By Lasisi Olagunju

Okuku town in present Osun State has a well-recorded history of cultural promotion and preservation. Ulli Beier’s ‘Yoruba Beaded Crowns’ (1982) and Karin Barber’s ‘I Could Speak until Tomorrow: Oriki, Women and the Past in a Yoruba Town’ (1991) are two of the contributions of Okuku to Yoruba cultural history. The late Yoruba playwright and culture icon, Adebayo Faleti, told me in 2004 that he wrote one of his major plays in Okuku in the 1950s.

Oba Moses Oyewole Oyinlola was Olokuku of Okuku from 1938 to 1960. A very deeply religious and cultural man, he died on 20 February, 1960 and was buried two days later. Within those two days, there was a flurry of rites in the town and in the palace. The late oba’s grown-up male children feared that the king’s corpse would be tampered with by some unknown people called traditionalists. And so, they met and plotted to stop it.

One of the boys was embedded in the palace room where the remains were laid in state. Armed with a machete, he kept vigil over their dad’s remains while others lurked around as a back-up. Then, deep in the night, with curfew in place, some elderly persons, in a column, filed into the room. They turned out to be known faces; they were the chiefs that reigned with the now dead king.

The chiefs did not see the hiding young man with a machete. They started the rites while the boy watched every aspect of what the chiefs came to do. To his relief, there was no attempt to tamper with the corpse. “They did not even touch it. All they came with were words and wishes. They communicated with their oba asking him to intercede for them before the ancestors so that their own lives and that of the entire town could be as sweet as that of the departed oba.” They finished their prayers and left. Did the sentry leave too? An eye was kept on the remains until they were buried on February 22, 1960 in the premises of St Michael’s Cathedral, Okuku. The tomb is up to today the most prominent there.

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The hiding prince told me all this in 2004 as I was gathering materials for the biography of the late oba, which was published in December 2005. Some people of tradition would ask where the prince is now. He grew to become a man, became successful, earned a PhD, lived well and died a few years ago at almost 90.

The death last Sunday and burial on Monday of the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Olukayode Adetona, is the top trending topic. His transition and the controversy of his burial have renewed public interest in who should bury an oba and what really happens to the body of a king in Yorubaland when he dies. Do the bodies get mutilated and the hearts removed for the installation of their successors? Do succeeding obas eat the hearts of their predecessors?

I have cited the Okuku case above. I have also read wide and consulted people who should know. All my sources maintained that cannibalism is not one of Yoruba people’s ‘disorder’ and so, eating the heart of a dead king couldn’t have been one of the ingredients of their royal installation rites. The late Awujale, in an old interview that has also gone viral lately, gave his own experience on the heart-eating myth: “I cannot recall any rite that was done behind the scene. Let them come and tell me. It is all lies. Nothing like that. They even tell you that they give the heart of a deceased oba to the new one to eat!…Nothing like that. Okay, which heart did Orimolusi eat when Adeboye died in Tripoli? Besides, when Gbelegbuwa died, I wasn’t in the country. I was abroad and didn’t return until about a year after his death. So, which heart was given to me? I didn’t eat anything oooo. So, no such thing happened.” I think other obas should come out and tell their story. Doing so may stop friends and foes of the Yoruba from looking at them as man-eaters.

Some tradition-loving Yoruba persons are angry because the Awujale was buried by Muslims. Now, I ask: What is traditional burial? What is Muslim burial? Among other obligatory steps, the Muslim corpse is washed and shrouded in a simple white cloth; prayers are offered. Inside the grave, the body is laid on its right side, facing the East. At what point does a received practice become part of one’s tradition? I asked because just like the Muslims, the Lo Dagaa of northern Ghana, who are not Muslims, also bury their dead people “lying on their right side facing the East so that the rising sun will tell them to prepare for hunt or for the farm…” So, what is ‘Muslim’ to Yoruba traditionalists is ‘traditional’ to that Ghanaian ethnic group. We can read this and more in J. Goody’s ‘Death, Property and the Ancestors: A Study of Mortuary Customs of the Lo Dagaa of West Africa’ published in 1962.

