At Accord Ibadan North East Office Located Around Ojagbo Area Ibadan on the 3rd of December was a hectic day where the primary for the party's chairmanship aspirants was conducted peacefully under a well coordinated environment and atmosphere of orderliness and maturity in-spite of the teeming and mammoth crowd, who are the majority of the supporters of the party, that gathered to participate and play their parts , to make their choice of the candidates to stand in for them come February 2017, when the local-government election is expected to take place in Oyo state among the several parties, to present their candidates.
However, prior the primary election at the party office our reporters had the opportunity of having chat with Chief/Mrs Adenike Dairo,; one of the chairmanship aspirants under Accord Party in Ibadan North East who with much knowledge of what a local-government importance means to the development of the grassroots emphasized on the reason why she would rather contested under the flag of Accord party; a party she described as masses-loving party that cares for the general welfare of the people, where the tested, trusted, capable and honest people abound, to deliver the best for all and sundry.
She reiteratedly defended the water-tight preparation of the ACCORD members to make sure the aspirants under the party are not rob of their expected victory come any election henceforth. Meanwhile she advocated that a good politician must make sure she or he relates well with her/his people to be abreast of their needs and work promptly, to provide it as their relevant dividend of democracy, to better their livess.
However, she implored her numerous fans , admirers and supporters to stand up to their right and responsibility in voting enmasse, to bring her in as the next Ibadan East Local Government Chairman come February 11, 2017, in the Oyo State General Local Government Election .
In the view of Mr. Sulaiman an admirer and staunched member of the party vehemently defended the fact that ACCORD party is ready to vote enmasse in seeing ACCORD party coming out victoriously in any election that may come up both in the state and Federal level, he therefore advised the youth to braze-up their mind and come into politics, to move the country forward and participate in the decision making of actualizing a better future for the Oyo State and Nigeria in general.
Alhaji Kazeem Akintayo; the Mogaji Akintayo Awanibaku Elenpe, Bere Odo Osun Ibadan stressed the fact on the reason behind his joining ACCORD simply because Chief Rashidi Ladoja ; the party logo extraordinaire is a truthful, trust-able and honest person hence working with him would be a better decision to achieve the best for the citizenry and Oyo State and Nigeria in general.
He advised the ACCORD party members and supporters cutting across the state to be vigilant and make sure no foul play is hatched by any other party in robbing them of their expected victory come Oyo State Local Government Election come 2017 February 11.
The Chairman Ward 5 Mr. Morakinyo Akinbode described ACCORD party as a haven for the mercy and love for the commoners and the welfare for the less-privilege as denoted by the party logo extraordinaire ; Chief Rashidi Ladoja. While emphasizing on the value of credibility; he adduced thus that removing Ladoja from ACCORD party is tantamount to ACCORD party meaning nothing and collapsing therefore, his credibility is what has endeared the teeming supporters of him to the ACCORD party and commitment to seeing it winning overwhelmingly in any election . Here advised the citizens to be peace-loving in any election and know that regardless of belonging to any party; all the citizens are one hence, they should maintain peace and order to know that they are one in all ramification.
In the opinion of another popular but young, vibrant, intelligent and ebullient Chairman aspirant under ACCORD party for Ibadan North East Local Government in person of Kazeem Olatunji Busari aka KOB who out-rightly defended the fact that he was among those pioneers that joined the logo extraordinaire; Chief Rashidi Ladoja to form ACCORD party , who he saw value in his personality and leadership quality encompassing integrity, honesty, straight-forwardness, benevolence, meekness of mind and large-warmheartedness to mention few.
He emphasized that credibility being the "sin-qua-non" to the foundation of every good project or program is what has been the major ingredient by which ACCORD party has been formed, that has made the party well cemented, fortified with formidable people of likes mind.
On the issue of rescue team agitating for recognition and separation from the arrow-headed wholeness of the major-side of the party, he reiterated the fact that it is normal to agree to disagree and disagree to agree hence the issue would soon be settled, for the rescue team to joining the party through reconciliation.
Further-more he defended his intention to serve his people as naturally motivated hence, he has found himself helpless to free himself from it and thus it has therefore endeared him to the heart of his teeming supporters, who always shout his nickname "KOB" anywhere he appears, to their chagrin and spontaneous feelings for his praise with applause.
He retrospectively adduced the fact that since Ibadan North East is the basis of where Ibadan as a city originated then it is overdue to know change for its development and progression is certainly coming to be through his effort, when he becomes the Chairman.
With this he wave off the idea of some adhoc but heinously-hired set of people derailing his chance and mandate of becoming the Chairman through writing the winning figure for another party aspirant to becoming Chairman hence he affirmed thus that even if any of such thing will happen it would be for nobody but him, that will be declared the eventual winner and Chairman for Ibadan North East , since he had prayed to God for such project .
Yet he promised to do his best possible, to change the lives of the Ibadan North East people for better and to make sure priority is given to their welfare.
By and Large, in the unfoldment of the outcome and eventual result of the Primary election conducted by the ACCORD party of Ibadan North East at her office located around Oja'gbo Area of Ibadan; Mr. Kazeem Olatunji Busari aka KOB for Ibadan North Local Government and Chief/ Mrs Dairo for Ibadan East were declared the winners of the primary election to become the bonafide aspirants and representatives of ACCORD party to contest with other aspirants from other parties come February 11, 2017.
This combination of the duo-aspirants elected by their supporters and admirers under the ACCORD party in the primary election was affirmed to be good match, choice and combination that can deliver victory for the party come February 11, 2017 Local Government Election, taking into consideration their intelligence, astuteness, acuity of senses, outspokenness, confidence and propriety to mention few.
To complement on our report regarding the choice made by the ACCORD party members who voted these brilliant and best aspirants as their choice, we went further to interview the Chairman for ACCORD party Ibadan North East who responded as reported thus below :
Alhaji Abdulramon Olasunkanmi Babalola ; the Ibadan North East / Ibadan North Accord Party Chairman in his opinion stated that the Primary election of the party for its various councillorship and chairmanship aspirants which started exactly on the 2nd of December, 2016 was to express their intention and decision to see that nobody decide anymore about their future, for them again rather than for themselves to plan, arrange, and arrive at a good conclusion in taking step boldly and strongly deciding their future for better hence, to elect their representatives in government by themselves therefore, after much deliberation on matters essential and the due process by the Primary election on that day at the ACCORD party office of Ibadan North East / Ibadan East. And thus Chief /Mrs Adenike Dairo came out victoriously for Ibadan East while "KOB";Kazeem Olatunji Busari came out victoriously for Ibadan North East, to represent ACCORD party in the coming February 11, 2017 Local Government Election.
He vouched for the victory of both Mrs. Adenike Dairo and Kazeem Olatunji Busari as complementary to their much contribution to the party, despite the fact that their victory was a case of vox-populi;vox-dei through the choice made by the voters, for the primary election within the ACCORD party of Ibadan North East/ Ibadan East delegates. He also affirmed that Chief/ Mrs Adenike Dairo had been relentlessly spending money to help the party in various ways which the members actualized in "paying her back in her own coin", to show her the utmost gratitude to compensate her, on this the Chairman prayed she win eventually come February 11, 2017 to becoming the Chairperson for Ibadan East, while commenting on KOB he reinstated that though KOB is young yet he is being blessed with the wisdom valuable to live life well, which is rarely found with a man of his age anywhere. And thus he expressed that often time KOB spends money for the party-sake but would not want his name to be mentioned, as the financier.
He confidently defended the good-worth of Kazeem Olatunji Busari's background, which had helped a lot in buttressing up the point that truly "Charity begins at home", yet Mrs Adenike Dairo is a well-known woman of much value and exceptionalism whose background is commendably charitable and convincingly known to him, as a humble background. He posthumously appraised the effort of his Late political master; Joseph Sunday Omolere who he said; he always like to emulate in making sure the party eventually came out victoriously in the Oyo State Local Government Election come February 11, 2017 .
To round it up he commended the people of the Ibadan North East Local Government as peace-loving people and the Ibadan North East who he said was once tagged as "Ibadan Not Easy" but now with much consideration for truth through confirmation their antagonists who earlier tagged them "Ibadan Not Easy" have now realized their mistake hence are now singing different song that "Ibadan Now Easy" though it is only cheating and dishonesty in any area of life ; the people of the Local Government detested to accommodate nor condone, as he simply put it.
Tuesday 24 January 2017
Monday 23 January 2017
DAWN OF ADVANCED TECHNICALITIES IN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND CLEANLINESS PER EXCELLENCE
Talk of expertise and experience they are the two qualities that cannot be underestimated nor overemphasized .
And whenever the person of these two said qualities is being put in a position of power, role and responsibility ; one needs to accord such person his or her due respect and aside what the etiquette or savoir-fair demands; it is better to give such person his/her due respect, provided one is serious or objective and purposeful to achieve the best from the office that person of experience and expertise is being put, as a part of the mechanism or major technocrat bearing the central responsibility , to see things work or running of the managerial functions.
Accordingly, this was the perspective by which I saw things in respect of the assignment I have at hand to visit Oyo Waste Management Authority;(OYOWMA)/West African Energy; (WAE) in order to be abreast of the state of environmental sanitation in Oyo State especially within Ibadan and environs. And premised by two instances on this subject-matter that prompted my inquisitiveness to get close to the Waste Management Office in order to get facts (not fallacy) from the right source (best quarter).
Suffice I relay first instance where I saw the team of male and female environmental/ Sanitary Officers along Oritamerin; the popular market, where the officers were on their normal routine and strictly but amicably I saw the team-leader (name withheld) where he was dishing out instructions to his junior officers to actualize his order, as a deterrence to educate and admonish the market women on the danger behind leaving their environment dirty and seeing any area where they had not complied they ordered the market women to close-up their shops, to do momentarily the sanitation-chore, that ought to have been done before.
And as an onlooker; standing by to watch the whole show, I was equivocally impressed to know there are many people that want to be handled disciplinarily and strictly to cultivate a habit beneficial to his/her or even the majority, and this is what I saw as an irony of life; where many are expected to be forced to live a life of cleanliness.
Secondly was the day I saw many downtrodden running after a truck belonging to OYOWMA /WAE with bags and sacks of refuse scrambling to drop them into the moving truck of the mechanized incinerator yet unruly abusing the West African Energy(WAE)/ Oyo Waste Management Authority (OYOWMA) officers to do their job as expected at-least, they have been paid for it, here I realized proper enlightenment should be put in to educate the members of the public, to know that all what the government and the 'PSP' are doing is to maintain a healthy environment, for the good of all and sundry, so with these instances I was prompted to visit Waste Management Board office located opposite the Gate Police Station in Ibadan while on the first day; 11th of January, 2017 I was reschedule to come back next day 12th of January, 2017 but due to the exigency of my job and the work-load on me which took me out of Ibadan I needed to come back on the 13th of January, 2017, here I followed all due procedure before being allowed to see the Chief Executive Officer of West African Energy in person of an amiable white-man, attentive, accommodating, frank, time-conscious, cool, calm, calculative, coherent, concise and simple Mr. Paul Callaghan, who was positively and considerably disposed to me in my introduction as a journalist from my medium, on the beat to fact-find what state WAE/OYOWMA is in the management of environment activities, and the state of sanitation- health, the experience expatriate, highly committed to the piece of job assigned to him under OYOWMA to do as justifiably as a specialist and designated, and promptly he welcomed me into his office where we were engaged in a rich, clear and contextual discussion, while he bared out his mind in educating thus that since West African Energy started activities (May 2016) under OYOWMA the job has been challenging where part of their department collect garbage as planned regarding allocation and designation, and in the course of enlightening people they (the public) erroneously and conventionally thought waste collection should be free as done courtesy 2011 flooding edict of the Federal Government but as he has put it refuse collection and disposal is tasking and expensive hence discipline and new process of charging was introduced to reduce complication, here he adduced the fact that it had been effective and possible through the native-intelligence of the management of OYOWMA under which WAE is carrying out its own assignment.
