OPEN LETTER TO OBA LAMIDI OLAYIWOLA ADEYEMI III, IKU BABA YEYE, ALAFIN OF OYO
BY
THE OKE-OGUN DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL (ODC)!
ON HIS UNWARRANTED HARRASSMENT AND INTIMIDATION OF THE OKE-OGUN OBAS AND PEOPLE
Your Royal Highness,
Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III
Iku Baba Yeye,
Alafin of Oyo,
LEAVE THE OBAS AND PEOPLE OF OKE-OGUN ALONE
The attention of the Oke-Ogun Development Council (ODC) has been drawn to a letter ref. No. APO.13/Vol.65/3 of 22/2/2016 which Your Royal Highness addressed individually to each and every Oba in Oke-Ogun.
ODC is the umbrella body encompassing all socio-cultural associations, clubs, professional groups and organizations as well as all sons and daughters of Oke-Ogun, at home and abroad whose aim and objectives are the promotion of the interests and development of the area. Oke-Ogun consists of the following 10 Local Government Areas: Iseyin, Kajola, Iwajowa, Itesiwaju, Atisbo, Shaki West, Shaki East, Oorelope, Irepo, and Olorunsogo Local Government Areas. The entire people of Oke-Ogun are solidly united behind ODC, through which it has since 2009 submitted a Memorandum to the National Assembly requesting for the creation of Oke-Ogun, a state of its own, from the present Oyo State. Oke-Ogun is therefore, a geopolitical reality which Kabiyesi Alaiyeluwa and indeed anybody must recognize and be prepared to live and work with. It is in the light of this that ODC views Your Royal Highness addressing his letter individually to the Obas in Oke-Ogun rather than a group as debasing and scornful to the status and reality of Oke-Ogun as a distinct geo-political entity within the present Oyo State.
For the purpose and ease of analysis, the offensive letter of Your Royal Highness has been summarized into two parts. The first part is Your Royal Highness claim to promoting ‘unity and coherence’ among the obas in ‘Oyo zone’; and that this ‘fatherly role’ has translated to granting beaded crowns to all the deserving obas in the past. This need for unity, you said, motivated your writing the letter to the Obas. The second part concerns your objection and condemnation of the planned solidarity visit to Ooni of Ile-Ife by the Oke-Ogun Obas without your approval and consent; and that it was at the instance of Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, who you castigated as not only leading the Obas of Oke-Ogun by the nose but also as an enemy of the state governor because he (Prof. Ojerinde) did not felicitate with Governor Abiola Ajimobi on the ‘joyous occasion of the Supreme Court judgment that confirmed the victory of governor Abiola Ajimobi’. Your Royal Highness concluded your letter by politicizing the issue and setting up the Oyo State Government against Oke-Ogun people with a threat to reporting the Oke-Ogun Obas, and ipso facto the entire Oke-Ogun people to Oyo State Governor. This, you in fact did by sending a copy of your letter to His Excellency, Governor Abiola Ajimobi.
We have carefully examined the context, content, language and motive of the letter of Your Royal Highness and regrettably found it to be very insulting and totally devoid of expected royal temperament and nuances. The letter reeks of utter contempt of Your Royal Highness for the Obas and the entire people of Oke-Ogun and also an attempt to malign and destroy, through wicked and false allegation, one of us, an icon of Oke-Ogun, in person of Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, the Asiwaju of Oke-Ogun. Your letter evokes a sad memory of the atavistic age of tsar dealing with his serfs. That age is gone and gone forever and we as ODC will NOT allow our Obas and people of Oke-Ogun to be taken back to that age by Your Royal Highness under the pretext of culture or tradition. We shall respect and uphold only culture, tradition and institutions that respect and relate with us with all human dignity and liberty that accord with civilized norms and guaranteed by the Nigeria Constitution. It is for this reason that we have taken up the fight for and on behalf of all the Obas and the entire people of Oke-Ogun.
