News

OPINION: Emir Of Kano’s ‘Insult’ To Tinubu

Published

1 year ago

February 13, 2024

By Suyi Ayodele

The land of Samaria was once under intense hunger. There was hunger in the land, occasioned by a serious famine. The famine was caused by the siege laid on the city by another king, Beh-hadad, the king of Syria. The situation was such that cannibalism became the order of the day. Two women agreed to eat their sons. The first one, in her fidelity to the agreement, killed and boiled her son for supper. The duo ate the meal. When the time came for the second woman to also offer her son, she reneged. King Jehoram was passing by. He heard the wailing of the first mother and inquired what afflicted her. The woman narrated her sordid story. Of course, the king was troubled. He rented his clothes, and put on a sackcloth in mourning. He took a personal oath and promised to have the head of Elisha the prophet, blaming him and his prophesies for the trouble in the land. This account is rendered in 2 Kings: 6 25-31. Every bad leader blames someone else but himself, for the failure of his government. Something similar is already happening in Nigeria. Parents have started selling their children to buy food for others! Samaria is already here. Is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu aware?

In a situation akin to what my people call: omo ina laa ra si’na (you send the child of fire to fire), the Emir of kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero, sent the First Lady, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu, to her husband, President Tinubu. The emir told Mrs. Tinubu thus: “Tell your husband to address hunger and insecurity in Nigeria”. The emir admitted that the two issues of hunger and starvation “did not start with this government but the situation has become more alarming and needs urgent attention.” Again, the Kano foremost traditional ruler admitted that “although we have several means of communicating to the government on our needs and requests, but your way and means is the surest way to tell the president the actual happenings in the country.” Alhaji Bayero spoke through an interpreter to the wife of the president, who was in his domain to perform a formal duty. Check the emir’s background, you will find him a well lettered individual. But he chose to speak in Hausa to a non-Hausa-speaking guest. There are ways with emirs, when they address ‘aliens’. But I will not delve into that here.

It is rather unfortunate that the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, who lost his tongue for the complete eight ruinous year that the Bayyajida II, General Muhammadu Buhari, ruled this country would suddenly find his voice in the eight months of Tinubu’s administration. It is true that once one is down because of a big problem, the inconsequential ones would seize the opportunity to trample on one’s tummy, and the balls to toys. Where was the Emir of kano when Buhari brought this country to its knees? For eight solid years, where and when did Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero send any message of “urgent attention” to Buhari to address the insecurity and hunger in the land? Do we blame the emir, or the man, Tinubu, whose masquerade has refused to dance very well in the arena to give one courage to point out and say: “here comes my masquerade? One can only hope that Tinubu will understand that more insults would come his ways from very underserving quarters unless he sits up and act. If there are people in his government putting ‘sand in his gaari’, the president should get rid of them unless he is a ‘sand-sand’ man himself. Nigerians are tired of excuses. Tinubu is the one elected president and not all these guys that are running all over the place, doing nothing like Sisyphus in Hades. So much for emir Ado Bayero and his bad-belle message.

FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: What Is Killing Our Obas?

Now, how does one defend president Tinubu in this matter? On what ground should one stand to say what the emir said was, and remains, unbecoming of a man of his stature, given the calamities that have been the lot of Nigerians in the last eight months. However, one must point out the anomalies in the emir of Kano’s message to Tinubu. Our elders say that only a madman will say this is where my brother was disgraced yesterday without doing anything about it. So, I will impose on myself, and briefly too, the role of a devil’s advocate, here, if only to set the record straight.

