Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, the first African-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
Suyi Ayodele, a columnist for the Nigerian Tribune, is a contributor to USAfricaonline.com
By April 2024, Nigeria’s All Progressives Congress (APC) will hold its gubernatorial primary in Ondo State. Who says the new man Lucky Ayedatiwa cannot lose the primary? If that happens, the entire APC political class will shift attention to the winner, and as a governor, Ayedatiwa will become a lame duck till he hands over later in the year. So, if I were the new Ondo State governor, I would not answer my name, Ayedatiwa, which gives one the false assurance that the world now belongs to one to own and to keep. But, if he decides to answer the name as it is, it will be late before he realises that the world does not belong to anyone. How do I know this? I take us on a voyage to our folk songs. Two songs came to mind here. One of the songs says the world is a mirror. In my Ekiti dialect, mirror is ayegbe, while in Standard Yoruba Language, it is called jigi. So, we have a saying that “Ayegbe ni ile aye.” The other song warns the new leader not to look down on others because the world rotates (Yiyi ni aye nyi). After the installation of a leader or a chief in my community, there is what is called “ije” – the seventh day after the installation. On that day, the women gather to celebrate.
However, while celebrating, they stylishly send a message to the new leader or chief in a song thus: Àyègbè la’yé o?the world is a mirror. Hi se ku wo ba mu hoju/ once you are through using it to check your face. Mo mo gba’ayegbe sonu/don’t throw away the mirror. Hi se ku wo ba mu hoju, mu ke keji re/ once you are through using it to check your face, give it to your friend. Aye mo ju nu kan je, o, ayegbe/this world is not where only one man can enjoy; it is a mirror. At a time, Akeredolu was holding the mirror of life as the governor of Ondo State.
On Wednesday, December 29, 2023, he passed on the Ayegbe of life to Ayedatiwa. Why? The simple reason is that life does not belong to anybody. No matter how long one holds on to the mirror, once it is passed on, it will still show the face of the next holder.
The curtain was drawn on Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu, the immediate past governor of Ondo State, in the early hours of Wednesday, December 29, 2023. The governor, whose nickname is Aketi, died at the age of 67. That was sad news for not just the people of Ondo State, but the entire Yoruba race and the country, Nigeria, at large. Given his stature and deeds while here on earth, Akeredolu’s death is a huge loss to humanity. We pay our condolences to his immediate family, the people of Ondo State and humanity in general. Dead or alive, Akeredolu remains the proverbial Onirese, the great calabash carver of yore. In years to come, the patterns of Akeredolu’s leadership as governor of Ondo State, and earlier as President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), will remain indelible. As a matter of fact, the legal profession, where the late Aketi rose to the pinnacle as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), will never forget his giant strides. For the Yoruba nation, whenever the history of the race is told, especially its struggles to free itself from the rampage of the felons, who invaded the land, killing, maiming and devastating the land, the name Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, will be written in gold. While it is true that the man, Aketi, had his own personal failings (we all do as humans), his good deeds are by far in excess of his shortcomings. Posterity will recall forever that it was Akeredolu, who took the bull by the horns and established for the Yoruba race, Amotekun, the zone’s home-grown local police. The family of Akeredolu has enough in the patriarch to console them. May the soul of the colossus rest in perfect peace. Amen.
Akeredolu’s death is like the proverbial aparo (patridge) and the maize farmer. What is the source of laughter to aparo, is what causes the farmer to shed tears. Such is life. The elders of my place have a saying, to wit: Agogo ofo laafin; ilu ayo nile eni ti oye kan – while the bell of dirge rings in the palace over the demise of the king, there is drumbeat of joy in the house of the next-in-rank. Nature abhors vacuum. So, it was not out of place that hours after the death of Akeredolu was announced, there was a gathering of dignitaries at the Cocoa Hall of the Ondo State Government House, where Akeredolu’s deputy, Lucky Orimisan Ayedatiwa, was sworn-in as the substantive governor. The last seven months have been tough for Ondo State. There is no denying the fact that the late Akeredolu and Ayedatiwa did not live the last seven months as best of friends. Whatever cord that strapped Ayedatiwa to Akeredolu’s political back got snapped when the late governor became incapacitated by his illness and the hawks-in-power from both camps stepped in. The intrigues were palpable. The matter got to a point that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had to step in. Even at that, President Tinubu’s intervention in the crisis remains that of a typical Adajo Owu – an unfair judge. When you have an unfair arbiter presiding over a dispute, my Yoruba elders say what you get is idajo ebita – skewed judgement. Tinubu replicated his adajo owu syndrome in his intervention in the crisis between Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, the Minister of Federal Capital Territory. We hope to come to that as the events in the oil-rich Rivers unfold with the peace of the graveyard in the state. The crowd that followed Ayedatiwa to his swearing-in remains the most debased people one can have at such a gathering.
