The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ile –Ife

  • Ile-Ife: Tradition Vs Modernity (1)

    It is quite obvious that those who question the myth of Ile-Ife as the origin of the human race cannot deny the historical roots of Yoruba people as a whole in the ancient town. The town is home to the sacred grove of Oduduwa, the progenitor and founder of the entire Yoruba race and to whom all Yoruba, scattered all over the globe, hold their existence. Today, a short walk from the palace of the Ooni of Ife, situated at the centre of the ancient town called Enuwa, takes you to an area called Igbodio where the sacred grove of Oduduwa is located.

    Inside the grove, is a moderate building surrounded by trees. Inside the building, which is not accessible to anyone except the traditionalists in the town, is a rustic, ancient chain through which Oduduwa was said to have descended to the earth. Although, different towns and congregations of Yoruba have different stories about how they got to their present locations, that they still owe allegiance to Oduduwa is not in doubt. Except for Ile-Ife where the grove housing Oduduwa is located, I do not know anywhere else where such exists in Yorubaland.

    Having said this, the role of an Ooni is central in the affairs of the Yoruba people. And when an Ooni brings to that role, the virtues of wide-spread business and enterprise experiences, immense regional, national and international connections, wisdom, wealth, and above all, a dignifying carriage, it is bound to make tremendous impact on the race in particular and other black people in the Diaspora in general.

    These days, modernity has reduced the world to a global village where events and activities happening thousands of miles apart are simultaneously received and monitored all over the place with electric speed in the comfort of homes and offices. But despite these ever-consuming forces of modernity and advancement in technology, the umbilical cord that binds the ancient town of Ife with tradition has remained unbroken. Last week, the ancient town, the cradle of the Yoruba race was put in the spotlight. In what was akin to a clash of the titans, there was a direct collision between the forces of tradition and modernity. While tradition, as exemplified by traditionalists in the ancient town held on to their age-long beliefs and norms, the forces of modernity which have found expression in the internet and the social media through smart gadgets and what have you, were both engaged in a war of supremacy.

    It all began like a whisper in the early evening of Tuesday, July 28, before it quickly snowballed into a near ‘conflagration’ of sorts. Time was about 8:30pm, Nigerian time which also corresponds with the summer time in London. That evening, I received an unusual call from London. The terse message from the other end almost threw me off balance: “Baba ti lo” meaning, Papa is gone. I stammered: “Baba wo?” meaning, which Papa? My adrenalin shot up. My question received no immediate response as the person on the other side simply said: “Jo, je kin pe e pada” meaning, “Please, let me call you back.”

    From that time on, things happened in quick succession. My phones rang endlessly. Calls came in from virtually everywhere from friends and relatives as well as from numerous colleagues both within and outside the country – the USA, Canada, Britain, etc. They all wanted to confirm whether the news they had heard or picked up on the internet about Ile Oodua (Oduduwa House) as the palace at Ife is now known, was true. Of course, I had nothing to tell them. All I could say was that I had just received a call from London pointing to the same thing but that the person at the other end quickly hung up with a promise to get back to me.

    Minutes turned into hours and the expectations continued as the phones will not stop ringing throughout the night. I could not get annoyed for the disturbance the calls posed to my sleep that night. I knew I was paying the price for having been born and bred within the four walls of the palace in Ife where I lived for more than 22 years with my parents and siblings during the reign of a great son of Oduduwa, also a great figure in Nigeria’s history, Sir Adesoji Tadeniawo Aderemi, the late Ooni of Ife, 1930-1980. The callers truncated my sleep that night because they thought I was in a position to throw more light on the wild “rumour”.