However, he admitted that with the nature of the job OYOWMA/WAE is doing there is no way one can rule out sentiment especially that things are changing for better and people found it hard to change easily with time.Here he categorized that since Private Public Partnership activities is a combination of bringing two different entities together under one umbrella's convenience (OYOWMA) yet there is no way there will still not be usual idiosyncratic challenges being experienced by workers since Public Service Provider is more or less run as a civil service organization and Private Service Provider is profit oriented, yet there are just regulation and rules that control both for proper and effective result.
He even admitted to enlighten members of the staff working within and without to know many challenges are intertwined and in the existence as they carry out their duty, where for political reason or others, the members of the public may be unruly and not-accommodating; as it is so even in the advanced countries like United Kingdom, England, Holland e.t.c, hence the members of the staff should be reticent and not aggressive but calm, patient and responsibly-responsive.
Meanwhile, he reiterated that OYOWMA/WAE have profoundly planned, arranged good pattern, to see that proficiency and painstaking effort is brought into the job at hand, reason why they are greatly launching more enlightenment and education of the public through print,radio and television, despite the fact that the members of the public do not want to drop the old habit for free things, as they want the government to be collecting and disposing the refuse of what they eat, use and caused without having being responsible to acknowledge with small token of cost, yet they are stressing and emphasizing through education and enlightenment with print and electronic media.
Nevertheless, he vouched that since the right hands and mechanism had been put in placed and that they work twenty four seven round the clock throughout on the street, to see that proper job is done, in refuse collection and disposal, he is confident and committed to say good job would be done and an immense difference would be made, to prove that things had come to change for good, in respect of the maintenance of environmental sanitation therefore, expatiated that the reason why West Africa Energy was co opted to work under OYOWMA is clearly to create departments for collection of refuse, disposal of it, and the value processing of the waste into energy and production of some materials eventually, which would come into actualization soonest, with the right mechanism later to be put in place, as time goes on for "Waste to Wealth"
And here I felt so satisfied that the need to represent the public in getting information from the facts, figures and files of the OYOWMA to know the state of the environmental status had been achieved and that the members of the public too can now see the reason why they have to cooperate with the government to see things work well and effectively for the good of all through maintaining cleanliness and proper environmental sanitation within Oyo state.
By and large the amiable and accommodating Chief Executive Officer of West African Energy ; Mr. Paul Callaghan now advised that the Public should create good habit to play their own part well in allowing things to work well while Private Service Providers should often keep the members of the public abreast of the routine that refuse collection entails, for effective interrelationship of activities through dual responsibilities.
And whenever the person of these two said qualities is being put in a position of power, role and responsibility ; one needs to accord such person his or her due respect and aside what the etiquette or savoir-fair demands; it is better to give such person his/her due respect, provided one is serious or objective and purposeful to achieve the best from the office that person of experience and expertise is being put, as a part of the mechanism or major technocrat bearing the central responsibility , to see things work or running of the managerial functions.
Accordingly, this was the perspective by which I saw things in respect of the assignment I have at hand to visit Oyo Waste Management Authority;(OYOWMA)/West African Energy; (WAE) in order to be abreast of the state of environmental sanitation in Oyo State especially within Ibadan and environs. And premised by two instances on this subject-matter that prompted my inquisitiveness to get close to the Waste Management Office in order to get facts (not fallacy) from the right source (best quarter).
Suffice I relay first instance where I saw the team of male and female environmental/ Sanitary Officers along Oritamerin; the popular market, where the officers were on their normal routine and strictly but amicably I saw the team-leader (name withheld) where he was dishing out instructions to his junior officers to actualize his order, as a deterrence to educate and admonish the market women on the danger behind leaving their environment dirty and seeing any area where they had not complied they ordered the market women to close-up their shops, to do momentarily the sanitation-chore, that ought to have been done before.
And as an onlooker; standing by to watch the whole show, I was equivocally impressed to know there are many people that want to be handled disciplinarily and strictly to cultivate a habit beneficial to his/her or even the majority, and this is what I saw as an irony of life; where many are expected to be forced to live a life of cleanliness.
Secondly was the day I saw many downtrodden running after a truck belonging to OYOWMA /WAE with bags and sacks of refuse scrambling to drop them into the moving truck of the mechanized incinerator yet unruly abusing the West African Energy(WAE)/ Oyo Waste Management Authority (OYOWMA) officers to do their job as expected at-least, they have been paid for it, here I realized proper enlightenment should be put in to educate the members of the public, to know that all what the government and the 'PSP' are doing is to maintain a healthy environment, for the good of all and sundry, so with these instances I was prompted to visit Waste Management Board office located opposite the Gate Police Station in Ibadan while on the first day; 11th of January, 2017 I was reschedule to come back next day 12th of January, 2017 but due to the exigency of my job and the work-load on me which took me out of Ibadan I needed to come back on the 13th of January, 2017, here I followed all due procedure before being allowed to see the Chief Executive Officer of West African Energy in person of an amiable white-man, attentive, accommodating, frank, time-conscious, cool, calm, calculative, coherent, concise and simple Mr. Paul Callaghan, who was positively and considerably disposed to me in my introduction as a journalist from my medium, on the beat to fact-find what state WAE/OYOWMA is in the management of environment activities, and the state of sanitation- health, the experience expatriate, highly committed to the piece of job assigned to him under OYOWMA to do as justifiably as a specialist and designated, and promptly he welcomed me into his office where we were engaged in a rich, clear and contextual discussion, while he bared out his mind in educating thus that since West African Energy started activities (May 2016) under OYOWMA the job has been challenging where part of their department collect garbage as planned regarding allocation and designation, and in the course of enlightening people they (the public) erroneously and conventionally thought waste collection should be free as done courtesy 2011 flooding edict of the Federal Government but as he has put it refuse collection and disposal is tasking and expensive hence discipline and new process of charging was introduced to reduce complication, here he adduced the fact that it had been effective and possible through the native-intelligence of the management of OYOWMA under which WAE is carrying out its own assignment.
However, he admitted that with the nature of the job OYOWMA/WAE is doing there is no way one can rule out sentiment especially that things are changing for better and people found it hard to change easily with time.Here he categorized that since Private Public Partnership activities is a combination of bringing two different entities together under one umbrella's convenience (OYOWMA) yet there is no way there will still not be usual idiosyncratic challenges being experienced by workers since Public Service Provider is more or less run as a civil service organization and Private Service Provider is profit oriented, yet there are just regulation and rules that control both for proper and effective result.
He even admitted to enlighten members of the staff working within and without to know many challenges are intertwined and in the existence as they carry out their duty, where for political reason or others, the members of the public may be unruly and not-accommodating; as it is so even in the advanced countries like United Kingdom, England, Holland e.t.c, hence the members of the staff should be reticent and not aggressive but calm, patient and responsibly-responsive.
Meanwhile, he reiterated that OYOWMA/WAE have profoundly planned, arranged good pattern, to see that proficiency and painstaking effort is brought into the job at hand, reason why they are greatly launching more enlightenment and education of the public through print,radio and television, despite the fact that the members of the public do not want to drop the old habit for free things, as they want the government to be collecting and disposing the refuse of what they eat, use and caused without having being responsible to acknowledge with small token of cost, yet they are stressing and emphasizing through education and enlightenment with print and electronic media.
Nevertheless, he vouched that since the right hands and mechanism had been put in placed and that they work twenty four seven round the clock throughout on the street, to see that proper job is done, in refuse collection and disposal, he is confident and committed to say good job would be done and an immense difference would be made, to prove that things had come to change for good, in respect of the maintenance of environmental sanitation therefore, expatiated that the reason why West Africa Energy was co opted to work under OYOWMA is clearly to create departments for collection of refuse, disposal of it, and the value processing of the waste into energy and production of some materials eventually, which would come into actualization soonest, with the right mechanism later to be put in place, as time goes on for "Waste to Wealth"
And here I felt so satisfied that the need to represent the public in getting information from the facts, figures and files of the OYOWMA to know the state of the environmental status had been achieved and that the members of the public too can now see the reason why they have to cooperate with the government to see things work well and effectively for the good of all through maintaining cleanliness and proper environmental sanitation within Oyo state.
By and large the amiable and accommodating Chief Executive Officer of West African Energy ; Mr. Paul Callaghan now advised that the Public should create good habit to play their own part well in allowing things to work well while Private Service Providers should often keep the members of the public abreast of the routine that refuse collection entails, for effective interrelationship of activities through dual responsibilities.
Wednesday 18 January 2017
CIVIL-EYE: MOGAJI AS AN INSTITUTION
The title of Mogaji in Yorubaland has been as old as Yoruba tradition; delegating power to the heir apparent of the forefathers of a progeny, generation or descendant.
And this was accommodated into Yoruba culture, to establish continuity in descendant influence and generational affinity.
As Olubadan is the lord over his people in Ibadanland and environs; a Mogaji is a miniature of Olubadan within the general members of his descendant which comprises of many neon-families that "extended" into large family, to which the moment a Mogaji is chosen not considering seniority in age but must be elderly and custodian of the descendant historical facts, figures and the intricacies within their background yet must be reachable, accommodating, generous, firm, decisive, loving, respectful, unbiased, frank,attentive, honest, person of integrity, influential, relentless, bold, intelligent and of wisdom, Godly, patient, selfless, enterprising, initiative, prayerful, focused, having foresight, creative e.t.c.
Though Mogaji title is not by subjugation, not compulsorily by seniority, the person to be chosen for Mogaji must not be forced on his people therefore, the consent of the general members of his family is essentially paramount and a deciding -point in his selection and presentation to the Olubadan and his council, with the affirmation and ratification of the Olubadan and his council so the family's consensus is a must and anything short of that is like taking a short-cut and an undue advantage over the general members of the family, while whoever may be the one chosen by force or enforced on the general members of the family must have known he is sitting on a keg of gunpowder, that may explode anytime even it is dangerous for the upcoming generation , that has no hand in the wrong choice, made by the myopic and parochial but few members of the family, to the detriment of the general members, because the Mogaji must be lord over his general members of his family like Olubadan is the lord over Ibadan people, the land and its environs.
So it is compulsory the general members of the family identify with the Mogaji and his insignia, meaning it should be a consensus from the family and unanimous decision, that they are ready to see the "would-be" Mogaji leading them as a priority, and not compulsion, compromise-able, nor bargain-able and should not be politicized ( all these helps to preserve culture and tradition of Yoruba , even it is a curse for anybody to change this normal course of culture and tradition) This is to uphold the age-long fact that it is an unchanged-able aspect of the historical background or evolutionary idiosyncratic phenomenon, here much experience and knowledge of the Yoruba and family background is a must, if procedure should be followed to the detail. And anything done from the family or elsewhere is to belittle the essence of the traditional importance, which may be a source of ridicule, from those outside, seeing the expected off-springs or custodian of culture and tradition as corrupt and compromise-able, while the repercussion is immeasurable and could boomerang later in future, among the upcoming generation, who must have been confused with clashes and conflicts against their historical importance of their progeny(This sometime embarrasses members of the family, tribe, and clan, when there are contradiction in historical value, importance and arrangement of facts and figure of their root, which was caused by the shortcoming of the members they belong)
However, with a Mogaji being chosen and all necessary things (rituals) being done, at the collective point of their descendant (Agbole) with piece of crossed-piece of plank (aka) being nailed to the upper part of the main entrance to their common house.
And the insignia of office being given to the new Mogaji by the Olubadan in the presence of the members of his council , and being acknowledged by the general members of the family then celebration and choruses of various are sung like: A moye yii je naa, iwo n papa i wo n naa, E rebi wa bii; eyin tee n sebi yin rada rada ee rebi wa bii, Owoole laa n lo ao ma ya wo fi see o; laau erebe erebe lau etc.
