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  • Ekiti lawmaker seeks revival of Omoluabi values

    Ekiti lawmaker seeks revival of Omoluabi values

    A lawmaker representing Ado Constituency 1 in the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Hon. Ayodeji Adegbite, has called for a statewide campaign to revive Omoluabi values and ethos.

    Adegbite said the Yoruba value system embodies integrity, honesty, and respect for elders.

    According to him, the re-awakening of the Omoluabi values is necessary to combat the rising wave of anti-social behaviour among youths in the state.

    Hon Adegbite made the call while moving a motion on the need to revitalise and promote the concept of Omoluabi among children and youths in Ekiti State.

    Hon Adegbite’s motion was seconded by Hon Temitope Longe, representing Oye Constituency 1, who described the Omoluabi value system as a concept that embodies the best of Yoruba culture and tradition.

    Adegbite lamented that the erosion of these values has led to various negative effects, including cybercrime, internet fraud, cultism, drug abuse, and money rituals.

    “We need to take the bull by the horns and embark on a statewide sensitisation and campaign programme to promote Omoluabi values,” Hon Adegbite said. “This will help to guide our youths towards the paths of integrity, excellence, and responsible citizenship.”

    Read Also: Okanlomo Omoluabi John Olukayode Fayemi at 60

    Adegbite urged the Ministry of Education, Information, and Value Orientation to take the lead in organising the campaign, which he believes will help to safeguard Ekiti’s cultural values and protect the future of its youths.

    He equally admonished his colleagues in the Assembly to rise against the menace by safeguarding the cultural values and protecting the future of the youths through the revitalization of the moral compass in our society and guiding the next generation towards the paths of integrity, excellence, and responsible citizenship.

  • Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola & the Omoluabi legacy programme

    It is now beyond debate that Oduduwa the North African emigrant was a brilliant socio-cultural engineer whose legacy birthed one of Africa’s greatest civilizations. Ile-Ife became the epicenter of a great revolution in the 7th century that spread to produce an advanced kingdom of highly refined citizens in West Africa.

    Generations after, both the model of governance and the location of its capitals changed a few times but the engineering refinements were retained and the ancient kingdom peaked in the 15th century with a spread that reached into present-day Ghana.

    In the earlier centuries the appellation “Yoruba” was unheard off and only came into reckoning less than 200 years ago. We were addressed in our collectivity as Oku or Anago by some and Olukumi (Licumi) by others but the engine room of our advancement was the “Omoluabi matrix”.

    It is  highly refined and sophisticated program software written by Oduduwa and downloaded into the blood of our progeny. It is perhaps a shame that the Omoluabi program survived the vicious onslaught of the imperial bugs and colonial viruses only to suffer a downgrade in the hands of our modern generations.

    “Robbed of their past (history) a people will settle for any future,” said Professor Akinjogbin and it is tragic that most Yoruba people today have no inkling that we were appointed as the custodians of that sophisticated program crafted by Oduduwa in the ancient times as a divine gift to Africa.

    The word Omoluabi as defined by professor Akinjogbin and confirmed by the research of the late Professor Ade-Ajayi translates accurately as “scions-of-the-Almighty-Creator, OMO-TI-OLU-IWA-BI.”

    They both took time to sift through the various myths to refine the legacy of Oduduwa on our request. Ile-Ife, we had to learn, was originally referenced as both orisun (fountain head) as well as orirun (resting place) also that the Yoruba appellation had a negative connotation and its etymology was tracked to a derogatory tag coined by Ahmed Baba Al Masuffi Al Timbukti who died in 1627.

    The image conjured in the mind of the modern Yoruba when the word Omoluabi word is mentioned is that of a moral and virtuous exemplar or upright citizen and it is a pathetic because the real package contained much more than that. The original Omoluabi program written by Oduduwa was a multi-dimensional civilizing program, plus a governance code, plus a moral or virtuous standard.

