WHY DO PEOPLE IN POWER CHANGE RADICCALY?

I was one of seven professors who facilitated a leadership training in my university here in Georgia for local government chairmen from a major Nigerian southwestern state. In the course of the training, I adverted to a January 13, 2018 column I wrote about how power literally damages the brains of people who wield it and causes them to be dissociated from reality.

A few of the chairmen at the training initially said they “rejected” what I said “in Jesus’ name.”But the more I expounded the research on the psychology of power, the less resistant they became. In the light of the interest it excited among these local power wielders, I thought I’d share a revised version of the column for the benefit of other people in power.

Almost everyone I know wonders why people in power change radically; why they become so utterly disconnected from reality that they suddenly become completely unrecognisable to people who knew them before they got to power; why they get puffed-up, susceptible to flattery, and intolerant of even the mildest, best-intentioned censure; why they appear possessed by inexplicably malignant forces; and why they are notoriously insensitive and self-absorbed.

Everyone who has ever had a friend in a position of power, especially political power, can attest to the accuracy of the age-old truism that a friend in power is a lost friend. Of course, there are exceptions, but it is precisely the fact of the existence of exceptions that makes this reality poignant. As the saying goes, “the exception proves the rule.”

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Look at all the power brokers in Nigeria—from the president to your ward councilor—and you’ll discover that there is a vast disconnect between who they were before they got to power and who they are now.

Also look at previously arrogant, narcissistic, power-drunk prigs who have been kicked out of the orbit of power for any number of reasons. You’ll discover that they are suddenly normal again. They share our pains, make pious noises, condemn abuse of power, and identify with popular causes. The legendary amnesia of Nigerians causes the past misdeeds of these previous monsters of power to be explained away, lessened, forgiven, and ultimately forgotten. But when they get back to power again, they become the same insensitive beasts of power that they once were.

So what is it about power that makes people such obtuse, self-centred snobs? It turns out that psychologists have been grappling with this puzzle for years and have a clue. Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at the University of California Berkeley, extensively studied the brains of people in power and found that people under the influence of power are neurologically similar to people who suffer traumatic brain injury!

According to the July/August 2017 issue of the Atlantic magazine, people who are victims of traumatic brain injury are “more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view.”_ In other words, like victims of traumatic brain injury, power causes people to lose their capacity for empathy. This is a surprising scientific corroboration of American historian Henry Adams’ popular wisecrack about how *_power is “a sort of tumour that ends by killing the victim’s sympathies.”_

The findings of Sukhvinder Obhi, a professor of neuroscience at McMaster University, in Ontario, Canada, are even more revealing. Obhi also studies the workings of the human brain. “And when he put the heads of the powerful and the not-so-powerful under a transcranial-magnetic-stimulation machine, he found that power, in fact, impairs a specific neural process, ‘mirroring,’ that may be a cornerstone of empathy,” the Atlantic reports. “Which gives a neurological basis to what Keltner has termed the ‘ power paradox’:* Once we have power, we lose some of the capacities we needed to gain it in the first place.”

Take Buhari, for example. Before 2015, he was - or at least he appeared to be - empathetic. He supported subsidies for the poor, railed against waste, thought Nigerians deserved to buy petrol at a low price because Nigerian oil was “developed with Nigerian capital,” and so on. He even said foreign medical treatment for elected government officials was immoral and indefensible, and wondered why a Nigerian president would need a fleet of aircraft when even the British Prime Minister didn’t have any.

Nothing but power-induced brain damage, which activates narcissism and loss of empathy, can explain Buhari’s dramatic volte-face now that he’s in power. This fact, psychological researchers say, is worsened by the fact that subordinates tend to flatter people in power, mimic their ways in order to ingratiate themselves with them, and shield them from realities that might cause them psychic discomfort.

“But more important, Keltner says, is the fact that the powerful stop mimicking others,” the Atlantic reports. “Laughing when others laugh or tensing when others tense does more than ingratiate. It helps trigger the same feelings those others are experiencing and provides a window into where they are coming from. Powerful people ‘stop simulating the experience of others,’ Keltner says, which leads to what he calls an ‘empathy deficit.’ ”

Researchers also found out that excessive praise from subordinates, sycophantic drooling from people seeking favours, control over vast resources they once didn’t have, and all of the staid rituals and performances of power conspire to cause “functional” changes to the brains of people in power. On a social level, it also creates what Lord David Owen, a British neurologist-turned-politician, called the “hubris syndrome” in his 2008 book titled In Sickness and in Power.

 Some features of hubris syndrome, Owen points out, are, “manifest contempt for others, loss of contact with reality, restless or reckless actions, and displays of incompetence.”_ Sounds familiar? You can’t observe Buhari’s governance - or, more correctly, ungovernance - in the last four years and fail to see these features in him.

But it’s not all gloom and doom. Powerful people can, and indeed do, extricate themselves from the psychological snares of power if they so desire. Professor Keltner said one of the most effective psychological strategies for people in power to reconnect with reality and reverse the brain damage of power is to periodically remember moments of powerlessness in their lives - such as when they were victims of natural disasters, accidents, poverty, etc.

They should also have what American journalist Louis McHenry Howe once called a “toe holder,” that is, someone who doesn’t fear them, expects no favours from them, and can tell them uncomfortable truths without fear of consequences.

Winston Churchill’s toe holder was his wife, who once wrote a letter to him that read, in part, “I must confess that I have noticed a deterioration in your manner; and you are not as kind as you used to be.” Was Aisha Buhari performing the role of a toe holder when she publicly upbraided her husband in the past? I doubt it.

Her disagreements with her husband are often opportunistic and self-serving. They are triggered only when her husband’s puppeteers in Aso Rock limit her powers to nominate her cronies for political positions and to dispense favours to friends and family.

Another potent way to reverse power-induced brain damage is to periodically get out of the protected silos of power and solitarily observe the quotidian interactions of everyday folks - their humour, laughter, fights, etc. - without the familiar add-ons of power, such as aides, cameras, security, etc. This helps to stimulate the experiences of others and restore empathy.

This is particularly important in Nigeria because power, at all levels, is almost absolute and unaccountable.

Please read and prayerfully ask God to reveal your “ toe holder” to you.

By Professor Pat Utomi

Copyright: © 2021

JOHN MAGUFULI! | DID YOU KNOW?

EU recalled Its ambassador to Tanzania over Magufuli's LBGT Crackdown.

Magufuli Skipped the UN General Assembly!

Magufuli denounced UN human rights report.

Magufuli banned all foreign trips for public servants. 

Magufuli deported UNDP CR Head.

Magufuli deported Head of EU Delegate to Tanzania.

European Union Stopped its Financial Support to Tanzania.

Magufuli Denounced EU-East African Trade Deal as a form of Neocolonialism.

European Union declares Magufuli a Dictator.

Magufuli Refuses to bow to New World Order.

Magufuli refuses to put Tanzania under WHO Covid-19 guidelines.

Magufuli declares Covid a Scam.

Magufuli refuses to Take Loans and grants from World bodies to deal with Covid-19.

Magufuli Welcomes Madagascar's traditional Vaccine for Covid.

Magufuli refuses that Tanzania will not order or buy any Covid -19 Vaccine from the West or anywhere.

Magufuli is Dead!

Coincidence ?

THOUGHTS: We are slaves in Africa. None of us dares challenge or question our slave masters. Our “leaders” are trained and groomed from infancy to trust, respect and obey our slave masters, even when it hurts like hell. When they don’t, they’re either Gaddafied or MAGUFULIED...... wonder when it shall be that we will collectively break loose from these shackles...... heartbroken to say the least. 

Rest In Peace, my Brother!

This reminds me of one Thomas Sankara...

ODUDUWA REPUBLIC: AGAINST SECESSION

AGAINST SECESSION : A TESTAMENT TO YORUBA LEADERS AND PROMOTERS OF ODUDUWA REPUBLIC

I saw a video clip of a group of young Yoruba elites canvassing the creation of Oduduwa Republic. The spokesman claimed that they are not even interested in restructuring, that it is late in the day, but the outright creation of Oduduwa Republic.

Carrying placards, they insist they are fed up with Nigeria and that Nigeria has been a setback for the Yoruba's because in 1949 when Yorubas had the television, even when France had not had one.

Also, that Yorubas were ahead of Korea in the 1950's, but today, we have been derailed by the Nigeria project.

These are their main arguments, which, as I will soon show, are no arguments at all.

I write to you leaders of Yorubas to warn you to be careful; be extremely careful so that you don't make some fatal errors that will set Yorubas even further aback.

Times have changed and we must address issues within the context of our time or we risk failing in  this endeavour.

Some days ago I had an epiphany of a secession of Yorubas and I am not surprised that some are making underground moves to actualise this end.

However, permit me to share some wisdom for our consideration.

I think it will be a serious mistake at this time for Yorubas to contemplate a secession from Nigeria as the repercussions will be grave, if not incalculable. 

It was Albert Einstein who once said, "condemnation without investigation is the highest form of ignorance." 

I believe we have done the due diligence and proper investigation before embarking on this course of action?

I hope the youths promoting this venture know the implications and consequences of what their actions could bring and spring in their time? 

It is the Yorubas who say that when a child stumbles he looks forward, but when an adult stumbles he looks backward to see the cause.