All these is to show the general acceptance of the whole family in the choice of Mogaji being picked.
Meanwhile, this spoke volume, as their choice must have been tested and trusted, that is; he must have been doing one thing or the other, to better the lot of his people, which means adding another feather to his office in recognition, affirmation and accommodating him to be the true son of the family, who had been identified with them by placing a must oath or betray-able responsibility upon the whole members of the family, to pay him back in his good coin, for generational progress, development and advancement, with firm believe in his leadership qualities and reposing their confidence in him, for safe, harmonious , careful and advantageous consideration for all and sundry.
And this is like a covenant between him and them, to live undeniably as one and not bringing shame to the family in anyway, so this is the cord that bind them together as one hence, to the people of village they fear being indicted by invoking the spirit of "alale" or to a family "alajobi" and thus an adage is propounded that "it is easy to forgive an enemy but not a friend that betrayed". Even the family like to get uniform-textile material (aso-abi) as a souvenir to remind them of their common decision, to make a member of their family Mogaji.
All these express and display the beauty of Yoruba a well planned and arranged successor-ship, which often provide collective power and attainment within the family or Yoruba culture.
Then after respite of some weeks within which comes meetings upon meetings with family members on how, what, where when, why, issues had being trashed out, delegation and inauguration of sub-executive members of the Mogaji would start work both from town and village(s), while Baale; the head at home but not as special as Mogaji serves as a coadjutor or assistance to the Mogaji yet Mogaji is superior to both Bale and Baale respectively; since the Mogaji is the ratified, endorsed and official head of the family, all must respect him including Bale and Baale. And what he says is binding but he is not expected to abuse his office, provided he doesn't want to incur the wrath of his family members, so as the electorates has absolute power in democratic governance (electioneering power resides with the electorates) such is the absolute power to install or demote a Mogaji lies with the general members of the family. And the office of Mogaji was created to ease the administrative role of Olubadan as the collection of Mogajis is the wisdom of Olubadan , aside the Olubadan in Council's responsibility per excellence, since a Mogaji is held responsible for any short-coming within his domain, and all these is to maintain law, order and morality within the land. And it is corroborative to affirm that Yoruba people had had a system of governance before the advent of colonial master.
Yet often-time deliberation, discussion and execution of matters concerning the interest of the family members are addressed for advancement, where one or more problems concerning, affecting, eroding on family interest are checked, coursed, collectively and cooperatively solved.
And any meeting time many members of the family found it compulsory, paramount, patriotic, and palliative to be present, to contribute where seriousness, intelligence , wisdom, sense of belonging, purposefulness, merriment are expected to be displayed. Then a Mogaji is subjected to Olubadan and anything expected to be known by the Olubadan and his council is a matter that squarely concerns the Mogaji.
Hence Mogaji should be the real choice of his people, who are ready to rally round him in time of joy, abundance, dearth and stress, so here he must prove his responsiveness, responsibility, initiative, integrity and truthfulness of nature.
Nevertheless, as Olubadan and his council are there to complement the role and duty of Mogaji in respect of his area of local administration so is the Mogaji and the Mogajis helping to make effective the administration of the larger society, by the Olubadan and his council.
Accordingly, as of the olden days; a Mogaji is expected to live among his people for proximity sake and promptness in attending to issues and addressing differences and issues , as expected and mandated by the oath of his office, only nowadays there is a change to that, where the Mogaji comes often from his own house, where he lives with his neo-family, but must not compromise or shrink from his responsibility, to his family members, as Mogaji nor avoid his role by delegating anyhow what is expected of him to do . And this is where the beauty and best of the Mogaji is seen, acknowledged, appreciated, as a good leader, who everybody within the family can repose their confidence, commitment and dedication through constant attendance to whatever a meeting he call for or is convene by him.
As Mogaji is a subject to the Olubadan who can be on the path to becoming Olubadan one day in life by (first) starting with the traditional title of Jagun (especially in Ibadan's good arrangement to Obaship) from here he can be having promotion within, being conferred on him progressively, with higher title-ship , as he deserves it by year, good character, commitment and loyalty to Olubadan and his Council, the people of the town (Ibadan), its environs regarding his contributions to the development of the town, villages and city of the state.
At this juncture suffice I express our thanks to the office of Mogaji Ajayi-Ida of Ibadan
; Mogaji (Dr) Muideen Babatunde Olatunji, a qualified and experienced medical doctor of repute, who shed more light on the historical and traditional importance of Mogaji as an institution and what intricacies of background leading to the conferment of the title of Mogaji on the eligible male and elderly member of any family, as the choice of the general members of his descendant, with the Oba ratifying and endorsing the wish by consensus of the family.
With this it had denoted that the Mogaji (Dr) Muideen Babatunde Olatunji is soundly a qualified Yoruba man and true son of his descendant, knowledgeable and historically rich , to be presented as a custodian of the knowledge about Yoruba tradition and culture. And this must have been the much reason why he was seen eligible and qualified by the general members of Ajayi-Ida descendant, to have been chosen as their new Mogaji, that was conferred with the title on the 19th of December, 2016, while we pray for good health, sound body for him, with prosperity and longevity of life, for him to steer the leadership mantle of Ajayi-Ida family well.
By and Large, with this aforementioned historical background of Mogaji as an institution permit me to X-ray on the rancour among some members of Beyioku Akere family of Oritamerin , on their differences over the choice being enforced on them as Mogaji.
Despite the fact that the members belong to the same lineages: Bamgbegbin, Akintaro, Fagbinrin, with Akintaro and Fagbinrin leaving the title-ship to the candidates from Bamgbegbin who are by names as: Hon/Alhaji Abdulwasiu Okunlola Akere and Alhaji Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode while the one conferred with the title of Mogaji was said not to be the choice of the general members of the lineages: Bamgbegbin, Akintaro and Fagbinrin hence, it led to protest upon protest, complain upon complain and partial uprising within the family members. But His Royal Majesty the Olubadan of Ibadanland Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji, Ogungunniso 1 had issued a press-release (warning) that no family should disrupt the peace of the town(Ibadan) nor cause violence of any kind, due to the effect of the misunderstanding arising from the wrong choice that the family members of Beyioku Akere had.
With Mogaji in control in an extended family setting the beauty of it is immeasurable where " what touches one touches all" hence the formidable relationship and native system of administration or of directing Yoruba life, activities and livings before the advent of the colonial masters, was to the envy of other tribes even the white man was greatly impressed and equivocally envious to have tried to superimpose other tribes on Yoruba because of the white-man's understanding of the un-matchable of the Yoruba's wisdom.
And the deprivation the white man gave the Yoruba is still affecting them till date.
However, to any professional the focus and passion he has for his job always drives him into action since he has no other means to make livelihood and in the absence of not doing what he ought to do regarding his job depicts him as being lazy and quack, who is good for nothing, as everybody aspires to contribute one thing or other through ones job into the society where he belongs and thus it shows the essence of living for humanity. And where one avoids the best for others in whatever he does leads to total failure in life.
With this we considered that we should set into unravel-ling the mystery behind the issue of the rancour within Beyioku Akere Family over the Mogaji Title-ship by paying a visit to the Beyioku Akere Family 's House at Oritamerin and here we met the members of the large family with the "expected choice" of the family for Mogaji ; Alhaji/Hon Abdulwasiu Okunola Akere being present to relay the cause behind the rancour and with some documents he unwind-ed thus
That from the days of yore he has identified with his family members of Beyioku Akere of Oritamerin of C2/27 Akere's compound Oja'ba Ibadan and interruptedly by chorus some member of the family attested that he has been spending money in sponsoring some of their children's education, installing transformer, rehabilitating some dilapidated house within the compound.
That the family either through selection or election picks a particular candidate as Mogaji to represent the family and which had been done by the family.
That the head of the family and the family consented to the nomination of that person.
That in case more than one person signified their intention to occupied the post of Mogaji there shall always be an election, which the Olubadan and its council have deprived the family of the due process and their consideration in this case.
That the immediate Mogaji according to the tradition must have nominated before his demise; a particular person that will become the Mogaji of the house by transferring the cloth called 'Aso-Irole" which make the person an automatic Mogaji of the family as demanded by the tradition.
That the selection or election of a particular person must be an unanimous decision of the vast majority of the family(i.e. democratically elected person) and any decision reached is binding on every member of the family home and abroad.
Then with this brief acquaintance we went to the office of the Olubadan at Popoyemoja to verify what transpired to the development that caused the rancour, here we met a protocol officer of the Olubadan(name withheld) and some of the office assistants who we may not be able to identified factually, that told us that prior the conferment of the Mogaji on Chief Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode Akere, a meeting was convened by the delegation of the Olubadan who gave even and equal opportunity to both candidates : Hon/ Alhaji Abdulwasiu Okunlola Akere and Alhaji Moshood Oyebode Gbolagade Akere to come with their supporters and on the day in question the family came in large number to support the candidate of their choice, but instead of having people queuing behind their choice candidate, only the two candidates and four family members each that support the two candidates with family head; Pa Fasasi Titiloye Akere , women leader; Madam Falilat Laoye Akintaro Akere and Bale of Ijokodo;Chief Fatai Oyeniyi Akere were in attendance other family members were outside .
And at the meeting the two aspiring candidates Hon/ Alhaji Abdulwasiu Okunola Olasunkanmi Akere and Alhaji Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode Akere were only interviewed on why they are more qualified for Mogaji than the others. Questions bothering on lineages they belong were asked and both claimed they belong to Bamgbegbin, and questions on their contribution to family, support and years of involvement in family matters were raised. In the end the two chiefs in attendance High Chief Olufemi Olaifa and High Chief Ajibola Tajudeen, Prince Mukaila Adetunji (Aremo) and the secretary to the Olubadan in Council; Mr Liasu sued for peace and amiable co-existence among the families and assured that their finding and observation will be communicated to Kabiyesi and His Imperial Majesty Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji, Aje Ogungunniso 1 promised that justice would be done. At the end of the meeting, both aspiring candidates were made to sign an agreement for peace and that they are to agree to Kabiyesi 'prerogative' on the matter.
They obliged to sign because they believe His Imperial Majesty is a just and truthful father and pray to God to guide Kabiyesi , so that in it is final decision on Mogaji Akere justice will be done.
On the morning of 11th December, 2016 the family held a peaceful rally procession from Akere Palace at Oritamerin to Popoyemoja Palace to register their displeasure on information obtained through a call from Prince Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode Akere to one Lukman Olabamiji Okunola Akere that he has received letter of appointment as the new Mogaji Akere from the palace, while the protest was peaceful and no property was destroyed, to express their clear grievance that the general members of Akere Family has the exclusive right to select their family head and that such decision to impose anybody on them will be resisted because it is unknown to Ibadan age-long tradition, subsisting from time immemorial .
And that the choice of Akere Family for Mogaji is Honorable /Prince Okunola Olasunkanmi Abdulwasiu Akere, which is not negotiable.
Here they affirmed their conviction and believe in His Imperial Majesty Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji Aje Ogungunniso 1 that the decision to impose candidate is not his, and thus hope in his fatherly gesture to right the wrong by allowing the wishes of the majority to prevail over the minority at-least" where the majority has its way then the minority can have its say"
In addition they cited the letter to His Majesty Office dated 21st November ,2016 informing His Imperial Majesty and the Olubadan in Council:
That the above mentioned process has been observed, passed and executed by the Akere Family in selecting their Mogaji (Hon/Prince Okunola Abdulwasiu Olasunkanmi Akere) between Sunday 18th and 20th November inside Akere Palace and duly signed letter accompanied by other valuable documents that aided the process , were sent to the palace of His Imperial Majesty by the elders of Akere Family and acknowledged copy received by the secretary to the Olubadan in Council.
