairman, has concluded the zonal public hearings across the six zones.

    Four issues elicited wide ranging interests – devolution of power, state creation, local government creation and state police.

    Other issues like inclusive reforms, institutional reforms, fundamental rights and objectives, system and structure of government, reforms of the judiciary, roles of the traditional institutions in government, reforms of the fiscal environment, and electoral reforms also came up.

    State creation has been a problematic issue, due to the constitutional stipulations that now serve as inevitable constraints. It was easy for the military regimes to embark on arbitrary and tyrannical exercise through decrees without considering the core federal principles that should guide their decisions.

    As centrists, states were never created by the military rulers to deepen federalism. For example, in 1967, state creation by the military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, was in response to the civil war. It was an attempt to quel the late Col. Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s rebellion and truncate his expansionist agenda. The exercise demarcated between Igbo, who were restricted to Southeastern State, and others ethnic groups who were lumped together in Eastcentral State and Rivers State.

    Also, in 1976, some aspects of the Irikefe Report on State Creation were ignored by Muritala/Obasanjo regime. For example, while some towns were proposed as state capitals, certain members of the Supreme Military Council (SMC) insisted that their home towns should be made capitals. Under subsequent military regimes, state creation was dictated, most times, by ethnic pulls, with state capitals as gifts to military cabals and their in-laws.

    Also, military governors as lesser lords of manor in states, assisted by privileged top civil servants, also created local governments, with attendant boundary disputes.

    Every geo-political region is agitating for states, but there are also regions spicing their agitations with inexplicable arguments that tend to demarket the claims of others.

    The factors of population, land spread and resources have to be considered along with historical issues and the quest for the redress of past and current injustice.

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    It was a contentious issue at the 2014 conference in Abuja. As Southeast delegates pressed for more states, Ahmadu Ali, former senator and minister, was taken aback that the Southwest kept quiet, or did not make enough noise. The argument was that the old Eastern Region, whose delegates were more vociferous, had more states than the Western Region.

    The old West has eight states – Lagos, Oyo, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Edo and Delta. However, nine states had been carved out of the old East, namely Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Imo, Ebonyi, Akwa Ibom, Cross Rivers, Rivers, and Bayelsa, which in population, is not up to the old Alimoso local government in Lagos State. This fact is cleverly covered or omitted by Southeast agitators for more states who continue to make cloudy and subjective references to a Southwest with six states and a Southeast with five.

    Senator Bamidele disclosed that the Senate Committee had received 31 proposals for the creation of additional states;  six from Northwest, eight from Northcentral, five from Southeast, six from Northeast, six from Southsouth and four from Southwest.

    In the Southwest, the people of Ijebu and Remo are asking for a state. Ibadan, made up of 11 local governments, wants a seperate state from Oyo. In Delta, there is clamour for Anioma State. In Ondo, there is agitation by Ilaje and Ikale for Coastal State. Igbomina people from Osun and Kwara want Igbomina State with the capital in Offa.

    Prominent stakeholders of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are also seeking recognition as a sub-national entity. In its present form, Abuja is more or less a state, except that it does not have a House of Assembly.

    The House of Representatives Committee even said 31 requests were made. All the agitations and demands are legitimate. They are driven by various factors. These include ethnic and geo-political considerations, perceived marginalization and unequal distribution of resources and opportunities.

    The process of creating new states in Nigeria is complex. It requires constitutional amendments and political consensus, which can hardly be arrived under a civilian administration.

    The creation of a new state in Nigeria requires a multi-stage process outlined in Section 8 of the Constitution. It is a tedious procedure. Apart from the support from the area seeking the state, a referendum is required. But the more difficult criterion is the approval by a majority of existing states. The final process is that the resolutions on state creation have to be passed by the chambers of the National Assembly.

    How to secure the two/third vote of the 36 states is challenging. It is big test for governors who control the Houses of Assembly and federal legislators whose positions may be shaped or dictated by ethnic bias, religious considerations and primodal sentiments.

