Wednesday, 4 September 2024
AFTER AWOLOWO 37TH
đ±đ±đ±"Dr. Omololu Olunloyo, a former Governor of Oyo State under the NPN said “I won’t lie to you, I wasn’t in Awolowo’s Party but I respect him a lot. I would enter his house in Oke Ado and drink beer, enjoyed myself. One day, someone said Baba wanted to see me, I went to him, I said “baba is it true that you want to see me?”, He said, “Omololu yes it is true.”. “I said ‘Baba they won’t vote for you in this Nigeria. You are a truthful person, you are too honest. Nobody will want you to become President.’ Baba replied ‘but should we allow this trend to continue, Omololu?’ I said “it is difficult to stop sir. People want someone that will leave the gate of CBN vault opened, you will lock it. You know commercial banks opened by 8am and closed by 4pm but they don’t leave till 6pm until they balance their books every day, CBN doesn’t balance, they just go home. I know you Baba, you will want CBN to balance every day and send you report. No one will vote for you. This is Nigeria, it is a country of (OLE, )Thieves."
When to be silent
1. Be silent - in the heat
of anger.
2. Be silent - when you
don't have all the
facts.
3. Be silent - when you
haven't verified the
story.
4. Be silent - if your
words will offend a
weaker person.
5. Be silent - when it is
time to listen.
6. Be silent - when you
are tempted to make
light of holy things.
7. Be silent - when you
are tempted to joke
about sin.
8. Be silent - if you would
be ashamed of your
words later.
9. Be silent - if your
words would convey
the wrong
impression.
10. Be silent - if the issue
is none of your
business.
11. Be silent - when you
are tempted to tell an
outright lie.
12. Be silent - if your
words will damage
someone else's
reputation.
13. Be silent - if your
words will damage a
friendship.
14. Be silent - when you
are feeling critical.
15. Be silent - if you can't
say it without
screaming.
16. Be silent - if your
words will be a poor
reflection of your
friends and family.
17. Be silent - if you may
have to eat your
words later.
18. Be silent - if you have
already said it more
than one time.
19. Be silent - when you
are tempted to flatter
a wicked person.
20. Be silent - when you
are supposed to be
working instead.
*"WHOEVER GUARDS HIS MOUTH AND TONGUE KEEPS HIS SOUL FROM TROUBLES"*
NUGGETS
If sorrow makes us shed tears,faith in the promises of God helps us dry them.
Promise,problem, and provision is a supernatural principle based on the word of God that will give you wells you did not dig,houses you did not build,and vineyards you didn't plant. It will turn your darkest night to golden days,it will fill your driest desert into streams of living water.
A problem is not merely an obstacle that makes it difficult to achieve a desired goal; it is a grain of sand in an oyster whose irritation creates a priceless pearl.
It is never wrong to do the right thing! The Lord knows it all. He knows our sins and our motives. When He ask you why you did not obey Him,He is looking for a repentant heart ,not an excuse for your rebellion. If you refuse to acknowledge your mistake at the appointed time, you will go from problem to problem, never reaching your divine destiny.(PS 51:11) "do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me"
How you conduct yourself in the problem determines how long you stay in the problem.(1sam 15:22-23) "does that Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,he has rejected you as king" NIV.
"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners,nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither;and whatever he does shall prosper" (PS 1:1-3)NIV
"Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm" Winston Churchill.
"Trouble does not develop character; trouble reveals character. "
AROKO
*In Yoruba culture, AROKO is a non-verbal semiotic system of communication.*
For Example, Sending a broom to someone means - you no longer want to see them in your house.
PĂKĂ (chewing stick)
When you receive a chewing stick from an opposite sex, hmmm... It means "I LOVE YOU"
á»SĂN (Orange)
When you receive an orange from someone, maybe sent through somebody else, it means I am pleased with you. It could also mean I love you.
ĂYARUN/ĂĂYĂ (comb)
A comb is used ordinarily for combing hair, I.e for separation of tangled hair.
This phenomenon is transfered in coded Yoruba ĂrokĂČ. Sending a comb to someone far away means separation or ending Of friendship or love affair.
áșžNĂ (mat)
The sending of a piece of mat raffia especially of ore type is an indication that someone is sick in the household of the receiver and such a person is very lean.
á»̀JĂ/GBĂJĂ
Receiving some part of cloth used to tie Baby means the pregnant woman you left home hassuccessfully put to bed
IGBĂ ĂFĂFO (An empty Calabash)
When a king receives an empty Calabash, parrot egg or skull.
It means the people are no longer pleased with him, he should commit suicide.
OWĂ áșžYá» (cowrie shells)
OwĂł áșčyá» is an object widely used to indicate many things in different Ă rokĂČ, depending on the packaging and their number.
A cowrie shell with a string attached to it is a sign of bad thing or that unfavorable thing happened.
Two cowries shells tied together facing each other sent to a party or another group means we are in agreement with you or your view, there is harmony.
But when the two shells are tied backing each other, it means disagreement, it means discord.
symbolizes rejection and unfavorable message.
Traditionally, the Yoruba abhor the giving of things in three (3).
Three in Yoruba numerology is confusing.
Six cowries tied together in 3 pairs, it is an expresion of emotion.
áșž̀fĂ (6) is symbolic in Yoruba numerology, it Means attraction.
áșž̀fĂ lĂł nĂ kĂáșč fĂ mĂ má»́ra (It is six that says draw me closer).
So this ĂrokĂČ means the sender is longing to see the receiver. Or simply put, it means I MISS YOU.
ĂRĂKáșž̀Ráșž̀ (flywhisk/horsetail)
Sending of Irukere - flywhisk and cowrie shells from one monarch to Another is a request for agreement or solidarity or farewell.
ĂBá»N/áșž̀TĂ (Gun or gunpowder)
Gun or gunpowder is a communication means between states or towns to express a conflict or war.
It tells the receiving town or village to prepare for an imminent war with the sender.
IYá»̀ (salt)
Salt or honey is sent in opposite meaning to gunpowder. It means peace, harmony and solidarity between the two towns or parties.
Sending both sword and salt to another party in an unresolved issue means the receiver should choose between war and peace.
*#Copied*
Monday Lines (1)Ilorin and Dan Fodio's deadstockMonday Lines (1)Ilorin and Dan Fodio's deadstockBy Lasisi Olagunju
(Published in the Nigerian Tribune on Monday, 15 July, 2024)
Justice Ibrahim Kolapo Gambari, JCA became the Emir of Ilorin in August 1995 and decreed the 'Kolapo' in his name abolished. He said he should thenceforth be known and called Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari; all former documents remain valid. He gave no reason for his decision but not a few of us thought it was his way of hiding the Yoruba content in the bloodstream of the House of Shehu Alimi, his Fulani roots. When Emir Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari took that unusual, surprising step, little did he know that the day would come when his aunt, Hajia Maryam, married to a king of Kano, and her sons would suffer discrimination and be tagged 'Yoruba'.
