Category: Special Report

Tales of grinding poverty, abandonment, and lack of basic amenities reverberate daily in two Lagos slums, reducing dwellers of Irede and Ajegunle communities to lives of perpetual misery and insecurity, reports Associate Editor ADEKUNLE YUSUF

Call it a pathetic life in the day of two Lagos slums – and you will be absolutely right to describe the revealing trip as one. But the journey took off on a rather dour note. That was on Monday April 11, when the usual early-morning Lagos traffic almost killed the enthusiasm of the travelling team members. On that day, getting to the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, which had been fixed as the place of rendezvous by a team of academic researchers and a few reporters, turned out to be a nightmarish endeavour.

However, undaunted by the gruelling traffic distress and firmly determined to accomplish the mission, we took solace in the fact that the journey to Apapa Wharf eventually began. Right from Apapa, the trip turned out to be an emotional roller coaster. Even before approaching our destination, we had a foretaste of daily existential risks inhabitants of Irede, a neglected community in Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area, pass through every day.

At a point designated as the ‘harbour’ in Apapa Wharf, we were treated to our first shock when it was to embark on a canoe trip to their final destination. This was after paying the mandatory fees at the ‘tollgate.’ Surprisingly, what passed as life jackets that operators of wooden boats give to passengers were improvised sleeveless contraptions that lacked all safety inputs: no grab strap, buckle or oral inflation tube. Faced with no other alternatives, the team boarded the ramshackle canoes nevertheless, not minding attendant risks involved in a water trip without life jackets!

Now into the waiting arms of the locals that had assembled in the Glorious Fresh Primary School, a classroom building that doubles as a school and church in Irede, the research team swung into action. Without any further ado, the research team lead, Dr Peter Elias, a Senior Lecturer and Principal Investigator, Department of Geography, University of Lagos, serenaded the audience with findings of a research that was jointly conducted by the Lagos Urban Studies Group, University of Lagos, and the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation, in Irede and other neglected communities. Other members of the team included Prof. Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika, the first female Professor of Mass Communication at the University of Lagos, and Ms Margret Andresen, a United States-based media expert from the University of California.

It was a novel collaboration across disciplines among scholars whose research interests are biased in favour of studying slums and what makes each slum and other neglected populations tick. The research, entitled: “Giving Voice to Slums: Creating Digital Urban Platform for Community Self-Reporting amid COVID-19,’ aimed to understand the socio-economic conditions and health behaviours of slum dwellers during COVID-19.

Another novelty of the research is that it was conducted by the locals themselves, instead of the usual practice of having academics administer questionnaires or conducting focus group sessions. To achieve the purpose, the researchers first trained and empowered some of the locals, who understand the psychographics and demographics of their communities, with the requisite research skills to conduct interviews.

But Irede was not the only slum that was studied. A week later, the research team also berthed at Ajegunle, another neglected community that serves as home to no fewer than 1.5 million people. The trips to the two jungles were thus an opportunity to provide feedback or – let the locals see and hear from themselves, since the research was carried out by their sons and daughters.

What the findings said about the plight of slum dwellers

The research, which was carried out to understand the socio-economic conditions and health-seeking behaviours of slum communities during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, showed that the education of children was put on hold during the lockdown in a community where more than half of the populace is either self-employed or petty traders. This made slum residents struggle for survival during the COVID-19 crisis, it said.

Among other things, the findings established that the vast majority of Irede and Ajegunle people depend on water vendors for survival; just as malaria topped the list of most common illnesses afflicting the inhabitants, thus pushing the poor folks to depend mostly on roadside drug sellers and herbal medicine vendors since there is no public hospital close to them.

Studies have shown that many Lagos residents live in informal settlements, with no or limited access to basic amenities or social services. This is so because with new immigrants trooping to the megacity every day from the country’s vast rural areas, pressure surges on the already poor living conditions, spewing interconnected social, environmental and health crises. Despite the hardship, more and more people come to Lagos every year. It is speculated that two out of three Lagos residents live in a slum with no reliable access to clean drinking water, electricity, waste disposal – even roads.

Over 60 per cent of the residents of Lagos are poor and live in the over 100 slums and informal settlements scattered across the city. They lack water, sanitation, and other basic services. This makes them particularly vulnerable during a health crisis. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHS) defines a slum as a wide range of low-income settlements and/or poor human living conditions, which include the vast informal settlements that are quickly becoming the most visual expression of urban poverty. This is also the case in other cities in Nigeria, where the growth rate of urban population is faster than economic growth, which increasingly out-paces health and social services.

Dr Elias, while interpreting the findings of the research, attributed poor urban policies and regulation as factors contributing to the proliferation of slums in Lagos. For slum residents struggle to survive during the COVID-19 lockdown showed that palliatives and other support items from the state or non-state actors did not reach the most vulnerable segments of the population, he added. To change this, especially in future emergencies, the research team lead advised that the governments and non-state actors should devise a better and far more equitable strategy for distributing resources to those in critical need such as the poor slum dwellers.

While providing communication perspectives to the findings, Prof. Ogwezzy-Ndisika explained that the fact that rural folks depend almost solely on radio and television should send a powerful message to policymakers that slum dwellers have preferred means of accessing information. And in order to tackle the information gap between the slum dwellers and the government, she enjoined those in public office to use radio and television any time the need arises for public mobilisation to avoid misinformation.

“Our findings showed that radio and television are their preferred channels of communication with 39.10 per cent and 32.60 per cent getting information from this platform. This implies that radio and television are the best channels for reaching the majority of the slum dwellers, while the Internet is the third option.

“There should be synergy between the government and the people when it comes to development issues. People who live in the Ajegunle community do not have access to decent and quality housing and generally cannot access basic services such as water and sanitation, which is critical to disease prevention,” Ogwezzy-Ndisika said.

While urging the long-suffering communities to use all means of communication available to them to amplify their yearnings to foster development in the areas, she enjoined policymakers to always plan development programmes in conjunction with community members; instead of the usual practice of planning for the community.

Irede residents: “We have no light, no potable water, no electricity, and no hospital”

No doubt, Irede, an island slum with over 3,000 Nigerians existing in the unnoticed bowels of Apapa Wharf in Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State, is a study in total neglect. Thus, to say the slum inhabitants battle the excruciatingly harsh realities of lack of basic social amenities is to say the obvious. Being an island, the locals are mainly fishermen, artisans, and petty traders, who understand the true meanings of poverty, suffering and living without basic amenities, having suffered neglect by successive governments.

While recounting their ordeals as they daily eke out miserable living, residents told The Nation that the slum they call home has become an endangered enclave for them all, with expectant mothers, the aged and children being the worst hit. But the expectant mothers bear the brunt the most, making pregnancy more or less a curse for the female slum dwellers.