    The following day, almost all the newspapers in the news-stands carried the story in one form or another. The other communication outlets – the internet, via smart gadgets and the social media platforms – also continued their feast on the news. But there is no way modernity will consign tradition to the backyard of events especially when the transition of a revered monarch and powerful institution as the Ooni of Ife is involved. In spite of the encroachment of modernity on our traditional ways of life in Africa, traditional beliefs especially in places like the Benin kingdom, Ile-Ife, Oyo and many other historical towns in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, have remained sacrosanct and unyielding to civilization. It is this unyielding stance that precipitated the clash between tradition and modernity which we have witnessed in the developments in Ife. What is at the centre of the raging media war between the traditional chiefs in Ife and mass communication practitioners who believe that it is their duty to keep the people and their readers informed of happenings at all times, is the belief that tradition is superior to modernity.

    For more than four months now, the Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolopkolo, Erediauwa, has neither been seen nor heard in public. Though the Benin Traditional Council came up with the news that the revered Oba was indisposed on March 8, since then, nobody has dared to speculate anything about the Oba. Over the years, the Binis have held tenaciously to their tradition so much that whatever happens to their highly revered monarch cannot be for public consumption under whatever guise until the Traditional Council decides otherwise. This tradition is as old as the Benin kingdom itself. It is a procedure that has been rigidly followed and has remained unbroken for centuries, modernity notwithstanding. I guess the whole country is now waiting patiently for an update on the fate of the Oba from the traditionalists in Benin. Before then, people can only talk in hushed tones. Such is the fear and trepidation that tradition has created.

    Perhaps, one of the reasons the media has been abuzz with recent development at Ile Oodua, is the flamboyance and visibility of the occupant of the Ooni’s stool which, over the years, has been accorded tremendous media attention and conspicuous visibility. As a result of this, it is natural that any news, whether good or bad, emanating from the Source, as   Ile-Ife is affectionately called, will attract instant media celebration. Besides, it appears there are far too many leakages in the whole system and these leakages can only be engineered from within. It is like what comes around, goes round. The same scenario that played out in July 1980, is again playing out with greater effervescence and disruptive capacity to tradition, this time around in July 2015.

    The question now begging for answer is: With increasing advancement in communication technology, how can these perennial leakages be stopped? I have written this with a great sense of responsibility and reverence as an ‘insider’ who has a good knowledge of Ile-Ife and particularly, the story of the palace of the Ooni of Ife.

    ‘Perhaps, one of the reasons the media has been abuzz with recent development at Ile Oodua, is the flamboyance and visibility of the occupant of the Ooni’s stool which, over the years, has been accorded tremendous media attention and conspicuous visibility ’

  • I was deflowered by a rapist—Nollywood actress,—Foluke Daramola-Salako

    I was deflowered by a rapist—Nollywood actress,—Foluke Daramola-Salako

    Big, beautiful and bold are the words that aptly describe Foluke Daramola-Salako, a crossover actress in the nation’s movie industry. She is ever frank, particularly when the issue borders on her love life. In this no-holds-barred interview with MERCY MICHAEL, she talks about all you have been dying to know about her past and present marriages and why she seldom acts nowadays, among other issues.

    IT was once reported that you wanted to start a talk show called ‘Fulfilling Desires’, but what is really holding you back?

    Yes, you are right. That was before I went back to school for my Master’s degree. Personally, I have two passions in life: I am passionate about humanity and I will do anything to acquire knowledge. When I got admission into the University of Lagos, Akoka, I couldn’t combine it with the talk show, so I had to go for my Master’s degree. But I’m still coming back to it. When I got admission into the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, I had the option of sticking to entertainment and continuing with acting or going to school. But I told myself that showbiz will always be there, so I went to school. I came out and continued with my acting career. When the opportunity came for me to do my Master’s degree, it was at the time I wanted to do my talk show, so I weighed the two and went for my Masters. I have finished my programme and I’m walking on my talk show now. I’m a perfectionist, so I don’t believe I should rush anything.

    So, what is Fulfilling Desires about?

    It’s about womanhood, the pains women go through, what we feel and how we feel. I intend to talk about things that people just take for granted: for instance, a frigid woman in a marriage or a frigid lady that has been raped. I have been a victim of that, so I understand what it feels like.

    You mean you have been a victim of rape?