A lot has been written about the level of hunger in Nigeria today. The last eight months of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government have been horrible for Nigerians and Nigeria. The streets are not smiling. But our new husband, President Tinubu, is behaving like he doesn’t know our situation. Ikún, the deaf squirrel itself, ought to have heard the agony in the land by now; how much more the president. But, if President Tinubu has the tendency of the deaf, we as diviners also have the duty to repeat his divination several times (korokoro laa ró’fá adití). The messages from the divination boards are not good. They are very ominous. Hunger has joined our legion of afflictions. President Tinubu can no longer pretend not to know what is happening. And it doesn’t matter what his hangers-on are telling him. Nobody is happy in Nigeria anymore. That is the bitter truth. The lamentations from those who broke limbs and heads to put Tinubu in Aso Rock Villa are louder. They wail, nowadays, more than those of us they labelled ‘Tinubu’s enemies’. Like I told a very close friend; I have passed the stage of being labelled ‘Tinubu’s enemy’. Why should anyone befriend failure in the first instance? Who romances sheer ineptitude, if not a hypocrite?

Every king has an inner caucus he listens to at critical moments. I witnessed that several times when Kabiyesi Òjó Àmúpìtàn Olúyeyè Òjoyèbugiòtèwó (he who gets to the throne and uproots the tree of conspiracy), was the Onise of Odo Oro Ekiti; the oba of my town. Whenever there was a knotty issue, Kabiyesi would listen to all the people; he would allow them to talk. Then turning to his chiefs, he would ask (depending on the matter), a particular one among them this: “Ngbó Obadòfin, Kú a ti wí? (Listen Obadòfin, what do you say to this?). Once Kabiyesi asked any of his chiefs that question, the one so asked would know that the oba was looking for the truth and nothing less. And he got more than enough pieces of quality advice. Who is that inner man who can tell President Tinubu the whole truth and nothing but the truth about our condition? Who has that capacity? Who has the boldness, the courage and goodwill to tell the president that Nigerians are dying of hunger in instalments? Or, better still; do we ask, what truth does Tinubu tell himself when he is alone? I read a disturbing piece on Sunday. The author, Taiwo Adisa, Nigerian Tribune’s General Editor, wrote that some close associates of the president could no longer reach him to give him the feedback from the streets. Is that true? Is that why the president has been unfeeling in the past eight months? Who are the ones who see the president as they wish? What do those few privileged ones tell President Tinubu?

FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Vultures And Hornbills Of The North

I am not a prophet of doom. And I am not afraid to be labelled, also. Disaster looms at the rate we are going. Hunger is already in the land. Unfortunately, there is no market in Nigeria from Nasarawa to Ògún, Gombe to Anambra and everywhere else, where there are no foodstuffs on display. What is lacking is the purchasing power. The quality of our Naira has depreciated so much that a huge amount of money buys nothing from the market. A senior colleague buys a particular brand of milk regularly. He says it has a low cholesterol level. The last time I drove him to the store, a tin was sold for N650! He refused to buy it. I refused to persuade him to buy it. The following day, I asked him how he managed to have his cereal without the milk. He told me that he resorted to taking Cocoa beverages. What a life! That is the situation across the country. The Tinubu government responded by saying it would release millions of tonnes of grains to the market. I shook my head in pity. Is that the solution? When the stocks from the national silos are exhausted, what will the people resort to? Or, are the stocks from the exalted silos inexhaustible? Besides, how much will it cost a trader in New Benin Market to travel to the silos in Auchi to buy the grains and bring the same back to Benin to sell? In Benin City and adjourning towns and villages, a litre of fuel goes for an average of N660. Due to the bad roads between Benin and Auchi, commuters spend an average of seven hours for a journey of less than two hours before. They are at the same time at the mercy of kidnappers and other felons on the highway. So, Mr. President, if a trader succeeds in making the journey to Auchi and back to Benin after 14 hours, how much will she sell a mudu (measurement) of beans? This is the problem confronting the people all over.

