Category: Opinion

The affirmation that Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State won the 2015 gubernatorial election in the state on the platform of his popularity came from the judgment delivered by the election tribunal on Tuesday October 27, in Ibadan.  Former Oyo State Governor Rashidi Ladoja had petitioned against the election of Ajimobi whom he accused of ensuring that election did not hold conclusively in a number of local government areas in the state so that he would be able to claim victory and justify his hold on the people.

But in his ruling, tribunal chairman Justice Mohammed Mayaki held that both Ladoja and the Accord Party could not prove their allegations of rigging, electoral malpractices, violence and non-compliance with the Electoral Act, among others.  Based on this, the tribunal dismissed Ladoja’s petition as lacking strong facts to prove his points beyond reasonable doubts.

Even when Ladoja sought the cancellation of elections in 10 local government areas of the state along with a few other polling units, the point at issue is that the people of the state still preferred Ajimobi.  It was due to the enviable records of the transformation he had already made in the state, especially in Ibadan, the state capital, that encouraged the people to turn out en-masse to vote for him.

The unanimous decision of the three-man tribunal is a testimony to the fact that Ajimobi’s popularity in the state is beyond human compare.  Here is a grassroots leader who appeared on the scene when the people of Oyo State were in dire need of a sincere political leader; a leader who has his eyes on total eradication of bigotry and poverty in the state.

The people of Oyo felt it was no longer time to queue behind deceitful party leaders whose interest is usually to use their votes to achieve their own selfish ends.  Ajimobi came with the conviction to turn Oyo State around and that was why the tribunal made it clear that the people have spoken.  The vote they gave to Ajimobi was meant to consolidate his hold in the politics of the state.  It was to demonstrate the fact that the All Progressive Congress (APC) has come to stay.  This is a party the likes of Ajimobi have used to attain their political dreams because they are convinced that the party is here to serve the people.

Therefore the tribunal judgment is not only affirmative and populist, it is a total affirmation of the widely held view that Ladoja had long lost his political grip and hold in the state.  Or how else can one describe his continuous inability to wrestle power from the status quo in the last 10 years or so?  Even when he said he would appeal the judgment, there are no facts on ground to lend credence to fresh claims and discoveries that can help his situation.

The spontaneous jubilation throughout the state after the judgment was delivered further attested to the indomitability of the Ajimobi phenomenon.  He is on ground, firmly in place to handle the affairs of the state.  When the righteous is in power everybody is in joyous mood.  The mood in Oyo State right now is that of liberation, freedom and Eldorado.  The people have come to a point in their political journey and history when reality and clear sense of discernment should be their perception.  In so doing they have seen in Ajimobi that long awaited leader eager to liberate them from the mundane; from the era of endless political squabbles.

This is the time to move forward; time to steer the ship of the state towards growth and development.  This was why the governor ensured that the governorship election was held in an atmosphere of fairness and orderliness to avoid reprisals.  Today, he has been proved right.  All Ladoja needs to do, just like Governor Ajimobi reassured him, is to combine forces with the party in power to attain peace in the state.  With concerted peace, Oyo State will be a better place for everyone; especially for the leaders.

Apart from most people hailing the judgment as wise and fair, it was clear that the people of the state do not as yet wish that any new political development should come that would lead to chaos.  A student of the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Muri Okebola praised the tribunal chairman for his thoroughness and urgent sense of responsibility.  “This is too good to be true,” Okebola declared.  Yet his greatest joy is in the fact that Oyo State has known giant strides and relative peace since Ajimobi came to the saddle.

It is clearly the validation of the fact that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands.  This is indeed a landmark verdict that would boost people’s total confidence in democracy; it establishes the fact that the judiciary could as well rise to its occasion as the last hope of the hopeless.  It is a verdict that has brought back that glimmer of sunshine in the lives of the people whose hopes always hang in the balance as to whether the judiciary can be pungent and decisive.

This was why Governor Ajimobi himself quickly saluted the judiciary for its promptness and call to duty.  “I am grateful to God for this victory,” he said.  “I have been able to break the second term jinx in the state.  I therefore thank the people for the confidence reposed in me by voting for me a second time, despite innuendoes, evil machinations and falsehood by our opponents.”

In this, the Governor has affirmed irrevocably that power belongs to the people.  Yes, it was the totality of Oyo people that brought him to power.

At my family’s maiden participation in the Sunday Worship Service of the UNILAG Staff Fellowship, the Guest Speaker was a man who delivered a highly inspiring message with an impeccable Oxford accent – one Deacon G O Onosode.  By 1972, we moved into University Quarters on Adelabu Street, Surulere and a Baptist colleague and friend invited us to New Estate Baptist Church [NEBC], nearby.

To our delight, Uncle Gamaliel was the leader there and we were living some three houses from his home!  We participated in the Tuesday Bible Study in his home.  We became good family friends and I would eat two or more meals with his family each week. Indeed, I was one of the two guests he had for his 45th Birthday Dinner at the ‘Quo Vadis’ Restaurant atop Western House on Broad Street.