    Today we have forgotten that this brilliant software produced a civilisation so advanced that its technology bested that of pre-renaissance Europe! In the days of Leo Frobenius the anthropologist, scholars of Europe believed that a white civilisation had occupied Ile-Ife earlier to explain away the sophistication and advanced tooling they refused to credit to African minds.

    Museums in Europe are today filled with tons of such artifacts that have mostly been labelled as fetish and remanded in European custody for safe keeping because such reminders of a glorious past could reawaken something in the African.

    To keep us in place, the colonials left us with a “fractured leadership selection” program but were surprised when the Western region sprinted to the frontiers of civilization within ten years of self-rule. The secret was that Obafemi Awolowo had researched the full package of the dormant Omoluabi matrix!

    The modern Dubai miracle might just be the best way to describe what happened in the 10 golden years of the Western region under the captaincy of Obafemi Awolowo. The civilizing code was revived in 1945 as the Egbe Omo Oduduwa in London, the governance code found its application in the 1951manifesto of the Action Group while the ‘moral and virtue’ standards was evident in the stable citizenry.

    Economic indices show that the Western region was almost as prosperous as the early Oduduwa model of Ile-Ife but not everyone was pleased by the developments. It is all history now because the torrential rains of adversity came and pigeons mixed freely with chickens to seek refuge under cover.

    One of the greatest tragedies of decay and corruption in an advanced society is the devaluation of human worth and the brutish behavior it encourages. Saddled with an inferiority complex we tried to be more British than the British even after their exit while the glorious Omoluabi heritage sank deeper into irrelevance.

    Brutalised by the military class and crushed in the embrace of endemic corruption we descended into painful levels of poverty siring new generations that were strangers to our heritage. Our proverbs disappearing, the diplomatic tongue paralyzed and morals cast off to accommodate a growing population of crude, unpolished and unrefined characters in our ranks it seemed it was all over until Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola appeared like a bolt out of the blue in 2010 with a rallying cry to restore our ancient Omoluabi treasure.

    Like the cry of Moses in Egypt his call to liberty was embraced by some but savaged by the amnesiacs. With a forehead of flint he ploughed on struggling to re-ignite the civilizing program, unlock the governance code and revive the moral standards. Blinded by politics and drunken with rage some still cannot recognize the importance of what he has brought to the table but history will definitely treat him well.

    Not only Ogbeni but all those who heard the sound of the trumpet and travelled from far and wide to assist him in a herculean task. The divine dimensions of this move will continue to unfold in the days ahead after he exits the throne of governance in the state of Osun.

    Sooner or later the entire nation will discover that the Omoluabi matrix, upgraded and presented on a digital platform might be the only viable solution to the virulent menace of Boko Haram religious extremism, Fulani terrorism and some of our old problems.

    This is why Ogbeni Rauf’s successor as Governor in Osun may be as important to our national destiny as the seat of the Nigerian president. My prayer is that the hand that led Oduduwa to Ile-Ife in the 7th century and sponsored Obafemi Awolowo to England for his 1945 date with destiny will again guide the citizens of Osun to rise above the limitations of politics to elect the one that will continue the Omoluabi legacy and take it to the next level.

     

    • Thompson, a strategic thinker, writes in from Lagos. 

  • Africa slave trade: Exploring the Omoluabi option

    This is not African! And it’s clear that something has gone terribly wrong! Whatever is going on today is an alarming development because Africa, to the best of her ability, has always taken care of her children as a priority.

    From ancient times we have paid special attention to the welfare of our children. An Africa proverbs says that “children are our clothes” opining that we would be as naked persons without our children. Another declares that the banana tree never makes its exit without replacing itself with her children!

    This new narrative where Africa is behaving like the ostrich that ignores its young is a new and dangerous dimension. With the youths of Africa braving desert treks, rickety boat trips and all manner of dangerous escape routes to exit the nightmare that African life represents, every conscientious citizen of the global community should be very concerned.

    The relative unconcern with which Africa is reacting is a pointer that something has been tampered with in the basic values of a continent where “it takes an entire community to bring up a child.”The situation is dire! The rippling muscles of frustrated youth energy across our continent are stoking a firestorm that could very well consume entire sub regions if care is not taken.

