Dide Joko Obas: The gods are angry
By Lanre Ogundipe
Now that the push has come to shove will the elders – Igbimo Agba Ile Yoruba – continue in their comfort and watch what their forebears bequeathed to the Yoruba race being denigrated and trampled on by former President Olusegun Obasanjo? Is it not the elders’ words that say a strong peaceful extended family house is one in which the illegitimate children are still young?
It has come into the open that such illegitimate offsprings are now on stage to wreak havoc on our cherished traditions and customs with a warped mentality of whom they are.
The fact is that Oyo State is primed to be the stage set for the affront to set ablaze the profundity of Yoruba valued traditions where our crown heads are subjected to public ridicule. A situation where royalty are stripped with thumb and chest trumping.
READ ALSO: Obasanjo angry, orders Oyo kings to stand at event
Obasanjo’s order to Obas ignoble, desecration of traditional institution – Oluwo
Governor Seyi Makinde is now moving towards a destructive path and former President Olusegun Obasanjo has now thrown his weight behind the undesirable venture.
The incident which took place in Iseyin on Friday between Obasanjo and Obas in the Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State wouldn’t have happened if the late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, were to be alive.
Obasanjo wouldn’t have taken the royal-heads to the cleaners publicly and order them to stand and sit like kindergarten school children. Our history has never, ever, recorded such an odious and detestable act! I am sure there would have been recurrence of history of what befell any arobafin.
The storyline would have been different and it would have signaled to the fact that the mythical powers that the Yoruba Obas command cannot be rubbished by a mere mortal. The arobafin would have been ‘baptised’ with the barking syndrome of the episode of the early 50s when an affront was aimed at the royalty of an Oba. The latter barked till he died (o gbo ku ni bi aja).
Obasanjo would have met his match if our royal crown-heads had not dipped their hands into sacrilegious and perfidious acts that has now stripped them of the royalty prowess and powers of the ancient times… “eni ba f’oju d’oba, awowo wo”. “Bi igba Obasanjo ba f’oju di oba awowo a wo”. “Eni o ba f’oju ana w’oku; ebora a si gba’aso l’ara eni o hun!
Can Arobafin Olusegun Obasanjo try this with the Oba of Benin or the Olu of Warri? I know he dare not try it with the Emirs either – the North never plays nor jokes with its traditional institutions.
Supposing any of the Obas present at the occasion refused to dignify his order, what would have happened? The worst would have been that Obasanjo would have resorted to hide under Seyi Makinde’s executive powers to harass, intimidate and embarrass the spineless group with their flowing agbadas.
Obasanjo, I was reliably informed, latched on the invites extended to vent his spleen on the Obas because few of them had crossed his path. Knowing him for his pettiness and non-forgiving spirit, he was battle ready to teach them a lesson with what he would describe as ‘hit-me-I-hit-you’.
The outburst was deliberate, not accidental as some people are claiming. It is a deliberate ploy to ridicule the traditional rulers.
One feels Obasanjo should have been more clinical in his crude attempt. The beastly act ought not to have been directed at the entire Obas. The Yoruba have a saying: “kanakana na omo ega, ija mbo, ija o de…”
Meanwhile, shall we not give kudos to Obasanjo’s native juju person – the adahunse practitioners from Ota who gave him a fresh and potent olugbohun to use?
I am sure his charm has tested positive. He may not be that lucky next time… let him that has ears listen!
- Ogundipe is a former President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