When he became the acting pastor of the church, so serving for three years, three months and three weeks, I was elected Church Secretary thus becoming his close assistant.  He delegated to me the design and production of a church bulletin which became the pattern and standard followed by many other churches.  Under his tutelage, I was also appointed chairman of the Church’s Constitution Drafting Committee. He challenged, inspired and mentored younger people in whom he observed definite potential.  Thus it was that he delegated the preaching at the evening services to me and got me to lead the Bible Study in his home at various times.

When the Lagos Baptist Conference was raising funds for the Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso in the mid 70’s, he as the chairman and I was secretary of the Fund Raising Committee.  He confidently delegated the arrangements to me and the programme was adjudged very successful.  He was a frequent minister on Radio Nigeria’s ‘Morning Prayers’ in the 70’s and extended the privilege of ministering to me on several occasions.

He was not only my mentor in matters spiritual, he was same in financial and business matters.  I sought his review and advice on the Business Plans for our first Supermarket.  He was highly impressed that an engineer and IT practitioner had such a good grasp of Business and Financial Matters. he graciously agreed to preside over the dedication and opening of our first ‘Value Market’ in 1974.  He delegated to me the preparation of Business Plans for a relation and friend of his.  Following his example, I started investing in quoted securities; indeed, he got the law firm that incorporated his own personal investment company to incorporate mine as well.  When he was developing his property in Victoria Island and I was living in that area, he entrusted the oversight of the project to me with confidence.

In the mid-70’s, he wanted me to be chief executive of a major stock broking firm and later, an engineering firm with three factories in the country and which would have made me chairman of a major Industrial Gases Company.  For various reasons, I declined the kind offers.

Uncle Gam was a man of humour.  On first acquaintance he might give one the pronunciation of his surname as an Ijebu man would – ‘Onoosode’.  The late Deacon N O O Akinola was a mutual friend; he always added two extra O’s to his initials making them N O O O O!  There was another deacon who often prefixed his sentences with the word ‘Normally’.  Each time he opened his mouth to speak, he would say the ‘Normally’ prefix for him!

He could not suffer mediocrity or non-performance.  He was adept at crafting one-sentence ‘stingers’ to convey displeasure to the persons or organizations concerned.  He had ‘midwived’ the ASSU-FG Agreement whose non-implementation occasioned the prolonged strike.  His comments were brief: “I cannot imagine why a duly signed agreement is not being implemented.  Anyone can read and understand the terms; they were not encrypted in Greek!”

He shared with me an occasion when someone remarked that he had never seen Deacon Onosode get so angry.  At a meeting of top church leaders in his home state, one leading CAN dignitary proposed that the then President should approach churches for Christians who, in positions of power, would ensure excellent governance. In response, he named many persons in the National Assembly and government who claimed to be Christians and whose services were, evidently, to the detriment of the government and people. Perhaps such persons should take his comment as a parting charge, knowing that if they fail to repent and make restitution, the Lord to whom they claim allegiance will visit them with far heftier damnation than his!

By contrast, he traversed the corridors of power with excellence and transparent integrity.  For starters, he resigned his chairmanship/directorship of some 25 major companies upon being appointed adviser on budget matters by President Shagari.  It is interesting that when that appointment ended and he was to resume some of the positions, one Lagos socialite sat tight remarking: “What can Onosode do that I cannot do?” That company ran aground under the socialite!   As Budget Adviser he quipped that “instead of the normal two categories of national expenditure, we have three – Capital, Recurrent and Waste and Waste was by far the largest!”  Three decades later, waste, fuelled by unconscionable expropriation and outright thievery, has assumed such mammoth proportion that it dwarfs the traditional two into insignificance.

In the 70’s, he expressed a desire to traverse three professions in his lifetime, one of them being medicine.  He did not; how could he with such a heavily loaded plate of essential, high-level responsibilities!  None of his days lasted longer than the normal 24 hours and he did not have a private jet to shuttle between Surulere, Lagos Island and the College of Medicine.  Nevertheless, he distinguished himself in at least three leadership vocations – Church, Business/Finance and Public Administration/Politics.

In addition to serving as Pro-Chancellor of three public universities and the Baptists’ Bowen University, he was also chairman of the Board of Governors of The Baptist Seminary which was recognized as the leading Theological Institution in Africa.  I also had the privilege of serving as Chairman of the Board’s Funding Committee.

Uncle Gam, I, nay, we beheld your glory, glory as of the beloved son with whom our heavenly Father was well pleased. Your excellent erudition in spiritual and temporal matters was always with complementary elocution. You manifested sagacity in all matters; ‘meteors’ like you are few and far between.  Of the abundance of greatness that our Lord endowed you with, we, your protégés, have received grace upon grace. Your 82 years confirm to us our Lord’s Word in Psalm 92:  ‘The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord, they flourish in the courts of our God.  They still bring forth fruit in old age, they are ever full of sap and green’

Permit me to testify of you that this servant of our Lord was not endowed with just five talents but with more, like 10.  His productivity also exceeded 10 additional talents in profit.  Consequently, the heavenly choir of angels clanged their cymbals and raised sonorous applause and thanksgiving as His Master declared: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.’