This explains why Irede regularly buries some of its expectant mothers who are unfortunate to develop childbirth labour in the dead of the night. Reason: canoe service, which is the only means of transport to access communities where health care delivery is available, is often in abeyance. Yet, the only private clinic operating in Irede is inaccessible to the vast majority of the rural folks as a result of what they regarded as prohibitive charges.

Recently, the untimely death of Abidemi Ogunlesi, a middle-aged expectant mother who passed away inside a boat on her way to the hospital, threw the entire community into a mourning mood. Ogunlesi went into labour at midnight, but could not access medical care because there was none available in the community.

According to the locals, the community was enveloped in total confusion on the day she died, as it took over an hour for boat operators to get fuel before she could be taken from Irede to Apapa. Because the slum dwellers could access outside communities in Apapa only by boat, the delay cost Ogunlesi her life as she passed on inside the boat that was meant to convey her to where she could get succour.

Sadly, it takes more than one hour to access the only primary health care centre in the nearest community where such a facility exists. Reason: the neighbouring community is only accessible through a rickety plank bridge, which regularly leads to people drowning in the sea as they frantically rush to reach the neighbouring island. Residents said they have lost count of the number of expectant mothers or their badly sick neighbours who have met their Waterloos in the process of seeking health care services outside the slum.

But Ogunlesi’s was just one of many deaths involving expectant mothers in the unfortunate community. Also last year, another woman lost her precious life in similar circumstances because of a lack of health facilities and better or more reliable means of mobility. The resultant poor situation has forced expectant mothers and others to depend on traditional or herbal healing homes in the slum for succour – also at exorbitant charges.

At times, things sometimes go awry in the hands of traditional birth attendants, forcing residents to pool resources to transport expectant mothers in dire situations from traditional healing homes to hospitals in Apapa or any other place on the mainland. Many times when residents are confronted with such medical emergencies, time is usually not a friend in a trip of about an hour, leaving any badly sick or expectant mother in dire straits. Besides the absence of health care facilities, other basic amenities such as potable water, electricity and schools are conspicuously lacking in the slum.

In Irede, sachet water, commonly known as ‘pure water,’ is N50 per piece – as against N20 in most parts of Lagos. According to Mrs Dominant Okani, she and other fellow residents in Irede slum depend on vendors for their daily water needs, which come at a huge cost for poor community dwellers who struggle to get by. This became worse during COVID-19 lockdowns when human and vehicular restrictions were enforced to stem the rising tide of community infections.

Mary Ola, a resident of Irede, said she contemplated quitting her husband at some point due to an acute crisis of non-availability of water during the lockdowns, adding that she almost lost her life to water scarcity at the time. “My husband and I almost separated during COVID-19 because there was no water. We consumed more pure water and, at some point, my husband began to lock up some pure water in his shops. My children and I were drinking from different sources of water. I fell ill in the process and thank God I didn’t die,” she said.

As for children, going to school comes with tears. Daily, they have to embark on a risky canoe trip to go to schools in communities outside Irede, as there is no public school – either primary or secondary – in the slum.

Ajegunle residents: “Flood, lack of drainage, poor health care facility killing us”

Not only residents of Irede community are in a quandary. In Ajegunle, a neglected community along Ikorodu Road that serves as home to over 1.5 million people, residents continually agonise about their poor living conditions.  Although Ajegunle cannot be described as a riverside community, inhabitants lament that they have witnessed the recurrent loss of lives, notably among expectant mothers and the elderly people as a result of recurrent floods and lack of reliable health services. In a community inhabited by over 1.5 million people, the only tarred street is Zion Street, while hundreds of street roads are in a sorry state – unkempt, with no drainage.

During the rainy season, Ajegunle is like a hell on earth, as all the streets, houses, shops, rooms and worship centres are often completely taken over by floods throughout the wet period. As deplorable as the period normally gets in the slum, the situation often plummets from bad to worse each time the Oyan Dam is opened, sending inhabitants of the already flood-prone community to months of unmitigated agony and disaster.

According to the residents, people often resort to using canoes to move around the community, since the entire community is often submerged. The only canal that was dredged to ease the community of flood was not completed. A resident lamented: “We live in fear of the unknown. Any time it rains, especially at night, we may just be swept away and that’s death.”

Besides the crisis of recurrent flooding afflicting residents, the Ajegunle community shares the misfortune of lack of potable water with Irede. The Chairman, Ajegunle Community Development Area (CDA), Mr Sunday Awobona, said the community faces is lack of water – a problem that has been there for decades. He said his people are unhappy because they have not felt the impact of government, adding that his people have resigned to fate after years of seeking the government’s attention without success.

“We have been begging them for a very long time to connect us with the water in Mile 12, but nothing has happened. We don’t have water to drink and we wonder if we have a government. We only depend on vendors for potable water, which goes for N100 for a keg of 25 litres. How do we cope with that? This is a community that has government officials. This is Lagos State not anywhere else?” he said.

There is also poor access to health care facilities for Ajegunle residents. Ajegunle Health Centre, located on Omo West Close, is the only health facility that serves over 1.5 million residents. When the clinic closes daily at 4:00 p.m., residents said they are usually faced with uncertainties whenever they are in urgent need of health care service, especially the aged and expectant mothers. According to the Baale of Ajegunle Community, Chief Moyosore Oladunjoye, the health centre is not well-equipped and has not have enough drugs to cater for the many health challenges residents regularly face.

Any hope of meeting Sustainable Development Goals 3 & 4?

The pathetic living conditions in slums run contrary to the expectations of the Sustainable Development 3 (SDG 3 or Global Goal 3), which primes good health and well-being as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015: “To ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.”  The targets of SDG 3 cover and focus on various aspects of healthy life and healthy lifestyle, which is a mirage in slums.

Living in the slums where access to good education is usually non-existent is also a negation of SDG 4, which is about quality education. This goal, which seeks to ensure that all girls and boys complete free primary and secondary schooling by 2030, also aims to provide equal access to affordable vocational training, and to eliminate gender and wealth disparities with the aim of achieving universal access to a quality higher education.

By Innocent Duru, Chris Njoku, Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt, Owerri, Elo Edremoda, Warri

• Bereaved father recalls last moment with deceased 17-year-old son

• ‘My late sister sustained our family with proceeds from illegal refinery’ 

• Explosion victims driven by hunger, neglect, says monarch

• How The Nation report warned of disaster last year

Friday April 22, 2022 is a day that would linger in the memory of Uche Okodo. It was the day his 17-year-old son, Okechukwu, left for work but never returned.

The school certificate holder was one of the victims of the explosion that occurred at Abaezi Forest in Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State, killing no fewer than 150 people.

Distraught Okodo recalled that Okechukwu was at home earlier on that fateful day when he received a call from someone inviting him for a job in the forest.