It is the way of toads to detour into any available crater whenever it discovers it can no longer find its way to the stream. The chairman of the New Nigeria People's Party (NNPP) in Kano State, Hashim Dungurawa, a few days ago addressed journalists in Kano and alleged that President Bola Tinubu was working hard to impose the deposed 15th emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, on the emirate because he shared same Yoruba background with the president. “If the President thinks he will use a few of his kinsmen in Kano and the alleged Bayero’s Yoruba lineage to continue to keep the deposed Emir Aminu Ado Bayero in the state, let him wait for 2027, we will show him that those people will not help him,” Dungurawa warned. When you heard his threats about 2027, you would think that Kano votes mattered in 2023. The votes were like rain water; they were surplus but they were wasted, unhelpful, unuseful to the person they were cast for. The same will happen in 2027.
The Kano NNPP man who spoke is not a lone wolf. He is a member of a preening pack that think themselves special and others of lesser breed. I understand what he voiced out has been in the whispering lips of the sands and boulders of Kano even before the emirship crisis unfolded. They call the deposed emir “son of the Yoruba woman.”
Around here, a child does not claim his father's compound and disclaim his mother's homestead. Aminu Ado Bayero is a grandson of the 8th emir of Ilorin; Aminu's mother was a sister to the mother of the incumbent Ilorin emir. Ordinarily, this long line of Fulani ancestry should be a plus for whoever has it in the Fulani north, but in the peculiar politics of our feudal Nigeria, the Ilorin ruling family would only be recognized as 'northern' if they knew their limits. I hope they know now that they are fringe elements and fringe elements can never be allowed to dip their hands into the main bowl of the house.
Hashim Dungurawa, the NNPP chief who said loudly what was being said in whispers, is even said not to be a Fulani himself. He is said to be Hausa - the original owners of Kano before the Dan Fodio Jihad threw them into the sea of the barren street. Did you notice the irony here?
There is no 'pure' blood anywhere. It is 201 years this year that Afonja lost his ancestral throne of Ilorin to the children of Sheikh Alimi, his spiritual adviser and friend. In those two centuries, the children of Alimi, from generation to generation, have remained Fulani only by name, history and ancestry. Mohammodu Odolaye Aremu was a Dadakuada musical artiste of Ilorin ancestry. He died in 1997. He expended a great deal of his career years effusively singing the cultural and political histories of his city of birth for the careful to note and ponder on. Emir Mohammed Sulu-Gambari reigned in Ilorin from 1959 to 1992. He was the father of the present Emir Ibrahim Gambari. Odolaye waxed a record for the grand old man chanting his orĂkĂŹ. He serenaded him "Alabi ĂpĂł mo gbĂĄdĂčn oko mi ojo/ SĂșlĂș Oba gbogbo wa nĂ Ilorin...(Alabi Opo, I enjoy my lord / Sulu, our king in Ilorin). 'Alabi' is a personal Yoruba orĂkĂŹ; the 'Opo' that follows it is the lineage panegyric (orĂkĂŹ orĂlĂš). That lineage is ĂpĂłmĂșlĂ©rĂł, the nearest English translation is ‘mainframe’. That is a lineage that feeds stubborn wine to stubborn child and proceeds to send that recalcitrant, drunk child to war. They proudly say they did it to Afonja who went to war never to come back:
ĂpĂł tĂ ĂČ gborĂ n, e kojĂș Ăš sĂnĂĄ
InĂĄ tĂ ĂČ gborĂ n, e kojĂș Ăš sĂłmi
Omi tĂ ĂČ gborĂ n, baba wa nĂ ĂĄ fi pon'tĂ
OtĂ tĂ ĂČ gborĂ n, e f'Ăłmo lĂle mu
Omo lĂle tĂ ĂČ gborĂ n, e rĂĄn an rojĂș Ogun
SebĂ Ogun nĂĄĂ l'ĂfĂČnjĂĄ lo tĂ ĂČ fi padĂ wĂĄlĂ© mĂł
Omo kĂškĂ© ta dĂdĂčn, aso lĂšdĂŹdĂŹ ĂšnĂŹyĂ n.
Emir Mohammed Sulu-Gambari was alive when Odolaye waxed his record and called him Alabi Opo. The emir did not ask the bard to shut up and did not say he wasn't what he was called. He valued and enjoyed the Yoruba content of his existence so much that his children remained valued additions to the cultural assets of the land they inherited while maintaining their links to their paternal ancestors.
It is interesting that people who lost their 'critical' voices in the eight years of Muhammadu Buhari's ruinous reign are now raising their chords. And, Tinubu, because he is a Yoruba man, is the whipping boy for the years of the Buhari locust. What they do with the successor to their Bayajidda II is what the Germans call "den Hund vor dem Löwen schlagen" - beat a dog before/for a lion. They think their throats should be the only expressway to heaven. Dungurawa's snide broadside to the Yoruba was vilely divisive, provocative and unfortunate but his Kano and Ilorin victims must thank him (and his masters) for waking them up. They (the victims), at least, should be aware now that the butterfly may be winged and fly like a bird, but it is not a bird and won't be allowed to enjoy bird privileges. It will be interesting to know how ex-emir Aminu, his brothers and sisters in Kano and their uncles in Ilorin took the statement from those they thought were their kinsmen- the authorities in Kano.
It is very interesting that for the Fulani North, because of the throne of Kano, Ilorin is no longer a Fulani town. God is great. But I commend them. It is always good to drop whatever is not yours no matter how long you've held on to it. Ilorin did not start as a settlement of the Fulani; the emirate there is a progeny of conquest. It is a victim of the characteristic Yoruba blind-fight for thrones. They fought and shredded their velvet, the Fulani picked it up and from it sewed an empire. The modern version of how 19th century Yoruba treated their heritage is what you see in Kano and Sokoto today. My friend in Kaduna told me that in Sokoto and Kano after the last elections, deposition of kings was the sole slogan: "Sabon Gwamna, Sabon Sarki" (new governor, new king). And they are working hard at it. That was the Yoruba misadventure that delivered Ilorin to Fulani forces in 1823/24.
