By Suyi Ayodele
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I don’t know who divines for the President. I also don’t know who his prophets and marabouts are. But I wish to commend President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to what Orunmila did when Death (Ikú), Sickness (Àrùn) Contention (Ìjà) and Loss (Òfò) waged a war of attrition against Otù-Ifè, where the Father of Divination lived at his Òkè Ìgètì home.
To overcome the problem, Ifá, through Ogbè Òtúrá, asked Orunmila to let go of his favourites such as: Eku méjì olúwéré (two smart rats), Eja méjì abìwègbàdà (Two big fish), Òbídìe méjì abèdò lùkélùké (two ovulating hens), Ewúré méjì abùmu rederédé (two heavily pregnant goats) and Elílá méjì tó f’ìwo s’òsùká (two big cows with big pad-like horns).
In the place of those fanciful items, Orunmila was asked to accept only obì mérin (four kolanuts), orógbó mérin (four bitter kola), and ataare mérin (four alligator pepper) as sacrificial items from his clients. Àgbonìrègún (another name for Orunmila) did as he was told and he overcame his enemies. Leaders must sacrifice personal fantasies for their societies to thrive.
Unless President Tinubu is ready to make allowance for governance instead of politics, kidnappers will enter homes in Ibadan, Abuja and Port Harcourt to take citizens as hostages. Until the political class places a premium on the security and wellbeing of the common man above their political ambitions, our children will not be secure in their schools, our highways will be a haven for bandits and terrorists will occupy our farmlands and ruin our harvest!
The Nigerian singer and songwriter, Simisola Bolatito Kosoko, popularly known as Simi, in what I term here as a dirge for the living, released a short song for the kidnapped Oyo school children. In the dirge, she says: Adìe kìí ta omo rè fún oúnje (the hen does not sell her chicks for food). Unfortunately, this is what the President and his brothers and sisters in politics are doing to Nigerians: feeding the people’s safety to the gods of their political ambitions!
In the pantheon of Yoruba gods, Ògún, is in charge of war and iron. Originally from a now-extinct town known as Àpá, Ògún was the town’s lead warrior. He was endowed with all natural abilities to defend the town and he fought so many battles on behalf of Àpá and won.
At the beginning of his reign as the generalissimo of Àpá, the wise men who divined for Ògún warned him against nursing an inordinate ambition. They told him that the consequences of disobedience would be too grave for him. If he allowed ambition to take him out of Àpá, he would come back to meet a ruined town. And that is if he would ever come back. Ifá does not lie; Òpèlè does not engage in falsehood (Ifá kìí paró; Òpèlè kìí sè’ké), is the saying of our sages.
Ògún obeyed the diviners for a while. He did all he could to limit his influence to the army he led successfully. But one day, something told him that he could conquer other lands. His orí inú (inner mind) told him to leave Àpá to become lord of other towns and villages. The spirit said he could even rule over the entire world. Ògún chose to believe his orí inú.
Ògún forgot the warning of Ifá. He left Àpá without informing Alápa, the king of the town. A few of his soldiers followed him on the journey to nowhere. Along the line, he conquered towns and villages. He established kingdoms and vassal states. He made rulers and dethroned a few. His expedition was a huge success.
A man’s hubris follows him wherever he goes, is the saying of the elders. Ògún was no exception. His greatest flaw is raw, undiluted anger. When seized by fury, nothing was too precious for him not to destroy.
One day, Ògún returned from another of his numerous unprovoked wars to discover that soldiers left behind in the camp failed to prepare his meal. Enraged, he slaughtered them all. The soldiers who had accompanied him to the battlefield were appalled by the senseless brutality and voiced their indignation. In a fresh outburst of fury, Ògún turned on them as well and killed every one of them.
By the time he came to his senses, he discovered that he had no one to rule over. Then he wandered off and eventually arrived at an àbétè (a local drinking joint) in what is now present day Ìre Èkìtì. The revellers noticed his presence but paid him no attention, carrying on with their jokes, laughter and merriment. Ògún observed what he considered their ‘impudence’ but chose to overlook it. He also noticed that the seemingly ‘rude’ drinking party had not offered him palm wine. That, too, he let pass.
Just within earshot, someone cracked a joke. His friends laughed out loud. Ògún heard the laughter. He became enraged. Blinded by anger, he returned to the drinking party. He slaughtered all of them. Only one sober drinker escaped because the rest were already intoxicated.
Done, Ògún made for the gourd of palm wine. He lifted it to pour himself the content. To his shock, the gourd was empty! It was then he realised that he had committed multiple murder for an empty gourd of palm wine! His senses came back. He decided never to wander again. He struck his sword to the ground and fell on it. The one who escaped came back with the men of Ìrè to behold the gory scene! The place Ògún died turned to a shrine to date. This is why many believe that Ògún was an indigene of Ìrè and hence, the saying: Ògún Onírè (Ògún the king or owner of Ìrè).
What became of Àpá? Shortly after Ògún left with his soldiers, the towns he had earlier conquered seized the opportunity and rebelled. They waged several wars of attrition against the town and brought Àpá to its knees.
Àpá was in that ruinous position when an old Babalawo, named Ológbòjígòlò, came on an itinerary divination mission to the town. The old wise man was appalled at the state of things in Àpá. He located the king, Alápa, and offered to help.