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It happened that some bad kings received bad burials in the past. One of such punishments for royal misdeeds could be dismemberment of the cadaver. There were other rewards for good and bad behaviour on the throne. When a wicked oba died, the chiefs stormed the palace and seized all items in there as communal property. When a good oba died, the chiefs delayed the announcement until the family of the departed had moved all they wanted out of the palace to his private residence. The chiefs could achieve that because in theory, the Yoruba king owned nothing as personal property. He reigned in the name of the town, got gifts and favours in their name and on their behalf he kept or used them. It was therefore the law that the palace, the king, and all he owned were property of the kingdom. All these, including the body, could go back to the people and the oba’s family stripped naked if the departed was not a good man.

If it is the Yoruba tradition that the king’s body belongs to the community, then we have to define who approximates that community today. The majority Muslim/Christian groups or the minority who claim ‘tradition’ as their religion? If tradition is a people’s way of life, have Christianity and Islam not become part of the Yoruba ‘way of life’? Indeed, there is a whole Odu in Ifa celebrating Islam and Muslims. It is called Odu Imale. Tradition is a river; it draws its strength from the source but gets stronger and larger as it takes from this stream and that tributary. It would be a dirty, diseased pond if it resists the cleansing ritual of free-flowing.

Tradition is not the earthing of a people in a past that is long gone. What is traditional is not exactly what is archaic.

The West brought Christianity and civilisation to the ‘savage’ tribes of Africa. In 1946, they stopped the suicide of an Olokun Esin in Oyo who was billed to accompany the Alaafin on his journey to the ancestors. Since then, no Oyo king has enjoyed having an entourage to heaven. Dying with the king was hugely celebrated in Oyo as the ultimate expression of love for the empire and high-end duty to the king:

Olókùn-esin İbàdàn

K’ó má ba Olókùn-ęsin Ộyộ je

Ẹni ó bá rójú b`óba kú

L’`a á mò l’Ólókùn-esin.

Eyí ti ò rójú b’óba kú

A á maa pè ‘ón l’Ólókùn-eran ni…

(Adeboye Babalola, 2001:125).

It was also part of the ritual of passage for the Alaafin that his crown prince (Aremo) must die with him. But Alaafin Atiba stopped that practice. He got his Aremo Adelu endorsed as his successor before he died in 1858 at the age of 58. There was a resistance to that change snowballing into a very bad civil war – the Ijaye War of 1860-1862. But the reform was eventually upheld because forced suicide (or murder) was repugnant to decency and a violent assault on the prince’s right to life.

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Tradition speaks to aspects of a people’s way of life. It is the “inherited beliefs, practices, and values passed down through generations.” But it is not immutable. Traditions are practices in perpetual transition. A tradition isn’t what it is called if it fails to adapt to societal shifts, to advancements in tech, to new cultural influences. Customs and traditions live when they accept modifications, reinterpretations, and even the abandonment of certain practices as societies evolve. Take a glance at the death and burial of King Francis I of France in 1547. I will rely on this quote from Ralph Giesey’s ‘The Royal Funeral Ceremony in Renaissance France’ published in 1960: “With the death of a king, the body was immediately eviscerated, embalmed, and the removed remains subsequently buried apart from the corpse.” Evisceration means to disembowel a person or animal. Would anyone expect the evisceration of a king’s body today in the West? Even French that did it five centuries ago has since abolished the monarchy itself. It did so on 24 February, 1848. Have we paused to ponder the future of Yoruba kingship as democracy digs in?

While we seek to preserve what we call our tradition, have we asked how the various parts came to be? How do traditions get invented? What the French did to the corpse of their king in 1547, the act of disemboweling that took place some 500 years ago, was it for ritual or for medical reasons? W. Arens’ in ‘The Demise of Kings and the Meaning of Kingship’ (1984) from where I got the Giesey quote will serve you if you need more on the sacred and religious contents of that royal burial and the parallel it drew with the burial of kings in a part of Africa.