Without an inkling of the ugly fate that awaited him, Okechukwu heeded the call and bade his father what later turned out an eternal farewell.

“I did not have the slightest premonition that it was my last moment with my son. Even after I received the news of his death in the explosion, I was still hoping that he would still show up at home. But it is almost one week now and the reality is beginning to dawn on me that I may never see him again.

The father of five children appealed to other youths not to get involved in the kind of venture that ended his son’s life.

“I have resigned to fate because there is nothing I can do to bring him back. But I want to appeal to other people, particularly the youth, to avoid this type of job,” he said.

A similarly sorrowful tale came from David Chukwubuike, another mourner who lost his sister in the deadly explosion. Chukwubuike said he was in Onitsha when the news filtered in that his elder sister was involved in the incident.

“My elder sister had been doing the business for long. It was the business she did to help the family,” he said.

“I am sad about the death of my sister who has been sustaining the family with the business. She has lived in the area for a very long time. She also got married there,” he added.

Although it was five days after the disastrous incident occurred, air of horror hung palpably over Abaezi when our correspondent visited the scene of the disaster on Wednesday.

Carcasses of vehicles, boots, shoes, bags and clothes littered the scene, while an odious stench filled the air.

Some residents who spoke with our correspondent were yet to recover from the shock of the horrible incident as they fought back tears while responding to the reporter’s enquiries.

Many of them were still terrified by the sights that confronted them at the scene of the incident, which they said would remain indelible in their memories and annals of the community. They likened the sight to a scene of roasted cows and chickens.

“I could not eat for days after seeing human bodies roast like chickens. I saw a man who tried to climb a tree in order to escape but the fire caught him as he held the branch of the tree,” a resident who identified herself as Ngozi Obitti said.

She said she wept throughout the day after seeing the huge number of roasted victims and the magnitude of destruction the fire left in its wake.

A 70-year-old grandmother, Madam Adaeze Hacluse, who residence is less than six kilometres from the scene of the explosion, described it as terrible, strange and unusual.

“I have been lived here for years but never heard of this kind of incident where people are roasted in fire like cows,” he said.

Another resident, Roland Nwalu, said he was woken up by the loud sound of the explosion, adding that the incident triggered confusion in the early hours of that fateful day.

He said: “I was completely brought down to my knees when I heard the loud sound.

“I did not know the direction it came from until a friend called to inform me that many people were trapped in the forest where they were doing oil business and we all rushed to the place.

“On getting there around 5:30 am, I saw many burnt vehicles with corpses littering the area.

“I could not believe my eyes after seeing the property that was destroyed by the fire.

“Among other valuable items, about 10 vehicles parked by those who came to do business in the area were destroyed. My brother, I could not hold back tears.”

In a report it published last year, this newspaper had raised the alarm about the dangers posed by illegal oil bunkering in the state.

Titled ‘Our battles with oil spillage, illegal bunkerers, others – Imo oil producing communities’ the report was published on August 28, 2021.

But in spite of the magnitude of the revelations contained in the report, little or nothing was done by the authorities to address the issue.

The Nzeobi of Egbema Ancient Kingdom, HRH Eze GOH Ariaga, told The Nation that the explosion that occurred in his kingdom was a colossal disaster unprecedented in the history of his communities.

He said: “It is unprecedented in the annals of our history. Never had we suffered so much loss in one night.

“Mistakes might have been made by the people involved. I suggest that this is the time to come to our aid as a people because there is weeping in all the communities.

“People are in tears as loved ones were lost in a very unexpected and tragic way.

“The unfortunate thing is that the transactions were obviously illegal. Otherwise, our reaction would have been different. That is why we are quiet.

“We cannot blame the dead. We all know the level of hunger, deprivation and suffering over the years.”

He said the preoccupation of the communities now is how to collectively prevent a reoccurrence of the ugly incident.

“Our present position is how do we cut measures that all, including all those who have been expressing their sorrow, could collectively ameliorate the situation to forestall a reoccurrence either in Egbema or anywhere else, because this is the time to think ahead, a time to begin to do a stockpiling, an assessment of what could have led these people to this kind of situation.

“If you go on sightseeing around the communities, you will weep for us. Even as I speak to you, there are tears in my eyes because the level of abandonment and neglect we suffer is so unimaginable that even as we apportion blame, we should know that these people are like very hungry persons who saw food but ate it in a very illegal and dangerous way.

“We have been called criminals and, of course, that is correct because anything that the law has forbidden is a criminal act. But again, let us beat the child with the right hand and use the left hand to bring him back.”

The traditional ruler said he had tried many times to warn the people against indulging in the illegal activity but they would not hear, adding that there is a limit to which he could monitor their activities because most times,  the business is done late in night, making it impossible for him to leave his palace at those odd hours.

“As we accept that all that happened was as a result of an illegal activity which we have warned our people against, we had been assisting security agents to trail them before the incident.

“But I cannot be the one to go to the middle of the thick forest dead in the night, about 2am to 3am, to know what is happening,” he said.

He blamed the oil companies for distancing themselves from the palace rather than incorporating it in surveillance, adding that since the incident occurred, not one person other than newsmen had visited to commiserate with the communities.

The monarch said: “These companies that are operating in the area have no relationship with the palace of the Eze. They don’t give us any surveillance information. They don’t give us details of pipelines so that we can even have firsthand information of what is happening.

“They give the responsibility to their business partners, colleagues and families and their contractors to monitor the pipelines for them.

“As we are mourning, we are still begging the government and oil companies for a change of heart because the practice that was going on was what was left behind by the multi-national companies when they came early to Nigeria. “The people of the communities don’t matter. What matters is the business and the money they are making. This was how the youths had access to meddle with pipeline facilities.

“So, I am calling on the multinationals, the international community and the federal and state governments to at least still do something for the communities.”

He suggested the building of an industry at the explosion’s site, adding that the bottom line of the incident is unemployment and poverty.

Other community leaders speak

The representative of Egbema Ward E in the Imo State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (ISOPADEC), Clinton Chima, decried the incident regretting that the dealers of the illegal bunkering go into NNPC pipelines to break and tap oil from it.

“It is painful we have to experience what we have never expected to happen. We have been appealing to our people to desist from such act.

He said: “Illegal bunkering is against the law, but the people do not have a choice because their needs are not met and they have no alternative but to enter into it.

“But it is bad. You cannot be doing the right thing in a secret environment. Though we feel bad about the incident, we hope it will be a lesson for others who are in it.”

Destiny Isinwa, an activist from Ohaji-Egbema, said the incident, which he described as a big tragedy, was avoidable if the government had taken necessary steps to gainfully engage the youths in the area. He blamed the security agencies for being responsible for most of the illegal oil thefts in the oil producing communities. “Everybody is just playing pranks. It is a conspired business going on between the operators, security agencies and some government functionaries. “They cannot claim ignorance of the deal.

