Ojude Oba: The Awujale and the abomination of calling Saraki a thief
By BASHIR ADEFAKA
With the little mentioned above, it behoves of a paramount ruler as popular and respected as the Awujale of Ijebu Land, where the likes of Otunba Subomi Balogun and Otunba Lateef Owoyemi to mention but few come from, to know that inviting such a controversial figure with many moral problems hung on his neck and standing on his shoulders like Saraki as Special Guest of Honour would make a big mess of the popular Ojude Oba. It is just too unfortunate!
I have kept my lips sealed for over 24 hours from commenting on the Ojude Oba Festival legislative shame of this year in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State just as I did on the unnecessary controversy that greeted the Ayefele’s Music House versus Oyo State Government imbroglio over during which a lot of hypocrisies were on the display by people who should know or who know but pretended as if they did not know.
Well that of Ibadan is not over and we are again already into yet another one. The point of the issue is that, from the onset when Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki emerged through controversial means as Senate President of the Federal Republic against, call the bluff of the political party on which platform he rode to the Senate after, with support of the new ruling party, he had survived on the onslaught of his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), there has been no love or peace lost in the country.
Little did Saraki know, I think, that when no matter how big or powerful Lala (as called in Yoruba perlance), when it goes up, it must come down. He should have known that the finger that feeds a person, if he bites it, he will be the one to suffer for it in the end. It is the reason every sensible human being wishes at all times to have the last laugh because he that laughs last laughs best.
Unfortunately Omo Baba Oloye did not know that. But can his unyielding attitude be linked with what Pa Edwin K. Clark reportedly called “arrogance” on his part? I do not know. Only from the mouth of the elders kolanut sounds stronger. But that was the word.
Any sincere follower of the genesis of the National Assembly controversy in this ongoing Muhammadu Buhari-led dispensation would recall that the issue was between two top juggernauts of current era, Wazirin Adamawa Atiku Abubakar and Jagaban Bogul Bola Ahmed Tinubu. While Waziri wanted Abubakar Bukola Saraki from the North Central and plotted well for him to emerge as Senate President, Jagaban desired a control of the 8th Senate by Ahmed Lawan from the North East. Yes, politicking ensued and there were reported allegations thereafter of plots against the government by Atiku Abubakar in far away Dubai, United Arab Emirate, which he denied.
Shortly after, both players turned the heat on President Muhammadu Buhari saying the Federal Government had used and dumped them. Atiku did the worse as he stayed right in the All Progressives Congress (APC) and fought the opposition course therein thereby causing serious confusion for the first-opposition-to-rule party. Tinubu too did the same and Buhari, but his outstanding integrity, was left in the cold as all manners of frustrated and yet-to-be-healed 2015 elections losers seized the opportunity of the crack within the young ruling part to sabotage the government.
Whereas Jagaban, the Garrison Commander of Lagos Politics deployed sensibility in his own complaint, Waziri did not. He said many things; like he was used by Buhari to fund his campaign to become President only for him to get there and push him aside. Within a blink of an eye thenceafter, he joined the likes of Ohaneze Ndigbo/IPOB, Afenifere and the minute Middle-Belt strugglers in heating up the polity with their threats of splitting Nigeria except there comes restructuring.
In the end, realising that the heat made no impact in the concentration of President Buhari and the APC, Atiku left and went back to his former party hoping that the Governor of Adamawa, Jibrilla-Bindow, Women Affairs Minister Aisha AlHassan, Governor Nasir el-Rufair (I think) and some other governors he hitherto had as loyalists would leave follow him. But they refused to follow Atiku as, according to a source, “No one releases with President Muhammadu Buhari who will not become friendly with him, no matter how dangerous enemy he is to him”.
It will must be stated clearly here without fear of contradiction that President Buhari’s “I can work with anybody”, a statement he made following the controversial emergence of Saraki, was due to his dilemma having been caught between the dual Political Lionism of Atiku and Tinubu who were at loggerhead with each on intra-party basis. The moment Atiku went back to PDP which he had always done before, the coast became clear for Jagaban to be closer to the President and Buhari at that point in time had no problem drawing nearer (this is my personal view) the man who, like Megida Rotimi Amaechi and others, played big role in ensuring his emergence as President. This is not to say however that those who are saying they installed Buhari are right because, Buhari’s continuous grip on the votes of Northern Nigeria should place him on top of any politician at any time.
That was the genesis. But Saraki continued and its continuity of the political hostility is understandable. He was no longer fighting the Atiku course but his own person course. Saraki frustrated the efforts of the Government to successfully fight corruption within a short time range by withholding all the Bills sent to his Senate by the Buhari-led Executive. Buhari and other persons in the country had sponsored Bills for Police reforms which Saraki’s Senate failed, deliberately, to allow see the light of the day.