    We must act fast and we need to act now to salvage the future of Africa. It is undeniable that thousands of youths are fleeing daily and dozens are dying with every wave. Something must be done beyond prayers and religious rituals to restore hope and halt the African slide into oblivion. On a good day, black Africa treasures her children and this new trend might mean that the value of human worth is again slipping towards the days of darkness when human sacrifices were normative. That a slave class was set aside in ancient times, as the pool from which the sacrificial appeasements were drawn showed that there was a troubled conscience somewhere in the mix.

    To imagine that the 54 nation states and 10 dependent territories thrown up by the post-colonial influence could sink lower than that is a disturbing notion.

    Africa’s youths are fleeing the continent because they are the sacrificial lambs of the modern socio-economic altars on which the educated elite of Africa worship its new gods! The modern Africa experience is in this sense a terrible disaster because progress is not measured by the dexterity with which we knot a tie or wear high heeled shoes but the care with which we treat the aged, the young and nurture youth potentials in our communities.

    Operating within the confines injected at the Berlin conference, the programmed elders of Africa are too distracted with the pretenses of governance and their phantom economies to notice that the darkness has returned, but this is not the hour for fault funding or finger pointing rather a time to take stock and resolve the problem speedily.

    Thinking out-of-the-box to find an affordable, effective and practical solution, it would seem that the most viable option may be found in the treasure troves of Africa’s cultural nations. Using Nigeria as a case in point, the entire world was horrified when the news hit the air that 26 teenage migrant girls purportedly on their way to prostitution in Italy, drowned in the Mediterranean Sea.

    It was said initially that the girls were hastily buried in Salerno, even though there were allegations that they had all been raped by human traffickers before their dinghy boat capsized in coastal waters. The federal government quickly set up a ministerial committee to handle the issue but the big challenge is that the political culture and architecture of governance in Nigeria cannot generate a national outrage in the right direction.

    Instead of addressing the core issues that relate to the despair, loss of hope and devaluation of human worth that is at the root of the matter, this grave situation will be politicised and diverted into the throwing of brick bats for cheap gain. A quick reality check might help us to realise that the positive vestiges of our cultural heritages could be the best way out.

    This way the federal government can concentrate on the economic issues and pressing matters while the cultural nations go to work on this. If we had published a list of the girl’s names and African tribal affiliations, it is certain that the cultural nations to which each one belonged would have responded with greater concern.

    Right on the heels of the Italian catastrophe came another devastating blow when the pictures of modern slave markets in Libya went viral on the internet. The slaves are mostly West African illegal immigrants captured by Libyan authorities on their way to Europe. Ghanaians, Nigerians, Togolese, Nigeriens and others were selling for as low as $400 per human.

    Male slaves would be held for ransom and a failure to meet the demands meant that their body organs could be harvested for sale for export unless they could be put to work by other buyers. The females are being purchased mainly for prostitution or payoffs from European countries glad to be rid of potential nuisances. Instead of the long wait for a response from the Nigerian authorities this affront to our humanity in Africa would be better checked if we allowed the cultural nations to defend the humanity of their citizens.

    For good example a delegation of “cultural patriots” working with the blessings of the Ooni of Ife and other prominent cultural leaders could be commissioned to resolve the issue. With representations dispatched to Libya and other hot spots, they would return with an accurate report of the abominations and recommendations of how to deal with the problems speedily.

    The collective power of our cultural nations lies dormant today because the colonial authorities threw out the baby with the bath water. This depressing “human slavery’situation could be resolved speedily if the Omoluabi, the Igbo, Edo, Efik, Hausa and Fulani cultural nations would arise to the occasion. This problem of human slavery predates the existence of Nigeria and so do the bonds of our tribal nations.

    On this particular occasion, it is glaring that the “nuclear family” social structure of western civilisation that we have adopted cannot serve us better than our preference for “communal nurture” where it takes an entire community or village to bring up a child.

    Working together on this platform, we can salvage the future of the youths of Africa.  Of course we would still have to get past our deep inferiority complexes to admit that something good can come out of Africa.