There is an irony in some Kano people calling a prince or princess from Ilorin an outsider. The founder of Ilorin emirate, Sheikh Al-Salih (alias Shehu Alimi), was a Fulani who hailed from Tankara in present Niger Republic. It was from there he came to school in Bunza, present Kebbi State in today's Nigeria. Just like him, Uthman Dan Fodio, the founder of the Sokoto caliphate, and by extension the emirate of Kano, was born in Maratta in the Tahoua region of today's Niger Republic. An account said Alimi was a contemporary of Uthman Dan Fodio with Jibril bin Umar as their common teacher. But history did not say Alimi started out as a jihadist in the mould of Dan Fodio. He was a simple preacher and itinerant spiritualist who hawked his knowledge and power from one Yoruba town to the other. He was in Old Oyo, Iseyin, Ogbomoso and Kuwo before Afonja, a prince of Oyo, invited him to Ilorin in aid of his independence (rebellion) against his lord, the Alaafin. The rest is well recorded by history.
The more you read Ilorin's well-documented history, the more you understand the tapestry of its ethnic configuration. There are tomes of materials available to the patient who is also curious to know. There is Ahmad b. Abi's 'Talifakhbar al qurun min Umara ' balad Ilurin' (1912) with its critique by H. O. Danmole (1984). There is H.B. Hermon-Hodge's 'Gazetteer of Ilorin Province' (1929). There is H. O. Danmole and Toyin Falola's 'The Documentation of Ilorin by Samuel Ojo Bada'. There is J.A. Atanda's 'The Fulani Jihad and the Collapse of the Old Oyo Empire'. There is also Stefan Reichmuth's 'Imam Umaru's Account of the Origins of the Ilorin Emirate' (1993); and then, Ann O'Hear's 'Elite Slaves in Ilorin in the 19th and 20th Centuries' (2006). There are many more from local historians here and there.
Ilorin has the enviable luck of being a melting pot for all races, "tribes and tongues". You find there people who would proudly say their ancestors were Fulani or Hausa or Kanuri or Dendi, Nupe, Baruba, Wangara, even Arabs. Yet, they are all 'Yoruba' today and they are proud to speak the language. You want to ask why the conqueror speaks the language of the conquered? It is because the Yoruba gene is very resistant to assimilation; the conquerors only got the throne, the soul refused to stay in their pouch. The Yoruba culture does what dams do to their surrounding environment. Their backwaters fester and consume their catchment areas. It is arguably the only African culture that survived slavery outside Africa. Go to Brazil, to Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, about 200 years after slavery, descendants of Yoruba slaves there proudly raise the banner of their fathers. That is the case with the essential Yoruba-Ilorin.
While politicians in Kano are busy making identity nooses to hang their opponents, their street is dead drunk with tears of hunger and want. But the people rarely matter in matters like this. They won't ever revolt; re-vote of their tormentors is what they will do. So, I have no dog in the bitter contest for the throne of Kano. The same should be our reaction to the machete attacks on the traditional powers and privileges of the Sultan of Sokoto by the state governor. At best, I watch events in those places the way I watched Sunday's epic final of Euro 2024 football match between England and Spain. The Game of Thrones in the Fulani north, from Kano to Sokoto, is therefore, to me, entertainment. We run commentaries such as this only because, as the Yoruba say, it is always good to show the goopy snail that its eyes are caked with mucus.
Krishna Udayasankar, Singapore-based Indian writer and author of '3' - a novel on the founding of Singapore, believes that "no empire lasts forever, no dynasty continues unbroken" How is the Kano kingship crisis going to end for the ruling class in northern Nigeria? When you combine what is happening in that city with the simmering volcano in Sokoto, would you be wrong if you say the signs portend sundown for the elaborate empire built by Dan Fodio in the first decade of the 19th century? No intervention can save that empire from itself. Maybe that elaborate realm has to die for Nigeria to live and thrive.
While the battle for thrones rages on, the Dan Fodio clan got a whole ministry from Tinubu last week. The president called it the Ministry of Livestock Development. I heard their elites' happy footfalls. Who told the Fulbe that their problem would be over with a special ministry for their cows? Something tells me they know too that they are only interested in the billions that will be pumped into that loss centre. My dictionary says the opposite of livestock is deadstock. Something tells me that is the fruit from that luxuriant tree unless they change their ways. But they won't change. For them, it is already past midnight.
...
By Lasisi Olagunju
(Published in the Nigerian Tribune on Monday, 15 July, 2024)
Justice Ibrahim Kolapo Gambari, JCA became the Emir of Ilorin in August 1995 and decreed the 'Kolapo' in his name abolished. He said he should thenceforth be known and called Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari; all former documents remain valid. He gave no reason for his decision but not a few of us thought it was his way of hiding the Yoruba content in the bloodstream of the House of Shehu Alimi, his Fulani roots. When Emir Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari took that unusual, surprising step, little did he know that the day would come when his aunt, Hajia Maryam, married to a king of Kano, and her sons would suffer discrimination and be tagged 'Yoruba'.
It is the way of toads to detour into any available crater whenever it discovers it can no longer find its way to the stream. The chairman of the New Nigeria People's Party (NNPP) in Kano State, Hashim Dungurawa, a few days ago addressed journalists in Kano and alleged that President Bola Tinubu was working hard to impose the deposed 15th emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, on the emirate because he shared same Yoruba background with the president. “If the President thinks he will use a few of his kinsmen in Kano and the alleged Bayero’s Yoruba lineage to continue to keep the deposed Emir Aminu Ado Bayero in the state, let him wait for 2027, we will show him that those people will not help him,” Dungurawa warned. When you heard his threats about 2027, you would think that Kano votes mattered in 2023. The votes were like rain water; they were surplus but they were wasted, unhelpful, unuseful to the person they were cast for. The same will happen in 2027.
The Kano NNPP man who spoke is not a lone wolf. He is a member of a preening pack that think themselves special and others of lesser breed. I understand what he voiced out has been in the whispering lips of the sands and boulders of Kano even before the emirship crisis unfolded. They call the deposed emir “son of the Yoruba woman.”
Around here, a child does not claim his father's compound and disclaim his mother's homestead. Aminu Ado Bayero is a grandson of the 8th emir of Ilorin; Aminu's mother was a sister to the mother of the incumbent Ilorin emir. Ordinarily, this long line of Fulani ancestry should be a plus for whoever has it in the Fulani north, but in the peculiar politics of our feudal Nigeria, the Ilorin ruling family would only be recognized as 'northern' if they knew their limits. I hope they know now that they are fringe elements and fringe elements can never be allowed to dip their hands into the main bowl of the house.
Hashim Dungurawa, the NNPP chief who said loudly what was being said in whispers, is even said not to be a Fulani himself. He is said to be Hausa - the original owners of Kano before the Dan Fodio Jihad threw them into the sea of the barren street. Did you notice the irony here?