Let us look backward and also forward to see why Yorubas have been stumbling in Nigeria and examine the cause; we will be surprised who we would see.

The enemy is ourselves.

The enemy of the Yorubas is the Yoruba and secession will not stop the stumbling because it would only take the theatre to a different space.

I must tell you that I am opposed to any form of secession or a unilateral secession of the Yoruba from Nigeria at this point in time. Soon you will know why.

However if other stakeholders agree at a Conference Table that the Nigeria project is no longer workable and there should be mutual separation then that becomes a different thing.

Here are my reasons why I oppose any Oduduwa Republic at this time or any secession from Nigeria.

I shall make this under three specific headings:

1. GENERAL ISSUES

A secession of Yoruba from Nigeria or the creation of an Oduduwa Republic at this time would be wrong for the following reasons:

1. The Yorubas made the largest required investment which made Nigeria possible. If you read the history of nationalism, of Nigerian nationalist struggles and agitations against colonial rule, you will know that the Yorubas made more contributions than any other tribe or group to make Nigeria possible.

Although Chinua Achebe wrongly claimed that the Ibos alone fought for Nigeria's independence in his ill- received, poorly- edited, divisive and tendentious book THERE WAS A COUNTRY, his claim can never stand under proper scrutiny or face authentic history.

The Macaulays, Paynes, Majas, Pearces etc and most of the names known to give trouble to the Europeans to force them into leaving were Yorubas.

Thus it would be wrong to agitate for Nigerian Independence and then turn away from Nigeria.

If it is not working, then make it work.

This is the first argument against secession of the Yorubas from Nigeria.

2. The evils we complain about in Nigeria also exist in Yorubaland and amongst the Yorubas.

The young Yoruba elites who want to take Yoruba out of Nigeria complain of many evils in the nation. True. But these evils too exist among us and Yorubas are not exempted from them.

Remember Soka Hill discovered in Ibadan where human parts were being sold to rich clients for years - its in Yorubaland. Same has been found in several other places in the Southwest.

An Islamic slave labour camp was discovered recently in Ibadan, almost as bad as the ones in the North.

Human "poultries " have been found in Akute, Ogun State, and in Abeokuta etc where teenage girls are kept by super madams to be paired with young men to breed like rabbits and the offsprings sold to rich clients for money.

How about cultism and cultic warfares in Ikorodu, Lagos, Ibadan and Abeokuta which are regular features of news items?

Most of the evil in Nigeria exists among Yorubas.  Thus leaving Nigeria solves nothing, in fact, it only compounds the problems because its now spread on a smaller area.

3. The question should be asked: Why should we leave Nigeria at this time?

If we are leaving, why are we leaving?

Because of the bad leadership of Buhari and the APC. 

The major reason today causing this agitation was the misrule of the last five years under this government and the promotion of Fulani hegemony over the whole nation.

So I ask, should Yorubas leave because of Buhari?

Really?

Okay. Questions:

Who made Buihari presidency possible?

Who elected Buhari as president of Nigeria?

Not the Ibos. Not the South South.

It was Yoruba votes that brought this disaster of a government upon us, this "one chance" of a government upon this nation.

In 2015 it was so and this error of a government was reinforced again by the Yorubas in 2019 across Ekiti, Osun, Ondo and Lagos - where Buhari won.

The Igbos rejected him both in 2015 and 2019.

So if Nigeria is becoming a failed state because of Buhari, Yorubas have a hand in it.

You cannot cause a problem and then run away from the consequences.

Asking for Oduduwa Republic now is like that.

You cannot leave while the house is on fire: your founding fathers asked for Nigeria from the British and you voted Buhari and financed him into office for which you now regret.

Be brave: you cannot leave without first solving the problem you helped birthed into Nigeria.

4. Most of the problems that plagues Nigeria today are caused by all of us including the Yorubas.

Yoruba elites describe Nigeria as a failed state, a rogue state.

In fact it is worse. It is a bandit state, a gargantuan occult republic run by syndicates and gangster collectives.

Read Claude Ake, it is worse.

Yes, that is true. But that is not the whole truth.

The Yorubas too contributed to making Nigeria into the failed state that it is today. It is time the Yorubas tell themselves the truth.

We love to tell others the truth but we should once in a while tell each other.

Sometimes we talk as if Yoruba is perfect, as if there are no evils on our hands.

We accuse Tafawa Balewa of declaring a state of emergency in the West. True.

But would he have done that if we have not given him the cause to do so?

If they had not found a mole amongst the Yorubas?

- Who betrayed Awolowo at the Treason able Felony trial in 1963?

- Who were the prosecution witnesses and the judge that sentenced him "whose hands were tied "?

- Who betrayed Abiola to Abacha telling him all the movements of the man?

- Who traded-off June 12 to form political parties which was later dubbed Alliance for Destruction (apologies to Gani Fawehinmi)?

- Who betrayed Diya to Abacha telling him what he did not say?

- Who defended the mathematical fraud of 12 2/3 = 13 in 1979 to foist that NPN gang, a consortium of robbers on Nigerians?

- Which of the Chief Justices gave the ruling that fair judgment must never be referred to?

- Which military head of state ensured, by all means, that NPN won and told Nigerians before the elections that "the best candidate need not win the election"?

- Who imposed Yar'Adua on the PDP as its candidate in 2007 and rigged him into office as President?

- Who drafted Jonathan, our Dr. "Clueless" from Otuoke, a man whose mindless looting regime preceeded this "one chance" government, under which we are now trapped?

Let every Yoruba son and daughter sincerely ask himself these questions and answer who those people are - whether they are Yorubas or not.

If they are Yorubas, then Yoruba people also contributed heavily to Nigeria's problems.

Do the promoters of Oduduwa Republic know all these?

Are they aware that their own parents and kinsmen are part of those that compounded the problems of Nigeria and made it, in the words of one of the British racist colonist, "a nation where the worst never happens but the best is impossible."

Oh Britain, treacherous Britain, the blood of Nigeria be upon thee!

All the problems we complain about in Nigeria Yoruba have their own share of them and even more than their own share in their formation, fruition, nurturing and development.

Take cultism that has now become the one giant monster searing the soul of Nigeria before the advent of kidnapping and ransom taking.

A Yorubaman brought cultism to the Nigerian Church. Yorubas brought cultism to the judiciary and the legal profession. And need I tell you that 7 young scholars started confraternity in our university, most of whom are of Yoruba extraction and parentage?

That seed has now bludgeoned to cultism that is infesting every campus, teachers and students and our youths today.

Let me stop here.

My point is Yorubas have a hand in Nigeria's problems. If Nigeria is today a rogue state, a bandit state, we too helped in making it so; just like the Ibos, Hausa-Fulanis etc.

I refuse to blame any tribe for what has happened to Nigeria.

We are all involved and we must all solve the problem together.

Leaving the union is defeatism and a nation is not built on defeatism or frustration.

SPECIFIC STRATEGIC ISSUES

I now address some specific issues of strategy about the proposed Oduduwa Republic for consideration. 

There are lots of fantasy, incoherent inconsistencies, phantasmagoria about a Yoruba nation.

Some people have a hidden agenda which they don't want to tell us. All they do is to couch their demands under the dubious revival of a glorious past in a supposed Yoruba Republic.

We should be careful.

We talk of the past as if the past is Eldorado.

It is not. We talk of Awo as if he was a perfect saint.

He was not. He was a great man, perhaps one of the greatest from this land but he is not God.

He never saw himself as God, either.

I am old enough to know him and read his campaign speeches.

One of the men now promoting the Oduduwa Republic from the video footage made some interesting statements.

Funny and amusing.

He said Yorubaland had television station before France.

This is not a good argument, even if it were true. I ask you, is television station an achievement?

Was television invented by a Yorubaman or woman?

How much of the history of television do we know?

John Baird who invented it cried when he saw the havoc and the perversion of purpose that his invention was been used for as against its intended purpose.

That is why it is amusing that in 2020 someone would be crediting a  television station as an achievement. I do not see how having a television station in 1949, ahead of France, gives us any cause for bragging.

Congo had printing, as far back as the 18th century, before many European country, due largely to the Catholics who needed it.

Of what use is any technology without the know-how to operate  it?

Can we say Obasanjo and the PDP was a success because GSM telephony occured under their watch or because MTN came during their tenure?

I am also surprised that someone is celebrating the 50-storey cocoa house in Ibadan as an achievement.

It is not an achievement. In fact, it is a bad investment and a huge developmental mistake.

Highrise structures are built where there are constraints of landspace.

We all know this.

Ibadan or Southwest Nigeria did not have that problem now or in the 1950's when that structure was built.

But these are the list of firsts these Yorubas are touting that they want to recreate the Awo miracle.

This would be a fatal mistake, because none of their proposed leaders is an Awoist or even remotely in the mold of anything resembling the shadow of Awolowo or an Aluko for that matter.

And times have changed!

Again, I present the following for consideration. 

1.  I ask a very pointed question: Would the Yorubas live together, even if they succeed in separating?

A foolish question you would say.

But not so foolish or insolent.

The differences between the Yorubas are there and the cleavages are there.

Because we are currently still within Nigeria, often time we don't see these differences, but they are there.

In the Oduduwa Republic those differences will come to the fore and become magnified.

