Opinion
The Sunday Igboho I know
Published
3 weeks agoon
By
Trends Admin
By Tunde Odesola
(Published in The PUNCH on Monday, February 8, 2021)
Gangan is the hourglass-shaped talking drum covered by cowskin that talks in the voice of man. Unique, the gangan talking drum is Yoruba’s invaluable gift to the world.
Quite unlike countless artefacts stolen from Africa, and transported to Europe, America and beyond, I believe that the talking drum was left unstolen because the gangan can’t talk without the dexterity of the fingernails – a fact supported by the Yoruba proverb, ‘ati ranmu gangan, kii sehin ekanna’.
But dexterity, in the case of gangan, belonged to the black man. Probably frustrated by in-dexterity, the white man let the talking goatskin, the wooden hourglass and its strings be.
Two weeks ago, the gangan roared in Igangan town of Ibarapa in Oyo State. Just like in the days of yore when drummers accompanied warriors to the warfront, I heard the gangan clearly, saying, “Sunday Igboho npale ogun mo, orisa ma je o t’enu mi jade!” Meaning: “Sunday Igboho is preparing for war, may the gods forbid me saying so.”
About three weeks ago when I interviewed the Akoni Oodua of Yoruba land, Chief Sunday Adeyemo alias Sunday Igboho, he talked passionately about Yoruba culture and tradition.
Despite the mystique surrounding his persona, Igboho was respectful. Without knowing my age, he accorded me the honour due to an elder brother, using the English noun, ‘sir’, and the Yoruba pronoun, ‘e’, both of which confer seniority – while talking to me.
Our talk centered around whether or not African bulletproof aka ‘ayeta’ or ‘odeshi’ truly exists. Igboho insisted that ‘ayeta’ is real and vowed to stake his life and N10m against anyone who doesn’t believe that African bulletproof exists. He said, “I will stake N10m against the N10m of anyone who doesn’t believe African bulletproof exists. The person should bring his gun and shoot at me. I will win the bet.”
A few days after Igboho spoke to me about ‘ayeta’, he visited Igangan and stood in the gap for his embattled ethnic nationality, which has come under incessant murderous attacks by Fulani herdsmen while the Yoruba political leadership, with the exception of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, maintained criminal silence.
Shortly after the gangan thundered victoriously in Igangan, echoing the liberation of Oduduwa children from rape, kidnapping and killings by Fulani herdsmen, a dirge was heard at the Tinubu Square in Lagos.
Ogini? Kilode? Wetin happen? Who die? Media attention shifted swiftly to Tinubu Square, where a torn gangan was found in the possession of a footman singing the songs of sorrow and crying more than the bereaved.
What’s the mission of this flunkey? The manservant wanted to outshine his master and reap quick media traction from the emerging Igboho sensation but met his Waterloo in a classic comeuppance.
Blinded by ambition, the opportunistic, imprudent and chauvinistic fellow danced naked to some anti-FEMInist music at the popular OJODU bus stop near Berger, in Lagos, when a rickety okada crushed him for his blasPHEMY.
The Igboho I know is a commoner, who doesn’t have access to questionable public funds like Nigeria’s politicians in the federal executive council, state executive councils, federal and state legislatures, and local government councils.
The Igboho I know is a 48-year-old tribal-marked man who spoke the only language President Muhammadu Buhari understood – force – forcing the northern president to sack his redundant service chiefs after yearly strident calls for the removal of the underwhelming military chiefs by Nigerians fell on deaf ears.
Shamefully, in order for the removal of the service chiefs not to appear as forced by the Igboho enigma, Buhari rewarded the failed military chiefs with ambassadorial posts when they’ve not even turned in their letters of stewardship for assessment.
The cluelessness of the trivial Buhari administration is further highlighted by the three-month tenure extension of the IGP, Mohammed Adamu, on the premise that the President is searching for the right candidate. This is the most stupid excuse for dullness. I don’t know how Buhari would use just three months to search for Adamu’s successor when he couldn’t do so in the last two years Adamau has been in the saddle.
The Igboho I know is a tribal lord, just like Buhari, who told all other Nigerian ethnic nationalities to vacate their lands and water for his Fulani kinsmen to freely use for Ruga.
Sadly, it’s on record that no Fulani herdsman has been prosecuted and brought to justice by the Buhari presidency despite damning evidence of complicity.
