Tag: Ooni

Spokespersons sometimes get their principals into trouble. Last week, former vice president Atiku Abubakar and political coalition leader on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) had to quickly debunk a statement purportedly made by him suggesting he was more concerned about rebuilding Nigeria than he was desperate to be president. It seemed contradictory, but because Ola Olateju, a professor, claimed during a meeting in Lagos welcoming defectors into the ADC that he was representing the former vice president, many observers were puzzled about what had changed so soon in Alhaji Atiku’s perspective. About two days later, another spokesman claiming to represent the former vice president insisted his boss was still in the running for the presidency, and that Prof. Olateju did not have his mandate to speak the way he did.

Well, the troubles often stirred up by spokesmen are obviously never in short supply. Before two spokesmen contradicted themselves over Alhaji Atiku’s presidential ambition, two other spokesmen had exchanged in lexical jousting over their principals’ monarchical rankings in Yorubaland. The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, had conferred a chieftaincy title on an Ibadan-based engineer, Dotun Sanusi. He probably thought nothing of the conferment, and never expected that it would trigger a furore. But it did, in a teacup. First to draw blood over the title was the Alafin of Oyo, Oba Abimbola Owoade, whose media and publicity director, Bode Durojaiye, flew off the lexical handle by issuing an ultimatum to the Ooni. It was indeed a colourful ultimatum, the kind that reenacts the lost art of insults when literary giants crossed swords and challenged one another to a duel.

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Mr Durojaiye was entertaining, in a pompous way. He said: “The attention of the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Abimbola Akeem Owoade I, has been drawn to the purported conferment of the chieftaincy title of Okanlomo of Yorubaland on a business tycoon, Dotun Sanusi, by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi. The conferment of a chieftaincy title which borders on Yorubaland by the Ooni of Ife is an affront to the revered institution of the Alaafin, who is the Titan of Yorubaland and who holds the exclusive right to confer any chieftaincy title which covers the entire Yorubaland on anyone. The Ooni of Ife is behaving as if there is no authority to check and call him to order, and because of that ‘above the law’ syndrome of his, he is in the habit of walking on everybody’s back, including the Apex Court in the country, the Supreme Court, which had ruled on the exclusive preserve of the Alaafin to confer chieftaincy titles that cover the entire Yorubaland on anyone.”

It was not the most dignifying of statements, one complete with the detachment and cadence many observers of great monarchies associate with illustrious traditional institutions. But, alas, it was just the tip of the iceberg, or perhaps volcano. Mr Durojaiye had fiercely added: “The instrument of office presented to Oba Ogunwusi during his installation specifically limits his traditional area of authority to Oranmiyan Local Government, which has now been split into three local governments, viz: Ife Central, Ife North, and Ife South. The dictum that nobody is above the law of the land is now being put to a crucial test, and the reality of our time makes it very obligatory for the Alaafin to call the Ooni of Ife to order and demand revocation of the so-called Okanlomo of Yorubaland chieftaincy title conferred on Engineer Dotun Sanusi within 48 hours, or face the consequences…”

The victims of so engaging an ultimatum were at first fairly restrained. But the ultimatum was too tempting, definite and colourful to be shrugged off with a mild sentence or two. The Ooni’s spokesman, Moses Olafare, first told the media that he would not dignify the Oyo provocation with a response, but soon issued a cryptic, defiant and sarcastic statement. “The Ooni is busy setting up businesses and creating jobs for youths across Yorubaland, while they (Alafin and his crowd) are busy fighting supremacy that does not exist. Dead empire. Their 48-hour ultimatum will soon lapse. We are waiting. Dead Empire. Ooni plans for the groundbreaking and launching of the Ojaja smart city in Ibadan, the biggest in Africa; and someone is somewhere busy issuing 48 hours empty threats. Where does this king (Ooni) have time for supremacy hullabaloo? Issuing 48-hour ultimatum over a chieftaincy title that doesn’t even exist.” There you have it. The contempt from Ile-Ife could barely be hidden, just as the Oyo ultimatum was deafening.

It turned out that the recipient of the title himself had posted on his social media handle that he had been conferred with the title of Okanlomo Oodua, not Okanlomo of Yorubaland. In other words there was really no basis for a verbal skirmish. Media reportage probably transmuted Okanlomo Oodua to Okanlomo of Yorubaland, maybe in error or ignorance; for indeed how does the uninitiated differentiate between Oodua and Yoruba/Yorubaland? Of course the media obligingly went on to feast on the brickbats between the foremost traditional rulers to the dismay of the Yoruba. It was also clear that the brief lexical skirmish was essentially between the spokesmen of the two monarchs fighting century-old grudge matches on their own behalf and on behalf of their principals. Their statements were idiosyncratic of their individual hot-headedness, bearing little resemblance to the monarchs whose comportments are fairly well known to be regal and aristocratic. And judging from the less-than-satisfactory lexical exactitude of the contending statements, it was abundantly clear that none of the aides had adequately weighed or judged their words well before dishing them out on behalf of their bosses to more discerning and discriminating public.