How then do we address them?

The Aladura Scholar, Prof J.D.Y Peel, noted during his research in Yoruba land in the 1960s, that the differences between the Yoruba sub-tribes, the Ekitis, Ijebus, Egbas, Oyo's etc are as wide as those between the tribes of Nigeria.

In other words, the Ekitis are as different from the Ijebus as the Hausas are to the Ibos. If you have not observed this, you are not very observant.

The white man was right.

Because we are together in Nigeria we don't see this, but now in the Oduduwa Republic they will cone magnified.

How will the Yoruba Republic handle them, because they will not go away.

Will the Ijebus accept the rulership of the Egbas?

Will Oyos allow the Ijebus to lord it over them and continue with their exploitation given their bitter history?

Will the Ijeshas forget their ancient animosity to the Oyos and what they suffered in their hands or revive them?

Can the stubborn Ekitis allow the equally stubborn Ijeshas to Lord it over them?

Because a wound is covered does not mean it has been healed.

If the Oduduwa Republic becomes a reality you will all see the truth of what I am saying.

All the major wars that have been fought in Yorubaland have been fought amongst the Yorubas themselves.

Not against outsiders.

Osun, the Yoruba god does not destroy strangers, it destroys her own children.

Soon you will see what I am saying.

2.  We often speak of the Old Western Region as if it was perfect. There were injustices based on ethnicity but which we should not reopen for peace sake.

All the projects done by the Action Group govt, how many of them were sited in the Ondo- Ekiti- Ijesha axis?

Yet the cocoa plantations and wealth that made the West came substantially from there.

How many cocoa plantations exist in Ijebu- Egbas axis, yet all the projects were situated or concentrated there.

How just is that?

Read Profem Ayandele's breakdown and judge for yourselves.

So if there were these imbalances even in those days of yore, how are we so sure that Oduduwa Republic will not be a miniature Nigeria, with more problems but with less resilience to handle them?

The Itshekiris and Delta regions of Warri actually voted to leave the West and have their own region. If they were fairly treated, why did they chose to leave?

The old Ondo and Ekiti equally agitated to have their own state from the West because they saw that they were being exploited by the Ijebus and Egbas in the West.

Will all these agitations suddenly melt away once we have our Oduduwa Republic?

3. We have forgotten that exploitation is in the very nature of men, whether white or black.

There is exploitation amongst Yoruba's too.

Someone is collecting 15% of the entire revenue of a state in the Southwest now.

We all know this and nothing is done about it, yet we are complaining about Nigeria being a failed state.

How are you sure Oduduwa Republic will not be a greater failure?

In which other part of Nigeria does this happen?

How many states in the southwest pay the minimum wage, even whilst most states in the North does?

Who is the exploiter of the people, their own people, now?

How many states in the North pay scandalous pensions to their former governors like is done in the southwest?

Which state started this racket?

These are the same people and their children and cronies that will rule the proposed Oduduwa Republic.

Sadly it will not be the leading minds and top brains in Yorubaland but the dregs and the gang of usurpers that have profited from years of unrestrained looting of the public till.

4. Have you asked yourself where is the industrial base that we will use for take off?

Virtually all the viable banks, industries and conglomerates in the Lagos- Ibadan-Abeokuta axis today are owned by other tribes in Nigeria, certainly not by the Yorubas. Have they thought of this?

Rome did not collapse in one day, it was gradual.

Yorubas are yet to see that they are in big mess, far bigger than they inherited or envisaged, not because of Nigeria, but because of themselves.

5.. In the Oduduwa Republic, which traditional ruler will be supreme?

Will Alaafin accept the supremacy of Ooni or vice versa?

Or will the disputes continue?

6. Ethnicity and Hegemony among the Yorubas is another serious issue.

In the Republic how do we handle the ethnicity and hegemony of the Yorubas.

Perhaps you may not know, I tell you today that there is deep, serious ethnicism amongst Yorubas.

We all speak so loudly about Hausa-Fulani domination and oligarchy that we have forgotten that there is the Egba- Ijebu hegemony over Yoruba affairs.

We used to hammer the Kaduna Mafia, but we forget the Ikenne Mafia.

Consider this - during the 2014 National Conference, 6 slots were allocated to the Yoruba group, Afenifere.

They promptly shared the slots among themselves.

Not a single slot was given to anyone to represent the Yorubas in Kogi and Kwara.

But when they want to negotiate for power, they remember they have their brethren in Kogi and in Kwara and that Yoruba land extends to Jebba and Lokoja.

But when it comes to representation they forget them.

As the Americans say, "taxation without representation is tyranny ".

These are the same men, the same schemes, who are now promoting Oduduwa Republic.

Please think very well, my people in Kogi and Kwara states, so that you don't change one slave master for another.

What about ethnicism among Yorubas?

It exists. Ijebu ethnicism, that sees everyone as strangers except themselves, even in the church!

Some Yorubas have told me, "Can we also call you Yoruba, those of you from Kwara?"

Not once or twice.

As a lecturer from Yoruba, I know the frustrations and struggles given to me by fellow Yorubas. I have never heard of a Fulani man doubting the legitimacy of another Fulani because he's from a different place.

Neither does the Igbos or Hausa or Ijaws.

Only among the ones who call themselves the children of Oduduwa.

That is why I wait to see how that Republic will work even while these contradictions amongst the Yorubas remain as they are. I wait.

THE REALITY OF WAR

I now come to my last issue and conclusion.

Here I am talking of reality.

What does this agitation sum to in real life?

Getting an Oduduwa Republic means war.

If you don't know, know it now. There cannot be an Oduduwa Republic unless there is secession of the Yoruba from Nigeria; and secession essentially means war, unless two conditions subsist, namely:

- Where the other stakeholders in a nation state agree to go their way, as happened in defunct USSR, or

- Where the secessionist group (in this case, the Yorubas) is the largest and the strongest within the existing union and can therefore bully the others.

The two scenarios above is not likely to happen,so the implications is war. I hope the promoters know this?

So I ask - are the Yorubas of today prepared for a second civil war with Nigeria?

Mind you, Yorubas will be fighting not just the Fulanis or Hausas, but the whole of Nigeria.

Why?

Because Lagos is too strategic to Nigeria, too important to it's economy and its prosperity.

Whoever controls Lagos will not be allowed to leave Nigeria except at the cost of war.

2. Are Yorubas prepared, at this time, to face all the regions at the same time?

Do we have the wherewithal to prosecute a war?

The Hausas will fight you because they have said and boasted long ago that Yorubas are the next tribe they want to deal with. I heard this in 2010, in Zaria, during my research.

You will now play into their hands.

The Ibos will fight you because of the old poison sown into them (over the civil war) that the Yorubas betrayed them, which, although not true, but is nevertheless widely believed as true by most Igbo youths to this day - and this is what matters.

Many Igbos will fight you because you foisted Buhari, whom they rejected and who has been, to be honest to the fact, an unmitigated disaster, upon them.

The Ijaws will not support  you for removing Jonathan from power...

The Fulanis will fight you for opposing their Fulani Republic on the back of Nigerian wealth.

The Middle belt may not fight, but they won't support you for creating misery for them through Buhari..and so on.

I don't know how you will win this battle. I don't see how you can win all these with things as they are.

No, I am not a defeatist, I am just a realist.

4. Division among the Yorubas. Even when there is unity, success in battle is not assured, how much less when there is division?

Are Yorubas united at this time? I doubt it.

There are Yourba- Islamists who are even opposed to the Amotekun initiative and don't see anything wrong with Buhari, a fellow Muslim.

To them, everything Buhari does is okay, like our rubber-stamp Senate.

Islamists among Yorubas  will oppose and can even be the fifth columns in a war.

There are still politicians who are benefiting from Nigeria who have made investment towards 2023 and want to see their ambitions realised.  And they have their cronies, tools, aides, who control the press, the traditional power of the southwest. These people will not be keen on any Oduduwa Republic. They can subvert it.

So with all these how can you win a war with Nigeria?

5. People who have never seen a war are usually happy and excited about war, but war must be avoided at all costs. Unless it becomes inevitable. 

As a Christian, I am not a pacifist, I am a just-war theorist, in the mold of Augustine and Martin Luther.

I will fight if it comes to that, but not for an Oduduwa Republic that is now being promoted in view of all I have raised here.

No one is driving the Yoruba's from Nigeria, so why leave?

All the evils that's been enumerated above, the Yorubas too, have a hand in them and if Oduduwa Republic is created today they will still manifest those problems.

So why the hassle?

You only know when a war begins, no one knows when it would end.

Think of the Sudan Civil War.

I warn the youths and elites promoting this venture to tread softly.

It is better not to fight than to fight and win. War is evil. Only in cases when it is just- war as conceptualized by Cicero, Augustine etc.

A just war is any war that's fought to stop aggression or remove the cause of evil.

My next article will be on this.

CONCLUSION

In view of all I have said here I think the time is not right for a secession.

We should promote and canvass another special sovereign national conference where we can have a return to regionalism or even a confederate arrangement that's mutually agreed.

We did not have a civil war in 1993 yet we brought down the military without firing a shot.

That is power.

We don't need a revolution of fighting, that is what brought us here.

What we need is a revolution of perception, to quote David Icke.