There is no 'pure' blood anywhere. It is 201 years this year that Afonja lost his ancestral throne of Ilorin to the children of Sheikh Alimi, his spiritual adviser and friend. In those two centuries, the children of Alimi, from generation to generation, have remained Fulani only by name, history and ancestry. Mohammodu Odolaye Aremu was a Dadakuada musical artiste of Ilorin ancestry. He died in 1997. He expended a great deal of his career years effusively singing the cultural and political histories of his city of birth for the careful to note and ponder on. Emir Mohammed Sulu-Gambari reigned in Ilorin from 1959 to 1992. He was the father of the present Emir Ibrahim Gambari. Odolaye waxed a record for the grand old man chanting his orĂkĂŹ. He serenaded him "Alabi ĂpĂł mo gbĂĄdĂčn oko mi ojo/ SĂșlĂș Oba gbogbo wa nĂ Ilorin...(Alabi Opo, I enjoy my lord / Sulu, our king in Ilorin). 'Alabi' is a personal Yoruba orĂkĂŹ; the 'Opo' that follows it is the lineage panegyric (orĂkĂŹ orĂlĂš). That lineage is ĂpĂłmĂșlĂ©rĂł, the nearest English translation is ‘mainframe’. That is a lineage that feeds stubborn wine to stubborn child and proceeds to send that recalcitrant, drunk child to war. They proudly say they did it to Afonja who went to war never to come back:
ĂpĂł tĂ ĂČ gborĂ n, e kojĂș Ăš sĂnĂĄ
InĂĄ tĂ ĂČ gborĂ n, e kojĂș Ăš sĂłmi
Omi tĂ ĂČ gborĂ n, baba wa nĂ ĂĄ fi pon'tĂ
OtĂ tĂ ĂČ gborĂ n, e f'Ăłmo lĂle mu
Omo lĂle tĂ ĂČ gborĂ n, e rĂĄn an rojĂș Ogun
SebĂ Ogun nĂĄĂ l'ĂfĂČnjĂĄ lo tĂ ĂČ fi padĂ wĂĄlĂ© mĂł
Omo kĂškĂ© ta dĂdĂčn, aso lĂšdĂŹdĂŹ ĂšnĂŹyĂ n.
Emir Mohammed Sulu-Gambari was alive when Odolaye waxed his record and called him Alabi Opo. The emir did not ask the bard to shut up and did not say he wasn't what he was called. He valued and enjoyed the Yoruba content of his existence so much that his children remained valued additions to the cultural assets of the land they inherited while maintaining their links to their paternal ancestors.
It is interesting that people who lost their 'critical' voices in the eight years of Muhammadu Buhari's ruinous reign are now raising their chords. And, Tinubu, because he is a Yoruba man, is the whipping boy for the years of the Buhari locust. What they do with the successor to their Bayajidda II is what the Germans call "den Hund vor dem Löwen schlagen" - beat a dog before/for a lion. They think their throats should be the only expressway to heaven. Dungurawa's snide broadside to the Yoruba was vilely divisive, provocative and unfortunate but his Kano and Ilorin victims must thank him (and his masters) for waking them up. They (the victims), at least, should be aware now that the butterfly may be winged and fly like a bird, but it is not a bird and won't be allowed to enjoy bird privileges. It will be interesting to know how ex-emir Aminu, his brothers and sisters in Kano and their uncles in Ilorin took the statement from those they thought were their kinsmen- the authorities in Kano.
It is very interesting that for the Fulani North, because of the throne of Kano, Ilorin is no longer a Fulani town. God is great. But I commend them. It is always good to drop whatever is not yours no matter how long you've held on to it. Ilorin did not start as a settlement of the Fulani; the emirate there is a progeny of conquest. It is a victim of the characteristic Yoruba blind-fight for thrones. They fought and shredded their velvet, the Fulani picked it up and from it sewed an empire. The modern version of how 19th century Yoruba treated their heritage is what you see in Kano and Sokoto today. My friend in Kaduna told me that in Sokoto and Kano after the last elections, deposition of kings was the sole slogan: "Sabon Gwamna, Sabon Sarki" (new governor, new king). And they are working hard at it. That was the Yoruba misadventure that delivered Ilorin to Fulani forces in 1823/24.
There is an irony in some Kano people calling a prince or princess from Ilorin an outsider. The founder of Ilorin emirate, Sheikh Al-Salih (alias Shehu Alimi), was a Fulani who hailed from Tankara in present Niger Republic. It was from there he came to school in Bunza, present Kebbi State in today's Nigeria. Just like him, Uthman Dan Fodio, the founder of the Sokoto caliphate, and by extension the emirate of Kano, was born in Maratta in the Tahoua region of today's Niger Republic. An account said Alimi was a contemporary of Uthman Dan Fodio with Jibril bin Umar as their common teacher. But history did not say Alimi started out as a jihadist in the mould of Dan Fodio. He was a simple preacher and itinerant spiritualist who hawked his knowledge and power from one Yoruba town to the other. He was in Old Oyo, Iseyin, Ogbomoso and Kuwo before Afonja, a prince of Oyo, invited him to Ilorin in aid of his independence (rebellion) against his lord, the Alaafin. The rest is well recorded by history.
The more you read Ilorin's well-documented history, the more you understand the tapestry of its ethnic configuration. There are tomes of materials available to the patient who is also curious to know. There is Ahmad b. Abi's 'Talifakhbar al qurun min Umara ' balad Ilurin' (1912) with its critique by H. O. Danmole (1984). There is H.B. Hermon-Hodge's 'Gazetteer of Ilorin Province' (1929). There is H. O. Danmole and Toyin Falola's 'The Documentation of Ilorin by Samuel Ojo Bada'. There is J.A. Atanda's 'The Fulani Jihad and the Collapse of the Old Oyo Empire'. There is also Stefan Reichmuth's 'Imam Umaru's Account of the Origins of the Ilorin Emirate' (1993); and then, Ann O'Hear's 'Elite Slaves in Ilorin in the 19th and 20th Centuries' (2006). There are many more from local historians here and there.
Ilorin has the enviable luck of being a melting pot for all races, "tribes and tongues". You find there people who would proudly say their ancestors were Fulani or Hausa or Kanuri or Dendi, Nupe, Baruba, Wangara, even Arabs. Yet, they are all 'Yoruba' today and they are proud to speak the language. You want to ask why the conqueror speaks the language of the conquered? It is because the Yoruba gene is very resistant to assimilation; the conquerors only got the throne, the soul refused to stay in their pouch. The Yoruba culture does what dams do to their surrounding environment. Their backwaters fester and consume their catchment areas. It is arguably the only African culture that survived slavery outside Africa. Go to Brazil, to Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, about 200 years after slavery, descendants of Yoruba slaves there proudly raise the banner of their fathers. That is the case with the essential Yoruba-Ilorin.