That upon receiving the information on Thursday 15th December, 2016 His Imperial Majesty still went ahead to install Prince Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode Akere as Mogaji Akere Family against the wishes of the vast majority of their family members hence, they mandated Prince/Hon Okunlola Olasunkanmi Akere to institute a legal action for the stoppage and because the court cannot sit due to the legal week, they were only able to obtain an advance copy of summons and restraint, which was served on the palace and received by the palace, to forestall the installation, but to their greatest surprise His Imperial Majesty did his wish to install Prince Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode Akere on the 19th December, 2016 against impending court summon.
Consequently, the entire family resisted imposition and what is not known to their tradition by not allowing Prince Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode Akere to enter Akere Common House (Agbole) and neither was he allowed to mount "EKE-WOOD" in the house nor be allowed to perform other rites which are the symbol of family support to the new Mogaji.
And to corroborate the historical -facts revolving round the institution of Mogaji they cited 1986 when Chief Sanusi Okunola Akere died ;Chief Durodola Salaudeen succeeded him and the contest was between him and Late Alhaji Yussuf Abioye Fagbinrin and the selection was exclusively that of the Akere Family and ratified by the then Olubadan of Ibadan-land Late Oba Yesufu Oloyede Asanike 1 with reference made to the family minutes; 16/03/86 and 23/03/86 as attached.
In the same vein Durodola Salaudeen Akere 1996; Alhaji Mustapha Oyeleke Wintola was unanimously selected and appointed as Mogaji and letter of his appointment as the new Mogaji was equally forwarded to the then Kabiyesi Late Oba Adeyemo Operinde 1 having attached the right hand impressions and signatures of members that supported his appointment as the new Mogaji Akere Family . with reference made to the copy of letter of invitation from Late Oba Adeyemo Operinde Palace, Isalejebu Ibadan dated 12/12/96.
Here the Akere Family general members stated that Beyioku Akere , their great grand fathers laid down his life to stabilize and unite Ibadan therefore, his sons and daughters deserve to be given inalienable right of selection and appointment of their Mogaji and not the one forced on them, hence here they unequivocally presented that Prince/Hon Okunola Olasunkanmi Abdulwasiu Akere is their choice as the new Mogaji instead of the one forced on them in person of Prince Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode Akere.
And they attached a copy of their choice appointment with signatures and thumbprints of those who supported him from the three lineages: Bamgbegbin, Akintaro, Fagbinrin that make up the Akere Family thus forwarded to the palace on 21st November, 2016 but it was disregarded by the Olubadan's office.
Though the family members expressed their rigidity that the vast majority of the family have spoken and pick their Mogaji;Prince/Hon Abdulwasiu Okunola Olasunkanmi Akere and that their wishes should be sacrosanct and respected.
That , the issue of selection and appointment of Mogaji Akere should be strictly family affair.
And that anybody or person parading himself as Mogaji Akere Family aside Hon/Prince Abdulwasiu Okunola Olasunkanmi Akere is an impostor.
Here they implored the Kabiyesi and His Imperial Majesty to revisit the case for good to allow peace reign again in their family. And that with the affinity the present Olubadan of Ibadan Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji Aje Ogungunniso 1 has with their forefathers , they least expected that he can effect any row to cause unrest in their family through enforcing a Mogaji who is not their choice, as he has a link with their forefathers that he cannot betrayed and as Oba on threshold of history he should right the wrong for peace to reign in their family. Signed and thumb printed by members.
With reference to this letter of petition from the family cum documented evidence we went further to the Kabiyesi's office who expressed his displeasure and annoyance to the protest action of the aggrieved Akere family who came to his office and age-long house (palace) calling him thief preemptively; suggesting that he had collected money to influence Chief Moshood Oyebode Gbolagade Akere's installation despite the chosen candidates admission to accept whoever is chosen to be the Mogaji, which though in respect of the allegation against the aggrieved members calling Kabiyesi thief, His Majesty admitted that the expected Mogaji ; Hon/Prince Abdulwasiu Olasunkanmi Okunola had come to his palace thrice to beg for forgiveness, but the effect of their unruliness disturbed him to have carried out his decision to install Prince Moshood Oyebode Gbolagade as their Mogaji, yet the aggrieved members of Akere Family denied ever to have called Kabiyesi thief citing that on that day some protesters agitating against one of the installed Bales of that said day; 19 December,2016 were also present at the gate of the Kabiyesi, which could have been mistook for them as the aggrieved members of the Akere Family but, upon the allegation they still bent over backward to apologize to the Kabiyesi for forgiveness.
On further balancing of our story we (team of the reporters) tried to link up with the enforced but new Mogaji through phone who on the 9th of January ,2017 promised to come home from Lagos to Ibadan on Friday but when he got to Ibadan he refused to pick our call, but later when we called again he promised to call back as soon as he got to his club in Ibadan but failed to do so, while we called him again on Saturday, Sunday without any positive response, but a dilemma or stalemate we encountered at the course of bringing into balancing and accuracy our report, to unravel the mystery and impediment, also causing such same like dilemma in the family since the enforced new Mogaji is not recognized at his family place and the general family members also are not ready to accept him as their Mogaji; except their wishes are granted and honoured by the Olubadan and his Council, on this we were reminded of the wisdom adopted by King Solomon in solving the same riddle /puzzle between two women who slept together with their babies while one overslept to have snuffed out life from her own baby and later the next morning both argued to be claiming the alive baby rejecting the dead, but King Solomon arraigned them for questioning without both women being aware that King Solomon was very attentive to watch both of their temperament, assumption and reactions to his questions yet, he arrived to conclude that the nonchalant woman that agreed that he should pass the judgement that sword should be used to cut the alive baby for equal share between them; should be the one indictable and instrumental to her child's death, hence he gave the alive child back to her rightful mother, in allowing justice to take its due course, yet no victor; no vanquished.
Lastly, on this note here I changed to speak in my mother's tongue that Mo ki Oba Alayelua Aje Ogunguniso 1 ,Ori Ade Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji , Aje Ogungunniso 1 , Baba Mo kunle; mo pagunwo mo, Ka'de pe lori oooh baba, Ki bata pe lese, esin Oba a je oko pe, irukere a di abere, igba odun; odun kan fun baba wa, Ki baba f'ewu pari, Ki baba ferigi j'obi, ase waa ni tireke!, Arobafin lo ba n pa, Oro ti a ni ki baba ma gbo; baba naa ni yoo pariee. Omo eni ko si ni buruburu ka le f'ekun pa'je, Eru Oba ni mo ba oba toto!,
Awa nibadan, Awa laameto, Awalanimo, Awa laalowo, Awa laaniteriba, Awa laalaaje, Awa lalalaye.
Sebi sekere ko ni ba'won loo s'ode ibanuje. Omo ale eniyan ni foowo osi juwe ile baba re, Mo woole;f'ori ade oh! Kee pe bi mope see n pe, Ke waa bi wawa n se wa.
Mo ni kini won ti n se belo ni'lorin, Kini won ti n soye laafin Olubadan, Alagbede lo mo ohun to le finrin ro lorisirisi ni'le aro; Alamo lo'mo ohun to'le fa'mo mo nirorun, Iti ogede leleyi ti ko to ohun a nyo ada tii, Baba mi Aje Ogungunniso 1 omo ajee baba mi lo'ni ka buure; ka laare wipe ikan ko gbodo ju'kan,omo eleni ateeka omo eleni ewele , Lojo gbogbo agba nii gba ni Kabiyesi Ko si ni buruburu ki baba so'pe o di owo omo n lo'run , enu agba l'obi ti n gbo, totun tosi leyele fii n kore wole.
Enu mi a goo; enu mi a wo wo,, eni ba fo'ju d'oba ; awowo a woo!. Oro ko ni gungungun ka fo'be buu, enu laoo fi so; idi lao fii joko.
Kabiyeesi Oba wa Akanmu Alayelua ! Obe ni be'suu; iran atelese ate'na, kee gbo, kee too, ko ni hun yin in, ko si nii baje, Ilu Ibadan yoo toro lasiko tiyin, Aje Ogungunniso 1, Oro d'oro agba, nitori pe agba kii wa l'oja k'ori omo titun woo oh, Iba Baba mi Alayelua Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji Aje Ogunguniso 1, Oro dowo yi in ooh!
And this was accommodated into Yoruba culture, to establish continuity in descendant influence and generational affinity.
As Olubadan is the lord over his people in Ibadanland and environs; a Mogaji is a miniature of Olubadan within the general members of his descendant which comprises of many neon-families that "extended" into large family, to which the moment a Mogaji is chosen not considering seniority in age but must be elderly and custodian of the descendant historical facts, figures and the intricacies within their background yet must be reachable, accommodating, generous, firm, decisive, loving, respectful, unbiased, frank,attentive, honest, person of integrity, influential, relentless, bold, intelligent and of wisdom, Godly, patient, selfless, enterprising, initiative, prayerful, focused, having foresight, creative e.t.c.
Though Mogaji title is not by subjugation, not compulsorily by seniority, the person to be chosen for Mogaji must not be forced on his people therefore, the consent of the general members of his family is essentially paramount and a deciding -point in his selection and presentation to the Olubadan and his council, with the affirmation and ratification of the Olubadan and his council so the family's consensus is a must and anything short of that is like taking a short-cut and an undue advantage over the general members of the family, while whoever may be the one chosen by force or enforced on the general members of the family must have known he is sitting on a keg of gunpowder, that may explode anytime even it is dangerous for the upcoming generation , that has no hand in the wrong choice, made by the myopic and parochial but few members of the family, to the detriment of the general members, because the Mogaji must be lord over his general members of his family like Olubadan is the lord over Ibadan people, the land and its environs.
So it is compulsory the general members of the family identify with the Mogaji and his insignia, meaning it should be a consensus from the family and unanimous decision, that they are ready to see the "would-be" Mogaji leading them as a priority, and not compulsion, compromise-able, nor bargain-able and should not be politicized ( all these helps to preserve culture and tradition of Yoruba , even it is a curse for anybody to change this normal course of culture and tradition) This is to uphold the age-long fact that it is an unchanged-able aspect of the historical background or evolutionary idiosyncratic phenomenon, here much experience and knowledge of the Yoruba and family background is a must, if procedure should be followed to the detail. And anything done from the family or elsewhere is to belittle the essence of the traditional importance, which may be a source of ridicule, from those outside, seeing the expected off-springs or custodian of culture and tradition as corrupt and compromise-able, while the repercussion is immeasurable and could boomerang later in future, among the upcoming generation, who must have been confused with clashes and conflicts against their historical importance of their progeny(This sometime embarrasses members of the family, tribe, and clan, when there are contradiction in historical value, importance and arrangement of facts and figure of their root, which was caused by the shortcoming of the members they belong)
However, with a Mogaji being chosen and all necessary things (rituals) being done, at the collective point of their descendant (Agbole) with piece of crossed-piece of plank (aka) being nailed to the upper part of the main entrance to their common house.
And the insignia of office being given to the new Mogaji by the Olubadan in the presence of the members of his council , and being acknowledged by the general members of the family then celebration and choruses of various are sung like: A moye yii je naa, iwo n papa i wo n naa, E rebi wa bii; eyin tee n sebi yin rada rada ee rebi wa bii, Owoole laa n lo ao ma ya wo fi see o; laau erebe erebe lau etc.
All these is to show the general acceptance of the whole family in the choice of Mogaji being picked.
Meanwhile, this spoke volume, as their choice must have been tested and trusted, that is; he must have been doing one thing or the other, to better the lot of his people, which means adding another feather to his office in recognition, affirmation and accommodating him to be the true son of the family, who had been identified with them by placing a must oath or betray-able responsibility upon the whole members of the family, to pay him back in his good coin, for generational progress, development and advancement, with firm believe in his leadership qualities and reposing their confidence in him, for safe, harmonious , careful and advantageous consideration for all and sundry.