Fighting changes nothing. You become what you fight.

Gandhi brought down the British empire in India without firing a shot. That is what we need.

The problem of Nigeria is that we have never really had a government worth its name.

We have no leaders but mascaras, jesters and clowns.

Most of what we blame on Nigeria are actually troubles caused by mis-leadership.

But hatred should not be the reason to exit a nation.

You cannot found a nation on hatred, frustration, mutual antagonism. That is why the Oduduwa Republic promoters should watch it.

Nations are built on ideals, on visions, on values, on ethos, on truths; not on hate, or mutual antagonism or misgivings.

That is what caused APC's problem.

They came together to float a party, not on any ideology but on their hatred of PDP and Jonathan. And now that Jonathan and PDP are no more in sight, they have nothing else to strive for but to deploy the same hatred to one other.

They are totally bereft of what to do with Nigeria.

Look at Ogun State, Edo State, Ondo etc., they are fighting each other. Those who so the wind must, of a necessity, reap the whirlwind.

By Chief Duro Onabule, a Veteran Journalist.

ALAKE WARNS AGAINST CALLS FOR NIGERIA'S BREAKUP

The Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, has appealed to those calling for the secession of Nigeria to shelve the idea.

The monarch said Nigeria cannot afford to go through another civil war, stressing that no country in the world will be willing to have over 250 million Nigerians as refugees.

The monarch said Nigerians, irrespective of their tribe, political or religious afflictions, must work together for the greater good of the country.

Alake said if Nigeria fails as a country, the entire black race has failed, insisting that Nigeria is better as one united nation than breaking up.

He said, “Nigerians, wherever we go in Nigeria we must see ourselves as nationals of the same country, people of the same blood.

“We must work together to make Nigeria great because we must not fail, Nigeria must not fail, if Nigeria fails, the black race has failed and may it never happen.

“Where will over 250 million people go to? If they enter the next country, we will eat all their foods within two days, there will be no food for anybody in that place again that is why we must remain where we are and make Nigeria work and work well.”

#CustodianofYorubaTraditionandCulture

NANTAP PRESIDENT ON A WORKING VISIT TO ABUJA

The President of the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP), Mr. Israel Eboh, fta has concluded a one-day working visit to Abuja.

The President, who was joined by the National Assistant Secretary General, Mrs. Esther Onwuka, the NANTAP Abuja Chairman, Kayode Aiyegbusi and the Abuja Chapter Director of Publicity, Jerry Adesewo, had series of meetings aimed at broadening and strengthening the Association's international collaborations and partnerships.

The first point of call was a courtesy visit on the Korean Cultural Centre, the Cultural and Information arm of the Korean Embassy in Nigeria. Represented by its Director, Mr. Lee Jin Su and a Programme Officer, Miss Meyoun Ji. The meeting which explored areas of mutual cultural collaboration, birthed as expected an greement for cultural exchange programmes between NANTAP and the Centre with participation by a Korean performing troupes and business exhibitors in the repacked annual Festival of Plays (FESTINA) amongst other cultural collaborative initiatives.

The team also paid a courtesy visit on the Swedish Ambassador, H.E. Mr. Carl-Michael Gräns at his official residence, where various issues of interest bordering on expanding cultural relations with Sweden were  discussed.

The one-day visit was capped with a visit to the legislator and playwright, Asiwaju (Dr.) Jerry Alagbaoso from Imo State at the National Assembly where matters of the association and the industry were the main thrust of the discussions.

By Israel Eboh

I Will Never Support Igboho Type of Self-Help -Oluwo

His Imperial Majesty, Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, in this interview with AbujaCityJournal, bares his mind on salient issues bordering southwest security and the role of monarchs across communities. He insists Sunday Adeyemo, popularly called Sunday Igboho, has chosen the wrong method to resolve the herdsmen/host community feud.

ACJ: In view of the current security challenges in Nigeria and the sudden emergence of Chief Sunday Adeyemo, otherwise known as Sunday Igboho, as a freedom fighter, where do you stand, and what is your view about Mr. Igboho’s agitation?

I will throw back the question to you. Does Sunday Igboho have any agenda? What is that agenda?  From what perspective is he fighting for the freedom of Yoruba?

If it is from the standpoint of the herdsmen, then we should narrow it down to whether he wants all the herdsmen to quit our land or not? What does he really want? I ask these questions because beyond the herdsmen problem, there are other challenges.

Are we now saying that there shouldn’t be recourse to the government or traditional rulers again while trying to find a solution? I will never support self-help because in most cases it gets out of hand and will lead people to a greater crisis.

Having stated this, let me put it on record that I frown at and reject in totality any act from any set of people that is capable of threatening the security of Nigeria.

 I will also not be in support of anybody or a group of people that are making attempts to foment trouble in any part of Nigeria. I am of the opinion that there should be a thought process mechanism that would involve the security operatives, the traditional rulers, the government, and other stakeholders in addressing our security problem.

Nigeria as a brand or as a nation is so important in the black race to be thrown into war.  Like other concerned Yoruba people, there are bad ones among the herdsmen, but it will be wrong to classify all of them as bad. There are bad ones among Igbos and there are good ones. Likewise, there are bad ones among the Yoruba and there are good ones.

In view of this, let us work towards investigating and apprehending culprits and punishing them, rather than resorting to blanket threats that could lead to anarchy in the country.

So, for people like Sunday Igboho to get my support, the approach must not be warlike or belligerent. I hate to hear statements like; “I want to free the Yoruba people from this government”, “we want to secede”, “Fulanis should go” and other related provoking statements. Igboho should have a clear vision instead of playing to the gallery.

He should also know that it will be difficult for him to singlehandedly champion the cause of identifying the kidnappers among the Fulanis or any other tribe without the support of other stakeholders. Nigeria is not a zoo but a federated country with a constitution. I have also urged my people in Yorubaland not to follow anybody blindly. Much as I want Nigeria's security problems to be addressed, I don’t want anybody to gang up against a particular ethnic group because I also have Iwo sons and daughters spread across the country and I don’t want anybody to gang against them.

Happily for me, I have my children in the north and they're well to do, they are not even herders or cart pushers; some are doctors, some are lawyers, we have engineers, there are professors.

It will interest you that there is no institution of higher learning in the north without a southerner as lecturers and we have many institutions in the South without a single person from the north. 

Are we now saying that if a Yoruba man commits an offense in the north, all these people should be wiped off? It shouldn’t be.

ACJ: Kabiyesi, what is then the way out?

I have said it, the way out is for all stakeholders to come to the drawing board and reason together on how best to fish out culprits among the Fulanis. Are all herders criminals?  The question is no. Then let's apply wisdom and go back to that popular Yoruba saying; ‘Ika to ba se, l’Oba nge’, which can roughly be translated to mean that law should be applied to whoever that commits the crime. To me, it’s wrong to tag only an ethnic group as perpetrators of kidnapping.

There are Yorubas and there are Igbos who are also involved in the nefarious practices. For instance, if you are talking about kidnappers, the last time I checked my books, the richest and the most celebrated kidnapper in Nigeria is an Igbo man called Evans. Now, can we say because of what Evans did and confessed to having done, should we force all the Igbos out of Yoruba or Hausaland?

When you forcefully chase out from your domain people who have lived there for, between 50 and 100 years and all that they go away with are backpacks, then you have sinned against humanity.

I felt sad when I saw children and women being pursued as if we were in a war situation.

I'm not condoning crime but he who has never sinned should cast the first stone. The fact that Jesus said you should not stone the prostitute doesn’t mean that Jesus endorsed prostitution.

No, honestly because I'm telling people not to hurt anybody that didn't sin doesn’t also mean I support rapping or kidnapping of our people. All I’m saying is that we should avoid war by not allowing Rwanda’s Hutus and Tutsi scenario to play out here.

If this nation fails, the whole black race has failed because this country is the hope of every black man in the world.  On this note, I stand with those who are daily working and toiling that Nigeria shouldn’t fail. I can also tell you that nobody and no tribe are breaking off. I’m patriotic and confident enough to know that we will resolve all our issues in peace and we will leave together in harmony.

ACJ: The traditional institution which used to be revered even till after independence appears to be waning in influence every passing day. How in your opinion did things become this bad?

First of all, I want to tell you that when it comes to leadership, especially as it concerns the Obaship in Nigeria, there have been a lot of issues begging for attention since the pre-colonial era.

As a result of this, I have always advocated we have to go to the roots to resolve some of the disparities and challenges facing the traditional institution in the country. Every day, the question arises on why the traditional rulers, especially in Yoruba land are not regarded and respected, the way it should be.

The truth is that the issue could be traced to the colonial era and the trend has continued over the years. Before the coming of the white men, the traditional institution enjoyed what we called an absolute monarchy, but little by little, the status eroded as a result of many factors. However, some traditional rulers still enjoy absolute monarchy, even though they share some functions with the government.

For instance, since its inception, the Oluwo stool has been part of those that enjoy that Paramount rulership which I try every day to sustain.

Agreed, there could be some constitutional inadequacies but let me be frank to state that the government alone should not be blamed for the challenges facing the traditional institution.

At one time or the other in the days of yore, the custodians of our traditional heritage made some blunders by conspiring with foreigners to sell their children to slavery. This happened because the traditional rulers didn’t see their subjects as their own children. That singular blunder was one of the areas we missed.