While politicians in Kano are busy making identity nooses to hang their opponents, their street is dead drunk with tears of hunger and want. But the people rarely matter in matters like this. They won't ever revolt; re-vote of their tormentors is what they will do. So, I have no dog in the bitter contest for the throne of Kano. The same should be our reaction to the machete attacks on the traditional powers and privileges of the Sultan of Sokoto by the state governor. At best, I watch events in those places the way I watched Sunday's epic final of Euro 2024 football match between England and Spain. The Game of Thrones in the Fulani north, from Kano to Sokoto, is therefore, to me, entertainment. We run commentaries such as this only because, as the Yoruba say, it is always good to show the goopy snail that its eyes are caked with mucus.
Krishna Udayasankar, Singapore-based Indian writer and author of '3' - a novel on the founding of Singapore, believes that "no empire lasts forever, no dynasty continues unbroken" How is the Kano kingship crisis going to end for the ruling class in northern Nigeria? When you combine what is happening in that city with the simmering volcano in Sokoto, would you be wrong if you say the signs portend sundown for the elaborate empire built by Dan Fodio in the first decade of the 19th century? No intervention can save that empire from itself. Maybe that elaborate realm has to die for Nigeria to live and thrive.
While the battle for thrones rages on, the Dan Fodio clan got a whole ministry from Tinubu last week. The president called it the Ministry of Livestock Development. I heard their elites' happy footfalls. Who told the Fulbe that their problem would be over with a special ministry for their cows? Something tells me they know too that they are only interested in the billions that will be pumped into that loss centre. My dictionary says the opposite of livestock is deadstock. Something tells me that is the fruit from that luxuriant tree unless they change their ways. But they won't change. For them, it is already past midnight.
...
AWUJALE’S REIGN & GOD’S FAITHFULNESS**INSIDE STORY OF THE FAILED DEPOSITION PLOT*ByDr. SaintApril 25th, 2024
If not that God’s faithfulness was involved, the reign of Alaiyeluwa Oba Dr. S. K Adetona, Awujale and Paramount ruler of Ijebuland,* during the second republic in Ogun State, would had become history forty years ago.
According to the Ogbagba II himself, *“when considers the threat and politically induced plot to depose me in 1981, the victory is the highest testimony of my reign.”*
During this travail, the Almighty Kingmaker himself was in action intervening to surmount the tumoil of snares plotted against my reign through the whims and caprices of the government of Chief Olabisi Onabanjo of the Second Republic...says Alaiyeluwa.
But funny enough, the shock of the travail was how Onabanjo allowed himself to be used against his own childhood peer! Chief Olabisi Onabanjo and Oba Adetona were knowingly best of friends in all facets of relatioship. The duo were prides of Ijebu heritage before the dirty politics and power intoxication crept in to ridicle the Ijebu royal heritage.
Chief Onabanjo and Awujale were so closed to the extent that Onabanjo used to stop at Igbeba first whenever he returned to Ijebu-Ode from his travels, before going to his house. They were the types Ijebu people describe as *“Awon Ore Kori Kosun*”
When Onabanjo sometimes fell ill and needed to be transfered abroad for swift medical intervention, it was Awujale who secured the flat of Afolabi Kuku for his stay in United kingdom and arranged for his hospitality.
According to the history, the bond was so strong to the extent that Awujale was said to be partly instrumental to the emergence of Onabanjo as UPN candidate prior to 1979 election.
It must be recalled that Awolowo’s choice during this 1979 pre-election time was *Chief Jonathan Odebiyi* from YEWA, who was an unwavering disciple of Awo’s mandate. Odebiyi was a strong politician beginning from the inaguration of Action group in 1951. He was Minister of Education 1957, Minister of Finance in 1959, and later the leader of opposition in 1963 Western house of Assembly. So, Awo believed he was a good market for the party.
Meanwhile, the capital of the newly created Ogun State can’t go to Egba and likewise the first governor, this insinution propelled many Ijebu political power brokers to conspire to change the paradigm, and eventually influenced the ascension of an Ijebu man, Chief Olabisi Onabanjo, as UPN flag bearer with which he contested against *Chief Toye Coker, SAN,* of NPN who was also from Egba.
Chief Olabisi Onabanjo was truly a genuine lover of masses, but eventually allowed politics to destroy his good relationship with Awujale when he became governor in 1979.
Even, Onabanjo himself testified in his memoir that Awujale supported his aspiration and gave him campaign contributions on the ground of cordial relationship and not as a support to his political lineage, the Awo’s group.
Some analysts preempted the disloyalty of Awujale to Awolowo to be the relationship between Awujale and Akintola’s daughter who was a very active participant in the crisis of the western region.
Modele was a beautiful, graceful, brainy and ebullient daughter of Akintola. It was not hidden that His Majesty Awujale had a personal relationship with her, with proposal to tie knot with her. But because Awujale was more closed to Akintola, many in Awo’s camp were uncomfortable about the relationship.
Meanwhile, another school of thought about the disaffection between Awujale and Awolowo had been traced back to Western region era when Akintola was the Premier. It was recorded that Chief Okunowo, an Awujale Chief, got an award of a federal government contract for importation of pipes.
While the entire Ijebuland was excited for this great feat, news later filtered out that Awolowo had written to federal government to cancel the contract for the promotion of local manufacture, been the Minister of Finance whose one of the agencies under his superintendence was the Customs and Excise Department.
As a minister, Awolowo’s position was the preference for local productions rather than to import, and consequently the contract got canceled and Chief Okunowo got incensed.
Awolowo also imposed an additional excise duty on tyres and inner tube parts which affected the planning to open a bicycle and inner tubes factory in Ijebu-Ode, and making the Ijebu tyre business no longer competitive.
In lieu of this, there were dissatisfactions against Awo in Ijebu and people took sides, but Awujale stood in support of his Chief, Okunowo, who had been his support since his ascension since 1960 as Awujale.
Running up to 1979 election, Awujale’s support for Onabanjo was not because of Awo. But when Onabanjo grown to become powerful instrument in Awo’s cabinet, his relationship with Awujale later brewed a cat and mouse type.
Thereafter, political gimnicks set in, and the first salvo Onabanjo fired at Awujale was when it’s the time to expand the National Council of State. Under the 1979 Constitution, a person appointed by a State’s Council of Chiefs “from among themselves” was a member of the Council. Awujale expected the Ogun State Council of Chiefs to nominate one of its members. The Council was therefore surprised when the Governor unilaterally selected a relatively junior Oba to represent Ogun State.
Having considered the drama to be the script of Awolowo, Awujale picked his pen and wrote to the Governor resigning from the activities of the Council. The Governor responded that His Majesty should withdraw his letter of resignation. As His Majesty refused, clouds began to gather!