“In my community, at every pole you will see a security checkpoint comprising the military, civil defence and others. You will see tanks everywhere with security personnel escorting them.”

He said the dealers pay millions of naira to secure escort for their tanks out of the site.

“Most of the NSDSC personnel are driving posh cars,” a source disclosed.

The Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, Joseph Baba Akubo, said there were a number of tanks and other bunkering facilities that the Army had seized to check the illegal activity in the area.

“For us in the Army, I don’t want to believe that is true. We don’t escort any tank. There are some of those tanks we have arrested, and if you come to the barracks, you will see them.

“We don’t condole any illegal oil bunkering. There are certified documents they are supposed to have.

If they don’t have them, they will not be allowed to operate, and if you have your valid papers, you don’t need any escort.

“We have seized a number of tanks without approved papers. We cannot condole illegal bunkering. The commander is fighting it with full force.”

Also, the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL), the apex socio-political youth group in the South East geopolitical zone, has called on government to show serious concern about the devastation across oil producing communities.

The organisation’s President General, Goodluck Ibem, attributed unemployment and neglect as the main reason most youths indulge in illegal activities such as bunkering and pipeline vandalisation.

“It is poverty, unemployment and neglect of oil communities by the federal government and oil companies exploring oil in those communities.

“The neglect of government and oil companies exploring oil in these communities is the primary reason why most host communities keep quiet and allow vandals break oil pipelines, knowing that they will benefit from the act.

“Nobody that is gainfully employed and making ends meet will dare risk his life to venture into scoping fuel or kerosene from a vandalized pipeline. “It is purely a venture undertaken by persons who are looking for how to make ends meet or to put food on the table.

“A hungry man who has a family and family dependants to feed will not hesitate to go into any venture that will enable him redeem his right and ego before his family as a man.

“But we have to call a spade a spade; oil bunkering is bad and it is unlawful to indulge in it.

“The federal government and the oil companies should provide gainful employment for our teeming youths, build good schools, give uninterrupted power supply, construct good roads, pay monthly stipends to aged people in those communities and provide necessary social amenities needed to make life comfortable for them.”

The state government assured that measures were being taken to ensure that the menace of illegal oil bunkering is brought to an end in the state.

Goodluck Nanah Opiah, the Commissioner for Petroleum Resources, while commiserating with the families of the dead, prayed for the repose of the souls of tbose who lost their lives in the explosion, describing the incident as unfortunate.

“Opiah who had ealier declared the owners of the illegal refinery, Victor Ukwe and Okenze Onyenwoke wanted,  said that government would no longer treat those who engage in illegal oil bunkering with kid glove, assuring that no matter how stubborn the challenge of illegal oil blundering is, it remains surmountable.

He called on the people to collaborate with the government in the fight against the menace.

“Inasmuch as the challenges always encountered in the fight against illegal oil bunkering are stubborn, they are also very much surmountable. In other words, illegal oil bunkering can be effectively stopped.

“But then, this can only be achieved through strong commitment and collaboration between the people and government.

“The truth is, if we can always expose criminals amongst us, constantly and reasonably demand for accountability from government(s) while staying true to our civic responsibility of always ensuring we elect responsible and responsive leaders into government, the issue of illegal oil bunkering and indeed other crimes will drastically reduce.

“Government will no longer view illegal oil bunkering as a tool for blackmail, sabotage, bully or agitation against government. Rather, it should be rightly taken for what it is – a fundamental crime and therefore existential threat,” he said.

He called on the youths of the oil producing communities to ignore the allure of illegal oil bunkering, saying: “I appeal to all of us citizens of oil producing areas to ignore the unnecessary attraction or allure in the illegal oil bunkering business and embrace the call by government and well-meaning citizens of the state in the advocacy against the menace.

“I invite every Imo State citizen, especially people of the oil producing areas, to support and appreciate the governor’s struggle to recover the hitherto lost oil wells to our neighbouring state, Rivers.

“The effect of the uncommon fight is that Imo State will be counted among the top highest producers of oil in the Niger Delta.  The benefits of this leap jump are huge in material and non-material terms.

“Illegal oil bunkering has the potential to make nonsense of the whole efforts of Governor  Uzodimma as the menace can simply reduce Imo State’s contribution to the national crude allocation to zero thus making us the least in the comity of oil producing states.”

He said that in few days to come, government would be meeting with critical stakeholders in the oil producing communities as part of finding solutions to the menace of illegal oil bunkering.

Opiah also called on the Church to be at the vanguard of the fight against crime, including illegal oil bunkering, adding that people who engage in illegal bunkering are also known as oil thieves.

He described illegal oil bunkering as a menace and the people involved in the act, wicked.

He noted that illegal bunkering is an organised crime with a network of accomplices of varied interests including some oil company workers, some security agents, community leaders and parents.

The Commissioner highlighted some of the negative effects of the illegal oil bunkering as economic sabotage that slows developmental effort of government, environmental degradation, rape, drug abuse and insecurity to mention a few.

The Managing Director of Imo State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (ISOPADEC), Charles Orie, said illegal oil bunkering, like every other criminal act, is a pure sabotage to the economy of the state and nation at large which has continued to rob the people of their common patrimony.

He said: “It is worrisome as to why young people will continue to choose criminality, especially one that puts their lives in great danger as oil bunkering.

“While we continue to support the stand of the shared prosperity government of Governor Hope Uzodimma against criminality and illegal oil bunkering in the state, we  appeal to all those involved in the illicit act to immediately put an end to it else the long arm of the law will surely catch up with them.”

He assured that the commission will collaborate with the state government, Ministry of Petroleum and other relevant stakeholders/bodies to assess the level of damages caused by the explosion and carry out all necessary measures to avoid further damages and future reoccurrence.

 Anxiety in Rivers, Delta

In Rivers State, similar incidents happened recently and claimed many lives. In October last year, for instance, more than 25 persons were roasted at an illegal refinery’s site explosion located in Rumuekpe, Emoha Local Government Area. Many of the victims were burnt beyond recognition.

Despite the dangers associated with illegal bunkering and artisanal refining of crude oil, investigations revealed that most of the communities and people involved in the criminal enterprise are not willing to quit.

Apart from the use of brute force by security agencies to dislodge the illegal business, most of the operators beleive that the emerging tragedies are caused by carelessness.

David Iheoma, a businessman, said in Ibaa, his community, operators of the illegal business were not willing to quit until soldiers stormed their sites and destroyed them completely.

He said: “My community in Emohua Local Government Area had many cooking sites despite the dangers associated with the business. They would always tell you that those tragic incidents were caused by people who did not know how to operate illegal refineries.

“It was booming until a special force from the Nigerian Army stormed the camps and completely destroyed them. Operators just retreated because I know that they will still regroup and return to rebuild their sites.”