    The Senate has received 18 requests for the creation of local government areas nationwide. This, without mincing words, cannot be a “federal or central matter,” but a matter for the respective states to handle. It is a defect of the so-called federal constitution that local governments are listed in the constitution. The practice of central control of the local government system is incompatible with federalism. Local government should be removed from the federal purview, and states should be allowed to create councils, based on agitations, feasibility, suitability and peculiar circumstances of the areas making the demands.

    There is a proposal for the establishment of state police, other state government security agencies, and the establishment of the  State Security Council to advise governors on matters relating to public security and safety. State police is not new. But, its establishment is dragging for too long. There is need for more commitment on the part of the government.

    The present centralised police structure did not evolve from the people, and communities see the policemen as strangers and oppressors who cannot serve their purpose adequately.

    Any amendment thar does not lead to devolution or decentralisation of power to the state and local government is a deservice to federalism and a waste of time. That is why the bill seeking to transfer  labour, industrial relations, industrial disputes  and minimum wage from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List in the Constitution is salutary.

    Remarkably, the railway has been decentralised. But states have not embraced the opportunities. Also, it is important that the proposed bill  to transfer the control of interstate waterways  from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List should see the light of the day because it would grant the federal and state governments the power  to legislate on matters relating to shipping and navigation on interstate waterways.

    What is required in a federal state is not uniformity but unity in diversity. Nigeria is federalising too much, and the military legacy of centralisation or uniformity should be discarded.

    There is no justification for dragging land matters with the states by the Federal Government. The lands belong to the state. Also, a uniform law for traditional institution is unnecessary. There is nothing wrong if the adjucation on traditional disputes terminates at the regional court of appeal so created. Even, the suggestion that the Supreme Court should be decentralised should be considered as it will reduce the number of pending cases at the apex court.

    It is laughable that company registration is still being handled by federal authorities, although the companies are domiciled in states and local governments. So also is the issuance of driving licence, which fell under the purview of states or local governments in the past.

  • APC: The task before Yilwatda

    APC: The task before Yilwatda

    Unlike Ambassador Umar Damagum, acting National Chairman of the highly decimated Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Barrister Julius Abure of fragmented Labour Party (LP), and retired Brig.-Gen. David Mark of the crisis-ridden African Democratic Congress (ADC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, the new National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is presiding over a largely united and cohesive party.

    Up to now, there is no obvious faction in the ruling party, despite the frantic attempts by propagandists and social media miscreants to allude to imaginary cleavages arising from the memory of rested legacy parties that fused into a formidable platform.

    The major test for the former university teacher and ex-Humanitarian, Disaster Management and Social Development Minister would come during the state party congresses and nominations for elective positions ahead of 2027 polls.

    Nomination politics always drive the parties in power to the edge in Nigeria. Succession politics at the sub-national level often unleashes tension. In the past, faulty state congresses led to a huge electoral misfortune. The court did not spare the platform.

    The greatest asset of the new chairman is his integrity. Either as a teacher, electoral officer, politician or minister, no baggage has been attributed to him. He narrowly lost the Plateau State governorship election in 2023. One of his assignments now may be to woo the man who defeated him, Caleb Mutfwang, and persuade him to abandon the distressed party on the Plateau for the APC.

    Yilwatda’s choice was a product of wide consultation among the leaders of the party: President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, members of the National Caucus, the National Working Committee (NWC), the National Executive Committee (NEC), and the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF), the most influential bloc in the party.

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    To succeed, he would need the active support and cooperation of these party organs and structures.

    In 11 years, APC has produced seven chairmen. The turnover is high, suggesting  leadership instability, a manifestation of internal squabbles, a clash of influence and ego, lack of a shared vision, derailment from a steady mission, lack of trust and confidence-building, as well as diminishing emotional intelligence on the part of party leadership. It is worse in PDP which has produced 18 national chairmen in 27 years.

    Yilwatda’s predecessors are former governors who were also party leaders at the state level. There is no party in Nigeria that jokes with the cult of governors, especially when they are jointly pushing a collective agenda. Over time, the fear of the governors has become the beginning of wisdom. Thus, when just five governors declined support for the PDP in 2023, the party lapsed into a decline. It has not recovered from the resultant fall.