    Yes, my first introduction to sex was rape. I talk about it when I have to. I was deflowered by a rapist. These are things people don’t talk about. In my first marriage, I was frigid because of my experience, aside other things. So, Fulfilling Desire is about things that are realistic, but which people just sweep under the carpet.

    I know you to be an assertive person, so I can’t imagine the fact that you went into your first marriage without your thinking cap on.

    You see, there is something called peer pressure. Yes, I am an assertive person, but I like to do what my friends are doing. All my friends were getting married, so I also wanted to get married. When you were younger, you had some fantasies about your marriage without being realistic. There is a difference between wedding and marriage. A lot of people are ready for wedding and not marriage. The first time, I went into a wedding; but this time around, I knew I was going into a marriage, so the wedding was not such any big deal to me. The first time, I was about 26 and I felt I had to be married. I went into it with both eyes closed because I had butterflies in my tummy. I was in love and everything. I wouldn’t say it was lust, but I wasn’t prepared. I had my own faults and he had his as well, and we both learnt from it. I wouldn’t call the marriage a mistake because I have two issues there. So, I don’t have any bitterness towards my first marriage. I just see my ex as one of my brothers that we just had ideological misunderstanding and we just could not come to terms with that.

    I didn’t know I could even get married again because I was resolute about some things. I don’t want to repeat what I faced there. But I guess God was just preparing the best for me. This is because the kind of person I have now is my friend. Someone that understands that Foluke is just like that; that Foluke wants to assert herself and that she’s thorough. He is someone that just accepts me the way I am and I can’t thank God enough for that. Sometimes, you can’t appreciate a good marriage, if you haven’t been through a failed one before.

    You said the first time you got married, you were in love; so, does it mean it is not love this time around?

    You see, before two people can decide that they want to get married, there has to be something deep between them. Love is not as strong as understanding. Don’t try to change your partner. When I was dating my present husband, we had that issue and we both sat down and said, ‘Look, you can’t change me and I can’t change you; let’s just enjoy the best of it. This is because you find out that it is what you enjoy most in your partner that causes the problem. If your partner is a quite person, then, that is the point of attraction. But when you are eventually in it, it will be the cause of the problem. If your girlfriend is domineering, that will be the attraction, but that will also be a problem later. When you start having issues, you now close your eyes to all the positive sides and you look at the negative ones only. But one thing I don’t subscribe to and I tell my present husband is domestic violence. I tell him that if he does anything physical on me, I will leave. I had been through it before and it had a terrible psychological effect on me. I didn’t have any form of self-esteem; I was just flat and out. I will never compromise that. In fact, I will tell whoever wants to marry my daughter that he dare not, in any circumstance, touch my daughter because the damage on her will be worse dying. When your self-esteem is flat and out, you are also dead; so, I do not compromise it. I can deal with infidelity, but I can’t deal with physical abuse. I’ve been there before, but I don’t want to talk about it because of the children involved.

    Some women would tell you that they can endure physical abuse, but not a flirtatious husband.

    For me, I can’t.

    Why?

    My pastor, Pastor Sam Adeyemi, says you have to be complete in yourself. A man or a woman is only there to complement you and every one of us is after one thing: Happiness. No matter how poor or rich you are, the only thing we are all after is joy, happiness. So, if I see you look happy, I will like to relate with you because I will want to share part of that happiness. Before I got married to my husband, he saw me as a complete person who was happy. I was a single mother and was enjoying my status. I was enjoying my time with my kids.

    Before then, I had to go to a psychiatrist to deal with myself; and then, I went to church to deal with myself spiritually because I’m a spiritual being. Pastor Sam thought me that if you are not complete as a woman or a man, nobody else can complete you. So, at the end of the day, I know that if my husband decides to play around, there can never be another Foluke Daramola. There can only be me and my husband will always come back home to me because that thing that he has found in me cannot be found in any other person.

    You see, if God says the man you are getting married to is going to have 15 wives, there is nothing you can do about it. The only thing that can make me lose my marriage is domestic violence. Apart from this, I can’t leave my marriage for any other reason. It’s not worth it. That happiness that I’m deriving from you at that point in time is all I want.