David says while security agencies have sufficiently destroyed illegal bunkering sites located upland, the business is still thriving in coastal communities, which are not easily accessible.

He particularly mentioned Ke in Degema and riverine communities in Asari Toru and Akuku-Toru as places that still have functional illegal refineries.

Though security operatives have sufficiently dislodged operators at Rumuekpe where over 25 persons were burnt beyond recognition, a community leader in the area, Ifeanyi Omano, blamed illegal refineries in his community on oil multinationals.

He said the oil companies failed to live up to their responsibilities; a situation he said compelled the youths to set up artisenal refineries.

He said: “These are oil giants are multinationals who have done business with the community for more than 50 years. But they have left only horror and blood. If something drastic is not done, I can assure you that the prospect of the community going into extinction is very high”.

A non-government organisation (NGO), Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC), which expressed sadness over the Imo tragedy, said it was high time all stakeholders teamed up to stop illegal oil bunkering.

The  Executive Director of YEAC, Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, said: “The advocacy centre calls on youths in the state to stop artisanal refineries and work with YEAC, which is also the National Facilitator of Project with Artisanal Crude Oil Refiners (PACOR) for Modular Refineries in the Niger Delta to demand for the immediate establishment of Modular Refineries and the establishment of Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative (PACORDI) among others as alternative livelihood opportunities for the youths.

“We also call on the Rivers State Government to reactivate the Committee on alternative livelihood opportunities for artisanal refiners headed by the Deputy Governor, Dr. Ipalibo Banigo.

“It is worthy of note that with this and related massive loss of lives as a result of fire incidents and explosions from artisanal refining sites and products still happening in Rivers State that the government’s war against artisanal refining in the state declared by the governor on January 1, 2022 has failed to achieve its intended results.

“Besides, security operatives in Rivers State and the Niger Delta should go beyond policing to advising the government on ways of using the carrot and stick approach to address the problem of artisanal refining to save our environment, lives and revenue to government for socio-economic development of the Niger Delta and Nigeria at large.”

David Campbell, a Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame and former chairperson of the Political Science Department at the Department of State, discusses recent research on the relationship between faith, religious beliefs, their influence on voting and political participation, and potential role in the United States 2022 midterms. Campbell, at a virtual briefing organised by the Washington Foreign Press Centre as part of the U.S. Midterm Elections Series, concludes that the three important things to know about religion and American elections are the Catholic vote, white evangelicals and secularism, reports United States Bureau Chief OLUKOREDE YISHAU. Excerpts:

Point number one:  There is no Catholic vote.  In the past, it actually was the case that American Catholics as a group voted very much as a bloc.  So, if you go back to, for example, the days of John F. Kennedy, our first Catholic President in the United States, roughly 80 per cent of American Catholics voted for the Democrat, whoever the Democrat was – whether he was Kennedy, a fellow Catholic, or, frankly, another Democrat who was not a Catholic.  So, there was once a time when we could speak of a lot of uniformity among the American Catholic vote.

But currently, when we speak of American Catholics as a group, they look pretty much like everybody else in the population.  And so, every election cycle, I have reporters call me and want me to comment on the Catholic vote, and what will the Catholic vote be in this upcoming election. And every time I try to explain there is no single Catholic vote.  You could say there are Catholic votes, plural.  There are different segments, different groups of American Catholics that vote distinctively.  But as a whole, they do not.  And nonetheless, those reporters, after speaking to me and I give my lecture on why there is no single Catholic vote, inevitably write an article with the headline, “What the Catholic Vote Will Do in the Upcoming American Election.”

Let me just show you some evidence about American Catholics and what I mean by the fact that they’re not especially distinctive. What you’re looking at is data from a very, very large, nationally representative survey of Americans, and in particular American voters, in 2020.  Each bar shows you the percentage of these groups – Catholics and then all non-Catholics – who voted for Joe Biden for President.  And you can see that, first of all, the two bars look very, very similar to each other, and to the extent there is a difference, Catholics as a whole were actually slightly less likely to vote for Joe Biden, the Democrat, than were everybody else.

This, of course, is a dramatic change from years past where that line for Catholics would have been much, much higher.  I should also note, however, that there is nothing unusual here about the Biden candidacy because this is pretty much what the Catholic/non-Catholic vote would have looked like in 2016 or even 2012 or even going as far back as 2008. And frankly, this is what we would expect to see in the upcoming midterm elections with the –sort of the per cent Biden vote, if you just sort of think of the per cent of people voting for whoever the Democrat is in their congressional district or in their state.

The Evangelicals

I’m going to move on to my next topic, which is white evangelicals. As you can see, white evangelicals matter, and I’ll show you some evidence of that in a moment, but – and this is extremely important–not all evangelicals are alike.  So, I’m going to talk a little bit about how white evangelical Protestants – again, these are Protestants who either attend a church that we would call evangelical in its theology or they describe themselves as being a born again or evangelical Christian–they are the base of the Republican Party.  And I’ll show you that that’s been the case now for many years.

However – and this is important to keep in mind – white evangelicals are not all evangelicals in America.  Evangelicals of color often vote differently than white evangelicals, and this often gets missed in the discussion of the evangelical vote in America.  And then I’ll show you a little bit of evidence that I hope kind of gets you into the mindset of many American evangelicals who feel persecuted, which helps to explain many of the policy positions that are taken by, especially Republican politicians who are seeking to mobilize the evangelical vote.  They’re often playing on that sense of persecution or that sense that they are losing status in American society.

All right, so let me move to the evidence for why white evangelicals matter.  What you’re looking at is how white evangelicals – and I’ve just shown as a comparison white Catholics – how they voted in presidential elections going back to 2004. This is based on exit polls; that’s polls of people as they’re leaving the polling place. And you can see that the percentage of white evangelicals voting for the Republican candidate, whether it’s George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney, or Donald Trump twice – those numbers have not changed very much.  They’ve been somewhere between 70, upwards of 80 per cent.  Donald Trump topped out at about 80 per cent of white evangelicals voting for him.

So, there’s been a lot of discussion, of course, in the Trump era about why white evangelicals would vote for Donald Trump, and I can understand why that’s a question.  There are many things about Donald Trump that you might think would not have attracted evangelicals. But on the other hand, we should remember that in American politics, party matters most.  And so, it should not be surprising that a heavily Republican group that had voted for a Republican candidate in the past would continue to vote for the Republican candidate regardless of who it is, whether it’s Donald Trump or Mitt Romney or George W. Bush.

This is very likely to continue in the 2020 midterm elections, even without a presidential race at the top of the ticket. So, I would expect to see that white evangelicals will continue to vote heavily Republican and maybe even more so than what we see reflected here.  And again, I just show the comparison with white Catholics to make the point that it’s not just simply white voters or white religious voters, it’s white evangelicals that are highly distinctive in their support for the Republicans.