On top of it all was his frustration of Customs CG Hameed Ali’s import reform programme and policy, details of which he deprived Nigerians from knowing because he was enmeshed in controversy of illegal importation of an SUV worth about N278 million thereby evading tariff payment of N74 million due to the Government of a country where he is number three citizen. Then Senator Dino Melaye became his main hatch-dog with which he hunted every attacker or questioner of his fellow Senator who is merely his senior by virtue of being chosen among 109 members of Senate in a Presidential (not Parliamentarian) System. That was what led to the many crises that crowned the head of the Kwara politician who then used the opposition Deputy Senate President in Ike Ekweremadu to virtually shutdown the Government of the country. Too bad to know that Saraki would suspend legislative business to go to hospital and solidarise with a colleague who jumped out of Police vehicle while trying to escape from custody so he would not be taken to Lokoja to face his charge of gun running and sponsorship of thugs who on the long run became killers, robbing at gun-point and kidnapping of innocent Nigerians in Kogi State.
Unfortunately, he enjoyed the services of some human rights lawyers and journalists who fought well for him both in the mainstream media and on the social media. But they have all failed so far because the same lawyers and journalists that fought and are still fighting Saraki are the same criers over the economic backwardness, impunity and insecurity of the past and who fought the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan-led PDP Federal Government until Nigerians used their PVCs to send him and his party packing from power.
With the little mentioned above, it behoves of a paramount ruler as popular and respected as the Awujale of Ijebu Land, where the likes of Otunba Subomi Balogun and Otunba Lateef Owoyemi to mention but few are sons, to know that inviting such a controversial figure with many moral problems hung on his neck and standing on his shoulders like Saraki as Special Guest of Honour would make a big mess of the popular Ojude Oba. It is just too unfortunate! Too unfortunate that while the Senate President, Saraki, surrounded by his colleague PDP Senators including Dino Melaye, was reading his speech, no single of it was heard due to the overwhelming noise, deliberately made by APC supporters in the Ogun State community, to ensure that he said nothing that would mean anything to the public.
The Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, however, has condemned the reaction of his subjects in humiliating the embattled Senate President and described their action as an abomination maintaining that any attempt to politicize the Ojude Oba Festival will not be acceptable.
The Kabiyi is correct. But unfortunately, Alayeluwa should have seen it coming. Kabiyesi who is now over 50 years on the thrown has been well respected for resisting stomach infrastructure politicians like he was said to have rejected both General Sani Abacha Military overture and Goodluck Jonathan PDP hundreds of thousands of dollars in the built up to 2015 general elections.
But how Saraki go to sit beside this great no-nonsense Yoruba monarch continued to worry his subjects who then mobilised for him. And what the Ijebu people of Ogun State did to Saraki is nothing new. Saraki’s colleagues in the North, who are fighting dirty war against President Muhammadu Buhari’s effort to rescue Nigerians from the grip of self-based self-acclaimed owners of Nigeria, have had their own pan of flesh with same public disgrace. The mere sight of poster of one of the PDP’s presidential aspirants in a primary school in a Northern state caused little children to revolt without being instigated. A woman that mistakenly thumbprinted for PDP in the last Katsina North senatorial by-election had cried profusely for about 24 hours; so pained she did and that was the only vote PDP got in that Buhari’s polling unit.
On the last leg of my piece comes the take by Nnaemeka Ikerionwu, a concerned Nigerian on the Ojude Oba experience and the condemnation by the Awujale.
Ikerionwu said, “In all honesty, culture and tradition of the people should not be mixed with politics. But how do you describe Saraki’s appearance as a special guest alongside a few other lawmakers loyal to him to a festival few months to the general election and also coming when he is about to publicly declare his presidential ambition. Many people are asking who paid the appearance fee? The Awujale should not be blamed in anyway because he may not even know the antics of these politicians.
“Saraki wanted to test the waters, but unfortunately, the people sent a clear signal that they don’t want him. Coming to Ijebuland with people like Dino and the twitter guy six months to election to test the microphone is not acceptable to the people. I trust the Yoruba people when it comes to politics. You can’t use them for any political gains. Saraki and his clique are holding our dear nation to ransom by opposing very clear and good intentions of the president. The INEC budget and other burning national issues are pending, but they have the time and space to gallivant around the country to attend jamborees.
“They will keep meeting the masses everywhere they go to. In the last few days, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso could not find any hiding place as people follow him with the shout of “Sai Buhari” anywhere they find his shadows. Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal got the same treatment by his own people, in his own local government. When Senator Isah Hamma Misau raised his hand to shout PDP, the same crowd he rented replied “SAI BUHARI, Bamayi sai mai gaskiya“. Alhaji Sule Lamido got the shock of his life when a rally he organized in Jigawa turned against him in a state that he was two time governor.
“The truth of the matter is that people already know who their enemies are. To pretend is to be mischievous. The Awujale should have known that inviting a politician in such event must get a political response. These characters can only get cheers in some particular region of the country. But they will certainly find no ventilation to where sophistication dwells as politics.”