    Perhaps, serving and former governors were selected as national chairmen from that rank to make communications easy, with them as the intermediaries between the party and the governors’ forum. The belief might be that as serving or former governors, they fully understand the language of their colleagues. Experience has, however, shown a glaring gap between expectation and reality.

    Apart from the erstwhile interim chairman and former Osun State Governor Bisi Akande, the tenures of his five successors were marked by controversies. A section of the party was fed up with the John Odigie-Oyegun leadership midway, despite supporting his emergence against the wishes of President Muhammadu Buhari’s camp. Odigie-Oyegun and Buhari appeared to have previously parted ways in the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) before the logic and urgency of mergers/fusion of legacy parties brought them together in 2014.

    His successor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, also ran into turbulence. His albatross came through his former colleagues in the governors’ forum. At first, he was dancing to their cultish tune. But as he could not balance the influence of the powerful governors and the demands for equity and internal democracy, the governors removed the rug from under his feet.

    In those days of the Buhari administration, some APC governors indulged in anti-party activities by sponsoring governorship and parliamentary candidates on the platform of opposition parties. An action man, Oshiomhole slammed suspension on them. But his sanctions caused his downfall. They retaliated by insisting on his ouster. The President and Party Leader, Buhari, was aloof.

    Oshiomhole’s estranged godson, turned adversary at home, Godwin Obaseki, with who he had a running battle, moved against him at the ward level. The national chairman was suspended. As the crises multiplied, Oshiomhole was shoved aside for a caretaker chairman to take over.

    Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni’s mandate was to restore sanity, unite the party, and reconcile aggrieved chieftains within six months. Instead of doing his job within the stipulated time and bowing out honourably, he became a sit-tight party manager for two years.

    After the elongated interim period, Buhari brought in Abdullahi Adamu, who had stood by him as a senator when the Bukola Saraki-led Senate was not on good terms with his presidency. He never aspired to be chairman. What the former Nasarawa State governor could now be remembered for was that under his tenure, zoning was nearly jettisoned when Senate President Ahmad Lawan suddenly surfaced as Buhari’s anointed presidential candidate ahead of the 2023 general election. It was disputed by governors who stormed the Aso Villa to confront the former president. But Buhari disowned the plot.

    There might be a nexus between that episode and the hidden circumstances that led to his departure from the national secretariat of the party.

    However, the circumstances that led to Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje’s sudden resignation appear to be in the realm of conjecture, although he said he stepped down on health grounds.

    In contemporary Nigeria, the emergence of party leadership at the national and state levels is being linked with the preferences of presidents and governors to the extent that party conventions and processes are no longer competitive but mere coronation ceremonies.

    Unlike the processes that threw up Chief Adisa Akinloye as chairman of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the Second Republic, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe and Chief Tony Anenih as chairmen of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Chief Tom Ikimi and Dr. Hammed Kusamotu as chairmen of National Republic Convention (NRC) in the Third Republic, and Chief Solomon Lar of the PDP at the beginning of this dispensation, the selection of party chairmen from the Olusegun Obasanjo days has been the sole affair of the President. Also, state chairmen are candidates of the governors.

    Ruling parties, from 2002, never had the opportunity of customary, internal healthy rivalry; the wheeling and dealings, the rigorous mobilisation and campaigns by chairmanship aspirants, the debate on issues, the critical media portrayals, the enunciation of their manifestos at the convention, and the attendant shared conviviality.

    The old element of selection that is visible in the current guided process is the wide consultation and strategic scrutiny that heralded the choice of Yilwatda, a candidate without blemish. The approach is built on zoning of the slot to a particular region. Yilwatda’s choice fulfilled the ethnic, zonal and religious balance.

    The onus is on the professor to justify the trust reposed in him and remain loyal to the party. Yilwatda should be a man of progressive intentions and ideas for him to make an impact as chairman of the biggest party in Nigeria. APC should migrate from being a mere vehicle for seeking power to the pedestal of ideology so that it can fulfil the criteria of identity, form, content and predictability.