To date, many traditional rulers still don’t know the type of relationship that should exist between them and their subjects. They are yet to see themselves as the custodian of that traditional stool as a servant-leader.

ACJ: You earlier alluded to the fact that traditional rulers were absolute monarchs at the beginning and our history books teach us that some of them became tyrannical in consequence of this power structure. Can you strike a balance between this in view of the fact that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely?

Your respected self may wish to also link this with your frowning at the early practice of selling their subjects into slavery when they should see them as their own children.

Let us get something clear, as Obas, Obis, or Emirs, we are representatives of God on the surface of the earth. Even God that created us still serves us one way or the order. He guides us while sleeping, He provides for our needs and we run to Him for help anytime we have challenges.

In dealing with us, God doesn’t leave the poor and attends only to the rich. He doesn’t leave the sick and the handicaps and attend only to those who are healthy. He sees everybody as his own.

Now, as God’s representatives, we are supposed to follow that trend.

Look, kingship should not be about amassing wealth; it is about leadership and serving people. Perhaps some traditional rulers get carried away because they are referred to as kings.

God is the only king because He is the only one that has the attributes of a King. We are God’s lieutenants here and we must serve our people to the best of our knowledge without getting drunk with power.

Some traditional rulers fail because they see their offices as meal tickets and they don’t see their subjects as their children. If you see your subjects as your children you will not want anything bad to happen in your kingdom. Our own absolute power is derived from the power God gives us as His representatives here.

For instance, as established by both the Bible and the Quran, God tells his angels that he was creating man. He gives the angels the impression of how much he values man. This explains why God sees us as special creatures and shows us mercy even when we appear to be transgressing. He always wants the best for us and always wants us to be saved.

The kings here are representatives of that invincible King who oversees the affairs of all. If you are a king of a town, you are in that position because of God and you are in that position because God does not show himself in the physical.

You are only representing the real king and should pattern whatever you are doing to reflect the qualities of the King you are representing.

As a worldly king, when you serve your people well, you become a good master and if it is the opposite, you become a bad master. Therefore, God has always been a good master because He serves the whole world well.

When you sleep, He guides you so He becomes a security man that you do not pay for service rendered. In understanding the meaning and functions of a king, we have to first understand the concept of God. It is those who fail in this regard that fails in their day-to-day activities and, in consequence, debase the institution.

Kingship is not about stealing lands or acquiring stupendous wealth to send your children to schools abroad at the expense of your subjects. Of all my achievements on the throne in the last five years, one thing that gladdens my heart the most was the servant-leader role I played in fixing the major road that connects Iwo and Oshogbo.

For more than 13 years, it was abandoned and a journey that should take between 20 to 30 minutes was taking 3 hours because motorists would have to take another back alley, a longer route to get to Osogbo.  I told my chiefs and other stakeholders that we shouldn’t fold our arms and allow things to deteriorate more than it was.

We helped ourselves by resorting to a communal effort which made me and other prominent Iwo sons to resume on the road every 8 a.m in the morning till 5 p.m daily. We did this for three months and got the road fixed. Thank God, our amiable Governor, Gboyega Oyetola, has gotten the road permanently fixed now.

It thus became a case of ‘Omo to ba s’ipa, ni iya re agbe’. We made an effort and the Government crowned the effort.

Then in the last few years, beyond infrastructure development we have carried out or attracted to the community, I have tried to let my people see the essence of the dynamism of life. I have changed the orientation of my people, so much that their mindsets have totally changed.

We uphold our heritage and guide our history jealously, but we have also checkmated the dogmatic attachment to some retrogressive superstition.

In all these, the take-home for me is that we must go back to the basics and see our subjects like our children and love them sincerely. Biblically, ‘Love Your Neighbor As Yourself’ is the second great commandment of Jesus and Prophet Mohammed also says ‘You are not Yet a Muslim Until You Love for Others, What You Love for Yourself.

You can relate this to my position on what should exist between the king and the subjects. The world is established on love and without love, there will not be progress. Even in the traditional Yoruba institution, love is also preached by the progenitors.

In the Northern part of the country, their titles have nothing to do with their Hausa or Fulani backgrounds but Islam. Sultan or Emir is not a Fulani or Hausa word but a borrowed language from the Quran.

In Yorubaland, the Kabiyesi title can also be traced to the bible as well and that is to explain that the root of the entire institution is God.  Even the traditional Yoruba setting appreciates that there is Olodumare, who oversees everything and the affairs of everybody.

During the ancient days, people hardly knew their right from their left, but civilization has made everybody acquainted with his or her rights. Today, your subjects see you as their father who is supposed to fight for them if a politician wants to cheat them. As a king, you are the one that is supposed to fight for your people.

ACJ: Your reference to Emir reminds us of the debate that trailed your pronouncement that you were an Emir two years ago in the Yoruba Nation where traditional rulers are known as Kabiyesi or Oba. What exactly were you trying to say that people did not seem to get at the time?

I think those who took that pronouncement as being odd didn’t understand the context of the statement or couldn’t relate with my understanding of traditional leaders. My argument has always been that for any Igbo man in Iwo, I, Abdulrasheed Akanbi is his Igwe just as any Iwo man in Kano must see the Emir of Kano as his Oluwo when in Kano.

To me, the Hausas, the Nupes, the Igbira, the Igalas, the Urobos, the Ibiobios, and the Igbos in Iwo land are all my children and they must see me as their traditional rulers. Having stated this, I am Emir to the Hausas in Iwo. It is as simple as that. I call myself an Emir, what is the meaning of Emir? If I call myself Obi or Igwe, must that become an ethical problem? We really preach love and appreciate the concept of one Nigeria.

In Nigeria, some traditional rulers protect only those who speak their language in the community. As at the time they are under you, you are the king over them. In many places, Kings only want to deal with rich people and this is what causes the problem in Nigeria. That is where we got it wrong because the people are so tired and are asking; who are these leaders? Do they even care for us?

That is why some people will also say; have you seen a Hausa king or Obi trying to say he is an Oba.

My answer is if he doesn't know he is supposed to be. Any Obi supposed to be able to say I'm an Oba. The sultan should also be able to say I'm the Oluwo to an Iwo man that lives in Sokoto.  Any tribe that lives under me in Iwo, I’m their king and they can describe me the way they describe their kings in their domains.

Anyone in my domain is my son and if he needs anything he should come to my palace and the gate of the palace will be opened for him or her.

We should care for all, whether rich or poor, upright or not. Even a traditional ruler should see the touts in his kingdom as his children. Who knows, those we see as being not too important today can become the most successful in the future. I’m sure Buhari is from a humble background, but see where the King of Kings has placed him.

See where he has placed former President Goodluck Jonathan and other world leaders who have humble backgrounds.

ACJ: The people of Iwo have different religious backgrounds, how do you strike the balance?

In fairness, my people would have been in the best position to answer this but I will explain it in a few words because I had earlier, in the course of this conversation, laid a good foundation for it. As stated above, I’m the father of all that live in Iwo. In the light of this, I don’t only identify with both Muslims and Christians, I carry them along in my administration because the place of prayer cannot be overemphasized.

As part of the ways to demonstrate this, Christians come to my palace every Wednesday of the week to pray and Muslims come on Fridays. Besides, I go to church when I want and I go to Mosque too.

We are also appealing to the custodians of Traditional religion to reposition so that people will not see those who identify with them as members of a secret cult. There is some Yoruba heritage that has been bastardized because of the perception that whoever identifies with them is in cultism.

If a Pastor or Imam puts on a bead which is supposed to be part of our traditional dresses now, people will see him as a member of one cult or the other.

ACJ: In some trending videos, you were spotted moving from one house to the other distributing food items and cash to the aged people and people with disabilities. What informed this?

Again, this still dovetails with my belief that a king should be a servant-leader. Every day and every second I think of my people and their welfare. I have always invited and welcomed people to my palace and I’m also aware that there are many people out there who are incapacitated and therefore cannot reach my palace, either because they are aged or disabled. 

They are also my children and I must not deny them of my service and what is due them. For God’s sake, am I not the king of the handicaps? Because we represent God, we have to be responsible to all and for all.  Who does the blind call when there’s nobody?  Who does the poor call when there is no hope? Who does an orphan call? All these people call no other person but God.

That’s why my style of kingship is a bit indifferent. If you see me with Buhari or Oyetola today, tomorrow I go back to my people and my first place of call is underprivileged. When I get to my community, my first place of call is not houses made of bricks but houses made of mud. 

In wrapping up this, I want to appeal to leaders, whether traditional or the modern political platform, to earn the respect and confidence of their followers.

In particular, traditional rulers need the people to trust them more, and like I said it’s deeply rooted. Personally, I have changed the way people think about kingship in my place. My people love me and I love them. The first set of people I extend my love to, even before my wife, are my people. I do this because even my wife has become one of my people.

Having said this, I have to love my people even more than myself and it will be vice versa.

Everything is being reciprocated; what you sow is what you reap all the time. I love my people more than myself and if traditional rulers can do that, then there will be a level of trust between the subjects and the King.

ACJ: Kabiyesi, with all modesty you are one of the well-dressed traditional rulers in Nigeria. What’s behind it?