And this is like a covenant between him and them, to live undeniably as one and not bringing shame to the family in anyway, so this is the cord that bind them together as one hence, to the people of village they fear being indicted by invoking the spirit of "alale" or to a family "alajobi" and thus an adage is propounded that "it is easy to forgive an enemy but not a friend that betrayed". Even the family like to get uniform-textile material (aso-abi) as a souvenir to remind them of their common decision, to make a member of their family Mogaji.
All these express and display the beauty of Yoruba a well planned and arranged successor-ship, which often provide collective power and attainment within the family or Yoruba culture.
Then after respite of some weeks within which comes meetings upon meetings with family members on how, what, where when, why, issues had being trashed out, delegation and inauguration of sub-executive members of the Mogaji would start work both from town and village(s), while Baale; the head at home but not as special as Mogaji serves as a coadjutor or assistance to the Mogaji yet Mogaji is superior to both Bale and Baale respectively; since the Mogaji is the ratified, endorsed and official head of the family, all must respect him including Bale and Baale. And what he says is binding but he is not expected to abuse his office, provided he doesn't want to incur the wrath of his family members, so as the electorates has absolute power in democratic governance (electioneering power resides with the electorates) such is the absolute power to install or demote a Mogaji lies with the general members of the family. And the office of Mogaji was created to ease the administrative role of Olubadan as the collection of Mogajis is the wisdom of Olubadan , aside the Olubadan in Council's responsibility per excellence, since a Mogaji is held responsible for any short-coming within his domain, and all these is to maintain law, order and morality within the land. And it is corroborative to affirm that Yoruba people had had a system of governance before the advent of colonial master.
Yet often-time deliberation, discussion and execution of matters concerning the interest of the family members are addressed for advancement, where one or more problems concerning, affecting, eroding on family interest are checked, coursed, collectively and cooperatively solved.
And any meeting time many members of the family found it compulsory, paramount, patriotic, and palliative to be present, to contribute where seriousness, intelligence , wisdom, sense of belonging, purposefulness, merriment are expected to be displayed. Then a Mogaji is subjected to Olubadan and anything expected to be known by the Olubadan and his council is a matter that squarely concerns the Mogaji.
Hence Mogaji should be the real choice of his people, who are ready to rally round him in time of joy, abundance, dearth and stress, so here he must prove his responsiveness, responsibility, initiative, integrity and truthfulness of nature.
Nevertheless, as Olubadan and his council are there to complement the role and duty of Mogaji in respect of his area of local administration so is the Mogaji and the Mogajis helping to make effective the administration of the larger society, by the Olubadan and his council.
Accordingly, as of the olden days; a Mogaji is expected to live among his people for proximity sake and promptness in attending to issues and addressing differences and issues , as expected and mandated by the oath of his office, only nowadays there is a change to that, where the Mogaji comes often from his own house, where he lives with his neo-family, but must not compromise or shrink from his responsibility, to his family members, as Mogaji nor avoid his role by delegating anyhow what is expected of him to do . And this is where the beauty and best of the Mogaji is seen, acknowledged, appreciated, as a good leader, who everybody within the family can repose their confidence, commitment and dedication through constant attendance to whatever a meeting he call for or is convene by him.
As Mogaji is a subject to the Olubadan who can be on the path to becoming Olubadan one day in life by (first) starting with the traditional title of Jagun (especially in Ibadan's good arrangement to Obaship) from here he can be having promotion within, being conferred on him progressively, with higher title-ship , as he deserves it by year, good character, commitment and loyalty to Olubadan and his Council, the people of the town (Ibadan), its environs regarding his contributions to the development of the town, villages and city of the state.
At this juncture suffice I express our thanks to the office of Mogaji Ajayi-Ida of Ibadan
; Mogaji (Dr) Muideen Babatunde Olatunji, a qualified and experienced medical doctor of repute, who shed more light on the historical and traditional importance of Mogaji as an institution and what intricacies of background leading to the conferment of the title of Mogaji on the eligible male and elderly member of any family, as the choice of the general members of his descendant, with the Oba ratifying and endorsing the wish by consensus of the family.
With this it had denoted that the Mogaji (Dr) Muideen Babatunde Olatunji is soundly a qualified Yoruba man and true son of his descendant, knowledgeable and historically rich , to be presented as a custodian of the knowledge about Yoruba tradition and culture. And this must have been the much reason why he was seen eligible and qualified by the general members of Ajayi-Ida descendant, to have been chosen as their new Mogaji, that was conferred with the title on the 19th of December, 2016, while we pray for good health, sound body for him, with prosperity and longevity of life, for him to steer the leadership mantle of Ajayi-Ida family well.
By and Large, with this aforementioned historical background of Mogaji as an institution permit me to X-ray on the rancour among some members of Beyioku Akere family of Oritamerin , on their differences over the choice being enforced on them as Mogaji.
Despite the fact that the members belong to the same lineages: Bamgbegbin, Akintaro, Fagbinrin, with Akintaro and Fagbinrin leaving the title-ship to the candidates from Bamgbegbin who are by names as: Hon/Alhaji Abdulwasiu Okunlola Akere and Alhaji Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode while the one conferred with the title of Mogaji was said not to be the choice of the general members of the lineages: Bamgbegbin, Akintaro and Fagbinrin hence, it led to protest upon protest, complain upon complain and partial uprising within the family members. But His Royal Majesty the Olubadan of Ibadanland Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji, Ogungunniso 1 had issued a press-release (warning) that no family should disrupt the peace of the town(Ibadan) nor cause violence of any kind, due to the effect of the misunderstanding arising from the wrong choice that the family members of Beyioku Akere had.
With Mogaji in control in an extended family setting the beauty of it is immeasurable where " what touches one touches all" hence the formidable relationship and native system of administration or of directing Yoruba life, activities and livings before the advent of the colonial masters, was to the envy of other tribes even the white man was greatly impressed and equivocally envious to have tried to superimpose other tribes on Yoruba because of the white-man's understanding of the un-matchable of the Yoruba's wisdom.
And the deprivation the white man gave the Yoruba is still affecting them till date.
However, to any professional the focus and passion he has for his job always drives him into action since he has no other means to make livelihood and in the absence of not doing what he ought to do regarding his job depicts him as being lazy and quack, who is good for nothing, as everybody aspires to contribute one thing or other through ones job into the society where he belongs and thus it shows the essence of living for humanity. And where one avoids the best for others in whatever he does leads to total failure in life.
With this we considered that we should set into unravel-ling the mystery behind the issue of the rancour within Beyioku Akere Family over the Mogaji Title-ship by paying a visit to the Beyioku Akere Family 's House at Oritamerin and here we met the members of the large family with the "expected choice" of the family for Mogaji ; Alhaji/Hon Abdulwasiu Okunola Akere being present to relay the cause behind the rancour and with some documents he unwind-ed thus
That from the days of yore he has identified with his family members of Beyioku Akere of Oritamerin of C2/27 Akere's compound Oja'ba Ibadan and interruptedly by chorus some member of the family attested that he has been spending money in sponsoring some of their children's education, installing transformer, rehabilitating some dilapidated house within the compound.
That the family either through selection or election picks a particular candidate as Mogaji to represent the family and which had been done by the family.
That the head of the family and the family consented to the nomination of that person.
That in case more than one person signified their intention to occupied the post of Mogaji there shall always be an election, which the Olubadan and its council have deprived the family of the due process and their consideration in this case.
That the immediate Mogaji according to the tradition must have nominated before his demise; a particular person that will become the Mogaji of the house by transferring the cloth called 'Aso-Irole" which make the person an automatic Mogaji of the family as demanded by the tradition.
That the selection or election of a particular person must be an unanimous decision of the vast majority of the family(i.e. democratically elected person) and any decision reached is binding on every member of the family home and abroad.
Then with this brief acquaintance we went to the office of the Olubadan at Popoyemoja to verify what transpired to the development that caused the rancour, here we met a protocol officer of the Olubadan(name withheld) and some of the office assistants who we may not be able to identified factually, that told us that prior the conferment of the Mogaji on Chief Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode Akere, a meeting was convened by the delegation of the Olubadan who gave even and equal opportunity to both candidates : Hon/ Alhaji Abdulwasiu Okunlola Akere and Alhaji Moshood Oyebode Gbolagade Akere to come with their supporters and on the day in question the family came in large number to support the candidate of their choice, but instead of having people queuing behind their choice candidate, only the two candidates and four family members each that support the two candidates with family head; Pa Fasasi Titiloye Akere , women leader; Madam Falilat Laoye Akintaro Akere and Bale of Ijokodo;Chief Fatai Oyeniyi Akere were in attendance other family members were outside .
And at the meeting the two aspiring candidates Hon/ Alhaji Abdulwasiu Okunola Olasunkanmi Akere and Alhaji Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode Akere were only interviewed on why they are more qualified for Mogaji than the others. Questions bothering on lineages they belong were asked and both claimed they belong to Bamgbegbin, and questions on their contribution to family, support and years of involvement in family matters were raised. In the end the two chiefs in attendance High Chief Olufemi Olaifa and High Chief Ajibola Tajudeen, Prince Mukaila Adetunji (Aremo) and the secretary to the Olubadan in Council; Mr Liasu sued for peace and amiable co-existence among the families and assured that their finding and observation will be communicated to Kabiyesi and His Imperial Majesty Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji, Aje Ogungunniso 1 promised that justice would be done. At the end of the meeting, both aspiring candidates were made to sign an agreement for peace and that they are to agree to Kabiyesi 'prerogative' on the matter.
They obliged to sign because they believe His Imperial Majesty is a just and truthful father and pray to God to guide Kabiyesi , so that in it is final decision on Mogaji Akere justice will be done.
On the morning of 11th December, 2016 the family held a peaceful rally procession from Akere Palace at Oritamerin to Popoyemoja Palace to register their displeasure on information obtained through a call from Prince Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode Akere to one Lukman Olabamiji Okunola Akere that he has received letter of appointment as the new Mogaji Akere from the palace, while the protest was peaceful and no property was destroyed, to express their clear grievance that the general members of Akere Family has the exclusive right to select their family head and that such decision to impose anybody on them will be resisted because it is unknown to Ibadan age-long tradition, subsisting from time immemorial .
And that the choice of Akere Family for Mogaji is Honorable /Prince Okunola Olasunkanmi Abdulwasiu Akere, which is not negotiable.
Here they affirmed their conviction and believe in His Imperial Majesty Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji Aje Ogungunniso 1 that the decision to impose candidate is not his, and thus hope in his fatherly gesture to right the wrong by allowing the wishes of the majority to prevail over the minority at-least" where the majority has its way then the minority can have its say"
In addition they cited the letter to His Majesty Office dated 21st November ,2016 informing His Imperial Majesty and the Olubadan in Council:
That the above mentioned process has been observed, passed and executed by the Akere Family in selecting their Mogaji (Hon/Prince Okunola Abdulwasiu Olasunkanmi Akere) between Sunday 18th and 20th November inside Akere Palace and duly signed letter accompanied by other valuable documents that aided the process , were sent to the palace of His Imperial Majesty by the elders of Akere Family and acknowledged copy received by the secretary to the Olubadan in Council.
That upon receiving the information on Thursday 15th December, 2016 His Imperial Majesty still went ahead to install Prince Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode Akere as Mogaji Akere Family against the wishes of the vast majority of their family members hence, they mandated Prince/Hon Okunlola Olasunkanmi Akere to institute a legal action for the stoppage and because the court cannot sit due to the legal week, they were only able to obtain an advance copy of summons and restraint, which was served on the palace and received by the palace, to forestall the installation, but to their greatest surprise His Imperial Majesty did his wish to install Prince Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode Akere on the 19th December, 2016 against impending court summon.
Consequently, the entire family resisted imposition and what is not known to their tradition by not allowing Prince Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode Akere to enter Akere Common House (Agbole) and neither was he allowed to mount "EKE-WOOD" in the house nor be allowed to perform other rites which are the symbol of family support to the new Mogaji.