Christian nationalism in America

I’ve covered a lot of ground here, but let me just pause or bring us to a pause to take some questions by closing on three important points, I think, to look for in the future.  One of them is the growing sense of Christian nationalism in the United States.  So, you might think of this soft form of nationalism is the idea that many Americans hold that America has been chosen by God, or that it is primarily a Christian nation, and should be set apart from other nations because it has been preserved as a Christian nation.  That view has long been present in American politics, but it has begun to coalesce around an increasingly militant group often found among white evangelicals; although they’re still a relatively small share of that group.  We saw a manifestation of Christian nationalism on January 6 at the Capitol insurrection, but you’ll find it all across the country.

I don’t want to overstate it.  It’s not as though everyone who holds the belief that America is a Christian nation is necessarily ready to take up arms against their government.  But there certainly is a subset of Americans who do believe that, and those beliefs are rooted in this idea of America being a divinely ordained country. And that sentiment seems to be growing. It’s something to keep an eye on.

The other question is:  Will we see more Democrats use religious appeals as they are out campaigning?  We’ve seen a little bit of this.  In fact, Joe Biden himself – President Biden is quite comfortable talking about his own Catholicism, and here and there we’ve seen examples of Democratic candidates speaking about their religious background.  An example would be Senator Raphael Warnock, who is actually pastor, doing so in his Senate race back in 2020.  But it’s always interesting to ask ourselves:  Will we see Democrats try to appeal more to those religious voters, and not simply cede that territory to the Republicans?

And then the last thing to keep an eye on that I mentioned when I was discussing the rise of secularism in America, and that’s on whether or not we will see the growth of a secular left movement to parallel the religious right.  I will just close by noting that roughly 40 years ago, there was this new group appearing on the American political scene.  They went by different names.  Sometimes they were called evangelicals.  Sometimes they were called fundamentalists.  Sometimes they just didn’t have a label at all. But they were growing in their importance.  And today, we call them the religious right.  I suggest that we may be seeing something similar happen with secular voters.  We don’t quite know what to call them, but we know they’re growing.  We know that they’re important in politics. And I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see some form of a secular left growing – maybe not in 2022, maybe not in 2024, but in the medium-term it’s again a trend to keep your eyes on.

Religion and unity in the American society 

Well, the first thing to know is when we talk about the religious beliefs of various Americans, what actually matters more than whether they are a Republican or a Democrat is which religion they affiliate with. And then those religious groups, in turn, are kind of grouped either among the Democrats or among the Republicans.  So, an example would be – I mentioned abortion earlier. Abortion gets a lot of attention because it’s a dominant issue in American politics. But the group that is really staunchly opposed to abortion is not Catholics, as I mentioned earlier, but actually white evangelicals. They are the group that are the most fervently, if you will, opposed to abortion, and of course, white evangelicals, as I noted, generally line up with the Republican Party.

If you look, however, at other religious groups, you do see more variety in the religious beliefs that they hold and how those might translate into politics.  So, let me give you another example of a group that doesn’t, perhaps, get as much attention lately, but when Mitt Romney was running for president got a lot of attention, and that is American Mormons, or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as they’re officially known.

Mormons are not a huge share of the population, but they’re sort of roughly comparable to American Jews.  And the reason why they’re an interesting example of a group where religious beliefs don’t necessarily map easily onto the political landscape is they are a very Republican group, perhaps, even more so than white evangelicals.  And yet, many of the beliefs that they hold are not the same as evangelicals. For example, they don’t hold the same belief on abortion.  They also don’t hold the same belief on immigration. They’re more moderate or liberal, even, on immigration, and yet they nonetheless line up with the Republican Party. It’s a fascinating development.

Whether or not Americans will vote for an atheist

It has long been understood, it’s conventional wisdom in American politics, that to describe yourself as an atheist is politically radioactive. And an example of this would be Bernie Sanders back in 2016. He was, in some leaked emails, accused of being an atheist.  And even though Bernie Sanders is very much a guy who marches to the beat of his own drummer, he openly calls himself a socialist, which is also thought to be radioactive in the U.S.. He, nonetheless, went on CNN to say it was outrageous that he would be called an atheist. Now, I don’t know what Bernie Sanders’ own beliefs are, but it was just very striking that he wanted to be clear that’s not what he – not how he would describe himself.  And if you look at lots of polling data, Americans say they won’t vote for an atheist.

However, I’m less convinced that that is still the case.  I mentioned that the American population is becoming more and more secular, and my colleagues and I have done a fair amount of research–in fact, I’m even giving a paper on Friday on exactly this question – in which we find that more voters than you might think are willing to vote for a candidate who, maybe, doesn’t go so far as to describe him or herself as an atheist, but describes themselves in secular language saying things such as “I don’t identify with a religion,” for example.  That does not seem to be alienating even to Republican voters.  And when we get to the A-word, “atheist,” Republicans shy away, but Democrats don’t seem to be as concerned about a candidate who describes himself as an atheist.

There is, however, a bright line.  Our data are very clear that if a candidate describes him or herself as someone who does not believe in God – now, I know that that is technically the same thing as being an atheist, but we can’t assume everybody knows that – when they use that language, “I do not believe in God,” that’s when voters shy away; whether they are a Democrat or a Republican.

How Muslims vote 

As a group, perhaps not surprisingly, they are highly supportive of the Democratic Party.  However – and this is what’s interesting – that has not always been the case.  So, if you go back to the 2000 presidential election when George W. Bush faced off against Al Gore, in that election, Muslims actually, at least in some parts of the U.S., voted, maybe, not overwhelmingly, for Bush, but they went pretty strongly for Bush. The Bush campaign worked pretty hard to mobilize that group and they sort of emphasized traditional values as a way to build a bridge there.

But after the terrorist attacks of September 11, all of that changed, and even more recently with Trump’s rhetoric on the Muslim ban and other things that he said, it has just, sort of, led Muslims to completely shun the Republican Party.  So, for the time being, American Muslims seem pretty squarely in the Democratic camp, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

This is not the best of times for the Oyo State Government as it continues to bury some of its best human assets. The state wailed on receiving the shocking news of the death of immediate former governor Abiola Ajimobi on June 25, 2020. It was, however, not too difficult to overcome the grief shortly after by the reason of his protracted illness that ended in death.

Then, death receded for 18 months before striking again. This time, it visited the Soun of Ogbomoso, Oba Jimoh Oyewunmi (Ajagungbade2), on December 12 last year. Before the agony waned, death flew to the palace of the late Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Saliu Adetunji (Aje Ogunguniso 1), on January 2 this year. As the state wondered about death’s unwanted visits to the aristocrats in quick succession, it feasted on another former governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, on January 12, leaving indigenes and residents somehow distraught.