It’s still part of my desire to resonate with my people in all aspects of life. As a leader, I must stand out and they must be proud of me. However, events and circumstances dictate my dress sense.

It’s still part of that dynamism of life that I preach every day.

ACJ: Finally on a lighter note, you celebrated your former Olori every day while the relationship lasted. Considering the fact that nature abhors a vacuum, we want to know who takes care of Kabiyesi now in the palace.

(Laugh…) Sure, I have somebody already in the palace and you will soon know her. But in all honesty,   it's not for public consumption.

March 14-2021 #abujacityjournal

ESU: THE REVENGE OF BISHOP AJAYI CROWTHER

“If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.” - Marcus Aurelius.

Initially, I was going to write on the mistake of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (1806-1891) in giving a bad name to Esu in his titanic task of translating the Euro-Christian holy book – The Bible, into Yoruba Language for his converts. This had been triggered by some Christian friends who kept blaming Esu for everything that has gone wrong in their lives as well as Nigeria as a nation.

In the course of writing, I had to do a little research to be able to explain the role and character of Esu in Yoruba cosmology and how he has been unfairly slandered by overzealous Christians and their sympathizers. I found out that what I had thought to be a “mistake” on the part of Bishop Crowther, was not actually a mistake but an act of vengeance against his own Yoruba people whom he felt had sold him into slavery.

Esu, in Yoruba cosmology is not the Devil or Satan as has been and is being portrayed by Euro-Christian religious school of thought. Esu, in the authentic Yoruba concept, is the enforcer of the Will of Olodumare and not the equivalent of the Euro-Christian Devil/Satan who is out to undermine the work of the Almighty God. According to Ayodele Ogundipe as quoted by Professor Funso Aiyejina in his work “Esu Elegbara: A Source of an Alter/Native Theory of African Literature and Criticism,” the following is the brief concept of Esu in Yoruba Philosophy:

“In Yoruba philosophy, Esu emerges as a divine trickster, a disguise- artist, a mischief-maker, a rebel, a challenger of orthodoxy, a shape-shifter, and an enforcer deity. Esu is the keeper of the divine ase with which Olodumare created the universe; a neutral force who controls both the benevolent and the malevolent supernatural powers; he is the guardian of Orunmila’s oracular utterances. Without Esu to open the portals to the past and the future, Orunmila, the divination deity would be blind. As a neutral force, he straddles all realms and acts as an essential factor in any attempt to resolve the conflicts between contrasting but coterminous forces in the world. ….He supports only those who perform prescribed sacrifices and act in conformity with the moral laws of the universe as laid down by Eledumare….. Without his intervention, the Yoruba people believe, no sacrifice, no matter how sumptuous, will be efficacious. Philosophically speaking, Esu is the deity of choice and free will.”

To simplify the above concept for objective readers, the following are the differences between the Esu in Yoruba cosmology and the “New Esu” created by Bishop Crowther and his overzealous, vengeance-seeking and indoctrinated past and present followers of Euro-Christianity:

Esu in Yoruba religio-philosophy seeks at all times to fulfill the Will of Eledumare while the New Esu of Ajayi Crowther seeks to undermine and destroy Eledumare’s work at all times and at every opportunity.

Esu in Yoruba concept intervenes on behalf of the afflicted as long as the afflicted is willing to obey the laws of Eledumare while the New Esu seeks to further afflict the afflicted and draw such further away from Eledumare.

Esu in Yoruba belief is a “straddler,” “a neutral force,” and a factor “in any attempt to resolve conflicts between contrasting but coterminous forces in the world;” while the New Esu  is NOT neutral, seeks total devotion to himself and his ways and creates rather than resolves conflicts.

Esu in Yoruba philosophy is an “enforcer” – “keeper of the divine ASE” with which Eledumare created and runs the world. The New Esu has no such responsibility or authority.

It should be clear that except it could be established that Ajayi Crowther suffered from serious morphological limitations as far as Yoruba Language is concerned, it is difficult to overlook his disingenuous machination to bastardize and demonize a revered deity of the Yoruba people. The seminal brilliance demonstrated by Bishop Crowther to translate the Bible to Yoruba Language is more than enough evidence that this equation of Esu, a Yoruba deity, to Devil/Satan was a deliberate act of vengeance rather than an unbiased intellectual exercise.

As Professor Aiyejina contended, how come the translators of the Bible who “saw nothing wrong with equating Satan with Esu did not find a near equivalent  Yoruba deity for Jesus Christ, instead of Yorubanising his name into Jesu Kristi?” Further asserting, he said: “If Satan translates into Esu because of perceived incidental similarities between the two, how come Jesus does not translate into Orunmila, given the fact that Orunmila is a proverbial, wise, calm, peaceful and forbearing as Jesus? How come he does not translate to Ela, the divinity of regeneration?

I share the conclusion of the Professor that such a logical approach would have suggested “a cultural equity” between the West and Africa that Europe was not willing to concede. I agree that the overzealous, newly converted Ajayi Crowthers of this world seemed to be willing tools in the hands of their masters because of their anger towards their kinsmen who sold them into slavery. It is my contention that if the Ajayi Crowthers of this world were not willing tools of their colonialist and imperialist white masters, how come their anger was one way directed? If someone was willing to sell, it meant that someone on the other end was willing to buy. Rather than engage in intellectual corruption and seek to destroy and undermine the belief(s) of a people, how come they were not broadminded enough to examine their situation and use it to teach positive lessons through objective acts of intellectual enquiry?

Samuel Ajayi Crowther and his ilk “acting as priests, interpreters, translators, policemen, postmasters, and school teachers were key players in the process of the religious, psychological  and mental enslavement of African peoples.” Professor Aiyejina further clarified the situation as follows:

“….. in their psychological disdain for, and rejection of, African culture, which was, in part, a response to the African involvement in their enslavement, they became a new generation of middle-men and –women who functioned as arrowheads for the denigration of African cultures.”

The negative connotation given to the concept of Esu is essentially the handiwork of Bishop Ajayi Crowther. Considering all the circumstantial evidences and the Historical context of his life and times, it is evident that Bishop Crowther was out to take vengeance and in the course of doing so, he employed all tools at his disposal. His deliberate falsification of the Esu concept remains a stain on his brilliance and his legacy. He provided a tool for those who never had any understanding of Yoruba beliefs to continue to demonize, denigrate and defame such.

Bishop Crowther’s disparaging definition of Esu has been persistent in popular imagination having been proselytized for more than hundred years. This, in part, is as a result of the Yoruba belief that does not practice or encourage proselytism as opposed to other faiths. It is a matter of historical regret that Africans, in their relationship with the Europeans, were too trusting. They ought to have been more cynical and suspicious.

By Rèmí Oyèyemí

Copyright © 2021

Read These Stories from Ogbe-Okanran

If you learn from Ifá verses, it will be easy to understand that Èṣù is not in anyway close to the Satan in Christian religion.

Ogbe-Okanran is one of the 256 Chapters of Ifá. 

Note that the names of these chapters of Ifá are names of persons - they are either the disciples (Ọmọ Awo) of Ọ̀rúnmìlà or the disciples of the disciples of Ọ̀rúnmìlà.

Ogbe-Okanran is one of the 15 disciples of Eji-Ogbe who himself is one of the 16 disciples of Ọ̀rúnmìlà.

The story goes thus:

Verse 1. There was an Awo, his name is Ogbe-Okanran.

He traveled to a town called Ipoti where they have been having problems with marauding invaders who terrorize them at night.

He got to the city as a stranger and they appealed to him to help them. He asked them to make sacrifice with corn grains, mortar, some Ifá leaves, with a he goat for Èṣù. 

They heard, they made the sacrifice.

Ogbe-Okanran instructed them to put the mortar and the corn outside of the house. 

In the night, Èṣù started pounding the grains of corn in the mortar at the back yard. As the invading bandits were coming, they were hearing the sound of the mortar and pestle, they thought to themselves that the people of Ipoti are still awake and they returned with the aim attempt their robbery again the next day. 

The next day they came, the same thing happened, they were hearing the sound of the mortar hitting the pestle. The third day, the same thing. And they concluded that the people of Ipoti no longer sleep and they desisted from coming to plunder them at night.

This was how the stranger (Ajoji godogbo) helped them in conquering their troubles in Ipoti community.

Verse 2. 

When it was farming period, the Awo, Ogbè-Okanran requested of the people of Ipoti to give him a portion of land to farm. 

So they thought among themselves where to give the man to frustrate his farming activities. 

They gave him a water logged place to farm hoping that when the rain fails it will spoil his crops.

He went for divination as it was his custom, he was asked to make sacrifice. He did the sacrifice.

Èṣù blocked the rain conduits from heaven that year and it refused to rain. Only the plants of Ogbe-Okanran did well that year and the whole community had to buy food stuff from him.

The second year, he asked them again for a piece of farming land, this time, they gave him the high lands and took the low lands for themselves in the hope that there would be no rain and he would run short.

Again, he went for divination and he was asked to make sacrifice. He did as his Awos said. 

Èṣù pulled off the plug with which he stopped the rains the previous year and there was a downpour. All the plants in the lowlands perished and only Ogbe-Okanran was able to make a decent harvest.