In its characteristic knee-jerk approach to issues, security sources said the Presidency’s first reaction was to attempt to arrest Igboho, but was advised against such a move for fears that the tension already generated by Fulani killings nationwide could result in simultaneous protests that would be larger than the #Endsars riots.
The Sunday Igboho I know is far more compassionate and courageous than Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, all Yoruba governors, except Akeredolu, all Yoruba leaders, ministers, senators, and House of Representative members who have kept quiet because they and their children are safe from killer Fulani herdsmen.
The sound emanating from the gangan being beaten by spineless and greedy Yoruba political leaders is clear. It says, “Bamu, bamu layo, awa o mo bi Fulani npa omo enikankan, bamu, bamu la yo.” Meaning, “We’re filled to the throat, we don’t know if Fulani kills anyone, we are filled to the throat.”
The same thing goes for 99.9% of Yoruba obas, whose member, the Olufon of Ifon, Oba Adegoke Adeusi, was killed by suspected Fulani kidnappers, but who didn’t speak against the killing. Well, if a foremost oba was killed and Yoruba obas kept quiet, won’t they go dancing shaku-shaku if sons and daughters of nobodies in their domains are killed or raped? Yet, this set of leaders clamour for constitutional empowerment.
Only the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, wrote an open letter to Buhari, warning of the tragic consequences of the actions of Fulani kidnappers, herdsmen, and the general insecurity in the land. A couple of other Yoruba monarchs may share Alaafin’s views, but they need to speak up against the killing and raping of their subjects.
The Igboho I know understands the language of the fascist Buhari regime. Force is the language. Former US President Donald Trump thought Nigeria was in a democracy when he asked Buhari why were Nigerian Christians being killed over an alleged Islamisation agenda.
Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, General Olusegun Obasanjo, General TY Danjuma, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Bishop David Oyedepo, emirs and numerous leaders of thought have warned Buhari that Nigeria is about to collapse, but the Katsina warlord will never listen because the only language he understands is force.
That Buhari’s next-of-kin presidency granted university licence to the General Sani Abacha family, last week, gives an idea of the depthless corruption subsuming the All Progressives Congress-led government.
If Abacha, Buhari’s benefactor, didn’t steal the country blind, maybe Nigeria would today have the capacity to store millions of COVID-19 vaccines about to be donated by western countries but which are at the risk of getting spoilt as a result of inadequate power supply.
Since I met Igboho at the Osun Peoples Democratic Party secretariat in the Dada Estate area of Osogbo in mid 2000, he has never changed from his down-to-earth nature. With what he did in Igangan, the puppy of Igboho is far better than the toothless and clawless lion of the Aare Ona Kakanfo, Gani Adams. I won’t gloat and beat my chest, saying I predicted the unfitness of Adams for the Kankafo post in 2017. The lesson I took away from Adam’s appointment was that to err is kingly, to forgive is divine.
My advice for the Igboho I know: You’ve blunted the sword of the Fulani with your palm, they’re coming from the highest places to demystify you. Be prepared, talk less, issue press statements. Nigerians are on your side, and they’re watching.
Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com
Facebook: @tunde odesola
Twitter: @tunde_odesola
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Opinion
Ethnic profiling as Nigeria’s predicament
Published
6 days agoon
February 21, 2021By
Trends Admin

By Tunde Odesola
(Published in The PUNCH on Monday, February 15, 2021)
History, like Ekiti’s Ikogosi springs of warm and cold fountains, embodies profundities. Either for good or bad reasons, history always cascades down the confluence of discovery, depth and truth, meandering into the past.
Whenever history repeats itself for good, cymbals accompany resounding ovations – like the joy of a soccer cup game win. But, oftentimes when history catches man on the wrong foot, grief trails destruction – like the outstanding incompetence of the retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s regime in securing lives and property.
Buhari’s colossal inability to deliver on any of his electoral promises reads like the devil’s scripture.
Eagle-eyed, silent and deadpan, history is the unblinking secret camera watching and recording events, not for God, but for man and the future called posterity, in the global village called humanity.
While un-smart nations writhe in pain as history rewrites unpalatable events, smart nations write in joy, historic accomplishments of epic proportions, on the glorious sands of time.
Giant in size but dwarf in reasoning, the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government, in the first decade of the millennium, yanked History off primary and secondary schools curricula as a core subject even as the Buhari regime that has promised to restore it as a core subject since 2017, has yet to fully do so.
It’s scandalous that multi-billion-dollar security funds could develop wings and disappear while the self-acclaimed ruling Africa’s largest party was unmindful of the wisdom in the saying that a people without history are on the path to extinction.