As it further unfolded, it appeared proxy war had started between the powerful dictates. It got to a point that His Excellency informed the Chief Imam of Ijebu Ode of his intention to attend Jumat prayers at Ijebu Ode Central Mosque. Awujale in retarliation reportedly foiled the governor’s plan to come to Ijebu Ode Central mosque.
It was with shock that Onabanjo read the letter asking him not to come to the mosque. Though the letter was signed by the mosque leadership, Onabanjo clearly saw the invisible signature of Awujale on the document.
At this juncture, Onabanjo needed to exercise his political power so as to advance his political career in Awo’s cacaus. In the course of this rift, Awujale travelled to London without government aporoval. Onabanjo explored this breach of law to play back on Awujale. Upon all, the Ogbagba II did not honour governor’s orders.
As a result of this, the plot got thicker and on November 23rd, 1981, barely a year in office as governor, Onabanjo got Awujale suspended from the throne. What a disastrous decision?
Let it be cleared that Awujale was only suspended and not deposed. Meanwhile, the intelligent Awujale was not perturbed by the suspension, what gave him shock was the alleged conspiracy amongst the Ijebu Ode Chiefs and Elders with the government to refill the throne with glaring interest amongst them.
In a proactive reaction, Awujale swiftly approached Court to challenge the decision of Ogun state government that suspended him from office, and asked the federal appellate court to prevent the Ogun state government from installing a new Awujale until the legal challenge of his suspension from office was finally disposed by the court. The prayers were all granted.
In the heat of this unfolding episode, the desire of the state government to resolve the issue very quickly in its favour and install a new Awujale did not materialize because the Awujale was up to the task. Meanwhile, the government of Bisi Onabanjo which had started searching for a candidate to fill the vacancy that did not exist would have gone further to install a pretender friend to the throne.
It was alleged that Otunba Tunwase, who later became the Olori Omo Oba of Ijebu, was interested in having the Awujale removed in order to have the high traditional office given to him. He was reportedly and allegedly caught in the mischieve plot with Olisa of Ijebu Ode who statutorily remains the head of kingmakers. And that was the origin of the feud between Awujale and Tunwase.
While Awujale was in court challenging his suspension, Chief Olisa had conspired to conferred Chieftaincy title on Subomi Balogun, the incident which had never happened before in the history of Olisa.
Without Awujale consent, it was said Subomi Balogun was conferred with the title *Otunba Tunwase* by Olisa. It was the alleged betrayal of the then Olisa that ensued Awujale’s hatred against Olisa throne. This reaction further prompted the Awujale’s advertorial in December, 1982.
While Awujale was contesting his suspension in court, he was also tackling the betrayals whose mision was for the judgement to favour the government. Hence, the matter was dragged on for about four years in the court of law.
As God would have it, an unexpected military coup led by General Buhari occurred on December 31, 1983. The military coup changed the whole picture of events and upset whatever plans the government of Ogun state had in its deposition efforts on the Awujale.
So, the issue became an unresolved albatross that the Ogun state military governor inherited. The case had to be settled as early as possible because Buhari/Idiagbon’s military junta’s policy was to abandon the politicians and rule the country by relating with the traditional rulers.
Eventually, Justice Kolawole presided over the case in May 1984 and the court’s final judgment was that the Awujale of Ijebuland should be reinstated to his position as the Awujale of Ijebuland who was installed in 1960.
In lieu of this victory, Gen. Diya authoritatively called on all Ijebu people to ceremoniously receive Awujale at the palace for the renewed mandate celebration. But the quick question is where would the traitors hide their faces? That was the origin of reconciliation between Awujale and his betrayals.
After a severe storm comes some atmospheric tranquility. Some amicable reconciliation between Chief Bisi Onabanjo and the Awujale was arranged by people of goodwill so that Chief Onabanjo could regain some spiritual and psychological repose in Ijebu-Ode since he was a native of the town.
The reconciliation was assigned to the ex-president, ex-General; Chief Olusegun Obasanjo by people of goodwill, the same person who was denied on Monday October 1 , 1979, by Onabanjo the receptional and joyous public parade which the people of Owu had planned to welcome Obasanjo home after transferring political power to Alhaji Shagari in Lagos.
This was a shame which defies common sense and decency. By the time Obasanjo’s plea was concluded, Chief Onabanjo had no choice other than to rise and prostrate flat to ask for the forgiveness of the Kabiyesi. And that marked the end of the plot to depose Awujale.
Kabiyesi, Oba Awujale, ki Ade pe l’ori, ki bata pe l’ese, Oba to ju Oba lo, Ogbagba a gba ote w’ole, Kaaaabiyesi, ee pe fun gbogbo Ijebu. You are a graceful royal father, divinely ordained for the progressive course of Ijebu Heritage.
*HAPPY CELEBRATION*
This story teaches never to betray your loyal friend.
Grace to Grass: The Untold Story of ST Oredein, a Political Godfather Who Became a Robbery Kingpin
There was no one in Western Nigeria who did not know S. T. Oredein. If there was such a person, he must have just arrived from Planet Jupiter. *Chief Samuel Taiwo Oredein* was not just a politician. He was politics personified. He was a kingmaker. He was a godfather. In fact, he was the Big Boss.
Oredein belonged to the exclusive club of the seven people who partnered with Chief Obafemi Awolowo to establish the Action Group which became the party that produced the first premier of the region. You don’t know the other founders? I will tell you. They are: Abiodun Akerele, Ade Akinsanya, J. O. Adigun, S. O. Shonibare, Ayo Akinsanya, and Olatunji Dosunmu.
ST did not hold a cabinet position. He was however more powerful than some Ministers of government. He was the Principal Organising Secretary of the Action Group in the First Republic. It is on record that ST had legal authority to issue query to Ministers and chairmen of government’s statutory corporations. It was Chief Oredein that broke the news of Segun's death to Chief Awolowo.
As an acclaimed authority on political moblisation, he also wrote a book. He was the author of A Manual on Action Group Party Organisation. It was published in 1955.
When the news broke in 1971 of his involvement in a case of armed robbery, it was greeted with shock and unbelief. It must have been a mistake, people thought. Or could it have been a political frame-up?
Today, Onigegewura brings you the story of a political godfather who became a robbery kingpin.
On April 13, 1971, Nigerians woke up to hear the news of an armed robbery attack on Bacita Road. Bacita is a small town in Kwara State. It used to be a very popular town in the past. It is the location of Nigerian Sugar Company. When the company was established in 1964, it was the first integrated sugar factory in Nigeria. The town even has an airstrip.
The armed robbery attack was as daring as it was audacious. It was carried out with military precision. Two officers of Barclays Bank and two policemen who were in the vehicles that were attacked by the armed robbers were seriously wounded. One of the wounded persons later died of his injuries at the hospital. (And in case you are wondering what happened to the then Barclays Bank, it is the bank that became our present day Union Bank of Nigeria Plc.)