    He has promised to unite the party. In states where there are crises, he should not delay reconciliation. Concessions should be given, and consensus should be built. Complaints by aggrieved members should not be brought to the court until the internal mechanism for conflict resolution has been fully explore.

    Yilwatda, who is expected to work with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other party stalwarts, should try to keep the party united and avert defections that may be blown out of proportion by the adversarial media.

    Whenever there was a defection from the APC, no matter how insignificant, it was usually blown out of proportion by a section of the media. It is typically referred to as an implosion.But even the gale of defections from the opposition to the ruling party has never received due attention from such media outlets. Instead, it was condemned by the same biased section of the media, with the defectors to the ruling party being label as polticians without principle.

    As observed by the ‘man of timber and calibre,’ Dr. Ozumba Mbadiwe, in Nigeria, politicians like to gravitate towards winning parties.  Defections can throw up concerns about the harmonisation of party structures. The party’s membership register should be updated.

    The chairman should ensure that newcomers into the fold are accommodated and accorded a sense of belonging. A governor who defects automatically becomes the leader of the state chapter. There is also a need for the old members to adjust to the leadership change. Collaboration should triumph over exclusion or marginalisation.

    The chairman needs to make the zonal chapters very strong so that regional matters within the party can be easily settled at that level. The two deputy chairmen and six vice chairmen should be active as coordinators at the regional levels. It may not be a bad idea for Yilwatda to embark on the tour of the six regions to feel the pulse of the chapters.

    Next year, there will be a major test for the APC leadership during the Ekiti and Osun State governorship polls. While the party should consolidate on its profile in Ekiti, it needs to support the bid of the Osun State chapter to bounce back. The greatest task before the party chairman is the re-election of President Tinubu.

    Under Yilwatda, the party should be supreme, and the leadership should show discipline. Exemplariness must trickle down from the top.

    The scramble for the limited elective slots by many qualified, competent and loyal party chieftains often spark stiff competition, antagonism and protracted conflict. Post-primary crisis should always be addressed with speed.

    Also, accommodation should be found for those who lost elections within the larger, collective interest of the party.

    State chapters should be allowed by the party leadership to choose from the options of consensus, direct and indirect primaries, based on their peculiar circumstances.

    APC governorments at the state level would do the part a lot of service if they consistently perform to expectation. The state chapters should constantly assess the policies and programmes of the state governments to ensure that they reflect their campaign promises, party programmes and public expectation.

  • The challenge of constitution review (1)

    The challenge of constitution review (1)

    The National Assembly is, once again, taking Nigeria through another round of constitution amendment. In the past, the periodic exercise yielded only token results. Would the outcome of the piecemeal review be different this time round?

    The need for a review is premised on the discovery of certain gaps, omissions, and defects in the 1999 Constitution, which have always elicited complaints and criticisms among the various stakeholders.

    The constitution has been variously described as a unitary project, an imposition by the military, and a document that stifles federalism. It has been viewed as an inexplicable instrument for strengthening the centre to the detriment of the sub-national units that are expected to be coordinated with the distant, powerful central authority.

    The national document stipulates the fundamental principles the country must abide by and the direction the people should collectively take in the course of their governance journey. But it appears Nigerians, from the First Republic, have not collectively produced a truly “people’s constitution”.

    The 1999 Constitution has also come under attack for sustaining the imbalances in the so-called federal structure characterised by lopsided state and local government distribution among the over 250 ethnic groups lumped together by the colonial interlopers.

    For 26 years now, it has remained the bone of contention because of its inability to reshape fiscal relationships between the two critical tiers and guarantee a miniature opportunity for measurable resource control.

    The late legal luminary, Chief Rotimi Williams (SAN), once said that the constitution lied against itself when in its introductory passage it stated that “we the people,” when it was obvious that a military decree gave birth to it.