I decided to write this piece at home yesterday. Staying at home afforded me the opportunity to know another level of suffering in the land. Intermittently, I heard people knocking at my gate. Each time I tried to check, I discovered they were people I had never seen in the neighbourhood before. They were carrying all manner of containers, looking for water. I realised that there are boreholes around but no water. Why? In the last one month, there has been no electricity supply in the neighbourhood. One of them told me that they were just approaching any home with overhead water tanks to ask if they could fetch water. I had no choice than to open the outside tap for them to fetch water. That would be at a huge cost of N660/litre fuel to pump the water. It then dawned on me why I saw some fellas who came to the Edo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), secretariat with jerry cans in the booths of the cars to fetch water. The implication here is that once there is power failure and electricity is cut off, the people suffer. This is another area that this government should look into. It is not just about releasing the never-sufficient grains; it is also about providing the means of cooking the grains for the people – water, gas and the ingredients to make the meal palatable.

FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Restructure Nigeria Before We All Die

I am worried for President Tinubu. I am worried that he is the one demystifying himself. Where are the attributes of his ‘Lagos Magic’? They told us he is the sole architect of modern Lagos. Where is the magic wand? In under eight months, everything has collapsed under the watch of the ‘chief strategist’ himself! They boasted that the president would come to government with the best of brains? The last of Thomas Erikson’s tetralogy is titled: “Surrounded by bad bosses and lazy employees”. The first chapter of the 2021 book has this sub-title: “Really Bad Leadership-and Its Appalling Consequences”. In it, the Swedish behavioural expert says: “Good leadership is dependent on the boss and the staff understanding the symbiosis they are working in and both parties realizing that they are dependent upon each other to get the system work”. He goes further: “…Every one of us, at some time or another, has had an incompetent boss and wondered why he or she doesn’t do their job better. Some bosses don’t exercise any leadership at all, which makes them unnecessary. And that raises the question: a boss who doesn’t actually lead – what’s the point? (Page 11). This is exactly the question Nigerians have been asking in the last eight months. Who is leading this government – the same super magician we were sold in February 2023? Nigerians have also been asking: where are the technocrats, the best brains they told us were coming? Who in this government can match our Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala? Who among the Tinubu boys is in the same league with Oby Ezekwesili? Who among the present lot can compete with Akinwumi Adesina, Frank Iweke Jnr. and the powerful host of technocrats that were in the previous Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s governments that these present lords termed ‘clueless’ and accused of ruining the nation? What sort of leadership is Tinubu providing? My people said when the lead giant ant misses the road, its followers become a flock without a shepherd. What exactly is the economic drift of this administration? What is its focus? And how long does the government think the people will endure its voodoo monetary policy of “ways and means”, which, in street parlance, is printing of money to pay federal government workers’ salaries every month, before something would snap?

“Is Hangry Real? The Connection Between Anger and Hunger (Why Hunger Sometimes Erupts as Anger)”, is a June 24, 2023 publication in the “Verywellhealth” platform, written by one of their contributing writers, Mark Gurarie. In the piece, the author says: “To feel hangry is to feel anger and irritability due to having an empty stomach. Though it emerged as a pop-culture term, ” being hangry” is real. Researchers have linked feelings of irritability and anger to low levels of blood sugar and the hormones released as a result.” Underneath the piece is this piece that elaborates on the risks of hunger by asking the hypothetical question: “Can hunger cause anger?”, which it answers thus: “A study says there may be risks. The data showed hunger was associated with 37% of changes in irritability, 34% in anger and 38% in pleasure, which suggested the emotions were caused by fluctuations in hunger. “Hangry” here, is a neologism, a combination of hungry and angry. It is defined as “bad-tempered or irritable as a result of hunger” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2018). Experts in the field assert that being hungry can make one to be “irritable”. Our streets are filled with countless people with irritable behaviours. They have started acting in groups. That accounts for last week’s protest across some cities of the country. Banning the movement of food items from one state to another, or from one region to another, is not the solution. Every state or region has its own advantage and no part of the country can hold the other to ransom over food supply anymore. If the situation is not immediately addressed by the government, it will snowball into something unpalatable. We can no longer pretend that all is well with us as a people. If nobody wants to tell the president this, let us on this page tell him: Mr. President, Nigerians are hangry.