At the end of the ‘operation’, the armed robbers went away with a box containing thirteen thousand pounds. That was a lot of money in 1971. Chief Awolowo was then the Finance Minister and with his prudent management of Nigerian economy, our pound was almost at par with the British pound.
Mr. Kam Salem was the Inspector General of Police at the time. The Kam Salem House on Moloney Street, Obalende, Lagos is named after him. He directed all police formations across the country to fish out those behind the attack. The police spread its dragnet and within days of the robbery, Felix Dumeh, the leader of the gang was arrested. Nigerians jubilated when they heard the news.
Felix did not make any attempt to deny being the ringleader. He promised to cooperate with the police. He told his interrogators that although he was the leader of the gang, he was not the real brain behind the daring raid. Felix must have at some point in his life aspired to be a musician. He began to sing like a canary. He started to mention names.
The investigators listened in shock as Felix began to mention one name after another. He was not mentioning names of common criminals that the police officers were familiar with. The names of people he mentioned as his backers, protectors and shareholders were names of people you only read about in newspapers.
The first person he mentioned was a Chief Superintendent of Police at the State Criminal Investigation Department in Ibadan, Patrick Njovens. The interrogators opened their mouth in wonder. Felix threw another bomb when he mentioned Mr. Yesufu Bello, an Assistant Superintendent of Police also of CID, Ibadan. The third person he listed as his backer was Amusa Abidogun, a Chief Inspector of Police stationed in Ibadan.
The investigators thought they had heard everything. They didn’t know that egun nla ni o n kehin igbale. It is the biggest masquerade that is the last to come out of the grove. Then Felix spoke again. The name came out in a whisper. It was the name they were all familiar with. I have already told you that there was no one in the Western Region that did not know High Chief Oredein.
Iya Agba, my grandmother, used to tell me that when a child’s net catches a tilapia, the child eats it alone. But when the net catches a shark, the child must run to his father. The investigators knew immediately that this was not a tilapia. The fish they were looking at was nothing but a shark. They went to brief their superior.
The Kwara State Commissioner of Police was Mr. Sunday Adewusi. He was later to serve as the Inspector General of Police between 1981 and 1983. Ha! You remember him? He was the IGP when Alhaji Shehu Shagari was the President.
Mr. Adewusi sent his officers to Ibadan Command to investigate the matter. On getting to Ibadan, Adewusi’s officers were arrested by the three senior police officers they were sent to arrest! You are saying “Haba!” The hunters became the hunted. The Ilorin officers were later thrown out of the station! They were warned never to come to Ibadan again.
The three senior officers however didn’t reckon with Adewusi’s tenacity. He came back and got the three of them arrested. He took them to Ilorin. He also invited Chief Oredein for a 'chat'.
Chief Oredein arrived at the Police Command in a grand style. He came to Ilorin in his Mercedes car with its unique plate number: WR 6666. He expected it to be a brief meeting. He had engagements later that day in Ibadan and he had promised to be back at his base before nightfall.
Unknown to ST, the police had done their homework thoroughly. They had painstakingly investigated the case and gathered relevant evidence and related materials before inviting the political godfather. One of the people that the police met in the course of their investigation was Mustapha Adigun who was popularly called Balewa. He got the nickname from the abbreviation of his first name, Tafa! But he was never a Prime Minister. He was also called Tafa Igiripa by some people.
Adigun claimed that Oredein was his boss during the days of politics when he (Adigun) was the head of ST’s political boys. He informed the police that in the evening of the day of the armed robbery attack, he went with his boss to the house of Felix Dumeh. In addition to his boss, the three police officers mentioned by Felix were also present. I am not sure they were wearing police uniforms for that special assignment.
Felix was said to have brought out a bottle of schnapps and some pieces of alligator pepper. He opened the bottle and poured a little quantity on the floor and also threw some alligator pepper on the floor. Like a Chief Priest, Felix then raised the bottle of the alcoholic drink and said: “this thing wey tin we dey do, God make it no let it prove.” They all chorused amen to the solemn prayers. Felix then drank out of the bottle and chewed one alligator pepper. The four of them also drank out of the bottle and chewed alligator pepper.
Oath taking and prayers completed, Felix went to bring a brown paper bag. It was the size of a carton. He gave it to Oredein. ST was about to open the carton when Amusa Abidogun, the Chief Inspector of Police snatched it from him. Abidogun passed the carton to his superior officer Njovens, with a smart police salute. You know seniority is important in the Force. It was the Chief Superintendent of Police who finally opened the paper bag. It was full of currency.
Njovens looked suspiciously at the carton, his eyes made a mental calculation of the total sum. “How much?” He asked. Felix raised his spread left palm before saying “Five.” The senior police officer shook his head. “Is that the arrangement? Before, the arrangement was seven” Felix began to fidget. “The boys are too many on it.” Well, half a loaf of bread was still bread. Five or Seven, Njovens was not one to reject money. Akosapo la n ko owo. The proper way to reject money is to put it in your pocket, as Iya Agba used to say.
Oredein was stunned when he arrived at the police headquarters to meet both Adigun and Felix. Commissioner Adewusi asked them to repeat what they told the police. They did. In the presence of Oredein, Felix confirmed Adigun’s statement that it was Oredein that first received the carton of money from him before Abidogun snatched it from him.
The former Principal Organising Secretary of the Action Group looked blankly at Felix. With a straight face and a deadpan expression, he denied knowing Felix or ever visiting his house. Njovens, Bello and Abidogun also made feeble attempts to deny knowing Felix. Later they started to beg the future IGP to assist them because it was the devil that actually used them to collect the money. “Ise asetani ni. Mo fi Anabi ati Jesu Krisiti beyin!” That was from Alhaji Amusa Abidogun, the Chief Inspector. He offered to return part of his own share.
Chief Oredein, the master strategist, realized that the cards were stacked against him. He checked his sleeve to see whether he had an ace he could use. He found none. It was then he reluctantly admitted that all that Adigun who was also known as Tafa Igiripa said was correct. However, the Chief denied that the money was in one-pound denomination as stated by Adigun. Adigun maintained his stand. Finally, ST nodded his head that the money was actually in one-pound denomination.
It was over the radio that people heard the news. Chief Oredein had been arrested and would be arraigned in Court for armed robbery! Armed robbery! It must have been a case of mistaken identity. It could not have been the Chief S. T. Oredein that they knew. Armed robbery! Ki lo pa alaso funfun ati alaro po? What could have been the connection with the owner of a white cloth and a dyer?