For Governor Seyi Makinde, the situation became historical and significant. The state just held the coronation of the new Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Lekan Balogun, in March. A new Soun is yet to be coronated. While smarting from the situation, the most prominent of them, Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola (Adeyemi III), joined his ancestors last Friday. His passage shook the country given his rich history, glamour, elegance, prominent position in Yoruba land and his large sphere of influence.

Oba Adeyemi’s passage still left many bewildered. His appellation as ‘Iku Baba Yeye’ is fully illustrated in how the palace poet praised him as “Omo iku ti iku o gbodo pa; omo arun ti arun o gbodo se; omo ofo ti ofo o gbodo se” (meaning a death’s child who death must not kill; one who must neither be diseased nor suffer loss). Aged 83, Alaafin Adeyemi III commanded huge respect within and outside Yoruba land. He possessed panache, was charismatic and conducted himself in pure royal grandeur. A repository of history of Yoruba and Africa, Oba Adeyemi humbled many with his unparalleled narration of history spiced by his love and display of pure Yoruba culture.

Being the consenting authority to very many obas in old Oyo State and some others in Ogun State, Adeyemi recommended and secured the elevation of many baales to beaded crown-wearing obas including the Olubadan and Soun of Ogbomoso. Others include Timi of Ede, Okere of Saki, Aseyin of Iseyin, Aree of Iree, Akinrun of Ikirun, Olufi of Gbongan and Alayegun of Ode-Omu. He also enjoyed the honour of personally conducting their crowning. In reference to his efforts, Oba Adeyemi once wrote: “This unprecedented innovation of Oba Adeyemi III was in conformity with his oath of office on assuming the office of the most exalted traditional institution in Yoruba land. I have added glamour and dignity to the institution of obaship in Yoruba land, all to the glory of Almighty Allah.”

For Governor Makinde, he has not just buried his immediate two predecessors; he has buried three topmost obas within a space of two years. Politically, the governor will enjoy the opportunity to widen his popularity in Oyo in addition to his rise in Oke-Ogun and Ogbomoso where he has dazzled residents with some projects that rejuvenated their economy and met their aspirations. In spite taking over Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso to end funding crisis, Makinde would have had Alao-Akala to contend with in pursuing his second term ambition. He would have also had a hard time cracking Oba Adeyemi’s political dynasty.

With Ajimobi and Alao-Akala out of the scene, which has dealt a heavier blow on the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), Makinde may have few hurdles to cross to realise his second term ambition. However, should APC leaders find a common ground, end their disarray early enough and present popular national and state assembly candidates, the governor faces a herculean task of overcoming criticism of his policy summersaults, alleged inflated contracts on major projects and shunning of political gate-keepers. Nonetheless, Makinde has been giving befitting burial to the passing leaders. He has also given a firm promise to do the same to Oba Adeyemi.

To Makinde, the demise of the foremost traditional ruler is the fall of a legend in the truest sense of the world. In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Taiwo Adisa, declared that the death of the traditional ruler is a huge loss to the state, Nigeria and the Yoruba race. He also described Adeyemi’s death as a personal loss to him. “I have been informed about the death of our father, His Imperial Majesty, Iku Baba Yeye, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III. I express heartfelt condolences to the Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs, which Oba Adeyemi chaired for decades, the Oyomesi and the entire people of Oyo Kingdom. I equally commiserate with the Oloris, children and entire Adeyemi family on the demise of their patriarch and worthy father.

“Kabiyesi’s departure is a huge loss not only to Oyo State, to which he committed 52 years of his life as the Alaafin of Oyo Kingdom, but also to Nigeria and the entire Yoruba race. Oba Adeyemi was our last man standing in the rank of most eminent royal fathers with long years of leadership.”

 

As the curtain falls on the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi 111, Deputy Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU writes on the unique life and times of one Africa’s most powerful and colourful monarchs.

Yorubaland is bereaved. The vacuum may be difficult to fill. Death sneaked into Oyo, snatching the great monarch, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Atanda Adeyemi 111, at the weekend. He was 83.

In fact, Yoruba lost three eminent natural rulers in quick succession: the Soun of Ogbomoso, Oba Jimoh Oyewumi Ajagungbade, and Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Saliu Adetunji Aje Ogungunniso, whose demise preceded that of Alaafin.

Oba Adeyemi 111 was a colourful personality, full of grace, warmth and magnetism. He was quite electrifying in public; outspoken, very brave, bold, persuasive, cosmopolitan, kind, accessible, highly knowledgeable, always studying and learning, ever current and displaying interpersonal skills.

Highly fashionable, he took pride in his native costume. Anywhere he went to, he was known as a Yoruba man, the copious tribal marks having given him out. He personified Yoruba culture and custom, always appealing to governments of Southwest states not to allow the language to die.

The Atiba Council chairperson, Mrs. Kafilat Olakojo, in her tribute, alluded to the peculiar traditional dress code, dancing steps and proverbs, which portrayed him in positive light as an ambassador of the race. His federal legislator son, Prince Akeem Adeyemi, who lamented the loss, described his father as a patriot and an embodiment of wisdom, who contributed greatly to Yoruba civilisation.

Oba Adeyemi was a philosopher, historian, political scientist, and cultural nationalist; an interpreter of Yoruba talking drums. He once declared that long before the French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher, Baron De Montesquieu, propagated the theory of separation of powers, the doctrine was practised in old Oyo Empire by the Alaafin, Oyomesi and Ogboni cult, who held forte as executive, legislative, and judicial arms, respectively.  He also said there was no difference between the British parliamentary system or Westminster model and the traditional system of administration in Oyo, where Alaafin was president or Head of State, Basorun was Prime Minister and the Oyomesi was the Council of Ministers. The monach was an advocate of the development of local goverment system.

In the last 20 years, Oba Adeyemi had lent his royal voice to the debate on the national question. He was a believer in national unity. But, he always emphasised that when the colonial interlopers came, there was no country called Nigeria on the ground. The over 250 ethnic groups existed separately, with their distinct systems of administration. He often said there was the need to discuss the basis for peaceful coexistence. Therefore, he called for restructuring or devolution of power, with elements of state police, autonomy and unity in diversity.

In recent times, he was also concerned about the worsening insecurity. Oba Adeyemi described security as a collective enterprise. But, he said community or state policing would be helpful in the area of intelligence gathering. He said a Yoruba man posted to Fulani/Hausa enclave or a Kanuri posted to Igboland may not perform because he lacked the knowledge of the geography and sociology of the environment.

Conscious of his illustrious background and history of his forebears, he protected his inheritance and territory jealously. He prided himself as the Suzerain or King of Yoruba, making reference to the letter written by his grandfather, Oba Adeyemi 1, inviting the colonial representative of the British Government, Governor Alfred Moloney of Lagos, to wade into the Ibadan/Ekiti 16 year-old conflict, which historians christened Ekiti Parapo War.