News

Organisers Unveil Venues For June 12 Protest

Published

12 minutes ago

June 10, 2025

Editor

Organisers of the June 12 protest, Take It Back Movement, have released a list of venues across the country where Nigerians will converge for a scheduled protest.

The exercise was to protest against worsening economic hardship, insecurity, and what the organisers described as the shrinking civic space under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

Speaking in an interview with newsmen on Monday, the National Coordinator of the movement, Juwon Sanyaolu, said the protest would take place in at least 20 locations nationwide.

“In Abuja, we will converge at Eagle Square by 8.00 am. In Lagos, we have four locations: Badagry, Maryland, Agbara, and Toll Gate, all starting by 7 am.

“In Akure, Ondo State, we will gather at Cathedral Junction by 8 am, and in Benin City, Edo State, at the Museum Ground by 9 am. In Niger State, the venue is Gida Matasa at 8 am.

“In Yobe, we will meet at the Maiduguri Bypass Roundabout in Damaturu by 7:30 am, while in Oyo State, it is Mokola Roundabout in Ibadan by 8 am.

“In Bauchi, the protest will be held opposite the Bauchi School of ACR, Yelewam Makaranta, by 8 am. In Osun State, it will be at Olaiya Junction in Osogbo,” Sanyaolu said.

He listed five locations for Delta State as Amukpe Roundabout in Sapele; Summit Junction and Koka Junction in Asaba; Otovwodo Junction in Ughelli Effurun Roundabout, PTI Junction, and DSC Roundabout in Warri; and Police Station Junction in Abraka.

“In Adamawa, we will meet at Juppu Jam Road, Yola, by 8 am. In Borno State, the venue is Kasuwan Gamboru Flyover by 8 am,” he added.

He stated that the protest, fixed to coincide with Nigeria’s Democracy Day, was meant to demand accountability and reaffirm Nigerians’ constitutional rights.

“Our demands have not changed. We are using June 12 as a day to exercise our democratic rights as Nigerians to demand accountability and democratic governance.

“The Constitution clearly states that the primary responsibility of the government is the security and welfare of the people. All these have completely failed under the government of Tinubu,” Sanyaolu said.

He cited the report by Amnesty International that over 10,000 Nigerians had lost their lives to insecurity since Tinubu assumed office.

“Over 133 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor. Thousands have been displaced from their homes due to forced evictions and insecurity.

“For instance, in Benue State alone, over 40,000 people are displaced, while in Plateau, the figure is about 68,000. This is the state of welfare and security in the country,” he said.

The activist also accused the government of stifling dissent and cracking down on opposition voices.

“Under this administration, the civic space is under attack. Freedom of speech is under threat as government critics and opposition voices are being hounded.

“These are the issues we want to bring to public attention by expressing our democratic rights,” he added.

Sanyaolu warned security agencies against any form of repression during the demonstrations, noting that the right to protest was guaranteed under the Nigerian Constitution and had been upheld by the Supreme Court.

“To the security agencies, we want to state categorically that they must protect protesters, not repress them.

“It is a constitutional mandate and a lawful one. Nigerians have the right to protest, and during such actions, the police must ensure protesters are safe and that their voices are heard, “ he said.

He listed some of the confirmed protest venues and convergence times across various states:

Sanyaolu urged Nigerians to come out en masse to “reclaim the soul of the country” and hold those in power accountable.