    You said you can deal with infidelity, but how do you deal with the fact that your husband is sharing his love for you with another woman?

    When I left my first marriage, I didn’t expect that I was going to get married. Again, I told myself that I just wanted a relationship and marriage. I wanted someone that would be there for me as a companion and nothing more because, at that time, I liked to be by myself most of the time. Besides, I told myself that I didn’t want my children to bear different surnames. I told myself I could just have a relationship without getting married. The white woman can have a relationship for 15 or 20 years without getting married; it doesn’t have to be marriage.

    It’s a mindset; if I believe that out of the whole day, my partner gives me two quality hours, whatever he does with the remaining 22 hours shouldn’t be my problem because he’s an individual. For instance, if I go to a location for days and he doesn’t get worked up and he till talks to me, then, I should be able to understand whatever he does with his time. What if you are the only ‘one’ in that home and he has a girlfriend he’s spending 16 hours with, how would you know? It’s just a psychological thing; once you know that there is another person outside, you start to feel that your love is being divided.

    For me, I can’t have high blood pressure because I won’t stress myself unnecessarily. When my husband tells me he loves me, I believe him sincerely. When I was in my past marriage, people would come and tell me that they saw my husband with someone, but I never gave them audience because I was not interested. So, now, when he returns home, he is mine; and when he’s out there, whatever he does doesn’t bother me because he doesn’t bother himself with whatever I do. My present husband, Kayode, will never pick my phone and look through my phone. He is someone that is liberally- minded, so why will I now be giving myself hassles. So, sometimes, when they say a man is getting married to another woman and the woman starts agitating, I feel it is laziness.

    One lady that I have so much respect for, though I am not so close to her, is Annie Macaulay. She’s one person that has settled in her mind that she wants to be happy with this man and she’s working on that. How many women can be like that? She’s complete in herself. She understands that whatever Tuface feels for her can only be felt for her and her alone. As far as I am concerned, I know that there can only be one me.

    Infidelity, for me, can never break my home. I will only deal with it maturely in a way that you will be shocked. It’s the best thing a woman can discover. Once you have that thing inside of you, your man will even be afraid of you because he wouldn’t know why you are so at peace. You will turn out more beautiful. But once you start getting yourself worked up emotionally, you are bad and the man will even be running even farther away from you because that person outside is making herself beautiful and fine for him. So, the earlier we women understand that and deal with that, the better for us. We can chose to shy away from it, but even the Bible says that, in the end time, you will have seven women, not even two, to one man. So, which part of the Bible are we not reading? Is it not already coming to pass? So, you have to be realistic with yourself.

    You said you didn’t plan to remarry after your first marriage crashed; so, why did you take that stand?

    My conviction was based on the fact that Kayode is my very good friend. We shared everything and anything. We started out as friends and colleagues because he’s an activist and I’m an activist too. We were always talking and unconsciously, we were building a very strong bond.

    Before I met him, he was already having issues with his past marriage. I knew he was not happy about it and his partner also knew. They had an understanding within themselves and when he felt that he needed to move on, he moved on. He shouldn’t be crucified for moving on. Some people would not move on, but they will say they want to have another wife. If it’s okay by me, I would marry. It doesn’t mean I would stay in the same house with my husband and the first woman. I would be on my own and the first woman too will be on her own. But in their own case, they both decided that they needed to move on. And when they moved on because of the pressure and the noise, I decided I was travelling out. Then, my husband called me and said, ‘Look, why would you abandon me at this time I need you most?’ And I was like, ‘I thought you would need time to sort your marriage out.’ But he said, ‘It is not working.’ So, I came back and we took a step and we don’t regret it now. We have our challenges, but I can’t wish for anything more. I’m not a billionaire or millionaire, but I am happy. Happiness is a precious gift I will never sell for all the million dollars in the world.

    What was the involvement of Pastor Sam Adeyemi in all that happened?