In truth, Chief Oredein was not a poor man by any standard. Everybody knew he was a man of means. Ohun ti a ko mo ni a ko mo, eni ti o ba ti ri oyun oyinbo ti mo pe omo pupa ni o ma fi bi. It is a well-known fact that the product of a white woman's pregnancy would always be fair in complexion. Between 1942 and 1962, Chief Oredein had erected six buildings. And mind you, we are not talking of four-bedroom ‘boys quarters’ in a village o! We are talking of real buildings in strategic locations. Four of the houses were at Ibadan. He built one at Oshodi. The sixth building was in a prime area in Ikeja.
What of automobiles? ST had a total of nine vehicles, including cars and lorries for both his business and personal use. He was not only sagacious on the political field. He was also productive in the other room. He was blessed with more than 30 children.
Finally the day of the trial arrived. People had travelled all the way from Lagos, Ibadan and Ogere to Ilorin to confirm whether it was truly the Chief Oredein that was arrested. To the surprise of many of his supporters and friends, it was the author of the book on political organisation himself that was brought to court.
ST was arraigned alongside the three senior police officers. They were charged with abetting the commission of a robbery and of receiving stolen property as well as offence of harbouring known offenders. In other words, they were charged with receiving 5,000 pounds from the armed robbers in order to screen them from legal punishment for the offence.
It was a criminal trial like no other. It was a battle of giants. Chief Oredein and Patrick Njovens briefed Chief Rotimi Williams to appear for them. Bello and Abidogun retained the services of Mr. Richard Akinjide. The prosecution was led by the Director of Public Prosecutions for Kwara State, Mr. Anthony Ekundayo. The three senior lawyers proved their mettle.
The trial judge was a relatively young judge, having been appointed to the Bench only two years before the trial. However, what My Lord Justice Moradeyo Adesiyun lacked in age, His Lordship made up with uncommon brilliance and exemplary courage.
At the trial, Chief Oredein testified that on the day of the robbery he was at his hometown, Ogere having left Ibadan around 6.30pm on that day and only came back to Ibadan the following day. He admitted that it was true that Adewusi confronted him on May 26 with Felix Dumeh but he stated that he denied there and then the allegations of Dumeh. His principal witness was his solicitor who claimed that he was with Chief on April 13 from about 3pm to 11pm. Chief also called an Imam and a farmer as his witnesses. They all testified that he was at Ogere on the evening of April 13.
The trial was not only being conducted in the courtroom. From Ilorin to Ibadan, From Lagos to Enugu, From Port Harcourt to Ile-Ife, people were also busy conducting their own versions of the trial. Would the young judge be able to convict ST if he was found guilty? Would AG leaders allow their former colleague to go to prison for robbery?
When His Lordship adjourned the matter to December 28, 1971 for judgment, speculations began afresh. It was said that it was to enable the judge to release the accused before the end of the year. Some said that thanksgiving services had been planned to coincide with the New Year. All Nigerians waited with bated breath for the judgment day.
Finally, the day arrived. It was a Tuesday. It was three days after Christmas and three days before the New Year.
The four accused persons were brought to the Court in a Black Maria. If ST felt any apprehension, it was not apparent. As he was led to the court, Oredein gave the sign of victory to the crowd of spectators who had come from far and near to hear the verdict. It was a good sign. It was a sign of victory. His people became happy.
Hon. Justice Moradeyo Adesiyun began by reviewing the charges against the four of them. His Lordship extensively analysed and appraised the evidence. When His Lordship noted the fact that the accused were not at the scene of the crime, Oredein turned to smile at the people in the courtroom. He would soon be on his way home.
Then came the moment. His Lordship found that though the accused persons were not physically present at the scene of the armed robbery, they had prior knowledge of the robbery before it took place and that the three of them who were police officers did nothing to prevent the robbery. His Lordship also found that they all received proceeds of the robbery.
Justice Adesiyun therefore came to the conclusion that the accused persons were guilty of the charges against them.
Chief Oredein could not believe his ears. Guilty as charged? He was not going to be free? His native cap which he had been holding, in deference to the authority of the court, clattered to the floor with a thud. The High Chief from Ogere Remo stood still as if he was Opa Oranmiyan in Ile-Ife. It was Yesufu Bello who was standing beside him that nudged him back to reality. “Chief, 'they' are asking if you have anything to say.”
Oredein had not prepared any allocutus. He had not expected to be convicted. Ko si eni ti o gbe oju fifo le adiye ori aba. Who could have imagined that a mother hen would fly off from her hatchery? You don't know allocutus? It is another Latin word they taught us in Law School. It is a statement made by a defendant who has been found guilty before he is sentenced. It is like 'A beg, tamper justice with mercy' that a Lagos bus driver would tell you after breaking the side mirror of your Range Rover.
Allocutus or no allocutus, something must be said. The court had only convicted, His Lordship had not yet pronounced their sentences. Perhaps something could still be done. His eyes scanned the crowded courtroom. It appeared he was looking for someone or something. Whatever he was looking for was not in the court. He turned back to His Lordship.
Oredein pleaded for leniency. In a very moving voice, he informed the court of his past travails: “First it was the treasonable felony and conspiracy trial, but I was acquitted at the Supreme Court. Second, the Aberenla murder trial came, and I was in custody for 11 months before I was freed at Ijebu-Ode High Court. I humbly plead for Your Lordship’s forgiveness.”
Of course you know the treasonable felony trial the Chief referred to. The Aberenla trial he mentioned was the case over the murder of Ogunkoya Aberenla who was the Leader of Ogere Remo's branch of Nigerian National Democratic Party of Chief Ladoke Akintola (Not to be confused with the party of the same name established by Herbert Macaulay in 1922). Aberenla's body was never found. Onigegewura will write about his mysterious disappearance soon.
Justice Adesiyun looked at the accused persons. “If you had any conscience, you should drop your heads in shame.” His Lordship observed that they were lucky not to have been caught by the amendment to the Robbery and Firearms Decree which provided death by public execution for convicted armed robbers and those found to have aided and abetted armed robbery.
His Lordship therefore sentenced each of them to life imprisonment. There was no Federal Court of Appeal in those days. It was only Western State that had a Court of Appeal and Kwara was not part of Western State.
The four of them ran all the way to the Supreme Court.
On May 3, 1973, the Supreme Court delivered its judgment. My Lord Justice Coker who delivered the judgment of the apex court dismissed the appeal of all the convicted persons and affirmed the life sentences imposed on them by the trial court.
Chief Rotimi Williams later became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Mr. Richard Akinjide became a Chief, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, and Attorney General of the Federation. Mr. Anthony Ekundayo, the DPP, was elevated to the Bench as a Justice of the High Court of Kwara State. The trial Judge, My Lord Adesiyun was also elevated. His Lordship served as the Chief Judge of Benue State from 1976 until his retirement in 1985.
History Does Not Forget! Historian is not a judge, History is.
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