That the PDP could even toy with the idea of expunging History from school curricula was a corroboration of the fact that successive national governments since 1999 didn’t have an understanding of citizenship rights and education.
If Nigerian leaders made citizens’ welfare the cornerstone of service, they would know that History is yesterday’s searchlight, beamed on today for man to understand the present and prepare for the future.
For the sake of the up-and-coming Nigerian generation which has been denied the knowledge of History by subsequent governments, I shall embark on a journey to Katsina in a history-driven vehicle.
While in Katsina, I shall teleport to the tomb of former Nigerian President, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua, at the Dan Marina Cemetery, Katsina, to pay obsequies to the memory of a true Nigerian nationalist who wasn’t an emotionless, tight-lipped nepotistic bigot. At the Dan Marina Cemetery, I shall compare and contrast the achievements of Yar’Adua with those of Buhari in order for Nigerians to see who the patriot is among the two Fulani sons.
I will also visit the Ilupeju residence of the first civilian Governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, who passed on to eternal glory last week at 91, and compare him with the civilian governors that had led the state of aquatic splendor after him.
I decided to embark on this route of historical juxtaposition in order to be fair enough to Buhari, whose awful spokespersons, always make the life patron of Meyeti Allah cattle breeders look like the victim, who’s doing all in his power to make life better for an ungrateful Nigerian nation.
Being a former university lecturer, Yar’Adua appeared more cerebral than Buhari. Yar’Adua addressed journalists freely and neither engaged in characteristic verbal miscues nor relied solely on prepared speech before addressing some local and international audiences.
Yar’Adua was the one and only Nigerian president till date, who publicly declared his nearly N1bn assets and liabilities, completely unlike Buhari, who vowed to publicly declare his assets while campaigning for votes, but reneged when he got to power.
Despite coming from an illustrious family and being younger to Buhari, Yar’Adua didn’t foist his Fulani ethic nationality over other nationalities even as he granted amnesty to Niger Delta militants, reflecting true nationalism.
Not one to be beclouded by political vindictiveness, Yar’Adua taught former President Olusegun Obasanjo some lesson in leadership fairness when he released the N10bn allocation accruable to Lagos State, but which Obasanjo had seized and refused to release despite a Supreme Court ruling.
Appointments by Yar’Adua into the leaderships of the Armed Forces, executive cabinet and government parastatals weren’t tilted in favour of the North just as he matched his word up with action, implementing the N18,000 minimum wage promised to the electorate.
A Master’s degree holder in Analytical Chemistry from the Ahmadu Bello University, Yar’Adua, who was the Matawalle of Katsina, didn’t open fire on innocent protesters while he was president for three years.
Also, he didn’t turn Aso Rock into a barracks for warring family members, wife, children and security aides.
The Nigerian leader, who died at 58, was in firm control of his household as there was no reported case of infighting among family members, yet he didn’t claim to champion any War Against Indiscipline.
Yar’Adua wasn’t a pretender, who owned choice properties, and yet wanted Nigerians to see him as Spartan and frugal. Also, he didn’t indulge his children by laying at their feet the fleet of presidential jets for running errands and photoshopping trips.
On the watch of the great Katsina General, Nigeria is not Golgotha. It’s an abattoir littered with skulls, limbs and blood of insecurity. It’s the hell where death snacks on the slow-moving chameleon and snaps up the reckless frog jumping about dangerously. It’s the riddle of the caring father that turns the gun on his harmless children who complained at the Lekki tollgate, threatening to squish more children in a promised second-coming blitzkrieg.
On Jakande’s 90th birthday in 2019, I wrote a tribute, “Lateef Jakande and the Lathieves,” in my PUNCH newspaper column on July 29, 2019.
The article read in part, “Baba Kekere, as he was popularly called, was elected on the platform of the Unity Party of Nigeria on October 1, 1979 and just five months after his inauguration, he built 11,729 schools, whereas a latter-day democrat cuddled the list of his cabinet members for six months!
“Visionary and incorruptible, Jakande saw tomorrow and was prepared to carry his people along with him into it. Jakande embarked on the construction of a metro line before the mallam led khaki boys to strike and terminate the monumental project. Jakande was subsequently probed and cleared of corruption charges.
“He changed the lives of his people through genuine developmental strides, establishing the Lagos State University, Radio Lagos and Television, Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa, numerous housing estates, genuine free education and opening up Ikotun, Ajah and Jakande never named any of his landmark achievements after himself.