    The operators from 1999 to date have been lukewarm in redirecting energy to fundamental amendments that should lead to the devolution or decentralisation of power. While there is a consensus about the urgency of state police as a baseline for tackling insecurity, it is only being pursued at a snail’s speed.

    But, the meagre amendment recorded in the recent past has paled into an improvement on paper. While rail transportation has been decentralised, the states or groups of states at the regions are not exploring the opportunity for the growth of their domains.

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    Other initiatives, including the mechanisms of federal character, catchment area, and quota system introduced to foster equity or convey an impression of non-exclusion and non-marginalisation, have not added up. Critics allude to the elimination of merit and blockage of growth in certain regions to facilitate the progression to development in other regions.

    There is also the argument in some quarters that the constitution is not the problem; the obstacles, they say, are the operators. While the perceived flawed constitution is taken to the cleaners, the sub-national units are not eager or willing to really subject it to a judicial test, thereby depriving the country of a final pronouncement by the arbiter on some contentious issues generated by the document.

    There is the subsisting tension between the National Assembly, which is constitutionally empowered to review the document, and eminent Nigerians pushing for a new constitution under the banner of ‘The Patriots.’

    Among the Patriots are distinguished Nigerians who are former operators of the constitution, and those who defended the operation while they were in power. These include former ministers, governors, legislators, advisers, and ruling and opposition party chiefs. Also among The Patriots are retired diplomats of global repute, leaders of ethnic mouthpieces, rights activists, labour representatives, some traditional rulers, professionals, critics and other members of civil society. The feeling is that, although it is not an elected body and, therefore, may not pass the test of representativeness because a democratic mandate is doubtful, they mean well for the country.

    While it is hard for the ’eminent personalities group’ to deny the existence of a democratically elected central legislature, they are unwilling to submit their recommendations or proposal to it in the course of the review. Some critics prefer to intimidate the parliament with the nebulous argument that the legislators are products of defective elections. Yet, it is becoming increasingly hard to organise another jamboree and capital-intensive constitutional conference when the anticipated report may not be significantly different from the reports of the 2004 and 2014 confabs that are gathering dust.

    Certain categories of Nigerians derive pleasure from being delegates to the successive constitutional conferences. Instead of agitating for the implementation of previously accumulated reports, they are calling for a repeated conference and trying to blackmail the government into acceding to their proposal.

    Those pushing for another brand of parley, which is the Sovereign National Conference (SNC), are taking the country back to 1914, with the appeal that the basis for peaceful co-existence has not been properly agreed upon by the diverse ethnic groups in this highly heterogeneous country. They cleverly avoid the fact that in the fifties, the founding fathers – Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, and Nnamdi Azikiwe, among others – agreed on some basic principles.

    The argument of the proponents of the SNC is that federalism is the answer. This is correct, as it tallies with the vision of the pathfinders of history. That is why President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who believes in federalism, should not spare efforts in making the Federal Government to fully devolve power to the sub-units in a constitutional manner. 

    But their call for regionalism has taken many Nigerians aback. While states in a region can cooperate and achieve economic integration, the call for the dismantling of the states and reversion to the regional structure of the pre-and independence era is illogical. The goals of unity in diversity and preservation of identities are defeated when, for example, the Igbo of Asaba, Urhobo, and Itshekiri now return to the old capital of Ibadan, and the Kanuri of Borno return to Kaduna. How can marginalisation be averted when the Efik, Ibibio, Ikwere, Ogoni, Andoni, and Ijaw return to Enugu?

    Also, the call for a return to the parliamentary system is misplaced. The circumstances surrounding the adoption of the current presidential system should not be forgotten. Those who recommended the switch in the 1978/’79 Constitution Review Committee and the Constituent Assembly were the operators of the cabinet system of the First Republic who witnessed the tension between President Nnamdi Azikiwe and Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa. Zik retorted that he, as the ceremonial president, could not imagine working with a power-loaded Head of Government. In fact, in 1964, the country was enveloped in apprehension when the President initially refused to call on the Prime Minister to form the government because he was not convinced about the integrity of the nationwide parliamentary elections.

