An albatross that could be forced down the throat of the Federal Government because of the forces behind it.
An albatross that could be forced down the throat of the Federal Government because of the forces behind it.
It was Tip O’Neil, one of the greatest speakers in American History who once made a statement that has turned out to be very true and prophetic. He said and I quote that, “All Politics are local” I might also add following the same precept, “that all traditional institutions are local and should remain so in Nigeria for purposes of argument. I will grudgingly support the notion of a Council of Chiefs at the state level even though their role is going to be purely advisory on chieftaincy matters among others.
I submit that chairmen of Local Government have rendered the role of traditional rulers redundant in the scheme of things, while supervisory counselors have virtually taken over the role of traditional chiefs under our present system of Government. As a prince and somebody with some royal heritage in my lineage, some of you may wonder why I would stick out my neck on a subject that might come back to haunt me or some of my children, cousins, siblings and family members who are eligible and could be interested in succession to the Deji’s throne or the Olugunshin stool at some point in their life. Those are the two positions I am linked to by blood and heritage but it is becoming increasingly clear to me now, I am getting too old for either of them because the current incumbents are decidedly younger than me and I have no interest in replacing them. I am taking this position and speaking up because I am convinced it is the right thing to do.
The Federal Government ought to be more concerned about how to reduce the mind-boggling salaries, allowances and perquisites our legislators, senators, President and Governors currently earn as their reward or compensation for public service, Such expenses would predictably go higher if the Federal Government entertains the notion of creating a new Council of traditional rulers at the national level.
I see no compelling reason to start creating another white elephant of a Council for traditional rulers at the Federal level if our leaders are truly concerned about managing the nation’s resources and economy in a way that serves the best interest of our country, and at a time when the great majority of Nigerians are suffering and complaining about the waste and squander mania at our highest level of Government. Creating such a forum has no legitimacy under our current presidential system. The Government will be doing it mainly to appease a few of our powerful traditional rulers and offering them a chance to further compound the financial problems of the nation. I say that because traditional rulers are now two for a penny in Nigeria. They are just too many!
Once upon a time the Deji of Akure used to be the only one and the most recognized ruler in Akure Division. Today you can count hundreds including Olojada, Oloja Morio, Akapinsa, Akota, Adapogun of Ibule, Olulere, Ekiri of Ero, Olugunshin, Olulado, Olumafon, Olu Abo, Balogun of Ugoba, Asinigbo, not to talk of the newly elevated Osolo and Iralepo in Akure Metropolis. A few of the natural rulers in Akure Division like the Oloba of Oba Ile, the Okiti of Iju, the Ogbolu of Ita Ogbolu and the Olujare of Ijare and the Alara of Ilara Mokin could swear to God today they have always been at par with the Deji of Akure from the dawn of their History. They would tell you they have always been autonomous and independent.
They are all revisionists though if you know the truth. They are only responding to the new trend in Nigeria where every village or hamlet wants to claim autonomy regardless of historical facts. They are also encouraged by politicians taking advantage of the situation to score political points. There is not a single preeminent Oba in Yoruba Land today who is not facing a shrinkage of his kingdoms and authority due to this development The Ooni of Ife and the Alaafin of Oyo, the Alake of Abeokuta, the Awujale of Ijebu Ode, the Osemawe of Ondo, the Olowo of Owo, and even the Oba of Lagos and the powerful Oba of Benin are also feeling the pinch of this development if you ask them
The Ondo State Government is yet to formally define the exact boundaries of the new Osolo and the new Iralepo with the Deji of Akure. The two of them were High Chiefs under the Deji for as long as any of us can remember even though they were not counted among the Iare group led by the Olisa, the Ikomo group led by the Sao or the Ejua group led by the Asamo for obvious reasons. I am only talking about Akure alone in this write-up. If you go to Ondo, Owo, Ado Ekiti and other major towns in Yoruba Land, you will be hearing similar stories..