     

    • Thompson, a conflict resolution and security consultant, writes from Lagos.

  • Osun allays fears over Omoluabi garment factory

    THE Osun State government has dispelled the rumours that the Omoluabi Factory Garments has folded up. The Commissioner for Finance, Bola Oyebamiji, who spoke with reporters in Osogbo, the state capital, also hinted that the factory won a big uniform contract from a federal agency. He said the factory was immensely contributing to the internally generated revenue of the state.

    The commissioner, there fore, called for cooperation of the people of the state, appealing to them to continue pray for the government. He also assured that the proposed MKO Abiola International Airport in IdoOsun which is undergoing construction would be a great asset to the state when completed. The commissioner disclosed that the Osun State Investment Company Limited (OSICOL) has planted 563 hectares of cocoa plan tation.

    According to Oyebamiji, the state governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, was dedicated to programmes that would improve the standard of living of the people of the state. He said Aregbesola got it right for incurring the state debt on infrastructural development which he said has been commended by international communities. Speaking on the effort of the government to develop its mining sector, Oyebamiji hinted that the state government has taken a step to begin the mining of gold in the state very soon. He disclosed that the government was investing on Aeromagnetic Survey to discover the amount of mineral deposits in the state. He assured that the result of the effort taken by the government would soon yield positive and made known to the people of the state.

  • Omoluabi Mortgage Bank targets growth with innovative service

    Omoluabi Mortgage Bank has set its focus on growing the housing development and mortgage business of the bank in its bid to grow profits and expand business horizon.

    This was disclosed by the Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr Ayo Olowookere, when the Chairman of the board, Dr Adebayo Jimoh, led the top management of the bank to present the facts behind the figures for the company’s performance in 2016 financial year and first quarter 2017 at the floor of the Nigeria Stock Exchange in Lagos on Monday.

    In his presentation, Olowookere stated that “the bank will position itself as key player in the mortgage subsector along the southwest corridor of Osun, Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara and Edo states through its products and efficient-cum-effective marketing, penetrating and dominating service delivery and quick response time.”

    He added that the management is determined to target the informal sector and design specific micro-mortgage products for households. The bank, he noted, would also effect portfolio rebalancing to reallocate assets to higher yielding segments and grow low-cost deposits using business process and branch network optimisation.

    Olowookere, who said that 2016 was his first complete financial year having taken the saddle in November 2015, noted that the management team is entirely new. This, he added, brought about the needed impetus and innovations that saw the bank performed creditably well in 2016 as well as the result recorded in Q1 ’17.

    On the strategies to achieve its projections going forward, Olowookere noted that the bank is focused on re-aligning its products and services offerings. He said the bank is refocusing mortgage business, restructuring its risk assets and liability products as well as engaging partners along the mortgage industry value chain.

    He added that the bank will use technological innovations to drive profitability as it is using its ATM deployed in all three branches its operating for now. The bank, according to him has also commenced the implementation of integration of branchless banking on the BankOne platform.

    The CEO of the Exchange, Mr. Oscar N Onyema, who spoke through Haruna Jalo-Waziri, Executive Director, Capital Markets Division, disclosed  that the management of the Nigeria Stock Exchange was pleased that Omoluabi Mortgage Bank has taken bold step to further engage the market via NSE of “its impressive financial performance, strategy and operational developments.”

  • Omoluabi Mortgage Bank makes N78million profit

    Omoluabi  Mortgage Bank has declared N78,869,496 as profit  before  tax during  2016 financial  year as against the loss of #168 million recorded in the year 2015. Chairman of the bank, Dr Adebayo Jimoh while reviewing  the bank’s  performance in the 2016 financial year disclosed that “Apart from the PBT of over N78 million, the two weeks  after  its appearance on the floor of the Nigerian  Stock Exchange, the bank also achieved increased in gross earnings  by 42.39 percent  from N214 million in 2015 to N304 million. This is in addition to increase in customer deposit growth by 165 percent  from N165 million in 2015 to N389 million in 2016.”