And to corroborate the historical -facts revolving round the institution of Mogaji they cited 1986 when Chief Sanusi Okunola Akere died ;Chief Durodola Salaudeen succeeded him and the contest was between him and Late Alhaji Yussuf Abioye Fagbinrin and the selection was exclusively that of the Akere Family and ratified by the then Olubadan of Ibadan-land Late Oba Yesufu Oloyede Asanike 1 with reference made to the family minutes; 16/03/86 and 23/03/86 as attached.
In the same vein Durodola Salaudeen Akere 1996; Alhaji Mustapha Oyeleke Wintola was unanimously selected and appointed as Mogaji and letter of his appointment as the new Mogaji was equally forwarded to the then Kabiyesi Late Oba Adeyemo Operinde 1 having attached the right hand impressions and signatures of members that supported his appointment as the new Mogaji Akere Family . with reference made to the copy of letter of invitation from Late Oba Adeyemo Operinde Palace, Isalejebu Ibadan dated 12/12/96.
Here the Akere Family general members stated that Beyioku Akere , their great grand fathers laid down his life to stabilize and unite Ibadan therefore, his sons and daughters deserve to be given inalienable right of selection and appointment of their Mogaji and not the one forced on them, hence here they unequivocally presented that Prince/Hon Okunola Olasunkanmi Abdulwasiu Akere is their choice as the new Mogaji instead of the one forced on them in person of Prince Moshood Gbolagade Oyebode Akere.
And they attached a copy of their choice appointment with signatures and thumbprints of those who supported him from the three lineages: Bamgbegbin, Akintaro, Fagbinrin that make up the Akere Family thus forwarded to the palace on 21st November, 2016 but it was disregarded by the Olubadan's office.
Though the family members expressed their rigidity that the vast majority of the family have spoken and pick their Mogaji;Prince/Hon Abdulwasiu Okunola Olasunkanmi Akere and that their wishes should be sacrosanct and respected.
That , the issue of selection and appointment of Mogaji Akere should be strictly family affair.
And that anybody or person parading himself as Mogaji Akere Family aside Hon/Prince Abdulwasiu Okunola Olasunkanmi Akere is an impostor.
Here they implored the Kabiyesi and His Imperial Majesty to revisit the case for good to allow peace reign again in their family. And that with the affinity the present Olubadan of Ibadan Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji Aje Ogungunniso 1 has with their forefathers , they least expected that he can effect any row to cause unrest in their family through enforcing a Mogaji who is not their choice, as he has a link with their forefathers that he cannot betrayed and as Oba on threshold of history he should right the wrong for peace to reign in their family. Signed and thumb printed by members.
With reference to this letter of petition from the family cum documented evidence we went further to the Kabiyesi's office who expressed his displeasure and annoyance to the protest action of the aggrieved Akere family who came to his office and age-long house (palace) calling him thief preemptively; suggesting that he had collected money to influence Chief Moshood Oyebode Gbolagade Akere's installation despite the chosen candidates admission to accept whoever is chosen to be the Mogaji, which though in respect of the allegation against the aggrieved members calling Kabiyesi thief, His Majesty admitted that the expected Mogaji ; Hon/Prince Abdulwasiu Olasunkanmi Okunola had come to his palace thrice to beg for forgiveness, but the effect of their unruliness disturbed him to have carried out his decision to install Prince Moshood Oyebode Gbolagade as their Mogaji, yet the aggrieved members of Akere Family denied ever to have called Kabiyesi thief citing that on that day some protesters agitating against one of the installed Bales of that said day; 19 December,2016 were also present at the gate of the Kabiyesi, which could have been mistook for them as the aggrieved members of the Akere Family but, upon the allegation they still bent over backward to apologize to the Kabiyesi for forgiveness.
On further balancing of our story we (team of the reporters) tried to link up with the enforced but new Mogaji through phone who on the 9th of January ,2017 promised to come home from Lagos to Ibadan on Friday but when he got to Ibadan he refused to pick our call, but later when we called again he promised to call back as soon as he got to his club in Ibadan but failed to do so, while we called him again on Saturday, Sunday without any positive response, but a dilemma or stalemate we encountered at the course of bringing into balancing and accuracy our report, to unravel the mystery and impediment, also causing such same like dilemma in the family since the enforced new Mogaji is not recognized at his family place and the general family members also are not ready to accept him as their Mogaji; except their wishes are granted and honoured by the Olubadan and his Council, on this we were reminded of the wisdom adopted by King Solomon in solving the same riddle /puzzle between two women who slept together with their babies while one overslept to have snuffed out life from her own baby and later the next morning both argued to be claiming the alive baby rejecting the dead, but King Solomon arraigned them for questioning without both women being aware that King Solomon was very attentive to watch both of their temperament, assumption and reactions to his questions yet, he arrived to conclude that the nonchalant woman that agreed that he should pass the judgement that sword should be used to cut the alive baby for equal share between them; should be the one indictable and instrumental to her child's death, hence he gave the alive child back to her rightful mother, in allowing justice to take its due course, yet no victor; no vanquished.
Lastly, on this note here I changed to speak in my mother's tongue that Mo ki Oba Alayelua Aje Ogunguniso 1 ,Ori Ade Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji , Aje Ogungunniso 1 , Baba Mo kunle; mo pagunwo mo, Ka'de pe lori oooh baba, Ki bata pe lese, esin Oba a je oko pe, irukere a di abere, igba odun; odun kan fun baba wa, Ki baba f'ewu pari, Ki baba ferigi j'obi, ase waa ni tireke!, Arobafin lo ba n pa, Oro ti a ni ki baba ma gbo; baba naa ni yoo pariee. Omo eni ko si ni buruburu ka le f'ekun pa'je, Eru Oba ni mo ba oba toto!,
Awa nibadan, Awa laameto, Awalanimo, Awa laalowo, Awa laaniteriba, Awa laalaaje, Awa lalalaye.
Sebi sekere ko ni ba'won loo s'ode ibanuje. Omo ale eniyan ni foowo osi juwe ile baba re, Mo woole;f'ori ade oh! Kee pe bi mope see n pe, Ke waa bi wawa n se wa.
Mo ni kini won ti n se belo ni'lorin, Kini won ti n soye laafin Olubadan, Alagbede lo mo ohun to le finrin ro lorisirisi ni'le aro; Alamo lo'mo ohun to'le fa'mo mo nirorun, Iti ogede leleyi ti ko to ohun a nyo ada tii, Baba mi Aje Ogungunniso 1 omo ajee baba mi lo'ni ka buure; ka laare wipe ikan ko gbodo ju'kan,omo eleni ateeka omo eleni ewele , Lojo gbogbo agba nii gba ni Kabiyesi Ko si ni buruburu ki baba so'pe o di owo omo n lo'run , enu agba l'obi ti n gbo, totun tosi leyele fii n kore wole.
Enu mi a goo; enu mi a wo wo,, eni ba fo'ju d'oba ; awowo a woo!. Oro ko ni gungungun ka fo'be buu, enu laoo fi so; idi lao fii joko.
Kabiyeesi Oba wa Akanmu Alayelua ! Obe ni be'suu; iran atelese ate'na, kee gbo, kee too, ko ni hun yin in, ko si nii baje, Ilu Ibadan yoo toro lasiko tiyin, Aje Ogungunniso 1, Oro d'oro agba, nitori pe agba kii wa l'oja k'ori omo titun woo oh, Iba Baba mi Alayelua Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji Aje Ogunguniso 1, Oro dowo yi in ooh!
Thursday 12 January 2017
CIVIL-EYE:SPEECH MAKER; SOUR MENTALITY
"In the beginning there was word and the word was with God and the word was God" hence the word through God is creative. And when one expresses it; it leaves either negative or positive effect yet eloquence encompasses etiquette and packaging therefore, there is a specialization in Public-Speaking and eloquence is about the power of influencing the action of your listener even your enemy.
To a professional speaker there are some words he should abhors as plague and such words are vulgar-able and derogatory, denoting acerbity and acrimony.
In the culture spanning through the three tribes: Ibo, Hausa and Yoruba; we all know and uphold the fact that respect begets respect (reciprocity) regardless of the age, so with good words and respect send a child where he may be skeptical or reluctant to go yet he will still carry out the errand as "every action attract a reaction", a school of thought even advocates.
Nevertheless, the words of God also affirm that "by their fruits you shall know them" hence acts and expression are the fruits of thought and they establishes the stand or status of one relationship with others.
In every sincere conversation; it is very essential to be frank yet one should be prudent, circumspect, decent, selective and eloquent in the choice of words, to achieve the objective regardless of type of temperament, state of feelings, level of relationship, mood and disposition and this is Public- Relation expertise, through this some great men have been able to get to their summit of glory (Gandhi, Martin Luther, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikwe, Ladoke Akintola, Sardauna of Sokoto to mention few) yet some elders and youth have not realize that the lack of it has been the bane of their misunderstanding with others, while some youth have been unemployable for the lack of it, provided he wants to engage in Public and not Private enterprise and ditto private business "customer is always right"; I hear a sharp, good and creative entrepreneur says, as he will not want anybody not even a member of his staff spoil his relationship with his customers for him not even force his business into collapse and closure, for the lack of courtesy and good words; "as one cannot have a good day with bad attitude and cannot have a good attitude with bad day" even "It is better to be beautiful than to be good but it is better to be good than to be ugly" says Oscar Wilde. And to a speaker or writer one need to know "talent alone cannot make a writer; there must be a man behind the speech and book (idea).
Even an adage in Yoruba corroborates thus that there are speakers and there are discern-able hearers so " a would be good speaker should be careful of what he says because of those good but discern-able hearers that know what value words carry and also are proficiently endowed at arriving unbiased; on what meaning the thought of the speaker denotes, through his words and expression.
So when next time you want to speak with or talk to someone; mind your words and expression as an adage in Yoruba even says "Benighted words soothes one to offer hands of friendship while blatant words incur the wrath of the listener meanwhile, words and thought are as fragile as poultry-eggs and if care is not taken it breaks as instantly as one utters it.
"Act is the blossom of thought; joy and suffering are its fruits, yet to every action there is a reaction. As echo is inextricable to sound; the quality of every expression through words leaves behind either painful and sour or soothing and pleasurable effect.
Mind what you say and how you say it; "as honesty is one part of eloquence......"
To a professional speaker there are some words he should abhors as plague and such words are vulgar-able and derogatory, denoting acerbity and acrimony.
In the culture spanning through the three tribes: Ibo, Hausa and Yoruba; we all know and uphold the fact that respect begets respect (reciprocity) regardless of the age, so with good words and respect send a child where he may be skeptical or reluctant to go yet he will still carry out the errand as "every action attract a reaction", a school of thought even advocates.
Nevertheless, the words of God also affirm that "by their fruits you shall know them" hence acts and expression are the fruits of thought and they establishes the stand or status of one relationship with others.
In every sincere conversation; it is very essential to be frank yet one should be prudent, circumspect, decent, selective and eloquent in the choice of words, to achieve the objective regardless of type of temperament, state of feelings, level of relationship, mood and disposition and this is Public- Relation expertise, through this some great men have been able to get to their summit of glory (Gandhi, Martin Luther, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikwe, Ladoke Akintola, Sardauna of Sokoto to mention few) yet some elders and youth have not realize that the lack of it has been the bane of their misunderstanding with others, while some youth have been unemployable for the lack of it, provided he wants to engage in Public and not Private enterprise and ditto private business "customer is always right"; I hear a sharp, good and creative entrepreneur says, as he will not want anybody not even a member of his staff spoil his relationship with his customers for him not even force his business into collapse and closure, for the lack of courtesy and good words; "as one cannot have a good day with bad attitude and cannot have a good attitude with bad day" even "It is better to be beautiful than to be good but it is better to be good than to be ugly" says Oscar Wilde. And to a speaker or writer one need to know "talent alone cannot make a writer; there must be a man behind the speech and book (idea).