Your Royal Highness, lets now consider a few of the contentious issues raised in your letter. The first is the motive of your letter, which you said, is to promote unity. Your Royal Highness claims that you have never reneged in your ‘fatherly role’ in the need for unity and coherence among the Obas in Oyo Zone and that your letter is premised on that; and the evidence of your promoting unity and coherence was granting of beaded crown to all deserving Obas in the past. May we, for clarity, ask: What is the delineation of that ‘Oyo Zone’ being referred to by Your Royal Highness? The empirical and political definition of Oyo Zone shows that Your Royal Highness is clearly in error. Oyo zone as being used by Your Royal Highness exists only in imagination than in political reality. Your Royal Highness must know that the geopolitical zone officially known and referred to as Oyo Zone consists of only four Local Government Areas of Afijio, Atiba, Oyo East and Oyo West and clearly does not include the ten (10) Local Government Areas in Oke-Ogun to which you issued your letters to their Obas. The 10 LGAs of Oke-Ogun belong to a separate and different senatorial zone from that of the four (4) LGA in Oyo zone. But since you are still under the illusion of Oyo zone to encompass more than the 4 LGAs around Oyo Township and to include the 10 LGAs of Oke-Ogun we will not ignore it, as doing so will not arouse you to the reality. We shall, however, speak as far as Oke-Ogun side of your ‘Oyo Zone’ is concerned. We do not intend to speak on behalf of the Obas and people in the proper Oyo Zone of 4 Local government areas. It is sufficient to state a well-known fact that they have been grudgingly bearing the yoke of your ‘fatherly royal oppression’. The traditional rulers there have remained at the status of Baale. Which of them have you granted beaded crown?
What unity or cohesion have you provided in Oke-Ogun? There is absolutely none. You have always regarded Oke-Ogun as your serfdom with no rights. How have you promoted unity there when, without qualms or shame, you tacitly and openly induce, encourage and promote disunity in various communities of Oke-Ogun once it comes to obaship tussle? You supplant at will senior Obas with your minions and create multiple heads and authority in same community or town. How many beaded crowns have you granted in your 41 years of reign and at what cost and expense to the unity and peace of the community? How many of them have been able to wear the beaded crown with peace of mind and not in pain of royally induced legal tussles arising thereafter?. Your Royal Highness, you know all these things to be true but for the sake of the public that may find it difficult to believe we will cite a few instances, without opening fully the Pandora box of your deeds as promoter of disunity in Oke-Ogun.
1. For instance Igboho where four of your fore fathers reigned and were buried is today a town with four (4) ‘Obas’ each claiming superiority with your tacit approval and encouragement just to supplant the one age-long known supreme traditional ruler to whom your forefathers handed the town on their departure to the new Oyo;
2. Similarly, the small community of Ado-Awaye for over thirty years has not known peace because there are two Alados, one of them at your behest contrary to the popular wish of that community.
3. The beaded crown of Olokaka of Okaka, Oba Azeez Olatunji Ayoola, Ogelende 1V has remained elusive after the whole Okaka community was put to disgrace and embarrassment when in the morning of coronation Your Royal Highness decided the crown should be withheld, for no good reason, and it has so remained.
4. Similarly, the beaded crown of Onigbetti of Igbetti, the Afiasegbejo has remained a mirage after all expenses for the crown have been paid and coronation arrangement concluded by the community.
Your Royal Highness further complained that “Apart from the beaded crown issue, the relationship between me and most of you had taken the form of frequent visit to me here in the Palace. On many of such occasions we rubbed mind together on the overall development of the Zone”. How could any Oba with sense of self-worth and dignity visit you when a visit to your palace could end up in humiliation and degradation in which an Oba would be ordered to remove his bead, robe and be half naked and to roll on the ground? In this modern age, that is the royal punishment for any Oke-Ogun Oba that dares utter anything contrary to what is in your mind. It therefore sounds to us like a fiction when you claim that you “rubbed minds together on the overall development of our zone”. How we wished it were true. What is the forum where you rubbed mind with the Oke-Ogun Obas and with which of the Oke-Ogun Oba? Was it with the Aseyin of Iseyini or with the late Okere of Shaki who you regarded as sworn enemies? You cannot expect any Oke-Ogun Oba, except your minions, to come to your palace only to be rubbished and treated like slaves.
