Otunba Subomi Balogun is the founder of First City Monument Bank (FCMB). He is a prince of the Ijebu Kingdom and an accomplished businessman. In this interview with OKORIE UGURU after the popular Ojude Oba festival in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State on Wednesday, he spoke about his life as a man committed to promoting the culture of his people and a philanthropist, and how he is spending life in what he called semi-retirement from business.
YOU appeared to have been so much enthusiastic about this year’s Ojude Oba festival. What was responsible for that? Have you also ever participated directly in any of the events at the festival?
The question is very fundamental. Why I’m I so enthusiastic? First, I am a loyal, distinguished son of our monarch, the Awujale. I happened to be the Olori Omoba (head of the princes and princesses). Providence has placed me in the situation in which everybody will expect me to be close to the Awujale and be supportive of whatever he is doing by way of our culture and tradition.
Secondly, people know me as a very senior member of royalty in Ijebu land. Apart from being the Olori Omoba, I am the Olori Ebi (head of the family) of one of the largest ruling houses. You may have heard or you may have noticed that I come from one of the prominent Balogun families…
Which is…?
Odunuga. But one is getting a bit old now. Normally, when they come in like that, I dance with them. I am like a sort of head of family there. So, definitely, I will be interested in Ojude Oba festival, as it highlights quite a lot of the Ijebu ethos and tradition. With all the paraphernalia of positions which I hold in town and in the country, it will be unpatriotic of me not to be supportive of whatever our royal father is doing.
Lastly, every Ijebu person looks forward to the annual Ojude Oba event. Ojude Oba is held within the palace or in front of the Awujale’s palace. But I think it was about 1892 when my own ancestor, Oba Adesumbo Tunrase, who actually signed the treaty of the relationship with the British queen, and who was far seeing enough, gave land to the Muslims to establish their central mosque, at the same time agreed with the British missionaries to preach Christianity in Ijebu land, and even went further to allow some of his children to be baptised. To cap it all, he gave them the land on which the first church in Ijebuland was built. That is St. Saviour’s, Italupe.
So, from my pedigree, background and association and what the good Lord has endowed me with, it will be regarded as unpatriotic if I don’t play a leading role in this most important cultural and traditional event of Ijebu people.
Apart from whatever my good Lord has endowed me with, I am, by the grace of the reigning monarch, the head of the princes and princesses. So, I am very much involved. I can tell you that if this event is taking place and I am not around, many people will ask questions, whether I am unwell, which can’t be, or whether I am disagreeing with my royal father, which can’t be. So, I have always been in the forefront, let me put it that way, in the celebration.
When Ojude Oba started, it was the Muslims who used it to pay homage and show their appreciation to the reigning monarch for all the beneficence he had given them. So, you can see that from my pedigree, I am both from the Balogun family, I am also from royalty.
Was there ever a time you rode the horse on the occasion?
When I was young, I used to be on a horse. Even before then, while my father was alive, I would join them in heralding my grandfather with singing and dancing. You saw my young cousin, Sunny Kuku. He wasn’t on horseback, but he was dancing and added colour to the Balogun Kuku family. Incidentally, the Balogun Kukus and the Balogun Odunugas are cousins. We all descended from the Borogun family.
How do you spend your time now that you are no longer as active as you used to be in business?
I am one of the people who can hold out their chest and say that the good Lord has been kind to me. So, in return for that, I have given my life to the service of the community, my fellow human beings and to the service of my God. So, I spend more of the time relaxing, resting and doing the work of God. You don’t need to be a cleric or wear the round collar before you can do the work of God.
I use any opportunity I have to be an evangelist. I am very committed to that. I am the Asiwaju of Ijebu Christians. I was made that after a legendary person, Chief Adeola Odutola, who was incidentally my own father’s classmate. I joined the Christians when I was young, and the Christian community found that there were attributes in me that could make me perform some leadership role they have entrusted to me. So, I spend time a lot doing charity works, philanthropy as you call it, having concern for my fellow human beings as a way of atonement to my God for the marvelous things the good Lord has done for me.
Being a philanthropist with many foundations involved in charity work, what is your foundation doing to enhance the society?
Everything I have done has been a continuous institution. You are all aware that my main focus is health care. The good Lord has enabled me to build one of the largest in Africa, purposely built children’s hospital, which I have now given to the University of Ibadan (UI). It has been converted to a medical college affiliated to the College of Medicine, UI. I think if you walk in there, you will find quite a lot of equipment that you don’t find around, and it is a national institution, not just for the Ijebus. That is why I gave it to the first national medical college to operate. Beyond that, I am a Christian and I believe whatever the good Lord has endowed me with is not for me alone, but that I should go out and do things that will make life better for members of my community and Nigerians in general.
I believe charity is not something you can boast about. It is between me and my God, and I don’t talk much about what I have done. I only pray to God that from time to time, I should be willing to share whatever the good Lord has endowed me with, with my fellow human beings. I should try and be my brother’s and my sister’s keeper.
Not a lot of people know that you have a private museum. Can you tell us about it?
That museum is yet the first an individual has built, if not in Yorubaland, at least in Ijebu. It is to commemorate my ancestor Oba Adesumbo Tunrase, who allowed the British to sign a protective treaty and who also allowed the British to preach Christianity. And he encouraged the Muslims by giving them land. The whole idea perhaps was to give opportunity for acquiring knowledge about the role of that illustrious Awujale. Because there are so many factors of me that were immediately induced by the fact that I am a descendant of this great monarch. I wanted to be able to assemble authentic history as to what the late monarch contributed, not only to Ijebuland, but in fostering not only inter-ethnic trading but opening the door for the British to go into the hinterland.
At that time, I don’t think many people were literate enough to read A,B,C,D. It was during the reign of that monarch people started to become literate. I wanted one, to immortalise the benefits of the reign of this distinguished monarch of Ijebu. At the same time, I wanted to develop authentic history of royalty in Ijebuland, and, if possible, to be able to identify those who are members of royalty. You see, quite a lot of history which we get now are from oral tradition. They have not been documented. When you want something authentic, you want it documented. So, I provided this museum as a place of custody of a number of relics of the royalty, of custody of historical materials about that royalty. Quite a lot of things about the Ijebu royalty and even the origin of the Ijebus may not have been documented.
From the research being done…we have a curator there who is a retired professor of history and politics of an American university. His regular concern is to have people coming forward with either relics of the royalty or authentic stories about their connection with royalty, and also about Ijebu royalty. They hold regular seminars and lectures and people go there, read documents about what has happened in Ijebu since. You can also get quite a number of recently published books on Ijebu history. You can find copies there. Some of the events in Ijebu land, the videos and copies of the disk are there. So, it is an opportunity for people to study the origin, and also the authenticity of her history. I don’t want oral tradition alone to be relied upon.
So, the essence of the place is to provide an avenue for people to study history and to identify those who are related to royalty. At the end of the day it will be a place to study Ijebu royalty, and to some extent, the history of Christianity in Ijebu land, because this was the king who allowed Christianity to be preached publicly