    According to him, “The quality of loans and advances portfolio of Omoluabi Mortgage bank plc rose from N365 millions in 2015 to N549 millions in 2016 while the total assets of the bank grew from N2.6 billion in 2015 to N3.3 billion in 2016 while the shareholders  funds grew from N2.3 billion to N2.43 billion in 2016.”

    Adebayo  disclosed that despite the fact that the past year was a very challenging one both for economic and business environment  in the county especially for the mortgage subsector, Omoluabi bank made many changes within the year so as to reposition it for better performance and efficient service delivery

    ‘’Hence, the year saw us strengthen ourselves through a major change to Board, structure and capacity to reflect the current best practices in the industry thereby enhancing it with more experience and capability,’’,he added.

    Meanwhile shareholders of the bank  have commended  the board and management  of the  bank for remarkable turn around in the  fortunes of Omoluabi in the last financial  year but urged the mortgage institution to expedite actions in the payment of dividends so as to compensate their  steadfastness  and  faith they have in the bank. .

    Adebayo  while responding to observations,questions and recommendations  made by shareholders, assured them of the bank’s commitment to dividend payment and also disclosed mid-term plan of the bank to become “a PMI with National License and position itself as key player in the mortgage sub sector along the South-West corridor of Osun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara and Edo Sates”

    Also speaking at the AGM, the Managing Director of the Bank,Mr Ayo Olowokere called for patience and understanding on the path of the shareholders, as he promised that  the bank is poised for more  transformation and value creation in the next  financial year. He attributed the success recorded by the bank in the last financial year largely to the use of technology which he said has shaped its banking operations especially with the introduction of various e-channels like Autopay, Quickteller, NIBSS instant payment, College pay, Automatic Teller Machine among others.

    Highlight of the meeting was the election  of Mr Akintayo Kolawole  and Dr D. O Yunusa as non Executive Directors of the bank by the after which the meeting invoked provision   section 262 of Companies and Allied Matters  Act(CAMA)1990 to remove former  Comissioner of Finance in Osun State,Mr Wale Bolorunduro from the board.

     

     