What development has ever come to Oke-Ogun through the association with Your Royal Highness? Nothing. The concept of development in Oyo Zone by Your Royal Highness begins and ends with Oyo Township. All federal and state institutions are located in Oyo town: The Survey School, Federal College of Education, State Hospital and Old Oyo Games Reserve Headquarters in addition to the private tertiary institutions and Banks. It does not matter that there is no federal or state institutions or presence in any other part of the so called Oyo Zone. The total economic, political and social marginalization of Oke-Ogun has never bothered Your Royal Highness. You are more concerned with the slavish obeisance of the Oke-Ogun Obas to Your Royal Highness. The outstanding entitlements and emolument of the Obas for which Your Royal Highness led a delegation to the governor of the state is more paramount to you than the opening up and development of Oke-Ogun that constitutes more than 70% of the so called ‘Oyo Zone’.
We know as a matter of fact that Your Royal Highness is not interested in the development of Oke-Ogun because it is when we call our Obas in Oke-Ogun for meeting to chart the course of progress and development of the area that you will also hurriedly summon them to the palace for one meaningless meeting or the other just to distract and intimidate them from pursuing the genuine interest of their people. A classical case was when the Oke-Ogun Obas with ODC were to present to the National Assembly their memorandum for the creation of Oke-Ogun State; it was same day you found convenient to summon the Obas to the palace and coerced some of the Oke-Ogun obas that succumbed to your intimidation to sign a memorandum for the creation of New Oyo State even though they had already signed the memorandum for the creation of Oke-Ogun State.
It is this your disdain for the Oke-Ogun Obas and the tact to break their ranks that prompted Your Royal Highness to issue individual letters to each of the Oke-Ogun Obas instead of addressing them together collectively under the auspices of the Conference of Oke-Ogun Obas of which HRH Oba Dr. Ganiyu Adekunle Salawudeen, Ajinase II, Aseyin of Iseyin is the Chairman and Amunijio of Ijio, HRH Oba Gabriel Okunade is the secretary. You should recognize and accept the existence of the body as a reality and live with it. They have unfettered freedom of association and movement under the Nigeria Constitution. And it is under this Constitutionally guaranteed freedom that the Oke-Ogun Obas on their own free volition and without inducement from anybody, as alleged by Your Royal Highness, decided that they would pay a solidarity visit to the new Ooni of Ife HRH Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja III. What permission or consent do they require from you to do that? The planned solidarity visit of the Oke-ogun Obas to Ooni still subsists. It will not be abandoned as a result of your intimidation.
The Oke-Ogun Obas had in the past paid similar solidarity visit to their brother Obas outside Oyo State without any furor. Why should the planned visit to HRH Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja III, Ooni of Ife be different if not because Your Royal Highness is paranoid about anything connected with Ooni and you want to continue the cold hostility when the trend now is to foster the unity of Yoruba race. While the Oke-Ogun Obas will continue to recognize you as the foremost Yoruba Oba they will not be co-travellers with you on journey of ceaseless hostility. In keeping with your intrigues you have tried to politicize a simple issue of solidarity visit so as to set the Oke-Ogun Obas and people on collision path with our amiable Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi. How does issue of planned solidarity become an indication of disloyalty to the Governor? The fear and complaint about the planned solidarity visit is to serve your interest and not the Governor. Fortunately, the Governor can always see through your intrigues to cause disaffection and to feather your political patronage. The Governor knows that he can always count on the unflinching support of Okeogun people. The Oke-Ogun Obas and people are not fair weather friends.
It not strange that Your Royal Highness would stop at nothing, including intrigues and blackmail, to meet your insatiable obsession for political patronage but it is worrisome that you have added other despicable conducts. Your Royal Highness, why did you choose to do unroyal thing which paramount Obas of your class would not do? You left your royal palace in Oyo to go and personally deliver and award the title of ‘Omoluabi of Yoruba Land’ to Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Executive Governor of Osun State in his Office at Oshogbo! Why should you go about hawking titles outside your domain? Is it not you that said “I opined that our dignity as Obas rest on our tradition and culture, because culture is the principal magistrate of life”? Your action in hawking royal title does not accord with the principle which you yourself enunciated. You only respect culture and tradition in breach as it suits your unbridled importunities. This is unbefitting of your exhausted traditional position as a foremost Yoruba Oba. May we ask if you sought and obtained the approval of the Oyo State Governor for your sacrilegious act?