News

OPINION: For Tinubu And Sanwo-Olu [Monday Lines 1]

Published

10 hours ago

June 9, 2025

Editor

By Lasisi Olagunju

“When lions battle, jackals flee.” Isaac Newton wrote that to his bitter rival, Gottfried Leibniz. It was a barbed remark on their feud over who between them invented calculus. The more you read of the mutual respect those two had for each other, the more you wonder why they ended their respective careers in very bitter, reckless animosity; the more you also ponder over the cost of that fight and whether it was worth the troubles.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos are two big men who are not equals. One is the boss, the other the boss’s boy. They are not equals, so, there cannot be a rivalry between them over feats and achievements. But they fight; and it is right here in the open. I’ve heard people demanding to know what they are fighting over. We do not know. Let no one talk about Lagos speakership. The sack of Mudasiru Obasa, which was as abortive as Dimka’s coup of 1976, was just what it was – a symptom; it was a reaction to something; there was an underline cause. What was it?
Sanwo-Olu and his boss are no Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz and so their fight couldn’t be over who takes the priority on a matter designed to help humanity. If there is a delectable Queen Cleopatria somewhere, I would have drawn a parallel between what is unfolding in Lagos and what unfolded between Rome’s Octavian (Augustus Caesar) and Mark Anthony. But there is no seductress in the mix, I will, therefore, not deliver to age what it is no longer capable of tweaking.

So, what did Sanwo-Olu do? Or what did he not do? Both sides are not talking. All we’ve seen was an ungracious rejection of a friendly gesture; the snub of a handshake by the more powerful potentate. We’ve also seen a convenient skip of the junior power where he ought to speak.

Politics is a fast-paced game. You slept yesterday at the war camp and woke up today to news of a ceasefire. But the wise knows that political feuds inflict invisible wounds. They use that to explain why political wounds never heal and wars never end even when you read texts of forgiveness consequent upon atonement for unknown sins and apologies for unstated crimes.

Some people are happy, clinking glasses over the power buffetings in Lagos. They drink to the health of the feud; they wish it greater vigour; they wish its fire is unquenchable. These are people who do not like Lagos and its politics at all and who have been their victims. They see the fight as the elixir that would cleanse the land of all its sins and cure it of its sicknesses. They talk of power and its excesses. They point at Akinwumi Ambode, the man who was brought low so that Sanwo-Olu could ride high. They remember Babatunde Fashola who escaped breathlessly simply because he was like Coca-Cola, more popular and successful than the parent company. They point at a Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos who serially used three deputy governors in a tenure of eight years. If I were the president, I would also look at this unedifying statistics and repack my big and small intestines.

A leader should be very careful on the way he treats his people, particularly, the companions who look up to him. There was an Orangun of Ila who bulldozed his way to power with charms, and then elevated the humiliation of his principal chiefs to an art. An Ila historian wrote that the king’s “humiliating treatment (of the chiefs) reached intolerable proportions when he frowned at seeing the Iwarefa (the kingmakers) in decent attires. When a chief made a new garment, he was obliged to excise the breast and patch it with a rag.” But every reign, no matter how glorious or inglorious, must come to an end. How did it end for that oba? He didn’t die on the throne. His character gave him a fate which made him farmer outside power. Ó fi’gbá ìtóòrò mu’mi nínú oko (he drank water with ìtóòrò melon calabash on the farm). I suggest you read ‘The Orangun Dynasty’, a very rich 1996 book on the history of the Igbomina stock of the Yoruba, authored by Ila Orangun’s very first university graduate, Prince Isaac Adebayo; check pages 40 and 41.

A leader is a masquerade; he must not tear his own veil. When a leader makes and unmakes subordinates, he rends his own cover. “Ènìyàn l’aso mi” is a Yoruba expression which, in English means “people are my clothes; they are my covering.” As a Yoruba proverb, it emphasizes the importance of people in people’s lives. Whatever cloth the masquerade wears is that ‘thing’ that makes the wearer an Egungun. He must protect it because it is his store of power. But my people say power is like medicine; it intoxicates. A researcher adds that “ultimately, the accumulation of power becomes dangerous even to its owners.” Is that why someone saw “a link between mask and menace”?