At the third year, Ogbe-Okanran again went to request for a portion of land to farm and this time the community decided to give Ogbe-Okanran Ogun's land to farm. Though they knew it was prohibited for anyone to work in Ogun's farm. Their thought was that if he goes to the farm to work, Ogun will find him there and kill him.

Ogbe-Okanran went for divination as usual, he was asked to make sacrifice with roasted yam, palm wine and a dog. he was to go to the farm with the sacrificial items. 

On the day that Ogun was coming from heaven to earth, he was passing through his land and heard someone working on the farm, he got furious, drew his sword and was ready to wreck havoc when Ogbe-Okanran threw the dog towards Ogun, Ogun severed the head of the dog and drank its blood. Next, Ogbe-Okanran threw the roasted yam to Ogun in addition to the palm wine. He felt refreshed and then asked Ogbe-Okanran what he was doing on his land and if he didn't know that it was forbidden for anyone to come there to farm.

Ogbe-Okanran explained that he was a stranger and it was the community that gave him the land when he requested for a land to farm. Ògún got angry at what the community attempted to do to the man and told him to proceed into the town. Ogun went straight to the king's palace and beheaded the king. Afterwards he instructed them to make Ogbe-Okanran their king.

That was how Ifá made an Ajoji a King in the land of Ipoti.

Aboru Aboye Abosise!!!

Ìbà Oluwo Akomolafe Wande for giving me this Ifá.

By: Ayobami Ogedengbe 

Copyright: © 2021.

YORUBA DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM OF THE OBASHIP STYLE OF GOVERNANCE

Every Yoruba community has foundation - founding members. 

They are usually friends/family who are made up of farmers, hunters, warriors. 

They have their individual strengths and weaknesses. In setting up the community, they identify each one's strength and through Ifá investigation elect themselves into offices needed in the social administration of their new found land as they learned from the fellow Yoruba town that they have migrated from.

They set up the system and the houses of the founding members become the ruling houses. Visitors can come and settle into the land. Individuals who distinguish themselves within the community are given chieftaincy titles to honor them for their good contribution towards the development of the community. 

The system of politics is built on the integrity of the nobles, and because of the philosophy of reincarnation which is entrenched in the Yoruba worldview, the community retains a chieftaincy title for a particular lineage because they know that the genius of its institution will reincarnate in time for the continuation of positive leadership. Integrity cannot be sacrificed in public office in the Yoruba democratic system of government. 

OATH OF OFFICE:

The founding fathers (the ancestors) established their political authority and stability on an oath with the earth - the mother of us all. All those who sit on the seat after them through the right protocol is assured of their spiritual backing (which makes them divine) and are bound by the oath of service in the interest of the land and the people through the guidance of Ifá. They enjoy the privilege of deity on earth as long as they can carry the cross of moral integrity in service to the land and the people of the land. This system of government possesses checks and balances to ensure that rulers can not become totalitarian.

There is no individual who will bring himself under an oath with the deities of the land that will not act according to the oath that he or she has sworn.

If this former system of arranging our society on ancestral integrity doesn't come back, forget moral integrity in the high places. Because in the western system which we currently practice, it is the survival of the most blatant liar. 

In the western styled democracy, rich people buy and sell narratives using the media, and on election day, they induce with money to get popular (naive) votes to win office.

The leader that might be of benefit to the people might not have the finance to drive a campaign the way you people want it in a western styled democracy.

Furthermore, the thrones of the land has ancestral connection to accountability checks that bind the king to sets of codes of conduct that if breached can result to as high as instructing the king to open the Calabash (commit ritual suicide) and join the ancestors. 

A system of government that can make the highest man in the land, the equivalent of a president today, to be brought under a verdict to kill himself when found wanting and such happens, is a democratic government.

Is this system prone to corruption? Just as much as anything is prone to corruption, but oaths are not broken without consequences, this was not a position that was contested in the pristine Yoruba societies. 

It was a style of Democracy based on a philosophy that humans know that they are the ones who will use their hands to get what they want in their society.

It was before the gospel that came to tell us that there is a God above who can give us harvest in lands we did not cultivate. It was the foreign God that taught us that we will collect from those who don't have and give to those who have. It was the God who said we are forgiven by grace no matter what our action is; it is the religion that came to teach us that not our actions but the sacrifice of Jesus Christ speaks for us before God. It was a culture that derided moral uprightness, calling our practical day to day righteous living "filthy rags". It plays down on moral values and allows us comfort in disintegration in Jesus and Mohammed's name. The politicians who swear oath of offices with those books will dare not do the same with the local deities of the land and act the way our politicians are currently acting to serve themselves.

The Yoruba system of democracy revolved around the moral integrity practiced in the Ifá-Òrìṣà Religion, it wasn't a vote of popularity contest which could be manipulated by cajolers (Ọlọ́ṣẹ̀rẹṣẹ̀rẹ́).

If we don't change where and how we expect our leader to be selected for us, then we can't have true change. 

if it is via this same means of buying nomination form and campaigning across the 36 states of Nigeria, then only those that have stolen and/or who want to steal (more) will have the luxury of competing to become our leaders and those are the people we will have to choose from.

Our duty therefore is to identify a process that emphasizes integrity more than popular votes. 

This integrity will be based on that of Ifá- Òrìṣàs of African land. (In the case of Yoruba, Yoruba land).

We are not saying that Christians and Muslims should not continue to freely worship and mingle freely as they wish, but the system of selecting into position of leadership within the geographical location called Africa (Original Africans) must be from the Ifá-Òrìṣà culture of all Original Africans. It is the Same across Africa.

Our homes became plundered when we (as our kings and chiefs and lords) preferred the Whiteman's things and we begged the Whiteman to come and teach us Whiteman ways, we were selling our own things in return for what he brought. Little did we know that we were destroying our own house. Now, we are in disarray.

It is time to see how far long we have gone into servitude in the hands of the one we thought was a friend. We are far gone. He has taken integrity away from us and made us to abandon our roots. 

We thought we were progressing at first, but here we are, we know better.

With the traditional system, You can't sell your people out and Sango that witnessed to your rite of passage and with whom you have sworn an oath into the service to the people will not make an example of your house in the community. It will become a history attached to such home for a very long time.

We must correct our foundation, without this, every face lifting and makeup and adjustment we are doing is still going to result in an eventual crash, it is inevitable.

You can't correct the faulty foundation of a building from the top, you go back to the foundation. If you get the foundation right, your building will stand.

Ifá is the foundation of our society. Òrìṣàs (Alálẹ̀) are the pillars. Ọba is the head.

By Ayobami Ogedengbe 

Copyright: © 2021

How Ifá Got To Asia

Lecture on Ifa Divination

He wrote:

I explain where the Cuban “Santeria” came from. It has the same roots as Haiti's Voodoo and Brazil's Candomblé. They were brought in to the New World by the Yoruba and the Fon priests (BABALAWO) of West Africa through the slave trade. In Cuba, the Yoruba language has been transformed into the creolized language called LUKUMI under the influence of Spanish language and other African tribe languages. Babalawos use LUKUMI in prayers and songs in the rituals. At the beginning of divination, they always chant a prayer called MOYUBA, which is also in LUKUMI. almost incomprehensible to ordinary Cubans.

Next, I explain the Ifa divination system that bablalawos use. It is based on the binary system, just like modern computers. Ifa is considered that there are 256 signs, fates (also called ODUN in LUKUMI) in human beings. The number 256 is very interesting. 256 is 2 to the 8th power. Early computers were also calculated in 8-bit. In other words, the Ifa divination has adopted the same system before the early computers were invented.

There are two types of tools. One is called IKIN(ES), 16 palm fruits. The other is called OPELE and EKUELE, 8 palm fruits connected by chains. The former is a full-fledged divination tool used in the initiation ritual called “MANO DE ORULA”(Hand of Orula). The latter is a simpler tool used in daily life and for the near-future divination called OSORDE. In any case, with these two tools, babalawos ask ORUNMILA, ORULA in short (the Divining Orisha) and come up with an answer.

Ifa divination is not just ordinary fortune-telling. It is proceeded interactively with the client. Babalawo ask the client to have a white stone called OTA and a black seed called OYU in his hands. The client juggles them in both hands and grabs one in each hand so that it is not shown to the babalawo. The babalawo throw the tool and asks the client to open one hand according to the system only babalawos recognize. If a white stone comes out from the hand of the client, the divination is confirmed, but if a black seed appears, it is rejected. As such, bablalawos alone cannot do the divination on their own. However, if the client cannot participate in the divination, there is another system that allows babalawos to do it alone.

Ifa divination is largely characterized by two things: the fortune-telling and the purification, exorcism called EBO. Unlike ordinary fortune-telling, the clients should act properly afterward. No matter how good the fortune is for the clients in the future, they cannot grasp the good luck if they lazy, forgetting about EBO. On the other hand, if you know in advance that some bad fortune will come, you will be able to prevent it by taking certain measures EBO advised by the babalawo. So you don't have to be scared if Ifa divination tells you about the bad luck in the future. You will get the good luck soon coming while avoiding the energy of bad luck.

Ifa divination has become a UNESCO World Intangible Cultural Heritage. In 2019 I devised and made a book about Orisha Divination in order to popularize Santeria and Ifa divination in Japan. I set up 8 guardian spirits (ORISHA) based on Ifa divination. Readers find out their own ORISHA under the certain system of my invention, and they can get Orunmila’s advice each month by reading pages of each ORISHA written in the book.