    Hmm! I’m not close to Pastor Adeyemi. I went for Advanced Day Star Leadership programme because I’m one person that has about 10 role models. I might not have personal contact with them, but I just look at their ways of life and their preaching. For instance, I am impressed with the motivational speeches of Fela Durotoye. My husband and I listen to Pastor Sam Adeyemi’s CD’s and we learn from it. I don’t have to be close him. More importantly, I don’t listen to what people say, but I listen to my conviction. You see, if I die today, I will go to heaven because of the fact that my Bible teaches me just two things: Love your neighbour as yourself and love God with all your soul. That is the all encompassing thing about the 10 Commandments. But in Nigeria, we have turned the whole thing upside down. Our commandments are over 50. Yes, Pastor Adeyemi is one of my role models.

    I love him so much, but I don’t use his standard as a yardstick; I use God’s standard as a yardstick. That is it. I said it on the Internet and people were just ‘yapping’ me. I didn’t care anyway. It’s just the price you have to pay for being a celebrity. I said how many of God’s favourites in the Bible were monogamists? We are using the English standard for the Bible standard, but they are two things entirely. The English standard is different from the Bible. Abraham, David and Solomon were all God’s favourites. But tell me, how many were monogamists among them? It just goes to show that at the end of the day, you can’t use marriage as a standard to make heaven.

    Talking about being fair to all concerned, do the children from the past marriage have a relationship with their father?

    It is left to the man to be able to know how he juggles his time. For my husband, he’s one person that creates time for his children. And he has a perfect relationship with his ex and his children as well. That makes him the man.

    Movie- wise what has been happening to you?

    It’s been a while; I just found it boring. If I get the right script, I will do it. But lately, I haven’t been seeing the right scripts.

  • ASUU protests hit Ile-Ife, Calabar, Osogbo, Ibadan

    ASUU protests hit Ile-Ife, Calabar, Osogbo, Ibadan

    From seminar halls and boardrooms where talks seem to have collapsed, university teachers have moved their battle for better education to the streets.

    But, the police are stopping them from holding rallies and marches to convince the public that their four-month old action is right.

    In Calabar, the police yesterday stopped a planned protest by lecturers of the University of Calabar (UNICAL) and the Cross River University.

    But the lecturers addressed a rally on the UNICAL campus.

    University of Ibadan (UI) lecturers had a town hall meeting to sensitise the people to the strike.

    In Ile-Ife, Osun State, Obafemi Awolowo University lecturers marched on the streets, getting to the palace of the Ooni of Ife. They urged him to pravail on the government to implement the 2009 agreement it signed with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), without which the strike would continue.

    President Goodluck Jonathan said during last month’s Presidential Chat that the government cannot fully implement the agreement, especially the financial aspect, because doing so would force a shutdown of other departments.

    The Nigeria Labour Congrees (NLC), also yesterday, said although it would not call out workers on a solidarity strike with the lecturers, it would hold a meeting in Kaduna tomorrow to take a stand on the way forward.

    No fewer than 200 policemen, most of them heavily armed, stopped ASUU members from carrying out an enlightenment walk in Calabar.

    The walk, which was organised by the UNICAL and Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH) branches of ASUU, was to take off from the UNICAL gate at 7am and go through some streets of Calabar, but the policemen ensured the teachers did not leave the campus

    The policemen said they were acting on “orders from above”.

    ASUU Chairman Dr James Okpiliya said: “Our union is law abiding. We wrote to the police and other security agencies on our intention of walking the streets in pursuance of our cause to put the records straight.

    “Many groups have been walking the streets, giving people the wrong impression about the situation. We just want to put the records straight. The police are telling us that they have orders from above not to let us walk the streets of Calabar. It is a shame. You can all see the hypocrisy of government.

    “They allowed youth and market women but they would not let us academics, peace loving people. We would remain resolute. No amount of provocation would stop us.”

    Okpiliya went on: “We are not on strike because of our salaries. We are fighting for our students and the terrible conditions of our university. Most of our science students do not know the difference between Bunsen burner and a stove. They don’t even know the chemicals.