  • Osunwon Omoluabi: End to business fraud in Osun

    Osunwon Omoluabi: End to business fraud in Osun

    In its efforts to prevent cheats from taking advantage of unsuspecting customers, the Osun State government has introduced scale and weight standard for use in markets across the state. In the circumstances, Governor Rauf Aregbesola formally launched the scales and weight instruments and officially outlawed the old practice of transacting business using plastic bowls such as kongo, denge, kobiowu, dana and tin, among others that often results in several complaints and frictions among the buyers and sellers in most markets across the state.
    In their stead, the state government introduced standard gauge and weight measurement through the use of scales for transaction of businesses. The new method was aimed at eliminating problems associated with the old measuring practices.
    Deliberate alteration of measures; not measured fully to standard by trimming the head, melting and layering the plastic bowls and other containers with candles to reduce container size; deliberate distortion of bottles to reduce their content capacity and unhygienic conditions of the bottles, tins and others used for measuring liquid items are some of the causes of frequent friction among buyers and sellers in most markets.
    While launching the standardised weights and measuring scales known as Osunwon Omoluabi at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Governor Rauf Aregbesola said fair and honest trade rest on the use of accurate weights and measures.
    Aregbesola said: “No business can be conducted satisfactorily unless each person is sure the other person is fair and honest.”
    He further stated that the scheme would eliminate cheating and other malpractices that have become the hallmark of doing business in most markets.
    The governor maintained that the use of standardised scales in markets across the state will engender a chain of economic benefits, adding that dealers in weighing scales would experience business expansion as the programme will ensure increase in the demand of their products.
    Aregbesola said the move was to make the state the preferred destination for commercial activities in the sub-region, reiterating that his administration would not relent in its efforts to increase economic activities.
    He said: ”In the quest to be competitive and make more profit, which is greed, traders devise varying means of short-changing buyers. Measures are deliberately reduced through cutting, filling with candles and wax, and sleight of hand. Scales are tilted fraudulently while husks, chaffs, barks and other rubbish are included in goods sold, with the intention of reducing the actual value of what the buyers take home.
    “One of the tragedies of this immoral practice is that foreigners began to distrust our export because, for instance, cocoa graders put top grades at the top of the sack, leaving poor quality at the bottom, and in the process, collect money for the top grade. Those who are in the business can tell you what loss they suffered because foreigners distrusted their products and classified all cocoa coming from our land as inferior, irrespective of the grade.”
    The Governor maintained that the introduction of standardised weights and measures was a Federal Government’s law being replicated in the state.
    He explained that weights and measures constitute item 63 on the Exclusive Legislatives List of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That is, only the Federal Government can legislate on weights and measures in the country.
    The various laws made in this respect include Weights and Measures Act CAP W3LFN, 2004, Pre-Shipment Inspection of Export Act CAP P25 LFN, 2004; Weights and Measures Standardisation of Indigenous Measures Regulations, 1992 and the Weights and Measures Fees Regulations.
    “The legislations are geared toward ensuring that products are not under-dispensed at markets, factories, oil and gas stations and crude oil depot in Nigeria,” he said.
    The Coordinator of the scheme, Mr. Ismaila Adekunle Jayeoba-Alagbada, who is the former Commissioner for Industries, Commerce, Co-operatives and Empowerment, hinted that the standardised weighing scale across markets in the state became necessary in order to mitigate challenges noticeable in commercial transactions.
    Jayeoba-Alagbada said in order to eradicate cheating in the process of exchange of commercial goods and checkmate other challenges of market forces, government decided to formally introduce the standardised weighing scales.
    He stated that training workshops had already been conducted in the markets all over the state on the effective use of the scales.
    He stated that the Ministry of Industries, Commerce, Co-operatives and Empowerment is saddled with the responsibility of monitoring the day-to-day administration of the programme.
    He said: “I need to emphasise that market men and women had been fully mobilised to key into this emerging commercial revolution. Both the leadership and the followership of the associations of market women and men had agreed, not only to comply with the right use of the scales and measures but also to continuously carry out peer reviews with a view to ensuring flawless implementation of the standardised weighing scales and measures programme. I want to place it on record that, but for the grace of God and the dogged determination of Mr. Governor, this launch, and indeed the entire standardised scales and measures programme would have been a mirage.”
    He revealed that 178 OYES cadets have been trained under the train-the-trainer programme on the use, maintenance and repairs of the new measuring scales. The OYES cadet would also man some control posts in all the markets to serve both as repair and challenge-mitigating centres.
    Speaking on the new scale, the President-General of Osun State Market Women Association, Alhaja Awawu Asindemade, said the standardised scale became necessary due to imbalance in measurement and fraud in commercial activities.
    Asindemade said the kongo measurement introduced to the market in the old Oyo State became the standard measurement in Osun State when it was created. According to her, the old measurement was gradually subjected to abuse and fraud to the extent that individual seller used his or her yardstick for measurement, thus the need to re-standardise and unify it.
    She, however, warned that the introduction of the standard scale should not translate to increase in prices of commodity in the markets.
    “It is in a bid to correct the anomaly in measurement and scale that the Osun State government introduced the standardised weighing scales in markets so as to forestall fraud and cheating in measurements. As we embrace this innovation, I call on market men and women to co-operate with government to make this a success. Besides, introduction of the weight and measurement does not and should not lead to increase in price of commodities in our markets.”
    The state government, however, subsidised the new measuring scales for the traders. For instance, from the supplier in Lagos, a 150kg platform is sold for N38, 500, but the state government is selling it at N28, 500. The prices of the scales are: 150kg (table) N8, 500, 20kg N2, 500, 10kg 2,500, while 5kg is N2, 000.

  • Omoluabi clip to air on DStv’s African Magic

    Omoluabi concept (Virtuous Attitude) conceived by Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola will air on popular Digital Satellite Television (DStv) station, African Magic (Yoruba.)