Your Royal Highness allegation that the decision by the Oke-Ogun Obas to visit the Ooni of Ife was at the instance of Prof. Dibu Ojerinde has been diligently investigated. It is found to be absolutely untrue. Prof. Dibu Ojerinde out of deep respect for your person and office had also sent text message to Your Royal Highness to say that it was not true and it must have been contrivance of his detractors. He said he has handed these detractors to the Almighty Creator. We have no cause to disbelieve him and we could have left it at that since Prof. Ojerinde’s rebuttal has also been corroborated by the Oke-Ogun Obas who affirmed that it was a decision taken freely on their own and it was, therefore, insulting to allege, as your majesty did, that they were being led by nose by ‘an ordinary honourary chief of Ile-Ife’. However, the ODC does not believe the matter should be so lightly glossed over as doing so would indulge Your Royal Highness in further wicked and reckless allegations. We do not expect a royal father to make such a fundamental allegation against a public officer without painstaking investigation as to the veracity of what comes to his knowledge and still proceed to make damaging opprobrious remarks. Your Royal Highness has unfettered access to Prof. Ojerinde and you have enjoyed his benevolence more than any Oke-Ogun Oba. We recalled how Prof. Ojerinde led a large delegation of ODC to your 70th birthday ceremony in 2008 and gave a generous personal gift. We were witnesses to it.
Your Royal Highness, why did you not, as a royal father, invite Prof Ojerinde to ascertain the veracity of what you said has come to your knowledge? Why have you chosen to destroy a person who has been your benefactor and holds you in high esteem? Why do you have to set Prof. Ojerinde and the Oke-Ogun against the Oyo State Governor with your remark “It is my sincere hope that you will not allow yourself to inherit any personal prejudices of any individual against the Governor” You went on to identify that individual as Prof. Dibu Ojerinde where you said “No word of joy from our son Prof. Dibu Ojerinde on this state and national joyous occasion” The joyous occasion you referred to was the Supreme Court judgment that confirmed the victory of Governor Abiola Ajimobi. Would Your Royal Highness, honestly, advise or expect Prof. Ojerinde, a public officer to wear the toga of a politician and take a paid advert to congratulate the Governor? On what basis are you expecting Prof. Ojerinde to felicitate with and congratulate the Governor? This is just a case of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it. Your Royal Highness should be conversant with the simple code of conduct for public officers.
In your undisguised attempt to politicize the issue you concluded your letter with a gratuitous advice “As your permanent Chairman, I hope you will join me to give the necessary cooperation to the well constituted Authority in the State represented by His Excellency, Governor Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi, the Executive Governor of Oyo State”. And you copied your letter to the Governor. How does the proposed solidarity visit of the Oke-Ogun Obas to the Ooni threaten cooperation to the constituted Authority and must be reported to the Governor , when in deed you as the Permanent Chairman left your palace to go and hawk a chieftaincy title to the Governor of another state? Should you not recognize and appreciate your State Governor first? Or has he not done something commendable that deserve being honored? As we have said earlier the Governor knows his true friends. We will only want to advise your Royal Highness to be cautious on riding on the back of tiger to wield power and to destroy others.
Lastly, if the truth must be told, your grouse with Prof. Ojerinde, and main reason why you are out to destroy him, and God will not allow you, is his acceptance of honourary chieftaincy title from the late Ooni of Ife. And that is your only basis of concluding that the planned solidarity visit of Oke-Ogun Obas to Ooni is at the instance of Prof. Ojerinde as if they were incapable of taking independent decision on their own. Your Royal Highness should not drag Oke-Ogun Obas and its people into unnecessary feud with Ooni? If you want fraternal support from Oke-ogun based on our common history the way you are going about it is not the way. You cannot earn it by intimidation and harassment of the Obas and People of Oke-Ogun. The Oke-Ogun Obas are not your slaves. Enough is enough. Leave of Oke Ogun.
Extracted
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