    “The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) today has become a main funding source of our universities, but this is not to be so. TETFUND is only an intervention agency. Government has bailed out banks and even Nollywood, but not our universities.

    “The strike would continue as long as the government remains adamant. The President said after all, the strike in Ghana lasted two years, so that means this one can continue even up to five years.

    “It is a shame for the President to say the strike is political. The strike is not political. We are fighting for the good of our people. If there is anything political about this it is by him Jonathan. Let him implement the agreement and if the strike continues then he can say it is political. Any government that does not pay attention to the education sector is a dead government.”

    The Chairman of ASUU, CRUTECH branch, Dr Nsing Ogar, said the Federal Government must honour the agreement.

    A former president of ASUU and renowned author, Prof Festus Iyayi, said a government that does not respect agreements is calling for anarchy.

    He said: “This is the final struggle. Even if it takes 10 years, the students should know we are struggling on their behalf. A day would come when the police would join us. A day would come when we would not care whether the police would stop or not. The state has failed.”

    Another lecturer from UNICAL said: “If the strike is called off today, everybody will be worse off for it. People are not looking at the issues; they are just saying open the school, let the children graduate. Let them go to school. They are not bothered about the quality of education they are getting. In the future, whatever we say the government will never take us seriously.”

    OAU chapter Chairman Prof. Peter Akinola, who led the protest, urged the Federal Government to accede to ASUU’s demands to enable the union suspend the industrial action.

    Addressing residents at the palace of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Akinola said the education sector deserved a better deal.

    A member of the union, Prof. Gbolahan Babalola, said protest was to show the concern of ASUU for undergraduates who had stayed at home for months.

    He urged traditional rulers and other stakeholders to resolve the impasse.

    The Sarun Oodua, Chief Adekola Adeyeye, who represented the Ooni, praised ASUU for the peaceful conduct and show of concern for students.

    Adeyeye said that the Ooni understood that education was the best legacy that any parent or government could bequeath to any child.

    He promised that the union’s message would be relayed to the traditional ruler.

    The OAU lecturers moved round major streets of Ile-Ife. Osun State University teachers staged their rally at the newly built Freedom Square near Old Garage in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.

    The Ile-Ife rally, which kicked off from the Oduduwa Hall of the OAU caused a traffic gridlock for many hours in the ancient town.

    Osun State University branch Chairman Dr. Joseph Abiona was worried over the misinformation being dished out to Nigerians by the Federal Government as reason for the strike.

    The NLC said it was in the process of mediating between the Federal Government and ASUU.

    Oyo State NLC Chairman Comrade Bashiru Olarewaju spoke at a town hall meeting organised by ASUU to review the strike. The meeting was held at the Trenchard Hall of the University of Ibadan (UI).

    At the Town Hall meeting were hundreds of people, including civil society groups’ members, politicians, the clergy, traders who were presented with slide of the NEEDS ASSESSMENT REPORT of 2009 .

    The NLC, according to Olarewaju , will meet tomorrow in Kaduna to take a decisive action on the ASUU strike.

    He said: “The government and some other people have been trying to undermine the power, the influence and the ability of each group that can salvage this nation from collapse . And let me say this, that NLC has not been quiet. No, many people will want the NLC to go on strike. No; we will not go on strike on ASUU for now. But, anything can happen after Wednesday. This is because we have more than 40 affiliates. If an affiliate of NLC is in crisis and we now bring the entire workforce to join the strike, the train of the nation will not move forward. What we do in most cases is to mediate. ASUU is an affiliate of the NLC. ASUU is our partner. We will work together ,” the NLC chair said.

    Prof. Remi Raji, Dean, Faculty of Arts, UI, said: “The way forward is for the government to look at the NEEDS ASSESSMENT report, which was presented to the government in November, 2012.

    “In the next few days, it will be one year and nothing has been done of the 189 recommendations and we are saying that it is very crucial for government to deal with it squarely for the future of our children and our nation because a country that does not develop its own capacity within, to develop its own education standard to world class quality, cannot claim to be a giant of Africa, cannot claim to have a clean bill of economic health . This is the issue.”