If the Federal Government creates a Federal Council of Chiefs, the first problem the Government will face is deciding who should be members. I think the Federal Government has a bigger fish to fry than getting herself preoccupied with that. The Federal Government is already spending too much money (more than 25% of the total revenues of Government) on the three existing arms of Government namely the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. Adding another Council of traditional rulers in addition to the existing Council of State for former Heads of State was going to be sheer waste of time and money. A responsible Federal Government and President should look for better things to do than embarking on such a wasteful venture. I would not be saying this if Nigeria’s problem as once observed by Yakubu Gowon at one point in his tenure, was not how to make money but how to spend it. We all know now that Nigeria does not have limitless resources. If the oil wells were to dry up today Nigeria could be worse off than Haiti. This is no time for Nigeria to continue to indulge in reckless spending like we are notorious for around the world. President Jonathan recently squandered billions of Naira on his inauguration that was nearly marred by a general fear in many quarters that a terrorist might strike while the ceremony was under way.
I conceded from my title to this article that the traditional rulers putting pressure on the Federal Government would probably have their way at the end of the day. The remaining segment of this write-up will be devoted to why I happen to think so.
The first point is because the old generation of illiterate traditional rulers is fast disappearing in every nook and corner of Nigeria. My home town, Akure became a leader in that evolutionary development in Nigeria when my grandfather, Deji Afunbiowo Adesida the First made his transition in 1957 at roughly 120 years of age and was succeeded by the first Barrister prince to be crowned an Oba in Yoruba land if not the whole of Nigeria. The amazing old man had led Akure for 60 unforgettable years during which Akure progressively worked her way from being a hamlet of less than one thousand people to being made the Ondo State Provincial Headquarter around 1948 with a population of roughly 100,000.
I harped on that observation in my “Lion King and the Cubs”, A biography and a special tribute to the Kabiyesi who became the undisputed architect of the golden century of Akure History and the greatest champion of Christianity and Education in Akure from 1897 to 1997 even though he never saw the four walls of a school and he never identified with any Church talk less of being baptized. He was an Ifa devotee to the core, but he was a quintessential good leader who passionately believed in the golden rule “that you treat your fellow human beings as you yourself would like to be treated” He never wavered for one day from his core beliefs. He was a great mind and a philosopher king of the same caliber with Socrates and Aristotle. When someone has lived for as long as he did, he certainly had every right to being recognized as an expert on any subject of daily living just like Mayor Bloomberg correctly observed in a special tribute to his mother who recently passed away at the ripe age of 102. Kabiyesi Afunbiowo was a great leader of men and decidedly the best in his generation and the generation following him.
Kabiyesi Afunbiowo was so many things rolled into one for Akure as I revealed in his biography. His leadership was badly needed when he finally ascended the throne in 1897 on his third attempt, 17 years before the famous amalgamation of the North and the Southern protectorates in 1914 in what can be called the birth of the Nigerian nation as we know her today.
Traditional rulers were definitely needed at the local level for obvious reasons and we did not have the proliferation as it is today where every village or hamlet now wants its own crowned ruler who now demands recognition from Government as a right. Most of the old generation of rulers were supported morally and financially by their own people and they justified that relevance by actively promoting the welfare of their people and serving them to the best of their ability. The present generation of rulers try to do the same thing today, but their people no longer support them as actively and as vigorously as they used to do due to a combination of factors. In Afunbiowo’s era, if you were a farmer in Akure, you brought the best of your farm produce at Harvest time to Kabiyesi as a matter of protocol. I knew it because I was raised in the Deji’s palace and I grew up nurtured in that that tradition. If you are a hunter and you kill an elephant or a tiger or a Lion, the Deji’s household was always the first to know so His Highness could send his emissaries and palace servants to go get whatever part of the animal he wanted before anyone else including the hunter and his family and anyone else could there touch the animal. The loyalty to Afunbiowo was total and contagious.
Not anymore. The people now look upon the Deji to give them a helping hand and shower them with gifts of his own. If they bring him gifts, it is more often than not an acknowledgment or appreciation of one favor or the other he must have done for them. Very few people now bring family disputes to the Deji for settlement like they used to do. Most of them would rather go to Court to seek a redress than going to the Deji’s Palace The Deji now relies more on Government for support or selling community lands wherever he can find it. The Ondo State Government now provides Police escorts and distributes cars free of charge to first class Obas or even minor Obas provided such Obas are in the good book of the Governor and the Government in power.