For a while, Ológbòjígòlò did all he could and Àpá became great once more. But, he too, forgot what Ifá told him when he ventured out. He was warned not to eat over-ripe kola and not to marry two wives no matter how rich he became. When Àpá became prosperous again, Ológbòjígòlò became too comfortable and went against the injunctions of Ifá. In the process, he leaked the secret of Àpá’s victories on the battlefield to his new wife, who actually was a spy for the enemy.
The last battle Ológbòjígòlò fought on behalf of Àpá was the last that was heard about the town. The town was razed to its foundation and all the survivors taken into slavery, never to return! Àpá went into extinction. Its story is only told in Odù Ifá (Ifá Corpus) known as Ìròsùn Mejì, as narrated above. Ifá’s prophecy to Ògún came to pass. When a generalissimo becomes too ambitious, his homestead will come to ruin. When leaders have the mentality of self-first, the people perish under their watch!
The last one week has been tough for the entire South-West. From the videos of ‘suspected bandits’ and ‘arrested bandits and kidnapper’ making the rounds on social media, it is clear that the entire Yorubaland is under siege! No part of the region is spared; nowhere in Káàróò oòjíire land is safe anymore.
I saw the video from Ikorodu. Another one from Lagos Island was uploaded. In Oka Akoko, Ondo State, the narrator said some bandits were mesmerised by a local hunter. Somewhere in Ekiti, a suspected ‘bandit informant’ was apprehended by the people. Osogbo and Ikirun had their own share, just as Ogun State was not spared. From Ile Oluji to Okitipupa in Ondo State, nobody sleeps peacefully again. Fear pervades the land.
What we thought would not afflict us is now our common malady. The North appears relatively ‘peaceful’ now as kidnappers have shifted attention to the South, such that in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo state, a mother and her two children were kidnapped and housed among neighbours. It took almost five days before the police got the ‘intelligence’ that led to their recorded ‘rescue!’
In all this, our Ògún, the one they said is the father of all strategists, is the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Yes, President Tinubu was not elected to protect only Yorubaland. He is not the President of the South-West, but of the entire nation. I called him the Yoruba Ògún here because his members of the Alajobi gang said that after the popular Agege bread, the next best thing that has ever happened to the entire Yoruba race is Tinubu!
But like Ògún, who abandoned his hometown, Àpá, the current generalissimo in the Aso Rock Villa has abandoned everyone for politics. Ifá warned Ògún about the consequences of over ambition. Òpèlè too cautioned Ológbòjígòlò on the danger of marrying two wives and eating over-ripe kolanut when life becomes too comfortable for him.
The two legends, like the Babalawos of old are wont to say: wón p’awo lékèé, wón p’Èsù lólè; wón wo òrun yànyàn bí eni tí kò níí kú, wón ko’tí ògboìn s’ébo (they call the diviner falsehood, they call esu- the trickster- thief; they look at the heaven contemptuously as if they will never die, they turn deaf ears to the prescribed sacrifice by Ifá). Their ends were not palatable.
Ògún died in a foreign land, his identity is still unknown to date, while his homestead is extinct. Though Ológbòjígòlò, through metaphysics, escaped death, the town he once defended was razed, the king beheaded and the people taken into permanent slavery! This is what over-ambition does; this is what happens when the leader’s personal interest overrides the health of the State.
President Tinubu is entitled to a second term in office. Nobody denies that. Nobody interrogates his constitutional right to seek the mandate of the people for a second term. But that should not be at the expense of governance. The president’s ambition should not override the good of the common people. What we are experiencing in terms of acute insecurity in the nation today is because the President has abdicated governance for politics!
The idea that Tinubu does not have the capacity to tackle insecurity will not fly. The notion that Nigeria lacks the capacity (men and material) to get out of the woods remains eternally false. What is lacking is the political willpower. The priority of the President is the main issue. If today, the President says the people’s welfare and wellbeing come first, insecurity will be a thing of the past! If he does that, his lieutenants, the governors, will take a cue; they will follow suit.
It has been 25 days since the children and teachers in the Oriire area of Oyo State were taken into captivity. The Ekiti church worshippers are more than a month old in the captivity of those who snatched them from the Sanctuary of the Lord. From Zamfara to Kebbi; from Katsina to Niger, Nigerians, in their thousands, are being held by bandits, terrorists and kidnappers. The focus of the President and the entire political class is the 2027 general elections. This is where the problem lies.
I watched the video of the retired Army spokesman, Major General Rabe Abubakar and his wife, as released by those felons who ‘captured’ them in Katsina, the penultimate week. I could imagine what was going on in the mind of the man who rose to that enviable rank in the military as he was being humiliated! The shame of the helpless condition he found himself in was written all over him. Here is a man, who, at his wedding, was given the sword to defend his wife but he is being humiliated to beg for his life in the presence of the woman he was commissioned to defend!
General Abubakar (Rtd) is not alone. Many victims are suffering the same fate in the various forests where they are held hostage! If a General, whether retired or in service becomes so vulnerable that a rag-tag army can hold him captive, the rest of us, ‘bloody civilians’, have become easily dispensable! Many women who were once victims of kidnapping don’t live to tell their ordeals while in captivity. Many passed on because they could not imagine the molestation they suffered at the hands of the ruffians that kidnapped them! This is the problem the Commander-in-Chief was elected to tackle. How the President and his fellow politicians still sleep and dream politics while the citizenry waste away beats my imagination.