    UI chapter Chairman Dr. Olusegun Ajiboye said the appeal by President Jonathan to be patriotic is not needed but action and implementation of the agreement reached with the union.

    He said it was sad that a President who claimed that corruption is not Nigeria’s problem can watch a Minister buy bullet proof vehicles for N255million, yet claiming there is no money to fund education.

    He berated the President for speaking out publicly on the ongoing strike close to four months after it began, maintaining that he has not been patriotic and sensitive enough to the needs of the majority of Nigerians.

    He said: “Will it have been possible for Mr. President to be quiet if his children are in one of our public institutions and be at home for four months? “How many years of appeal will make Mr. President implement a four year old agreement? The truth is we are tired of appeal. We need action. “

    The Chairman of ASUU, Niger Delta University (NDU), Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Dr. Beke Sese, said the strike is to save the universities from collapse.

    He maintained that the strike had no political undertone and not targeted at Jonathan or his administration.

    Sese told reporters in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, that the industrial action was to protest the deplorable condition of public universities.

    “Imputing political motive to the strike is a calculated attempt by some persons to deploy propaganda gimmicks to the cause of the university teachers, in order to divert attention from the real issues that informed the strike,” Sese said, adding:

    “When the current Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, was ASUU president, the members did not compromise, when there was similar strike, during the regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha.

    “This is the first time that ASUU members have embarked on a protracted strike, which centres on funding of the universities and improvement of the infrastructure. The funds so far released by the Federal Government are grossly inadequate. The 2009 agreement must be fully implemented.”

  • ‘Yoruba gods saved me from Boston Marathon bombings’

    ‘Yoruba gods saved me from Boston Marathon bombings’

    Clemencia Lee, 47, is an American of Columbian origin, She was initiated into the Yoruba religion 10 years ago, and goes by the names Ifatuma, Sangoyemisi; the first is connected with Ifa, the oracular mouthpiece of Yoruba religion, and the second with Sango, Yoruba god of thunder. She was at the recent 10th Orisa World Congress held in Ile –Ife, Osun State, where Femi Macaulay spoke with her.

    When we spoke earlier, informally, you mentioned the Boston Marathon bombings and a spiritual dimension which fascinated me. You said your Ori must have intervened by making you to leave the scene before the incident happened. Could you give me the story?

    April 15 was the date of the Boston Marathon. Every year we watch it; it’s only two blocks from our house. But this time we decided to watch it on television in the house. I have lived in Boston in that area all my life. We lived there and we saw the two winners; one from Ethiopia and the other from Kenya. Once I saw that there were two winners, me and my daughter, we decided to go do shopping. It was a holiday and it was our Ori, like you said, that made us leave and when we were about 45 minutes away from our house, people started calling our phones and we were asking ‘what’s wrong?’ and they said the terrible thing happened. It was the hugest bomb; there were two bombs that happened. I just wanted to say that it was definitely the Orisa that watched over us to not be there and right where the bomb was, we were invited to the place where it was.

    After the incident, did you go back there?

    The police will not allow us to go there. It was a crime scene, so that same day it was sealed up; it was difficult for us to even get into our house, and we had to open our car trunks to let them see if there was anything. Then when they got word of the two brothers, I didn’t realise that the younger brother, he got into school with my oldest daughter, and I happen to drive the same car that the young guy drives so I couldn’t even get to her school to get her because they would be under suspicion. Here in the United States, this is the first time I will ever see them lock down the entire city; no taxi could drive, no bus could run for the entire 24 hours. There were 200 shots in the shoot-outs when they finally found those boys. We were constantly praying. We were constantly asking our Ifa to help us, help my daughter over there. Then eventually somebody was able to drive her to another town and I was able to pick her up from that town.

    I’m trying to picture you at the scene, where you were positioned.

    Like we were sitting here, you could see the finishing line from our window. You could see the finishing line and all the moves, you could see everything. There were two places; the finishing line was right here but where the forum was, that was where the second bombing did the most damage.

    Are you saying that you were in an area where you could have been injured?