Few rich States like Lagos have embarked on building new or refurbishing old Palaces for Obas like the ACN has recently done for the Oba of Lagos. If that becomes the vogue of the future in Nigeria, you could find other state Governments extending the same favor to a countless number of Obas in the future. The trend is a big responsibility that any state Government should think twice before embarking upon at a time like now when many state Governments depend on Federal Revenue Allocation for survival because many of them are not viable.
Nigerian politicians all over the country but more so in Yoruba Land want to dance to the tune of traditional institutions by their eagerness to upgrade every village head into a crown-wearing autonomous ruler like I hinted earlier, regardless of the size or population of their domain. Some of the new Kabiyesi are kings without a kingdom because the Government has quite often placed the cart before the horse by upgrading them before defining their boundaries as in the case of the Osolo and Iralepo in Akure township. In Akure metropolis alone we now have 3 crowned Obas who are now competing for Government attention and largesse with their former prescribed authority, the Deji of Akure. In short, traditional rulers are now two for a penny in Nigeria including Igbo Land whose early history did not reveal any strong affinity or craving for the monarchy as we know it in Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba territories.
As a matter of fact the Igbos in Lagos are now pressing the Lagos State Government to bend over backwards to recognize their own “Igwe” or “Eze Igbo”, king of the Igbos to look after the interest of too many Igbos residing in Lagos. I hear the Hausa in Sabo, Sagamu and Ile Ife and Akure and other towns are also asking for the same concessions. So if too many Yorubas live in Onitsha, they too might, one day, be asking for an “Olu of the Yorubas” in Onitsha, if that trend continues unchecked. That is how crazy we have become in our insatiable preoccupation with traditional rulers in Nigeria who in all honesty have now become an albatross on the neck of Government everywhere you look.
I hear prominent traditional rulers like the Sultan, the Emir of Kano, the Ooni of Ife and the Oba of Benin and the Alaafin of Oyo, to mention a few, are all seriously lobbying President Jonathan and the Federal Government to create a special forum for them in their search for more relevance and for them to be put in a better position to share more of the national cake. He, President Jonathan has promised to favorably look into their request and may well be on the verge of doing that as we speak because some of these rulers are among the movers and shakers of policy in Nigeria because of who they are before their coronation.
Traditional rulers today are mostly well educated individuals. Many of them have had very successful careers in the Military and in the public and private sectors. Many of them are professors and very well-to-do people. Former Federal Commissioner for Finance, Oba Olashore is the current Owa Aloko of Iloko near Ilesha. Oluyemi Falae another Federal Commissioner for Finance and former Secretary to Federal Government and presidential candidate of a major Political Party is today the Olu Abo of Ilu Abo in Akure North Local Government. Professor of Law, Oba Peter Oluyede is now the Alaiyede of Aiyede-Ogbese in Akure North Local Government.. The current Deji of Akure. Kabiyesi Adebiyi Adesida was a Master’s degree holder in Agric Economics. The current Osemawe of Ondo was a medical practitioner before his ascension to the throne.
Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo Ereduawa the current Oba of Benin was a Federal Permanent Secretary. His Royal Highness Edozien, the current Asagba of Asaba was a Professor, the former Chief Justice of Ekiti State, Kabiyesi Ajakaiye is current Oluyin of Iyin-Ekiti. The current Afa of Oke Agbe was a Professor. The current Sultan of Sokoto was a Brigadier-General in the Nigerian Army before his coronation. The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero was a former Ambassador of Nigeria. So was the Orodje of Okpe who was a Major-General. The current Alake of Egba Land was a Colonel in the Army. The current Olu of Warri was a lawyer. The current Olowo of Owo was a lawyer and a senior Lecturer at the Nigerian Law School. The current Oba of Lagos Kabiyesi Akiolu was a Deputy Inspector-General of Police. The list goes on and on.
You can almost take it as a done deal that these power brokers can hardly fail in their joint effort to persuade the Federal Government to give them a platform at the Federal level to further enhance their relevance but the truth still remains that the Federal Government would be taking a step in the wrong direction by granting their request because it would amount to a sheer waste of Government resources in my judgment. The Federal Government should have no business engaging in this type of expensive appeasement which lacks legitimacy in the America-oriented presidential system of Government Nigeria has embraced.
I rest my case.
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