    Using Yoruba traditional folktales, folklore and fables to teach morals, the programme will reinforce Aregbesola’s vision on how to exercise the right attitudinal behaviour always”.

    A statement by the producer, Muyiwa Adejumo, who is veteran comedian Babasala’s son, said: “The programme will create a framework where our unique culture will be effectively used to celebrate good virtues and to make our people deviate from practices causing cultural decadence.

    “The Omoluabi programme has been subtitled in English for African Magic (Yoruba) audience.

    “Each episode affords the audience an opportunity to look at behavioral attitude that will allow Nigerians evolve a better way of life.

    “It also creates a veritable platform to replace unproductive traditions and norms with the view of setting new agenda for national transformation.”

  • N1.65b more for Osun institution

    N1.65b more for Osun institution

    The Osun State government’s financial institution, the Omoluabi Savings and Loans Limited, has recapitalised with additional N1.65 billion shares.

    Speaking with reporters in Osogbo, the state capital, after a board meeting, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, who is also the Commissioner for Finance, Economic Planning and Budget, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro, said the firm is offering 3 billion shares at 59 kobo per share.

    He said the recapitalisation would reawaken the capital market with the recapitalisation.

    The commissioner said: “The company would be breaking the jinx of the five years absence of Initial Public Offer (IPO) in the country since the crash in the capital market by listing 3 billion shares for offer at 50 kobo per share on Friday, December, 27, 2013. The offer closes that day.”

    He said the recapitalisation means that after subjecting the company to the discipline of the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Stock Exchange, it has been opened to ownership for more indigenes and residents of Osun State.

    Bolorunduro said it is an opportunity for workers to buy more shares and earn dividends as well as borrow with ease.

    He said increase in shares means increase in money with which the company can do business as well as the mortgages it can grant to people.

     

    The commissioner said: “This is another way of bringing succour to the people, who cannot approach commercial banks.”

    He said the recapitalisation became imperative as a result of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) statutory regulations, which end on December 31.

    Bolorunduro assured that more housing mortgages would be available on long term as an added advantage of the recapitalisation.

  • Omoluabi!

    Omoluabi!

    Omoluabi — the Yoruba ethos of good breeding, nobility, robust conscience, selflessness and integrity — has been the consuming passion of an artiste; and the equally zestful crusade of a governor.

    The paradox was most striking: it was no free gig, yet the gates were wide open!

    That was Beautiful Nubia’s September 22 show, at the artiste’s EniObanke Cultural Centre, GRA, Ikeja, in Lagos.

    How could a show not be free and yet the gates were wide open?

    The patrons, to be sure, were not a mighty crowd. They were, rather, a select few; the deep that could call to the deep: the few that could connect with the umpteenth musical campaign, by Beautiful Nubia and The Roots Renaissance Band, for a culture-driven ethical reformation, to fix a rotting country; and give the society a glorious rebirth.

    In Biblical parlance, it was those who had ears and could still hear!

    So, as the Beautiful Nubia faithful trooped into the unpretentious yard, dominated by a lawn, and on the fringes, a tree or two, a car park, a bungalow at the far north-eastern end that serves as office and artistes changing rooms, with its adjoining male and female conveniences, it was clear that the paradox of wide open gates and ticket sales appealed to some core values of yore.

    Indeed, as the patrons took their seats, facing the mat-decorated stage at the south-western end of the yard, and its adjoining tree or two, and without any fuss paid for their tickets, even if they had gained the concert venue, the whole exercise spoke of immaculate integrity of the Yoruba traditional market.

    That market need not be manned. The stock was there. And the number of cowries, beside each good, was the price tag. So, all the buyer needed do was to pick what he wanted and deposit the price. Though no one was watching, woe betide that rogue who bought something without paying! It was pristine honesty before the advent of urban moral pollution.

    Beautiful, as Nubia (real name, Segun Akinlolu, hitherto based in Canada) calls himself, is appalled at the moral sewer of contemporary Nigeria; and would appear determined to, by his music, do something drastic about it.