    We were invited to be right there at the area but we didn’t go. We were invited to go to the marathon party. We were tuned in watching TV, and then the party was outside.

    When it dawned on you that this huge incident had happened, and miraculously you were not part of it, did Orisa come to your mind?

    Of course, it was almost as if not only Orisa but the Egungun, my ancestors, took us from my house and said just go, because it wasn’t on my mind ‘oh let me go shopping today’ 45 minutes away, usually I would go right in the neighborhood.

    It was something that took you away, then?

    It was something that took us even farther because there were beautiful shops there, and my husband, he decided to go to the university on a holiday. Who normally would go to the university on a holiday? It was weird, because we already ate and were satisfied so we said let’s go do something different.

    So you went shopping.

    He went to the university, I dropped him. And it was probably about half an hour after that the bombs dropped out. And there was one after the other, and they said there was something else going on but everybody was just jumping over everything. We didn’t come back home because I didn’t think it was as big as what it was when they were texting me on the phone. The calls kept coming in and I couldn’t see a TV where I was, so I couldn’t see what happened until I got home and I saw this was major. It blew off major windows, buildings with kids in it-I mean those are people who were just running; and I have my neighbour who didn’t know how to contain other people, so I asked them to come and helped them have TV just to know what was going on, they were afraid too. There were people in Boston that helped the people too.

    It didn’t affect your building, did it?

    No, it didn’t affect where we live. But people were flowing and running towards the building where we didn’t even know what was going on because after 9/11, it’s been so many years and we were saying is it going to be another 9/11, so people were very afraid. We, even with that entire calamity happening, we had some peace. Like, okay, I don’t think it’s going to happen to us even though my husband’s eldest daughter, she kept saying ‘you have to run around’, I said I don’t think we have to run around, we didn’t feel that anxiety like everybody else was feeling. So we didn’t know that there was a lot going on until we saw the report on the television. We were calm for some strange reasons. Going back to work, people would ask us, ‘are you okay?’ I would say, ‘no, we are fine, thank you’ but they know how close we lived.

    Would you say this experience reinforced your faith in Orisa?

    I would say so, definitely, because even the feeling of being calm. When it happened I felt very bad for all the people that suffered and I don’t know what’s going on through those boys’ heads, I don’t know what the situation was. I was just glad that we were out of that way-me and my family. Not only myself, but lots of the people that I know weren’t hurt.

    Do you speak Yoruba?

    Not really.

    You used the word Ori , what’s your understanding of Ori that made you link it with your escape?

    For me, my Ori is almost like my common sense; for me, that’s how I interpret my Ori.

    But in this case it wasn’t your common sense.

    No, it wasn’t.

    Perhaps there was something deeper to your experience.

    You are right. You are definitely right. It was listening to something that comes into your Ori, so into your head. When they say, ‘don’t go that way’, something tells you ‘don’t go that way’. It’s like something speaking to your Ori. If something was going on and you say, ‘ha! I knew that was going to happen’, I should listen to my head; I should listen to my Ori. It was like listening to something you don’t really understand yourself at first. It’s the thing that comes to your head, which is what it is for me.

    Ori is a concept in Yoruba religion and culture, what else struck you?

    Also the entire poems of Ifa, just trying to be more disciplined and study and channel them to myself bit by bit. All of them, you know with Ifa there are so many things, but Ori is definitely the one that if I don’t accept it, then nothing else can be accepted. Ori is me, then if I don’t accept it, then nothing else falls in place. It’s important to always keep your Ori open, to want to learn and making sure you are careful. You take care of your Ori, like some ways of thinking of it is by not getting drunk, using drugs. It’s like something you do daily. Before I came here, I came late because I have to pray; there is a small prayer that I learnt when I first came into it, ‘Ifa, Ifa, funmi ni ori, iwa pele. Adura mi ase, ase. Iba baba, iba yeye,’ meaning, please help me and make sure that I don’t leave here and have any problems in my day today. I think I’m more humble than anything when I just listen to it. It has given me grounds to survive.