Between the Bible and the philosopher, there’s a common ground of agreement that the good and the bad co-habit.
And that point is repeatedly made and seen on a daily basis in our society. Serious matter this, irrespective of the light joke made of it by the authors of a kiddies programme titled ‘Bloom and Gloom’.
Bloom defines the world of kiddies; as many of them are immune from the realities of its opposite. They know very little of gloom. At best, the basic understanding of kiddies to the word ‘gloom’ is limited to only when their candies and ice cream lollies are taken off their tender but itchy fingers. One does not need to search far for proof: a kid whose two parents have just perished in a ghastly road crash is totally oblivious of the calamity that has just befallen him; whereas his instant reaction when a chocolate ball or bar is snatched off his hands is akin to someone whose fairy tale world has just collapsed.
I am too preoccupied with far more serious issues than to get glued to the TV to be watching – of all programmes – kiddies cartoons; the reason why I may not know if the authors of the TV programme are indeed teaching our kiddies the real essence of bloom and gloom in that programme.
If I have my way, I will choose bloom and reject gloom in my life but mortals don’t have a choice in the manner; and when a share of either, becomes your lot, brace yourself up to face that reality with equanimity. It is a trillion- naira advice especially for Ibadan people on whichever side of the divide they are.
The recent decision of the Oyo State Government to create many kingships out of Ibadan city is as comical as it is confusing. On the bloom side, some are happy that it is no longer going to be one monarch to be superintending over a vast land mass; so if the number is even 100, the better. One ‘daughter of the soil’ that spoke to me on phone from the United States of American, on the issue, asked rhetorically “ how many Obas do you have in Lagos, to be expressing surprise at the huge number we will now have in “Ibadan ti ‘a”.
Comical, isn’t it? She has reduced the matter to land mass, forgetting that in the case of Lagos, several ethnic nationalities make up the little enclaves of Lagos with distinguishing claims to their obaships. Eguns and Aworis, for example, monopolise their domains with uncommon grit as to let it be known that no intruder will be permitted an inch in their territory. But will the Ibadans, with their customary and barely cosmopolitan question of “tani baba re n’leyi?” permit the accommodating nature of Lagos that permitted igbiras, ekitis, nupes, otta-aworis, et al, to have a bit of the cake in obaship and baleship matters ? I doubt it.
The reason why the prospect of expanded obaship in Ibadanland appears to a layman like me, as gloomy; if not now, but later. The foundation for the anarchy that may come has already been laid. Follow me: The incumbent Olubadan, who by the new arrangement, will assume the Imperial Majesty status of an Ooni of Ife or the Sultan of Sokoto and should be happy about the new status, has headed to court while a former governor of Oyo State who eventually ended up as a serial governorship contender in the same state, and a high chief of Ibadan and a beneficiary of the incumbent Governor Ajimobi’s largesse, who by the new arrangement, should henceforth be known and addressed as His Royal Majesty, Oba Rasheed Ladoja, saw a “Greek gift” in all this and vowed to approach the court to assist him disapprove of the governor’s approval.
The recent decision of the Oyo State Government to create many kingships out of Ibadan city is as comical as it is confusing. On the bloom side, some are happy that it is no longer going to be one monarch to be superintending over a vast land mass; so if the number is even 100, the better. One ‘daughter of the soil’ that spoke to me on phone from the United States of American, on the issue, asked rhetorically “ how many Obas do you have in Lagos, to be expressing surprise at the huge number we will now have in “Ibadan ti ‘a”.
Comical, isn’t it? She has reduced the matter to land mass, forgetting that in the case of Lagos, several ethnic nationalities make up the little enclaves of Lagos with distinguishing claims to their obaships. Eguns and Aworis, for example, monopolise their domains with uncommon grit as to let it be known that no intruder will be permitted an inch in their territory. But will the Ibadans, with their customary question of “tani baba re n’leyi?” permit the accommodating nature of Lagos that permitted Igbiras, Ekitis, Nupes, Otta-Aworis, et al, to have a bit of the cake in obaship and baleship matters? I doubt it.
Will the new Majesties now limit their traditional aspiration to just being HRM or they still can, as of old, aspire to rise to become the more fascinating HIM (His Imperial Majesty) which has hitherto been the ultimate for all Ibadan High Chiefs? Perhaps, an emerging custodian of Yoruba tradition, Oloye Lekan Alabi of Ibadanland can help out here.
When Military Governor David Medayese Jemibewon from Aiyetoro-Gbede in today’s Kogi State upgraded the Olubadan Baleship stool to full obaship with the first beaded crown ever to be won by any Olubadan in the 70s, the Ibadans saw the bloom in the fly-whisk of the first beneficiary of the government magnanimity and regarded the event as not only unprecedented but unique. Precedent is a good soulmate of politics, do I hear someone say?
This new development of Ibadan Chiefs assuming obaship status in the Olubadan’s life time while he assumes imperial majesticship over all and sundry, on the surface, should attract greater “jollification” than the one that heralded Jemibewon’s crown then; but is this one to be regarded as a bloom for the people or gloom for the vast territory? The answer is in the womb of time.
‘Ewure ile o mo iyi ode’
The marriage ceremony of my step daughter recently in Chelmsford, Essex in the United Kingdom, proved a few points worthy of reflection upon.
One, the physical presence of two prominent Obas from Nigeria’s premier state, Lagos. Someone walked up to me at the venue, wanting to know more of me and when I asked why, he said he was surprised to learn from one of those at the reception party that I was the facilitator. He expressed surprise again.
To be sure, I cannot fathom why he felt surprised. He sounded innocent to me, I must tell. And, that innocent (?) inquiry reminds me of the general behavioural pattern of people in our country; and in the U.K. by mean people who are driven more by envy, jealousy and disguised but mindless pursuit of pecuniary benefits, to behave in ways that clearly tell that some of them went to the Uni. but never allowed the university to pass through them. But the surprise more to me is why people, whether in flowing agbada or buba or gown or cassock, never grow up, such that they always want to look down on people or try to want to re-write people’s history. This category of people perhaps haven’t learnt enough to know that it isn’t good to look down on people, as only God sits up there.
Some others, because of their love of filthy lucre, even descend from their Olympian height, to contradict themselves at the drop of a hat, speaking from all the corners of their mouths, wrecking homes with their plainly biased and mischievous mouths, in the process. To them, I say: call honey by whatever name, it is still sweet!
Truth is that, like Haruna Ishola succinctly put it in one of his records, the goat at home doesn’t know the worth and capability of a hunter who would easily have hunted it down and made mincemeat of the goat, were it a habitue of the forest.
No matter what, whether or not such people like it, they are too little to undo God’s work. The Supreme Being, that made us who we are, is still at work, ensuring that his beloved are preserved for greater exploits and protected from harm’s way.
