By Gani Kayode Balogun jnr
I hate it when one is right, not out of any sense of gotcha mindset, but because when you create a vacuum, it must be filled, according to Mother Nature.
A few years ago, the mercurial Dapo Famakinwa, the late DG of DAWN, The Development Agenda for Western Nigeria. An umbrella think tank for aggregating intellectual input into the long term development goals of the West, got some of our brightest minds together across a broad spectrum of Yorubaland, essentially to prepare a groundwork for adequate response to any scenario that was likely to affect Yorubaland in the next decade and beyond, so DAWN can advise the then governors of how to incorporate these ideas into a template for development.
Unfortunately, Dapo passed on shortly after, and I thought that was the end of that.
Incidentally, the death of the daughter of PA Fasoranti also provided the need to urgently return to that original idea, and his successor did the same thing, but this time as part of a larger stakeholders involvement, which led to the Security Summit at Ìbàdàn last year, where all the Governors of the class of 2019 were present, including the traditional institutions, the Law enforcement agencies, the media, as well as the Ááre on a Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams.
Earlier, the Aare had written to the former governors about organizing a security summit, with little or no enthusiasm on their part.
However, once Rotimi Akeredolu took over as the Chairman of the South West Governors Forum, there was a new sense of direction, and that case was the catalyst for that new realization.
With a fresh slate of Governors coming on board, apart from Mr. Fayemi on his second stint and Mr. Akeredolu at the tail end of his first, things were indeed looking up for a fruitful regional response to existential threats from within and outside the region.
While one is not unmindful of the political undercurrents serving as a backdrop to the summit, its success as a rallying point was extremely gratifying. This of course led to DAWN conveying a tactical retreat that produced solutions for what has become clear and present danger to the region, both in the short, medium and long terms.
The urgency was understandable. Experience has thought some of us that the best time to get politicians to do stuff for the people is when the matter is still in the front burner, once the heat dies down, it will go back to business as usual.
But the Governors were obviously made of sterner stuff, or so we thought. They took on the Amotekun concept with gusto, and things were looking up that a new dawn was upon us.
But when the Federal Government, overtly or covertly tried to water down the concept as was originally intended, by reading ethnic, religious, constitutes and political meaning, with the Police hierarchy suddenly bringing up their baffling community police idea, we knew that some of the governors will buckle.
Suddenly Lagos remembered that they have a Neighborhood Watch, and was willing to Amotekunise it if it can take in some yoruba speaking non Yorubas. Ogun went totally off the grid, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti, who bore the brunt of the kidnappings and herders invasion, trudged on with varying level of success.
When the Sunday Igboho’s issue came up in the last two weeks, I had expected majority of yoruba to see it for what it was, a brazen cry for leadership. A vacuum created by a presidential abdication of its duty of protecting lives and property, a state government that has shown a spectacular lack of emphanty for her own people, and was not even pretend to care.
And we all know that when the cat is away, the rat’s will play.
Instead, like covid 19, they jumped from one specie to the other, looking for a scapegoat, when the guilty parties are in front of them all along.
Who is constitutionally elected to defend you? The President of the Federal Republic through its various agencies. Who is politically required to defend you? Your governor, who collects security votes on your behalf. Who are those traditionally mandated to defend you? Your Kings, through their Baales, who are supposed to know the movement of strangers in their domain.
But if all fails, whose duty was to provide your last line of defence? The Ááre Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland. Through the OPC and other heroes that will be thrown up by the war.
What Sunday Igboho did was to fill a vacuum created by failed Presidential leadership, failed Gubernatorial leadership and failed traditional leadership.
But what I read online, especially from those who should know better, is to blame the Ááre for the failure of others. Even that would have been okay if the Governor of Oyo had done what Akeredolu did, if the Kings had allowed the youth to fish out the miscreants, if the police are not known to release those arrested without trial, and if Mr. Buhari, for once, play a Nationalist when it comes to fúlani herdsmen and host communities.
We have been down this road before, Yoruba only know what they are eating at the present, and not those who had fed them in the past. But it is okay, those who pushed Aare Akintola to confront his political boss and trigger the events that led to his death ended up blaming him for that act.
Those who pushed Ááre Abiola to declare himself President which led to his incarceration and eventual death are still living large today, and those who think we give a hoot about their wailing on social media will push this Ááre to rush to war without adequate preparation and political cover so they can enjoy the momentary satisfaction of another dead Ááre will wait a long time at the riverbank.
After all, Iba Gani Adams who proved himself time and time again, was in detention for a collective total of seventeen months, and yet remained resolute and unbending in the cause of the Yoruba nation. He has no regrets about his role yesterday, no apology for his role today, and no doubt about his role as the Ááre tomorrow,
For the records, ask those who know, the role of OPC in collaboration with the security forces in rescue operations of kidnap victims, in battling cultists and inter state bandits.
Personally I think one Sunday is not enough, we need a Sunday Egba, Sunday Akure, Sunday Ikorodu, Sunday Ìkàré, Sunday Osogbo, Sunday Ado and even a Sunday Ijebu.
When you have run out of Sundays as first responders, then call on the Ááre as the last line of defence.
After all, Elegbojo never dances first, always last., the grand Finale.
And you can take that to the bank.
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