So, as we bid the iconic Awujale good night, it is time the Yoruba elite and commoners calmed down and got to work on the real issues of development that need urgent tackling. As I told someone at the weekend, the Yoruba have no friend in Nigeria. Onílé owó òtún kò wo niire, ìmòràn ìkà ni t’òsì ngbà, ká lé ni jáde ni tòókán ilé nwí. I will not translate this; rather, I will add that majoring in minor issues degrades the Yoruba advantage of over 200 years of education and of global engagement.

By Lasisi Olagunju

June 2015, freshly minted President Muhammadu Buhari hosted General Olusegun Obasanjo at the Villa.

“Whatever anyone might have done to you in the past, please forgive and forget,” Obasanjo advised the new president. Buhari looked up, surprised. His countenance changed.

“Including Ibro?”

“Yes, especially Ibro,” Obasanjo answered very quickly and curtly. The two leaders exchanged glances.

Silence.

The ‘Ibro’ in that discussion is General Ibrahim Babangida. The question on whether Ibro should be forgiven was a surprise to Obasanjo because twice, Buhari was in IBB’s home seeking his endorsement ahead of the 2015 election. And his host supported him all through, publicly.

But there was no overt commitment to ‘peace’ from the new president. Old soldiers they were, host and guest quickly drifted to other issues. The meeting ended.

The event I reported above happened. It was one of the earliest signs in Nigeria’s power circle that the new man had come to power to do more than governance. I got the gist a few days after the Villa meeting. And, I asked the source what Babangida’s reaction would be if he heard that conversation. Or was he aware of it already? My source smiled and said “Of course. But, you know he is a veteran in such intrigues.”

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For the eight years of Buhari, the journalist in me patiently looked forward to how he would take his pound of flesh from IBB for toppling him in 1985. I was aware that IBB also was on the alert. I was told that Buhari really wanted to take on Ibro. “He was told that he would need more than two terms to fight that war. He got the hint and backed off.” My source told me.

Babangida is very lucky to have outlived Buhari and his regime. President Shehu Shagari, the man Buhari toppled in December 1983, was not that lucky. He was president for four years and three months. He died in December 2018, right into the mouth of Buhari’s awesome powers as president. A State House press statement mourned the dead but that was where it ended. President Buhari stayed away from Shagari’s burial and made sure the dead president enjoyed no state burial. It was Buhari’s second December coup against Shagari.

Last week, Shagari’s grandson, Nura Muhammad Mahe, reacted to Buhari’s death with a caustic press release. He said the very expressive state burial honour which President Bola Tinubu gave Buhari was “in sharp contrast to how my grandfather, President Shehu Shagari, was treated during the administration of Muhammadu Buhari.” Muhammed Mahe recalled that upon Shagari’s death on 28 December, 2018, “Buhari neither attended the funeral nor approved a state burial, despite being in the country at the time.” The man said “it was a painful experience for the Shagari family and many Nigerians who expected more honour for a man who served as Nigeria’s first Executive President…Even in death, Buhari failed to show due respect to his predecessor.”

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Probably under pressure, Buhari visited the Shagari family a day after the burial and signed the condolence register. When he left, journalists who wanted to feast on what he wrote in the register met nothing in there. It was a blank page. Was that an error or a fulfillment of a pledge to dishonour the dead?

Whether you overthrew the man as IBB did, or he overthrew you as he did Shagari, he believed he was your victim and considered you an enemy till he breathed his last breath in London on Sunday. I read IBB’s beautiful tribute in honour of Buhari. The Minna-uphill General is lucky that he lived through the Buhari years. If he had gone when Buhari was president, it is almost certain that there would not have been such positive review from Daura. The Shagari treatment would be certain. It would be worse. Friends would be afraid to ‘show face’ in Minna because Mr President would have kept a register of mourners for the appropriate punishment.

Niccollo Machiavelli warns that a leader can “make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth.” Buhari made both and got away with them. Muhammadu Buhari’s engagement with Nigeria is a study in entitlement. The textbook meaning of entitlement mentality is to believe that you deserve the best from your people while giving back far less than was required of you. Buhari represented that forever in our history. And it wasn’t his fault. Very literate, knowledgeable people openly said our country owed the old soldier power; they said we owed him reverence and accolades; they put unquestioning loyalty as the icing on his cake. For 30 years, Nigerians Earnestly Yearned for Buhari. He came, and he failed. When he was exiting power, he warned us never to attempt asking him questions: “Nobody should ask me to come and give any evidence in any court, otherwise, whoever it is would be in trouble because all important things are on record.” He threatened us in January 2022, and we complied and bought padlocks for the laws he broke. Who born Nigeria and Nigerians!