Even an adage in Yoruba corroborates thus that there are speakers and there are discern-able hearers so " a would be good speaker should be careful of what he says because of those good but discern-able hearers that know what value words carry and also are proficiently endowed at arriving unbiased; on what meaning the thought of the speaker denotes, through his words and expression.
So when next time you want to speak with or talk to someone; mind your words and expression as an adage in Yoruba even says "Benighted words soothes one to offer hands of friendship while blatant words incur the wrath of the listener meanwhile, words and thought are as fragile as poultry-eggs and if care is not taken it breaks as instantly as one utters it.
"Act is the blossom of thought; joy and suffering are its fruits, yet to every action there is a reaction. As echo is inextricable to sound; the quality of every expression through words leaves behind either painful and sour or soothing and pleasurable effect.
Mind what you say and how you say it; "as honesty is one part of eloquence......"
Saturday 7 January 2017
STOP PRESS!!!
As nobody is infallible and he who does not make mistake;does not make anything; permit me to beg for forgiveness,for the goof I made in our last two piece titled : "Nigeria has systematic problem which should rather (better) be titled "Nigeria has systemic Problem;meaning our not having "right guiding principle" in all facet of our running the country's affairs by those in the corridor of power (leaders) is the cause of our woes,but if change could be made;what I know is that there would certainly be better changes, for real.
Secondly the next piece titled "Happy New Year; Harness Nor(typographical error)Your Plan is now being corrected thus " Happy New Year; Harness Now Your Plan"
Thanks for your Patience, Patronage and Partnership-Editor-n- Chief: LANRE AKINPELU
Secondly the next piece titled "Happy New Year; Harness Nor(typographical error)Your Plan is now being corrected thus " Happy New Year; Harness Now Your Plan"
Thanks for your Patience, Patronage and Partnership-Editor-n- Chief: LANRE AKINPELU
SPECIAL REPORT: "RUMPUS IN THE HOUSE"
SPECIAL REPORT: On the Ibadan Joint Traders Association in respect of the imbroglio within the association membership, on the accusation and counter-accusation between Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal and Alhaji Dauda Oladepo, regarding the status of the association's executive, previous expenses of the association, some contribution by some members and the position of the expenses incurred and accrued by and to the association from her past activities respectively, yet the issue of ownership of a sixteen-seaters Hummer-bus; given them by the Oyo State Government and the usurpation of some benefits among these principal officers: Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal, Prince Waheed Apampa and Alhaji Dauda Oladepo led us into unraveling facts, mystery behind this scenario hence, we did a thorough, detailed and unbiased investigation into the accounts from both factions, for a complete report, which we are presenting to you thus, while we believe as "Wisdom is vindicated by its value" so is the "Honesty which is the part of eloquence"yet we leave the judgement to God but views and opinions to the public, with the believe that those who can read between the lines would still be able to arrive and affirm at a genuine conclusion, with corroboration from the report as we present thus:
On the 2nd of January, 2017 I went out in pursuit of some news but stumbled on a news; from an UN-regular beat (special news) from Labaowo- market; precisely the assumed office of the Ibadan Joint Traders Association, where a press-conference was about to come-up at 3pm as slated, to shed light on the news flying in the air, about the factionalism within the association and that Alhaji Dauda Oladepo is sponsoring a paid news in the dailies and some media; that Chief/Mrs. Labake Lawal has ceased to be the Iyaloja of Ibadan-land , for the Ibadan Joint Traders Association .
However, precisely 3pm on the 2nd of January,2017 the factional members of Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal headed by Prince Waheed Apampa, had gathered at the Labaowo office chosen, as the venue of the press-conference, with members of the press; from different media on seat. And here Alhaji Lukman Kolawole Alaka; the faction's designated President made an introduction of the traders, to the gentlemen-of the press, who were picking/ writing down one thing or the other from the subject-matter at hand.
After this introduction; Prince Waheed Alaka, the only remaining member of the three members of the board of trustees of the Ibadan Joint Traders Association alive (the other two members:Mr Adebayo Ayilara and Mr Rasheed Adigun had died) read his address on the saga to the members of the press around on their seats,describing Alhaji Dauda as committing an abbe-ration:
That the news of stopping Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal as the current Iyaloja is null and void.
That Alhaji Dauda Oladepo is a liar; planning to cause enmity between Iyalode of Ibadanland and Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal.
That Alhaji Dauda Oladepo is an unaccepted but disguised leader of the association.
That the allegation of fraud against Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal is not true.
That Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal is a bona-fide member of the association and still in control of the association.\
That Alhaji Dauda Oladepo has made a wrong move to make a cover-up through Olubadan influence, while his move is a coup to unseat Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal but not supported by the members.
That Alhaji Dauda\ Oladepo had organized a press-conference not official at C2/85 Olupoyi's Compound, Oja'Oba, Ibadan.
That Alhaji Dauda Oladepo was a Vice President of the association before but not allowed to do things on his own.
That Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal does not sign any document but Prince Waheed Apampa .
That all the heads of the market are against Alhaji Dauda Oladepo.
That Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal has never misappropriated the association money.
That Iyalode of Ibadan-land and Iyaloja are closely friendly .
That all information bandied around about Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal is calumnious .
After all being said by Prince Waheed Apampa, an opportunity was given any of the journalists present to ask question and promptly a Tribune reporter (name withheld) stood up, to ask question thus that why allowing Alhaji Dauda Oladepo all much concession, if he had earlier being disowned or cut to size by the association and that for clarity and identification sake the members of the traders present at the venue should introduce themselves, and at this juncture Prince Waheed Apampa responded to the first question:
That Alhaji Dauda Oladepo was given the much opportunity because he was once a Vice-President of the association but incapacitated to a limit, while the traders later introduced themselves unanimously.
Later Prince Waheed Apampa made an announcement that Alhaji Dauda Oladepo is suspended from the association, with the traders present re-echoing what he said, to bring the press-conference to an end.
Meanwhile, Journalism as a noble art abhors nepotism, favouritism, unnecessary interference, influence and bias but to uphold truth, accuracy, objectivity, coherence and balancing of every story a reporter holds at hand, for development while giving equal attention , commitment, sincerity of purposefulness to both sides of any story.
And that anything short of this is tantamount to unprofessional-ism hence, we set out to play our own part objectively and went to C2/85 Olupoyi Compound Oja-Oba, Ibadan the nerve-cent re of Oja 'Oba's trading hive and a place where the indigenous and headquarter office of the Ibadan Joint Traders Association is located, on the 5th of January, 2017, where we had the special opportunity of meeting Alhaji Dauda Oladepo and his factional members.
Nevertheless, here we were more educated to see deeply into the matter on ground about the association, that led to the imbroglio, with some documents, to back up the claim and side-account of Alhaji Dauda Oladepo, who with the association's secretary, public-relation officer of the association, Otun Iyalaje Gbagi Ogunpa; Chief /Mrs Kuburat Aloba, Ashipa Iyaloja of Ibadan-land; Alhaja Falilat Oladepo,Ibadan Joint Traders Association Iyalaje; Alhaja Opeyemi Adediran, some other members and Babaloja of Ibadanland; Bale Raufu Salami nicknamed Olowo Adekile, who we interviewed later to round-up our assignment with Alhaji Dauda Oladepo; who unwinded that Ibadan Joint Traders Association was one of the six recognized associations by the Oyo State Government, which is originally having her office at C2/85 Olupoyi Compound Oja'Oba Ibadan; the only recognized head office of the association that has been in existence, since the inception of the association; Ibadan Joint Traders Association.
And that any meeting /press-conference done outside the head-office;C2/85 Olupoyi Compound Oja'Oba is illegal hence, he held the press-conference there, as officially acceptable to the members.
That as an association, the Ibadan Joint Traders Association has an officially endorsed constitution; co-signed by Prince Waheed Apampa, Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal, he; Alhaji Dauda Oladepo and some other executive members.
That all what the association does is binding by the constitution.
That the allegation of fraud against Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal is factually substantial, with facts, figures and evidence (showing us some document to back his claim up)
That with the expectation for Oyo State Government Loan of Fifty thousand naira (50,000.00) each on interest free loan; Chief/Mrs Labake Labake Lawal ordered every member to pay two thousand naira each (2,000), as eligibility fee, which they did but instead of paying the collected amount of the money into Ibadan Joint Traders Association Account at Skye Bank Dugbe with Number 4790603955; Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal connived with the financial secretary of the association ; Mr Oluranti Oyedele, to pay the collected amount of money into Iyaloja Chief Mrs Labake Lawal personal account No: 0029219262 with the name: Labake Lawal Patience at Guarantee Trust Bank (G TB) which Alhaji Dauda Oladepo disputed not to know, but the former Secretary(?) to the Ibadan Joint Traders Association ; Prince Waheed Apampa, was the person that informed him and some members of the executive.
That the allegation of fraud against Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal was the issue that initially raised dust among the members, who were disappointed , for not receiving any loan of fifty thousand naira each, from any quarter whatsoever. While the two thousand naira paid by each member as the eligibility fee had not been refunded.
Therefore, it led to the query and quarrel from the large members of the association, to know of the authenticity of the loan , hence agitated for their two thousand eligibility each, to be refunded (showing us some letters written on some letter-headed of some affiliated associations (among which Itesiwaju Fadama Association, New Gbagi Market Association e.t.c.) determinedly with strong words requesting for their eligibility fees paid by them to the association through Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal.
The aftermath of which Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal admitted to have collected the money but pledged to return all the money collected in January.
Constitutionally Alhaji Dauda Oladepo defended that an executive of the association is periodically for five years term .
And that since Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal and her members as executive was sworn in 2012 which to last through till 2016, that means the expiration of their tenure which came to be in June 2016 officially indicated that Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal's term with her members, of the executive has ended, as at when due(showing us a letter on a letter-headed of the association, to back it up) with Prince Waheed Apampa's signature on it; acknowledging the effectiveness of the dissolution from October 20,2016.
Accordingly, Alhaji Dauda Oladepo argued that the dissolution of the executive of which Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal who was an arc-member; is in accordance to section seventeen (17) of the association to conduct election to various offices, at the expiration of each executive members term, except the office of the President, which is of Life term(existence) so, any representation done by Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal henceforth with her members of the executive that came on board in 2012 is impersonation, null and void.
Last but not the least;
That another issue that prompted the imbroglio, accusation and counter-accusation between him; Alhaji Dauda Oladepo and Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal is the issue of the Ibadan Joint Traders Association Twentieth Anniversary(20th) done in October 28, 2014, here sixty-one (61) affiliated association each contributed from each market under Ibadan Joint Traders Association five thousand naira each(5,000) another five thousand naira each for advertorial.
That no report came whatsoever from Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal since June 2016.
That it was three months ago she made herself known to the members.
That the three committee (3) for the Twentieth Anniversary of the association were delineated as:
(1)Chieftain Committee with 140 titles given to dignitaries at the event .
(2) The Venue Organizing Committee.
(3) A so-Egbejoda Committee, where three thousand naira worth of yards of cloth for any buyer then was sold for four thousand naira.
That the some of money realized from the event which the total was four million, three hundred and fifty thousand was the total sum of money realized from Chieftain Committee which was One million, five hundred and twenty-one thousand naira in addition with two million, seven hundred and seventy one thousand, five hundred naira.
While regret-ably; as corroborated by Alhaji Dauda Oladepo, Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal gave an account and break-down of the amount of money realized; relating it to the cost of the expenses she spent on another thing whileshe inflated as reported below
N200,000.00 payment to the police.
N200,000.00 payment to Olubadan then.
N191,900.00 payment for drinks/Bottle water.
N190, 500.00 payment for the purchase of two cows.
N152,500.00 payment for one hundred snails.
N152, 500.00 payment for caterers.
N120,000.00 payment for bags of rice and palm-oil.
N120,000.00 payment for ingredient.
N109,000.00Miscellaneous expenses.
N105,000 payment for Coolers
N57,000.00 honorarium to Bale Ekotedo.