Only three Alaafins can be said to have reigned in modern times. The three were distant successors to Alaafin Adeyemi 1; the other two being his own father, Oba Alhaji Adeniran Adeyemi, and his successor, Oba Gbadegesin Ladigbolu. But, Oba Adeyemi 111, who had the advantage of Western education, was obviously more colourful. Although his illustrious father was forced out of the throne in the aftermath of the Alaafin/Bode Thomas friction, thereby ending his reign on a sad note in exile, God compensated him as his beloved son because he ascended the throne as a youth and departed in a blaze of glory at a ripe age. A golden king, the revered monarch spent 52 glorious years on the throne.

It was possible that Oba Adeniran Adeyemi saw some signs that his son, a poet, drummer, magician, entertainer and sportsman, would inherit the throne later in life. After his elementary school, he urged his friends in Lagos and Abeokuta to assist him in grooming him. The young prince once lived with the prominent nationalist and politician, Chief H.O. Davies, in Lagos, and the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Oladapo Ademola II, in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Since the children of Alake were educated, Alhaji Adeniran Adeyemi wanted his son to be like them. In Egbaland, he witnessed the demonstration against prohibitive tax staged by Egba women, led by Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti.

Oba Ademola had to abdicate the throne and went into exile in Osogbo. Although Prince Lamidi wanted to return to Oyo, Alaafin Adeniran Adeyemi II refused. He insisted that he should endure the suffering with the Alake because when it was robust, he was enjoying in his Ake palace. He said:”Eyele kii ba onile je, ki o ba onile mu,  ki o di ojo iku, ki o yeri (The domestic pigeon does not eat and drink with the owner of the house, but refuses to die with him whenever the occasion arises).

However, Alake Ademola II later pleaded with Alaafin Adeyemi 11 to allow Prince Lamidi to return to Oyo because the harsh conditions in exile had truncated his education. Yet, while Lamidi’s elder brother, Prince Tiamiyu Adebayo, who usually visited the Alake, brought him back to Oyo, Alaafin Adeyemi 11 had harsh words for him. He did not allow Lamidi to stay in the palace. After staying in Adebayo’s house for four months, his father sent him to Lagos to live with his friend, Sir Kofo Abayomi, a distinguished medical doctor and former President of Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM). That was in 1949.

In Lagos, he began primary school afresh at Boys’ Model School, Obalende, founded by Domingo, father of musician Abayomi Domingo. He completed his primary education at Tinubu Methodist School in 1954. Although he passed entrance examinations to Igbobi College, Yaba, and St. Gregiry8College, he opted for the latter because it was closed to Keffi Street, where Dr Abayomi was living. He wrote to his father that he wanted to leave Abayomi’s house because he was no longer enjoying there. His father disagreed, saying that “you have to endure because your stay there is not meant to be enjoyable.”

Later, Alaafin Adeyemi II, a supporter of the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), ran into turbulence. He was cut in the web of politics and deposed by the Action Group (AG) government of Premier Obafemi Awolowo. He also lost his seat at the Oyo Divisional Council and Oyo Southern District Council. He went on exile. The Alaafin never survived the tribulation. He died in 1960, unable to regain his throne. Although Prince Lamidi was preparing to go to London to study law, the plan was truncated by the death of his father. He was succeeded by Oba Ladigbolu. Prince Lamidi’s next point of call was the British Royal Exchange Assurance from 1960 to 1968.

In the book titled: ‘The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba,Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi 111: His Life History and His Philosophy,” written by Kola Owolabi and Sayo Alagbe, there is a full account of Alaafin’s bid for the throne, his selection and enthronement. Fortune smiled on him as the Oyomesi decided to correct what happened to his father. But, some forces in government wanted to create obstacles on his path. The powerful forces tried to influence the appointment of Prince Sanda Ladepo as Alaafin. The duty of selection was transferred from the Oyomesi to Babayaji, who was mandated to submit all applications to the Basorun.  When the Babayaji submitted the list, only Oladepo’s name was found. The people of Oyo rejected the process.

Following the protests, the military governor of Western Region, Col. Adeyinka Adebayo, set up the Magistrate Obileye Panel of Inquiry. Eminent lawyer, Chief Abiodun Akerele, represented Prince Lamidi at the commission. When the obaship suit shifted to the court, Lamidi was represented by Chief Rotimi Williams. He triumphed. A new process of selection was ordered. The interview was rigorous. A large crowd accompanied the man of destiny to the Basorun’s compound, venue of the interview. On getting there, he prostrated to all the elders and contestants who were older than him. Lamidi demonstrated a deep knowledge of Oyo history and way of life. He dazed the traditional panellists when he chanted the cognomen of previous Alaafins, his illustrious forebears. Ladepo was nominated by his father, a Mogaji. The Oyomesi overruled him. When Lamidi was nominated, there was a thunderous applause. The whole house seconded it. The coast was clear. The elders tested him by asking how he will relate with other contenders, if he was chosen. He promised to embrace them and carry them along in township administration.

History was made in Oyo on November 18, 1970 when Oba Adeyemi 111 was installed. He came from the lineage of Alowolodu. At the Durbar Stadium, Oyo, he was presented with the staff of office by Governor Adebayo.

Oba Adeyemi presided over a peaceful town throughout his time on the throne. But, he was locked in conflict with his Asipa, Chief Amuda Olorunkosebi, over the choice of Chief Moshood Kasimaawo Abiola, as the Aare Ona Kankanfo, in succession to the assassinated Premier Samuel Akintola, who was installed by Oba Ladigbolu. It led to litigation. While Chief Afe Babalola SAN represented the Alaafin, Chief Ajibola Lagunju represented Olorunkosebi.

The crisis between him and Ooni of Ife over the chairmanship of the old Oyo State Council of Obas  could only be resolved, following the carving of Osun State from Oyo State. Both became permanent chairmen of Councils of Obas in their respective states.  Oba Adeyemi also had a miniature feud with the Soun over age-long argument over superiority. He said when his forefathers were in the saddle, Soun of yore were Baale. It was re-echoed by the late Chief Bola Ige, who once recalled that both Soun and Olubadan were Baales upgraded by Military Governor David Jemibewo to the status of obas. It cost him his Ibadan title, the Aare Alasa. But, the crisis between Alaafin and Soun later fizzled out with the passage of time.

There was never a time the deceased Alaafin was out of the show. A socialite and great mixer, he built bridges of understanding across tribes. He was vice chairman of the National Traditional Rulers Council. Oba Adeyemi was Chancellor of universities of Sokoto and Maiduguri. A lady’s delight, he had 13 wives. He was survived by many children.