Our Lord has graciously determined that ‘the time of your departure has come. You have fought the good fight, you have finished the race, you have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for you the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to you on that Day! – as Paul asserted and predicted in 2 Tim 4:6-8.  

Paul learnt at the feet of his Gamaliel; I learnt at the feet of this Gamaliel – Deacon Dr Gamaliel Oforitsenere Onosode. Adieu, my beloved mentor, my hero; adieu!

• ‘Oduko FNCS ,Deacon writes from Lagos

Unlike what is going on in the slow business of forming the Federal Executive Council so far characterized by a preponderance of elements of the older generation and the have-been, the kingmakers at Ile-Ife, Osun State, have opted to offer some lessons on how not to catch them old. For our own President Muhammudu Buhari who appears not to believe that the young shall grow, this must be a time to learn from both the Ooni-elect and the Ife chiefs who have said nay to palace gerontocracy.

At 40, Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi comes in as a pulsating and rambunctious challenge to prevalent political notions of old age and experience as exclusive prerequisites for salutary performance in office or industry. To be sure, these “virtues” count. But they are not final or absolute. We must only reckon with them as some of the skills required in a successful team. Their impact will be meaningful only according to the energy input of the emerging generation.

For, the issue of governing or organizing society isn’t all about the age of a sage. It is also greatly about energizing an enterprise which only the radiance and bubble of young age can do. Both are required for balance or equilibrium. Just as all the stands of the traditional cooking tripod are needed for a stable hold of the pot.

When Ogunwusi’s predecessor Oba Okunade Sijuwade was brought in in 1980 as the 50th Ooni at 50, pundits said it was not too prudent, given the dominance of the political climate by the men and women who held sway in the 50s and 60s. They were still in charge of all spheres of the Nigerian firmament after an iron hold on the powerful institutions of state from pre-colonial days right to the two decades after. The point of the critics was that the system could only thrive if kindred spirits (denominated by cronyism and age) ran it at all levels.

Now Sijuwade wasn’t quite a “kindred spirit”. But he had vast business links that accommodated politicians and the government machinery for patronage. He was therefore accepted as one of them, even if as a backroom operator in the industrial military complex of the Nigerian system. This explains why in his 35 year rule that witnessed the rise and fall of several civilian and military governments, Sijuwade’s industrial clusters that dug in westwards and went northwards and eastwards and southwards never shrank, never fell. They maintained a dynamic expansion, the same way the monarch sustained seamless relationships with influential traditional rulers in the far north and east of the Niger before his death at 85 in 2015.

The incoming Ogunwusi hasn’t followed a similar trajectory.

He is being caught young, not old and spent and bereft of spritely bounce, a leap that matches the vision of society that must feed on the wisdom of experience and on the raw vitality of youth. Unlike the old ones who would stop developing once in the palace, Ogunwusi would grow in the saddle; he would age with experience in “office”. He would ride on a horse with two lives: one moving at a slow pace observing and learning and the other jetting with speed and gathering momentum.

Contrasting with those before him, Ogunwusi has spoken of a transcendental future, an age that he says should be the next level for the Yoruba race and for the youth of Nigeria. He is breaking out of the cocoon of palace mentality. He has taken Ile-Ife as the station to launch a global vision. Age is on his side to midwife his goals, if he does not look down on the counsel of the older culture. The two need one another, never mind the principle of only one captain steering the ship.

I believe that Buhari’s approach of catching members of his change team, old as it looks to most Nigerians, is not a strategy that respects the future. If you rest only on age or so-called experience, you shut out the essential spice of vibrant youth, some substantial percentage of which forms the soul of this country. It is the same bottom of the bag he has put himself in with the mean number of women he has in his cabinet. These days one of the indices you apply to assess a society’s development is how far you accommodate women in government and public office, which in turn offers a window into the extent of education you allow them to have.

It is a twist in the tale that tutorials on change based on the infusion of fresh blood in governance and politics are coming from a symbol of what some of us have called a dying institution. Others even say it is dead; it is just that the monarchical system has not been buried.

Whichever way it goes, this extinct order is interrogating us. A relic is reinventing itself. It is rejuvenating itself. It is throwing off ancient features and habits that stunted its growth and gave it death.

Nigeria can also come alive again by connecting the power and potential of its youth and women to the experience of the older generation to spring a surprise on the world. Let us stop the present from aborting our future prosperity. An English philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) put this role of the youth in society this way: “Young men (and women) are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for counsel and fitter for new projects than for settled business.”

Decades ago, the United States of America worked on this principle and brought out youthful John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Several years later, the aging Soviet Republic followed that tradition by calling upon Mikhail Gorbachev. Their societies never regretted those decisions.

• Ojewale is a writer and journalist at Ota, Ogun State