    The laudable obsession dominated his display that early Sunday evening as he sang, and danced with his musical acolytes: life, he declared, was simply too vital to be ruled by the politics of the belly! But that is the tragedy of contemporary Nigeria, with its mass turpitude and venality.

    In Irinajo, his 2009 album, Beautiful Nubia feasted on this theme of moral regeneration, when in the track, “Kurunmi”, he juxtaposed the current leadership fakery with the solid gold of the tragic Kurunmi, who fell in battle in 1861.

    Kurunmi, old Ijaye warlord and tragic hero of the Ijaye-Ibadan War (1859-1861), lost his five sons in that war, triggered by his refusal to recognise the new Alaafin of Oyo in Aremo Adelu. But till the bitterest end, he stood true to his principle.

    To Nubia, the spotless Kurunmi spirit, like some metaphorical crusading angel, is the elixir to clear the present moral rot. He sings in that track:

    “Here comes the fire-eating guy/My Lord with arrows in his eyes and burning anger/Let no one stand in his way/This life will never be the same again, yeah/Here comes the fire-splitting guy/Aare Kurunmi is on his way with his sword of justice/Call all the liars and pretenders/The day of reckoning is here, beware!”

    For Nubia, only the rectitude of the Omoluabi (and its equivalent in other cultures in a federal Nigeria) will save the polity from assured self-destruction.

    Nubia appears to have a comrade-in-arm in moral crusading in Rauf Aregbesola, the Osun governor, who has launched similar campaigns in two projects: Osuwon Omoluabi and Omoluabi Boys and Girls Clubs, both aimed at building the infrastructure of the mind, and strengthening the people’s moral fibre.

    Osuwon Omoluabi is standardised scales, by the Osun market folk, to infuse honesty and transparency in trading, dissuade them from the easy temptation to resort to cheating to make the quick buck and sell the markets in Osun, to other Nigerian traders, on the sheer strength of integrity, hoping that such a positive branding would help to grow the market and transform into legitimate profit for the market folk.

    How this campaign would pan out is in the belly of time, for it is not easy to part with profitable greed! Why, even the Miller, a character in The Canterbury Tales of Englishman, Geoffery Chaucer (1342-1400), crowed about how his golden thumb — turned golden from stealing clients’ grains — had catapulted him to wealth, showing greed is as old as the ages! But there is no doubt: that is the direction to go.

    But the more exciting project, it would appear, are the Omoluabi Boys and Girls Clubs, in Osun communities and schools, which the governor launched to mark his third year in office.

    Again, by this move, the governor appears to have been swayed by a fragment of the Beautiful Nubia lyrics in “Kurunmi”: “Children you will learn and you must never forget/The past is full of heroes from who we can learn/And real lessons to guide us today/Many, many stories to make us proud too.”

    In other words, the grand paradox: to fix a troubled future, you must resort to a glorious past!

    Boys Brigade (founded by Scot, Sir William Alexander Smith, 1854-1914), an interdenominational Christian youth organisation, formed to blend drill and fun with Christian values, Boys Scout (founded by English, Robert Baden-Powell, 1857-1941) and its female follow-up, Girl Guides (first under the direction of Agnes Baden-Powell, 1858-1945), younger sister of Baron Baden-Powell), to develop character, citizenship and personal fitness, were all western concepts, with the consequent cultural imperialism, no matter how latent or benign.

    The Omoluabi clubs, therefore, are exciting because they will do all the age-old western variants have been doing, in patriotism, propriety, character building and allied traits. But their guardian heroes would be authentic African heroes and heroines.

    In a globalised world, skewed against Africa and Africans, character building, anchored on pristine African mores, could well be the elixir the country needs to get out of its current morass. That’s the Omoluabi spirit!

    For the modern African, it is also the needed cultural anchor to compete in a globalised but westernised globe.

    At Christmas then, it is good news from Osun and from Beautiful Nubia, with their collective gospel of Omoluabi! To recapture our country’s soul from leadership fakery and allied power banditry, other governors and artistes should follow the example of the duo.

    Merry Christmas: to all you esteemed readers of Republican Ripples!