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Nigerian Beggars In Ghana

So, when we interrogate the use of power by the one we have come to call Lagos, we should always remind him that the costume is the sacred adornment which people see, respect and venerate in the masquerade. For a leader, his principal boys and girls are his costume, they are his cover. He needs them when harmattan comes with its fury. And harmattan will come whenever the masquerade repairs back to the grove when the festival is over, and it will be over.

Even lions, kings of the jungle, place great value on strong bonds within their prides for survival and well-being. There is an old Irving King song on this: “The more we get together/The merrier we’ll be.” That song emphasizes human interconnectedness; the support embedded in community.

Jackals are opportunists, and they are many in this Lagos fight. Newton’s feuding-lion imagery is an evocation of the themes of strength, of hierarchy, and of consequence. It defines the strained relationship of one big expert with the other big man. The other part of his proverb ‘bombs’ the miserable jackals, minions who lurk around the battlefield, who thrive in chaos and on scraps from the feuding powers.

American novelist, Herman Melville, says a thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men. We should not live our lives as if we exist only for ourselves. Public ‘spanking’ of a governor for unknown and unsaid sins is petty. A president should have snubbed rebuff as his option of engagement. If I were him, If a ‘boy’ offended me, I would just ‘face front’ and concentrate on delivering the Chinaware I carry unbroken. If your load is a pot of palm oil, avoid stone throwers.

But the president is not pacifist me. He enjoys fighting wars after wars. He is like Sango who desperately desired a fight but found no one to fight. Sango looked round and pounced on the wall and wrestled with it. There was also an Aare Ona Kakanfo who itched for a battle and could get none. He stoked a rebellion at home against himself and by himself violently put it down. Because of this and many more like it, the man was nicknamed Aburúmáku (the wicked one who refuses to die).

Are there no elders again where the feuding feudal lords come from? I read texts calling for propitiation. Why not? Appeasement without reason may look stupid but Napoleon Bonaparte settled it long ago when he said that “in politics stupidity is not a handicap.” Borrowing lines from Ulli Beier, I would say that now that men appear to have failed to stop this war with reason, women should be called upon to come and kill the fire. Our mothers are like Osun, “the wisdom of the forest; the wisdom of the river. Where the doctor failed, she cures with fresh water. Where medicine is impotent, she cures with cool water.”

The first lady should therefore step out, open her Bible (KJV) to Mark 4:39 and read to her husband: “And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”

If she does that, I will be encouraged to give the president two lines from William Shakespeare: “Come, wife, let’s in, and learn to govern better;/ For yet may England curse my wretched reign” (2 Henry VI, IV, ix, 4).

If our president’s reign won’t be cursed for wretchedness, he should prioritise the people’s welfare over serial petty fights with his boys. Nigerians are panting at home and reeling in pains at work; on the road, they groan. They are not entertained at all by presidential beer parlour brawls like Musician Ayinla Omowura’s last fight. You don’t become king and still keep trysts with crickets. No.

News

OPINION: Ijebu And Their Six Tubers Of Yam [Monday Lines 2]

Published

10 hours ago

June 9, 2025

Editor

By Lasisi Olagunju

One of the first jokes I picked when I moved to Ibadan 30 years ago is that failure of patronage is the only reason a drummer would go to Oke Ado. The Ibadan surmised that the Ijebu who lived almost exclusively at Oke Ado part of Ibadan never ever got moved to spend a dime on bards.

Those who minted that joke should come back from the dead and see what we see now with the Ijebu. When the day breaks tomorrow, I will go to Oja’ba in Ibadan and ask folks there why their ancestors with relish said that the Ijebu did not appreciate good music and would not put their money on it. The Ijebu I see today do what the Ibadan said they would not do. In a magnificent way, they mass in their capital annually and stage a spectacular festival of culture and splendour. They call it Ojude Oba (the King’s Forecourt). It is an annual festival of sumptuous songs and dance, a parade of success and cultural opulence. They held another edition yesterday, and it is already contagious. Other Yoruba towns appear to be getting bitten by the Ijebu bug. We watch as they evolve.