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The gentleman officer was a beautiful snake who carefully positioned himself as the gift the nation had been waiting for. Physician Buhari donated himself to Nigeria and the nation bled from all the orifices: from the nose, from the ear, the mouth, etc. Under his watch, life got tragically devalued. For eight years he added nothing of value to the lives of ordinary Nigerians. He instead took from many their food; and from many more their lives through unremitting insecurity. As peace progressively turned ashen, the man who swore to protect us sat back, belched, picked his busy teeth and demanded appreciation from all of us for graciously failing us. We paid him that debt of gratitude last week with the fairy tale celebration in Daura and a national holiday declared by Abuja. He was the luckiest leader the nation has ever served.

Instead of checking the dictionary meaning of inertia, just open the book of blank pages called Buhari. He was absent for eight years even for his 12 million children in the North. The North-West was healthy before he came; he left it gasping for life. Where the president’s voice was needed, Buhari planted silence and watered it with absence. He never cared; he was a leader for whom mere presence in office was enough achievement.

Everything Buhari denied others, he got from others, even when he didn’t deserve such. Tinubu gave him every support possible for him to be president and he became president. When it was Tinubu’s turn to contest for the presidency, the General he exhumed from political retirement in Daura denied him every support at his disposal. Buhari escaped every bad treatment he gave others, even when he deserved it. Apart from Sani Abacha, whom he served diligently, no other leader since 1979 got Buhari’s respect. Yet, the living among them – all of them – last week used words which you and I know were hyperbolic untruths to bury him. He was Nigeria’s most successful charmer.

By William Bozimo

There are seasons in politics. Some are sown in silence, others harvested in thunder. As 2031 draws nearer, the Ijaw people of Delta State are not merely watching the calendar, they are watching history, and what it has stubbornly denied them. From Burutu to Forcados, Bomadi to Gbaramatu, the land speaks in neglected bridges and abandoned schools. These are not merely just underdeveloped regions, they are also under-recognized legacies.

For a people who lit the flame of minority rights and carried the nationalist dream through tidal creeks, the reward has been astonishingly lean. Governor James Ibori, the architect of modern Delta’s political rhythm, rose from the central zone. His successor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, emerged not from the Ijaw-dominated South but from Itsekiri stock. The pendulum then swung North, and Senator Ifeanyi Okowa stepped forward with poise and plans.

Okowa built Anioma with a craftsman’s eye. Roads were laid, institutions rebranded, and identities elevated. Now, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, back from the central zone, follows suit. But what of the Ijaw South? The rotation is fair in mathematics but faulty in morality. For the Ijaw people, they do not demand charity. They are simply asking for symmetry. In a democracy where rotation substitutes for merit, equity must substitute for silence.

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The oil that built Delta’s skyline was first drilled in their backyards. Their sons and daughters have bled in military uniforms, paddled ballots through floodplains, and kept the pipelines flowing; but when decisions are made in Asaba, they remain too often as footnotes. 2031 must not be another delay disguised as diplomacy. It must not be another “Almost” whispered in party caucuses. It must be the year the Ijaw dream of leadership crosses from agitation into realization.

Let no one say there are no Ijaw sons capable of governing. From academia to the civil service, from the creeks to the corridors of Abuja, they have led without limelight. All they ask now is the chance to lead from the centre, not the sidelines. This is no tribal plea. It is a moral alert. The rotation will lose its legitimacy if it keeps returning to the same addresses while skipping over the forgotten. A truly united Delta State must look every ethnic group in the eye and give them a reason to believe again. 2031 is not just an election year. For the Ijaw nation, it is a referendum on belonging.

William Z. Bozimo
Veteran Journalist | Columnist | National Memory Keeper