There are two events that naturally settle disputes in my place. No matter the acrimony between two people, the birth of a child or the death of a person, brings instant reconciliation. That was why I was shocked at the attitude of the crowd at Ayedatiwa’s swearing-in ceremony last week. African names are significant. They carry meanings. Most times, the names are pure metaphors. I know a man of God whose name is Mamukuyomi. He is from Ondo town. After the incident of last Wednesday at the Ondo State Government House, I went back to think about the meaning of. Mamukuyomi. It says: don’t deride me because of death. That is what the Ayedatiwa crowd did at his swearing-in. I watched the video of the event several times. It was a happy crowd. Someone among them even hinted that Ayedatiwa would do nine years. The person said “nine years”, and another person cautioned him. I shook my head. Akeredolu’s spirit was probably still loitering around his living room. Yet, someone was already altering the political permutation in the state. The carnivalesque posture of the event and rambunctious crowd gave a new low in our humanity. Nothing, from the physical appearance to the unruly crowd, showed that a sad event like the death of the former governor happened less than 12 hours ago. That is unfeeling. Yeah, nobody expected Ayedatiwa to look mournful, or cry at his swearing-in, but, for heaven’s sake, even witches shed crocodile tears! The new governor himself put a knife to humanity, when in his speech, he congratulated the people. “A ku orire” is not a language spoken at a funeral. Who coached the man before he went for the swearing-in? There are better ways to act in such circumstances. The almost-immediate appointments Ayedatiwa announced after his swearing-in, I think, and very strongly too, were too hasty!
But in all that, I have one consolation. More than seventy percent of the people that will eventually ruin Ayedatiwa were in that swearing-in ceremony. The weeks and months ahead are loaded. I do hope the new governor knows that. He has been lucky, as his name, Lucky, depicts. Among his peers, events have shown that indeed, his head is good, like his first name, Orimisan. And by his new status as a governor, he can beat his chest and say loudly: Ayedatiwa (the world has become ours). But how far can luck and good head carry a man? My little knowledge of our traditional religion tells me that the two elements are not sufficient enough to sustain a man in life. This is why I say so.
A man once approached his Babalawo to see what his Ori (destiny or head) has chosen for him from Eledua (the creator). The old Babalawo, whose appellation is Obelenke Abinu Yooro (Obelenke whose stomach is flat such that he does not habour hypocrisy), told the man that the head he chose is the good one (orire). But there is a snag. As much as the divination client chose a good head (or good luck), he equally picked a bad character. The Babalawo told his client that the bad character will eventually destroy the good luck (orire). To the Babalawo, the only man who will succeed in any endeavour is the man who combines good luck and good character. Character is a man’s pouch. It is from there he picks whatever he will become. So, what type of pouch is Ayedatiwa carrying? There is a native song that speaks to this. It says: “Uwa l’eniyan/character is the man. Ho je hun kan Pataki/it is one important virtue. Olori egbe ya mu ra su’wa o/our leader, please pay attention to your character.”
In case Ayedatiwa does not share the philosophy of the world as a mirror, here is yet another country-song: “Eni ri aye je (2ice)/He who lives large. Eni ri aye je ko ma pe eni kokan ni oniya/ he who lives large do not call another man the wretched of the world. A je aye ma wo ehin/he who lives large without a thought for the hereafter. Yiyi ni aye nyi/the world rotates. What is the significance of this song to Ayedatiwa. Just imagine if Akeredolu had carried on as if he would be governor for life and he stepped on people’s toes. What would be the attitude of those ones now? Again, imagine the Akeredolu’s political Hallelujah orchestra, who behaved as if they held a joint ticket with the late governor and undermined others. What are their lots now? Akeredolu, no doubt, had such in their numbers. The same set are in the new camp of Ayedatiwa. They will tell the new governor that it is his name that is working for him. They will encourage him to act as the owner of the world. But does His Excellency own the world? No, I answer! The governorship of Ondo State that Ayedatiwa is holding today is like the proverbial Edun Ara (Sango Thunder Stone). My people ask that if the owner of the stone can throw it away, why should the one who picked it turn it to an object of deification? If money were to buy death, Arakunrin Akeredolu would have bought it a million times. If goodwill were to keep death in abeyance, Aketi had more than a train-load of goodwill. If influence, personality, achievements in life, and reputation, were the sacrifices that death required to spare his life, Arakunrin Akeredolu would have mobilised those in their thousands. The man died because it is appointed unto a man to die. The world does not belong to anyone; it is no one’s property. So, when the “Maa jo lo mo nwo ehin e (keep on dancing, we are watching your back) team comes knocking to tell the new governor that he is an Aiyedatiwa, let the occupant of Alagbaka Government House know that afowoba fiile ni ile aye – life is live and let others live. Happy New Year!