    At the recent public hearings, the outstanding issues – local government autonomy, state and local government creation, boundary disputes, constitutional roles for traditional rulers, and resource control – came to the front burner.

    Despite the court ruling, autonomy for local government remains a burning issue. There was no proper understanding of the elevation of the council system into a third tier. It is an aberration that the local governments created by the states are listed in the Constitution. Autonomy is automatically hampered by the realisation that the Houses of Assembly retain the roles of creation, oversight, and prescription of rules and guidelines for the local governments. The councils were created as units of grassroots governance to cater for local concerns on behalf of the states. They are extensions of the state apparatus for ease of administration at the local level.

    The agitation for state creation is legitimate. The elite are protesting marginalisation, oppression, and exclusion in some states. They want some access to state resources, like their privileged rivals in the respective pre-existing states. But its feasibility is doubtful. The question is: how viable are some states?

    The military had committed the error of a lopsided distribution of states. Redressing the colossal injustice is problematic. In the Southwest, for instance, agitators are calling for six or more states. The pattern of agitation is the same in the other five geopolitical zones. The Southeast has a special case. It is protesting the inequality of five states against seven in the Northwest and six in other zones, despite its comparatively smaller landmass.

    The only solution is not to create more states. Another solution is to create one more state in each of the six regions. The best answer is to remove local government completely from the purview of the Federal Government and allow the states to create more local governments to foster inclusion, a sense of belonging and development.

    Monarchs are clamouring for roles in government, forgetting that their involvement in politics in the past republics created problems for them. Some of them were deposed for operating from the opposition side and treading the path of the inevitabilities of partisanship.

  • Farewell to Awujale Adetona

    Farewell to Awujale Adetona

    For several reasons, the late Awujale of Ijebu land, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona (Ogbagba Agbotemole II), will go down in history as one of the luckiest.

    Besides ascending the throne of his forefathers at a youthful age of 26, Oba Adetona had one of the longest reigns, spanning 65 years, one of the longest not only in Yoruba land but also across the country. His long reign was marked by peace and development. Despite this, he stayed out of trouble – traditional, social, and financial – in most parts of the period. He was never enmeshed in self-inflicted intrigues. He was also among the first set of traditional rulers who were well-educated and well-liked by their people.

    Even in death, there were testimonies from his people that he did not mingle with those who would tarnish his image. To the people, he was a living legend, someone they fondly called “Orisa Ijebu,” or the Ijebu deity, about the reverence his people accorded him. It was not because he was a tough traditionalist; it was because the people cherished his contributions to their progress and held him in high esteem. He was a tested and trusted leader who defended the people’s interests.

    He was the personification of unity in his vast domain, in the axis of Yoruba land, which shares boundaries with Remo in its southwest, Ibadan in its north, Osun in its northeast, and Ondo towns and villages, such as Mahin in Ilaje, in its southeast. He was the quintessential man of the people.

    The revered Awujale was responsible for the advantageous position of Ijebu-Ode, his seat of traditional power and headquarters of Ijebu land.

    To his credit, all the Ijebu believed in him as a moral voice and source of inspiration throughout the period of his time in power.

    He cherished and protected his royal background. If he had dreamt of becoming a king, little did he guess that the honour would come at the prime of his life.

    The selection of the 26-year-old prince in 1960 as the successor to the deceased Oba Adesanya Gbelegbuwa II, who joined his ancestors the preceding year, was a turning point.

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    Charming, sociable, charismatic, educated, cultured, enterprising, and forward-looking, Oba Adetona was a product of township consent in the people’s search for a more enlightened ruler for the emerging modern era. It was consistent with the advice of colonial Governor David Cameron that educated monarchs were more knowledgeable and exposed than their illiterate counterparts..

    Sixty-five years later, Ijebu-Ode is better for it. The people made the finest choice, and they have continued to reap the fruits of development, progress, and prosperity.