The Ijebu are a very scrupulous people. It is in their oríkì that their fathers had six tubers of yam: they ate two, sold two and offered two to their gods. You can ponder that again: with moderate six survival items, they did justice to their present; justice to their future through trade and investment; justice to the divine who held the rope of life. Anyone who approaches life methodically like this is not likely to fail in any enterprise. In nuanced ways, the oríkì suggests that those who managed the six tubers did not eat with ten fingers. Their descendants still do not do it today: they party hard but they also work hard and trade intelligently; they worship God with utmost devotion.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Nigerian Beggars In Ghana

I watched a short video clip of the Ojude Oba event at 8am Sunday (yesterday). I grinned seeing everywhere in immaculate lush green, meticulous. Sponsors of the event, Mike Adenuga’s Globacom, has done it for a record twenty years. And both company and owner say they won’t stop doing so forever. Patriotism is love of country. So, what is love of home? “In love of home”, says Charles Dickens, “the love of country has its rise.” That is what Adenuga and his Globacom commit themselves to with Ojude Oba till eternity. With Globacom’s heavy lifting, Ojude Oba has become the biggest cultural festival in Nigeria today. They say they are taking it even further than where it is. Something there to copy by every big, rich man and woman from other towns. The ones who feel too big to lift their homestead to glow will likely live ‘homeless.’ We all should know, as William J. Bennett did, that “home is a shelter from storms – all sorts of storms.”

I did not read history, but I am a lover of history and a believer in what it teaches. I keep seeing in the past the road that led to today, and a possible pathway to the future. T. O. Ogunkoya, author of ‘The Early History of Ijebu’ published in December 1956 offers some glimpses into the elements that make up the Ijebu gene:
“Nobody knows the date of the first migration to Ijebu or the course that it took. Tradition states that it was led by a man named Olu-Iwa accompanied by two warrior companions, Ajebu and Olode. Olu-Iwa settled at Iwade, for Ijebu-Ode itself did not, as yet, exist. Ajebu was instructed to mark out with fire the boundary of the new land. He went westward to the lagoon and marked out the boundaries to the North, South and East as well. To Olode was given the task of marking out and planning the future city, a task which took him more than three years. So well did Ajebu and Olode do their work that the new town was named after them as ‘Ajebu-Olode’, now corrupted and called Ijebu-Ode.”

The writer of that history said “there was ample evidence in favour of this tradition. He wrote that “In Ijebu-Ode today there stands in a prominent place in Olode Street a tomb dedicated to him and bearing the inscription ‘The resting place of Olode.’ In Imepe Street there can be seen a tomb dedicated to the memory of Ajebu. It may be taken for granted that these two men are historical figures whose names have been perpetuated in the name of the city.

Ogunkoya wrote that there is another theory of the origin of the name. He said “Portuguese maps of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries showed cuidade de Jabu or ‘the city of Ijebu.’ Now it is argued that the Ijebu, in common with people of similar ancestry, used the word Ode as a generic name for a town. So the Itschekri people had Ode Itschekri (Warri). The Ondo had Ode Ondo and the Ilaje Ode Ilaje. In Wadai (Sudan) there was an Ode Ijebu, suggesting the transference of the name of the ancient home to the new. In support of this view it is to be noted that until very recently all the village people in the province referred to the city simply as Ode. As they themselves are Ijebus they merely point to their capital town without associating their name with it.”

Note the meticulous mapping of the boundary and the planning of the city. Note that the exercise reportedly took whole three years! Note the communal appreciation of the pioneers who got the job done. Put all those side by side what other chapters of their history say of their survival as a people. They pay attention to details. They valourize themselves as masters of money. They say they’d been spending shillings before the white man arrived (Omo a n’áwó silè k’Óyìnbó tó dé/ Òyìnbó dé tán owó òún pò si). I plan to ask my Ijebu friends what that means. I will tell you whatever they tell me.