By Professor (Babaláwo Yoshiaki) Of Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan.

6 Greatest Pakistani Festivals You Did Not Know About

You might have never heard about these 6 Pakistani festivals before…

1. CHILAM JOSHI FESTIVAL:

Image Source: MiddleEastRevisted

Where: Kalaash Valley, Chitral

When: May second week, held every year

Main Activities: Movement from one valley to another, folk dancing, musical shows, exchange of edible dishes.

This three day festival starts at Rumbur valley and then move on to the other 2 valleys, Bhamboreet and Barir. The festival also involves praying for safety and well being of their fields & animals and as a token of thanks and honor, they shower their gods with milk.

2. JASHN-E-GILGIT:

Image Source:Tguidegb.blogspot

Where: Gilgit, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

When: Sometime between Oct – Nov every year, lasts 10 days.

Main Activities: Local games, tug of war, wrestling, exhibitions of local handicrafts, regional cuisines and attires.

This festival is to showcase the local talent of Gilgit Baltistan and is organized in allignment with the Shandur Polo festival. This event gathers huge crowds from all over the country each year where people can enjoy the beauty of the place along with experiencing their colorful culture and delicious cuisines.

3. KARAKORAM CAR RALLY:

Image Source: Jalopnik

Where: Kunjerab Pass, Punjab

When: Changes every year.

Main Activities: Car racing, sight seeing, cultural shows, musical programs.

This car ralley is held at a height of 4000 meters on the point where Khunjerab meets with the China Border on the Himalaya trail.  The journey to the point from Lahore is absolutely spectacular with views on some of the most beautiful mountains in the world and upon reaching the point the participants are recieved with utmost hospitality. People can participate both as just a tourist or a competitor in the program.

4. SIBI FESTIVAL:

Image Source: Everything.pk

Where: Sibi, Baluchistan

When: Last week of February, every year

Main Activities: Cattle and horse shows, cultural performances, camel racing and animal markets.

This festival has been going on in different ways since the 15th century when people used to gather to discuss the development and safety of their cattle and horses. When the Britishers entered the sub continent they converted it into a festival attracting crowds from all over Baluchistan and some parts of Sindh and Punjab as well. The festival still happens every year with tons of amazing activities for all to enjoy.

5. CHOMAS FESTIVAL:

Image Source: Tribune

Photo: At the altar of Malosh in Bumburet, the spirit of deceased tribal elders Kamao and Gashta are honoured by making sacrificing in their name.

Where: Kalaash,Chitral

When: December

Main Acitivities: Dancing, praying, sacrificing animals,  acknowledging and recognizing those who do good for their community, signing religious songs and playing drums.

Chowmas is the festival of winters held in Kalaash. Interesting thing about this religious festival is that all 3 valleys of Kalaash are closed to Muslims for 3 days and those who live in in the valley are not allowed to be a part of their festivities. They dance together and pray for the upcoming year to be filled with joy and happiness.

6. LOK MELA:

Image Sources: Tribune, Dailycapital, Brecorder

Where: Islamabad

When: March or April every year

Main Activities: Showcasing the culture of Pakistan through dances, handicrafts, cuisines etc.

Lok Mela is the festival to celebrate the diverse culture of Pakistan. In this festival people come from all 4 provinces to enjoy the variety our country has to offer. Entertainment is provided by dancers and artists from all over the country and its the one stop shop for all those people who are interested in cultural art and handicrafts.

By Alisha

Source: www.parhlo.com

Communiqué Issued At the End of The Pan-Yorùbá Meeting

Held Today, the 17th of March, 2021, at Mapo Hall, Ìbàdàn, Oyo State.

We, the Yorùbá Leaders of Thought, comprising Ọbas, Chiefs, policy shapers, politicians, technocrats, intelligentsia, security-related groups, and socio-cultural groups, have met and decided for the Greater and Common Good of the Yorùbá, as follows:

1) The Yorùbá are resolute in their determination not to stand idle and watch our space and land desecrated. Only an arsonist allows a fire to burn and destroy. We will not permit strangers to abuse our hospitality and desecrate our hallowed land and our sacred spaces. Indeed, we invoke the ancient maledictions reserved for such malefactors. Our forests need no permission to swallow them.

2) The Yorùbá, are confronted by the realization that we are living in a time of bad metaphors. A time when dogs do not hearken unto the whistle of the hunter and the rivers which have forgotten their sources, still continue to flow. The world is turned inside out and the socio-political fabric of Nigeria is ripped into shreds. Today in Buhari's Nigeria, the ship of state has veered dangerously off course, and heads almost irreversibly towards jagged rocks of destruction. Insecurity has reached such an abyss that hundreds of people are kidnapped in broad daylight with impunity.

3) The Yorùbá are convinced that Nigeria is on the verge of a catastrophic calamity, of potentially greater magnitude than either the internecine conflict of 1967 to 1970 or the brazen disenfranchisement of 1993! Nigeria as we know it, has embarked on uncharted seas, with nihilists as crewmen. We are a country divided along distrusting ethnic lines, exhausted by its failures, cynical about its own future, authoritarian by reflex and controlled as a personality cult by a section of the country.  The relentless pursuit of power by a group of self servers, the ruthless cabal that respects neither Equity nor Equality, with an entrenched sense of entitlement, has taken away any sense of belonging to this union, by the Yorùbá. When injustice becomes law, resistance will be a duty!

4) The Yorùbá announce their exhaustion with this Government’s obsession with Lies and Denials of truths and facts. Farmers-Herders clashes are denied despite photographic evidence of massacres and eye-witness reports of mayhem. Terrorists roam the land in the garb of herdsmen, killing, raping, kidnapping and maiming, with little or no reaction from constituted authority. A high ranking Government official declares that bandits are not criminals.

5) The Yorùbá are perplexed by the fact that the Nigerian state is bombing the Eastern Security Network (ESN). Yet, the same Government is embracing and romancing terrorists.  It is now safe to say this is a Government that panders to terrorists, protects terrorists, pays ransoms to terrorists, and prevaricates Terrorism, with absolutely no sanction by the Northern dominated security apparatus of Nigeria. How exactly can such a Government continue to seek the support of the Yorùbá going forward!?!

6) The Yorùbá hereby make known their opposition to Sheikh Gumi's interaction with these dreaded terrorists. A video circulating on social media that shows the Sheikh trying to divide the Nigerian Army along religious lines is an abominable wake-up call. The Sheikh is guilty of incitement, when he claims that it is Christian soldiers who attack bandits to sow religious tension. To encourage bandits to be selective in their reprisal attacks and avoid women and children is tantamount to aiding and abetting Terrorism and sabotage. The Sheikh has forgotten that thousands of Christian soldiers have lost their lives battling Boko Haram and other Terrorists. The Nigerian Military is one of the few institutions that have resisted division along religious lines. By condoning Sheikh Gumi’s felonious pronouncements, the Government is allowing him to fan the embers of crisis, while hiding under the cloak of mediation.

7) The Yorùbá are convinced that the North is already at war with itself. Rather than face that situation squarely, the Northern-controlled Federal Government keeps trying to divert attention by teasing out conflicts in some areas and exporting crisis to other locations. The Yorùbá call it, "da bi mo se da". It will not work. The Yorùbá will not swallow the bait and allow our hard-won inheritance to be consumed in the consequent conflagration.

Cognizant of the foregoing, It has become imperative that the territory that was known as Western Region under the 1963 Constitution, along with other peoples having affinities with the Yoruba Nation in Edo, Delta, Kogi and Kwara be organised in pursuit of our political identity and socio-economic welfare of all. Notwithstanding any politically correct labels, our quest is to think through and fashion out the pathway for the progress of our peoples at the homeland and across the world.

The Yorùbá hereby resolve as follows:

i) The Yorùbá have decided to embark on a venture of massive resistance to the issue of insecurity. Àmòtékún and other support systems, fully incorporating both Traditional and Modern security measures and systems have been integrated to form the South West Security and Stakeholders Group (SWSSG) which is presented to the Yorùbá and the world today. The role of SWSSG is the protection of our patrimony, our physical and human assets, our forests and our intangible legacies which have been inviolate and inviolable for over a millennium.

ii) The forests of the Yorùbá are sacred, untouchable, and out-of-bounds to terrorists. May the curses of all our forefathers hold to account all who attempt to cede even one inch of our forests to any ranch or settlement for the use of foreigners, despoilers, ruiners, ravagers and desecraters of our forests. Our forests house our spirituality, our Essence. Our Egungun, our Oro, our spirit, our food security, our culture, our Being!

iii) The Yorùbá distance themselves from the oft-repeated untruth that "Nigeria's unity is non-negotiable". This is nothing but a falsehood. Be it known, now and ever — “The unity of Nigeria is highly negotiable!” If we cannot be happy together, then let us find peace and joy, apart. Nigeria can only remain Nigeria if all parties agree to deal equitably with each other.

iv) The Yorùbá are resolute in their fierce determination to pursue vigorously our own chosen destiny to be FREE men and women, and never to be 2nd class citizens in our own land and space.

Signed:

Mogaji Gboyega Adejumo