That with these various costs and payment believed and affirmed to be inflated, no positive effect showed, to prove the worth and truth of any grand entertainment of the dignitaries and chieftain-titles' awardees, who entertained themselves, with what they brought from their different homes.
That on this; "the whole house" rejected Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal submission of the expenses, so the allegation he; Alhaji Dauda Oladepo made against her was not to tarnish her image and not wrong.
And that the money Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal pledged to return in January was not fulfilled but instead brought an expenses to say she has spent the money.
That on Poverty alleviation, Alhaji Dauda Oladepo made mentioned of the slot given to six-recognized associations, of which the slots belonging to Ibadan Joint Traders Association was short-changed by Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal, to her own advantage.
That the sixteen seaters hummer-bus given to the association by Oyo State Government; she has turned into personal use and property and when asked she refused to hand-over it to the association, while she instructed her lawyer to reply the association that the bus was her personal belonging yet the executive of the Market Advisory Council constituted by Oyo State Government had been dissolved since April, 2015.
That Ibadan Joint Traders Association was an indigenous association therefore, Iyalode of Ibadan is the controller-general of the association but Chief/ Mrs Labake Lawal; a member of the association disputed not to be under Iyalode, this the association cannot condone because the association cannot do anything without the consent of Iyalode of Ibadan.
And since Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal has disagreed not to be under Iyalode then this has created stalemate because her decision not to be under Iyalode had strained the relationship the association members in general have with Iyalode of Ibadan-land.
That the move made by the association to save the faces of the Onireke Kudeti Traders Association; drawing them away from street trading , which fetched them the allotment of ten-shops from Ibadan North West Local Government was mismanaged by Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal, who took three shops from the ten-shops allotted to the traders, for her personal interest.
That the meeting held at C2/85 Olupoyi Compound, Oja'Oba Ibadan Office on the 5th of January, 2017 with Alhaji Dauda Oladepo, Babaloja of Ibadanland; Alhaji /Chief Raufu Salami, Secretary, Public-relation Officer of the Association, Otun Iyalaje Gbagi; Mrs Kuburat Aloba, Ashipa Iyaloja of Ibadanland; Alhaja Falilat Oladepo, Ibadan Joint Traders Association Iyalaje; Alhaja Opeyemi Adediran and some other members and Bale Raufu Salami, who we interviewed later, to round up our assignment with Alhaji Dauda Oladepo, was the completion of the removal process of the executive members which Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal belongs and to nominate the new Iyaloja.
That Babaloja of Ibadanland Alhaji Raufu Salami who is the current overall Babaloja of Ibadanland had given Alhaji Dauda Oladepo a certificate of Life-President signed both by Iyalabake Lawal and Prince Waheed Apampa.
That all what may be done and acted out from C2/85 Olupoyi Compound Oja'Oba Ibadan office being where the predecessors to Alhaji Raufu Salami, Alhaji Amubikanun since 19th of November, 2007 and successors started from the office; the nerve-cent re of trading in Ibadan, is constitutionally binding.
That Babaloja of Ibadanland; Chief/Alhaji Raufu Salami agreed that the issue of the mismanagement of money approximately five million naira by Chief/ Mrs Labake Lawal and her non commitment to accountability was the basis for the controversy and imbroglio.
That with the decision taken on the 5th of January, 2017 at C2/85 at Olupoyi Compound a new Iyaloja is about to be picked, assessed and installed.
That all present had endorsed that Alhaji Dauda Oladepo is the authentic and widely accepted Life President of Ibadan Joint Traders Association.
Conclusively, here we thought it imperative as the editorial team of News-track Online that believes in "reporting news with the right sense of purposefulness" hereby knew we have done justice to our piece of assignment, duty and responsibility to the society.
And since press is the "Watchdog" of the society and that a "watchdog" doesn't bark and act unnecessarily or by impulse but, to call for the wisdom above (God's) and apply her expertise and experience in carrying out her part of the role to humanity, while we dress; God heals (as doctors do) yet what is hidden to man is premeditated by God and it is obvious and unbiased-ly clear and open to HIM.
Then here we are leaving the food for your thought with these posers as enumerated below:
(a) Despite all the documents presented by Alhaji Dauda Oladepo to corroborate his side of argument;we are still skeptical,except both parties are brought together to defend their courses and claims. But some relevant questions could be asked, to shed more light on this thus that:
That how did the facts, figures and files got to the custody of Alhaji Dauda Oladepo; if he is not a genuine arch-member of the association ?
That why was he able to organize the said press-conference at C2/85 Olupoyi Compound, Oja'Oba Ibadan's indigenous office?
That why was there the shift of venue of Prince Waheed Apampa's own organized press-conference that took place at Labaowo?
That the claim that Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal has not appended her signature on any document of the Ibadan Joint Traders Association was faulted by Alhaji Dauda Oladepo,who produced some documents on which Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal's signature was seen?
That is it true that the association has a binding constitution, on which some members of the association's executive appended their signature?
That does the document produced by Alhaji Dauda Oladepo to back up the allegation of fraud against Chief/Mrs Labake Lawal has some element of facts and evidently tender-able?
That what can the Vice-President of an association do to warrant the ineffectiveness of his portfolio of office ?
That it is true that all heads of the markets are against Alhaji Dauda Oladepo and if it so where did he get some notable members of the association that attended his own organized press-conference?
That is there any rancour between Iyalode of Ibadanland and Iyaloja Labake Lawal recently and what caused the rift?
That all information from Alhaji Dauda Oladepo are they calumnious or creditable?
That with Bale Raufu Salami nicknamed Olowo- Adekile;Bale Onisowo of Ibadan-land stand and decision throwing his weight behind Alhaji Dauda Oladepo as Life President of the association; has it any genuine significance and general acceptance?
Here I rest my pen from further stress and straining of fingers from writer's cramp and fingers tip shock,from continuous typing, believing we have done well and good,while I concluded to say "A house divided against itself can never stand" and that there should be a way of convening special meeting to settle things amicably and allow the matter to rest; for good yet, all what should be done must be done,to start a new beginning; this new year 2017.
Meanwhile, as no association exists without constitution,let both sides follow the dictates of the constitution, if there is any or review the constitution.
This piece of advice I hereby dropped, but out of the ethics of my profession; journalism which abhors interference in any matter .Egbe ko ni baje; Ibadan ko ni daruu oh!
Wednesday 4 January 2017
CIVIL-EYE: NIGERIA HAS SYSTEMATIC PROBLEM
Put the right guiding-principle in place; it would be easy for any unlettered leader to direct the country well, as purposefully as one could expect. And the absence of the correct "principle" is the bane of Nigerian's; woe, which has been debarring it from the expected progress it could have attained long time ago.
Nigeria needs systematic structure that should be well planned and arranged, to suit the environmental requirement of the complexity of the country, taking into consideration the largeness the topographical size, geographical status, linguistic divergence, natural and human endowment, where adequate provision of food, clothing and shelter would be given priority and become the least in and as the needs of the citizenry, while true federalism must be well spelled, to surpass all influence either individually or collectively, to enhance egalitarianism, in the context of the society we all belong.
And that the idea of Nigerian-ism would have no bound within or without the expanse of the country, whenever the call to serve or the service to our fatherland comes to be the issue at stake.
Nevertheless, common level should be created to originalize WA-ZO-BIA into a creative and collective medium of communication "lingua-franca"; this we can do, so far we converge the collection of language specialists, to coin simply parts of speech by forming them out of the combination of the three major languages- Ibo, Hausa and Yoruba, for us to learn to speak among ourselves.
With these above mentioned tips on ways to truly and really Nigerianize every citizen to become patriotic and having sense of belonging anywhere, within the parts of the country, then it means states; cater for every citizen equally and that individual belongs to state, while there is no discrimination of any type in gender-form,physical stand, biological importance and ethnicity then the new Nigeria we all envisage would be for both present, incoming generation and posterity.
Ideas are like gems which nothing works which had not been used and nothing shines which had not been shines (heated) .
Let's all think and work for the good of Nigeria and that those who looks for her greatness would also thrive in goodness and greatness.
Good morning New Nigeria, God help us all, when we ourselves work to take Nigeria to her greater height. It is a thing we can do; it is a thing we must do, to leave good legacy behind for the upcoming youth and the posterity.
Up Nigeria! Great Nation! Good People!
Nigeria needs systematic structure that should be well planned and arranged, to suit the environmental requirement of the complexity of the country, taking into consideration the largeness the topographical size, geographical status, linguistic divergence, natural and human endowment, where adequate provision of food, clothing and shelter would be given priority and become the least in and as the needs of the citizenry, while true federalism must be well spelled, to surpass all influence either individually or collectively, to enhance egalitarianism, in the context of the society we all belong.
And that the idea of Nigerian-ism would have no bound within or without the expanse of the country, whenever the call to serve or the service to our fatherland comes to be the issue at stake.
Nevertheless, common level should be created to originalize WA-ZO-BIA into a creative and collective medium of communication "lingua-franca"; this we can do, so far we converge the collection of language specialists, to coin simply parts of speech by forming them out of the combination of the three major languages- Ibo, Hausa and Yoruba, for us to learn to speak among ourselves.
With these above mentioned tips on ways to truly and really Nigerianize every citizen to become patriotic and having sense of belonging anywhere, within the parts of the country, then it means states; cater for every citizen equally and that individual belongs to state, while there is no discrimination of any type in gender-form,physical stand, biological importance and ethnicity then the new Nigeria we all envisage would be for both present, incoming generation and posterity.
Ideas are like gems which nothing works which had not been used and nothing shines which had not been shines (heated) .
Let's all think and work for the good of Nigeria and that those who looks for her greatness would also thrive in goodness and greatness.
Good morning New Nigeria, God help us all, when we ourselves work to take Nigeria to her greater height. It is a thing we can do; it is a thing we must do, to leave good legacy behind for the upcoming youth and the posterity.
Up Nigeria! Great Nation! Good People!
HA CIVIL-EYE:HAPPY NEW YEAR; HARNESS NOR YOUR PLAN
Happy New Year; Harness Now Your Plan:!
Happiness is immeasurable when new thing(good)happens yet, reviewing the state of things when new thing happens is essential and to know that all things are ephemeral but only God is immortal and infinite hence, "what worth doing; worth doing well".
And thus, getting a new thing worth reviewing the status in which one found himself (herself) when the new thing came. Here one needs to know when a new year emerges; one needs to harness ones plan with power through purposefulness. as many plans had reached some level of development while the planner ignorantly backs out, so to every plan at every stage of development, we should be at alert to review, replan, readjust and reposition our plan by purposefulness and proficiency for productivity.
"A stitch in time saves more than what we can envisage and don't forget time and tide wait for no man.
Therefore, at the first quarter of this year; 2017 you should have known what is best for you and how best you need to go about it to get the best.
Happy New Year; 2017. I wish you the best you could wish yourself through the best possibility, here you need gut, gumption, grit and grace. And I pray you win to yourself all what you wish yourself while you work yourself ably well through hard-work-amen!
Happiness is immeasurable when new thing(good)happens yet, reviewing the state of things when new thing happens is essential and to know that all things are ephemeral but only God is immortal and infinite hence, "what worth doing; worth doing well".
And thus, getting a new thing worth reviewing the status in which one found himself (herself) when the new thing came. Here one needs to know when a new year emerges; one needs to harness ones plan with power through purposefulness. as many plans had reached some level of development while the planner ignorantly backs out, so to every plan at every stage of development, we should be at alert to review, replan, readjust and reposition our plan by purposefulness and proficiency for productivity.
"A stitch in time saves more than what we can envisage and don't forget time and tide wait for no man.
Therefore, at the first quarter of this year; 2017 you should have known what is best for you and how best you need to go about it to get the best.
Happy New Year; 2017. I wish you the best you could wish yourself through the best possibility, here you need gut, gumption, grit and grace. And I pray you win to yourself all what you wish yourself while you work yourself ably well through hard-work-amen!
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