    While the tenure of his predecessor was full of tension, with two assassination attempts on him, Oba Adetona largely presided over a peaceful era with neither adversary nor misfortune. God made him to triumph over challenges. He continually deployed the weapons of incisive wit, courage and principle. A very accommodating paramount ruler, he promoted inclusion and rallied sons and daughters from all towns and villages to see themselves as one. This was evident in the display of oneness and cohesion by the “regbe-regbe” (age groups) during the yearly Ojude-Oba (literally: the King’s Front Yard) Festival, which always attracts tourists to his domain.

    Ace Apala musician, the late Haruna Ishola, captured the unique installation and presentation of the staff of office to Oba Adetona in Ijebu-Ode by the Premier of Western Region, the late Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, in the epic record he waxed after the ceremony.

    Tall and dignified, Kabiyesi exuded happiness over the fulfilment of destiny. The town was aglow with festivities. Eminent Yoruba leaders, including the Leader of Federal Opposition, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, witnessed the historic moment. The attention of the whole country was on Ijebu, the land of enterprise.

    It was a story of sacrifices. Oba Adetona’s father, Prince Rufai Adeleke, who nursed a legitimate ambition for the throne, sacrificed his aspiration to boost the chance of his beloved son.

    The obedient son, after the encouragement of the elders who craved a better tomorrow for Ijebu land, answered the call with patriotism and sacrificed his pursuit of education and golden fleece in the United Kingdom to serve his people.

    Three Ijebu-Ode community leaders – Ogbeni-Oja Timothy Odutola, Chief Emmanuel Okunnowo, and Chief Samuel Sonibare – stood behind the young monarch like the Rock of Gibraltar. They were prominent Action Group (AG) stalwarts. Odutola, a reputable industrialist, served as a member of the Regional House of Assembly. Okunnowo, also a businessman, was a federal parliamentarian, and Sonibare was an investor and media owner who kept the purse of the party. Lamentably, Sonibare latter passed on in 1964, barely four years after that patriotic community service.

    Nobody could fault the judgment of the three Ijebu musketeers at that moment of cardinal decision-making. They acted in the community’s interest. They never led Ijebu astray. They also brokered genuine reconciliation between the new Awujale and other contestants. The young monarch also submitted himself to their gerontocratic guidance. Arrangements were made for offsetting the expenses incurred by other contestants.

    Following his ascension to the prestigious stool, Oba Adetona automatically joined the tiny elite club of Yoruba obas whose members included the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adesoji Aderemi; the Eleko of Lagos, Oba Musendiku Adeniji-Adele; the Olowo of Owo, Oba Olateru Olagbegi; the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, Oba Anirare Aladesanmi; the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Isaac Akinyele; the Zaki of Arigidi-Akoko, Alhaji Olanipekun; the Aholu Menu Toyi of Badagry, Oba Cladius Akran; the Deji of Akure, Oba Ademuwagun Adesida; the Odemo of Isara, Oba Samuel Akinsanya; and the Timi of Ede, Oba Adetoyese Laoye.

    Remarkably, these monarchs were also active leaders of the AG. It was a time of hot regional politics. Two years after he ascended the throne, the Western Region was in turmoil. Neutrality was impossible for key leaders.

    When the party split in 1962 during the Jos Convention, some of the traditional rulers, who were ministers and House of Chiefs members, took sides in the divisive and destabilising politics, queuing either behind Akintola or Awolowo. Politically, Yoruba land became divided.

    Oba Adetona was a member of the House of Chiefs. Thus he was not insulated from political pressure. The monarch witnessed the sudden collapse of a united Western Region, the friction between Awolowo and Akintola, the bitter contest for power and lack of tolerance, the ‘Wet E’ episode in the “Wild, Wild West,” the trial and the imprisonment of the Federal Opposition Leader, and the collapse of the legitimate authorities in Nigeria.

    Thirteen years later, the scion of the Anikilaya royal family in Ijebu-Ode was embroiled in a misunderstanding with the state government. His palace was threatened. Former Ogun State Governor Olabisi Onabanjo, a subject of the Awujale, announced the deposition of the king. The governor’s action was premised on the suspicion that Kabiyesi was pro-National Party of Nigeria (NPN), the ruling party at the federal level, while the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) was the main opposition and governing party in Ogun State.