“He only wanted to live in the minds of his people forever. His children attended the public schools he built. His wife, Abimbola, neither operated as First Lady nor spent taxpayers’ money on personal whims called pet projects. While in power, LKJ never traveled out for medical check-ups or vacations.
“For him, no state assignment was so urgent to make him fly a helicopter though Lagos was rich enough to buy 10 copters. He never needed to buy bulletproof SUVs nor built a mansion on the island. Jakande lived among the people in Ilepeju with Oshodi as his next-door neighbor.
“Born in the Epetedo area of Lagos State on July 23, 1929 to parents who hailed from Omu Aran in Kwara State, Jakande rose through the dint of discipline, hard work, commitment and perseverance to become the Editor of Tribune newspaper and later founded the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian Guild of Editors.
“He never had a university education but he had the love of his people at his heart.
Since Lagos fell on the laps of self-acclaimed democrats in 1999, all the billions of dollars they expended on infrastructure cannot match the achievements Jakande produced in four years with little resources.
LKJ’s achievements litter the landscape. Where are their achievements? If you ask me, na who I go ask?
Adieu, Baba Kekere!
This column goes on a four-week break – starting from next week. All work and no vacation… Cheers!
Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com
Facebook: @tunde odesola
Twitter: @tunde_odesola
Opinion
Mad cows and even madder narratives
Published
2 weeks agoon
February 11, 2021By
Trends Admin
By Wole Soyinka
The most distressful aspect of my recent interaction with cows and herders is that it has created a most unwanted distraction from the ongoing life and death Nigerian narrative.
One has to take time off to deal with distortions and Fake versions, while students are being reportedly waylaid and killed and/or kidnapped in Ondo and farmers are being slaughtered in my own state. In short, the killings continue even as panels are being launched to enquire into immediate past human violations.
For those who truly seek details of the Ijegba incident, I hereby affirm that I was never physically attacked, neither did I attack any cows.
The cows and herders did however attack my property – and not for the first time.
The police need to be very, very careful, learn to be straightforward with public information. Failure to adhere to that obvious, basic form of conduct means that the public will lose total confidence in security agencies and constantly bypass them in times of civic unrest, no matter how trivial or deadly.
How on earth could the police claim that my property was not invaded by cattle? It was. My grounds-men knew the drill and commenced the process of expelling them.
Fortunately, I was then driving out and was able to lend a hand by vehicle maneuvering. Both cattle and herdsmen were flushed out of my property. Once they were outside the gates, I came down from the vehicle and beckoned the herdsmen to come over.
At first, they pretended not to understand, then, as I approached, fled into the bush.
We thereupon “arrested” the cows, confining them to the roadside, while I sent my grounds-man, Taiye, to the police to come and take over.
Since they took rather long in responding, I summoned a replacement and proceeded to the police station.
On the way, we met a detachment, turned round, and together we returned to the scene of crime. The police wanted to commence combing the bush for the fugitives but I stopped them – what was the point? Keep the cows, I advised, and the owner will show up.
Of course, that owner eventually did. I thoroughly resent the police version which suggests that the cows never invaded my home: home is not just a building; it includes its grounds. And it was not a stray cow, or two or three. It was a herd – we have photos, so why the lie? It is so unnecessary, unprofessional and suspiciously compromised. The police suggest that I have nothing better to do than to go accosting cows on the public road – to what end?
If the police demand proof, the next time such an invasion takes place, I warn that there will be no lack for cadaver affirmation and the police will be officially invited to join in the ensuing suya feast.
So please, let us get serious! Getting serious means seeking with a sense of urgency, ways of terminating mayhem, impunity and the homicidal culture being imposed on us through some near cultic business minority who just happen to trade in cattle.
It means not giving up on peaceful solutions, but also being prepared for the worst. Those of my lines of thought have been working on various ways of sensitizing the nation to the very real and imminent danger issuing from this cattle aberration.
The menace, I repeat, challenges us as a cohesive entity and as communities of free individuals, committed to the dignity of existence.
Cattle imperialism under any guise is an obscenity to humanity. So let me serve notice that we are about to commence a process of public sensitization; we hope even the police will join hands with the agenda as it progresses.
A special practical plea: now that the railways are being resurrected, let us make cattle wagons a priority. I grew up with the regular sight of those practical conveyances. It is time to bring them back.


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