    The battle shifted to the court. The late Adama Constance Yesufu, lawyer and politician, who once reminisced on the Awujale’s ordeal to reporters in Lagos, insisted that it was all political. His Royal Majesty, nevertheless, survived. The feud was festering when the Second Republic collapsed. The rest, as it is often said, is history.

    Today, traditional rulers are agitating for constitutional roles, oblivious of the fact that their involvement in politics in the past created problems for them. The Aseyin was harassed by the Akintola government. Alaafin Adeniran Adeyemi 11, former Oyo Divisional Council chairman, was deposed. Owo, the domain of Oba Olateru-Olagbegi, was divided. Zaki Arigidi fled his town. Akran of Badagry was detained. Emir Sanusi of Kano also had a problem in 1962. The salary of Odemo of Isara, Oba Samuel Akinsanya, was reduced to one kobo per year. Politicians challenged the Eleko, Oba Musendiku Adeniji-Adele,  to a duel at the Lagos Council. A Soun of Ogbomoso was beheaded. The lessons of the past are very instructive. The wise need to learn from history rather than to repeat it.

    Oba Adetona’s permanent tenure spanned the elongated period of military rule and four republics. Under him, Ijebu land continued to produce citizens who add value to the country. The people’s pastime is trading, which is consistent with the economic pursuits of their forebears.

    Indeed, Ijebu paramount kingship was linked with commerce. To profit from the trade along the coast, ancient kings of the land erected tolls for traders en route to Ejinrin (in Lagos State) in the days of yore. It made them and their aristocratic companions very rich.

    Oba Adetona continued to build on the legacy of prosperity through clean and legitimate commerce in a modern era. He led by example as an investor of note. He guaranteed ease of doing business by offering accommodation to indigenes and other residents.

    Major markets in Ijebu-Ode, including the famous Ita-Osu, Ita-Ale, and Oke-Aje, which was named after him years ago, were expanded and modernised. They became the confluences of commerce for traders from all walks of life during Oba Adetona’s reign.

    Ijebu-Ode grew in leaps and bounds under his reign. Its population increased geometrically. Today’s picture of urbanisation in the town contrasts with the sixties, when big amenities and huge government presence were not there. The town is now proud of more industries and other commercial ventures, tertiary institutions, hospitals, five-star hotels, and numerous housing estates.

    The monarch also contributed to the development of scholarship by instituting an academic chair in politics and good governance at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) at Ago-Iwoye in Ogun State. Last week, Governor Dapo Abiodun said it would gladden the hearts of the people whenever Oba Adetona’s School of Post-Graduate and Research Studies in Governance is affiliated to the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) at Kuru, near Jos, the Plateau State capital.

    Oba Adetona was an advocate of justice. He saw all Ijebu sons and daughters as his children. In moments of adversity, he has never turned his eyes away. On a number of occasions, he tried to reconcile politicians in deep conflicts without taking sides.

    Also, it is noteworthy that he never abandoned any of his subjects in distress. A case in point was the plight of the business icon and big employer of labour from Ijebu-Igbo. The royal father pressed buttons until the siege was over.

    Oba Adetona did the same for the late Lt.-Gen. Oladipo Diya, a former Chief of General Staff (CGS), whose life hung in the balance when his boss, the late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, said he had uncovered a coup plot involving the Odogbolu-born senior soldier. When Abacha tried to dwell on the extent of Diya’s alleged involvement, the royal father reportedly said: “But remember, Diya is my son.”

    Bold and courageous, he advised against the third term agenda.

    Like many progressive blue blood in the Southwest, Oba Adetona was thankful to God that a Yoruba son, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, became President in his lifetime. He remained very close to him till his last day.

    Oba Adetona’s unfulfilled dream is the non-actualisation of the Ijebu State. But for Ijebu and Remo compatriots, the struggle to actualize the dream continues. Its realization will gladden the heart of the late monarch even while he is with his ancestors.