The Abracadabra Of Selection Of The New Owa Obokun & The Diminshing Flight Of Values In Ijesaland

By Oladimeji Alo

IJESALAND AND THE FLIGHT OF VALUES

Growing up, one thing the Ijesas were known for was their obdurate adherence to some core values. Ijesas pride themselves as noble people who would go to great lengths to extol those values that are encapsulated in the Omoluabi ethos.

In those days, hardly would you find an Ijesa man or woman carrying a begging bowl in public. They would rather starve to death than carry nylon bags to a social event to hussle for left overs food, as we commonly witness today.

Other sub-nationals of the Yoruba race describe the Ijesa as stubborn people, simply on account of our readiness to defend what we consider just and right to the point of death.

A lot has since changed. Hardly can anyone differentiate an Ijesa man or woman from the other groups we have today. Truth has become a dispensable commodity to be sacrificed on the altar of expediency. For many, money has become the god, which is to be worshiped and propitiated. Anything and everything could be justified, once the appropriate price had been paid and received.

Anyone who followed the recent contest to the revered stool of Owa Obokun of Ijesaland could not but notice that one of the candidates was uniquely positioned to win the race. That positioning was not done by any individual or any one factor. It appears to me to be a divine positioning created be a constellation of factors, some of which had been in place in the last two decades. It was like a chess game, where a winner emerges, not simply by the final move he made, but from a series of earlier imperceptible moves.

Thus, when Looja Adesuyi Haastrup was announced the winner of the contest two days ago, I was really not surprised. Let me, therefore, join hundreds of his admirers in congratulating him on his selection for the highly revered stool. I also pray for God’s guidance as he begins the historic journey.

When I first read the announcement of the process supervised by the local government, one point stuck out like a sore. That was the disclosure that seven of the king makers were considered ineligible to vote. Thus, from a pool of thirteen members, only six participated in the voting exercise and, of the six, one was a warrant chief appointed by the state government a few weeks to the exercise. In effect, only five of the bonafide kingmakers voted.

I have since read several comments on the exercise and the outcome. I am shocked at how easily some commentators dismissed the chiefs who were disqualified from participating in the election as persona non grata or impostors. All manners of theories had since emerged to justify their last-minute disqualification. Some claim that they did not complete payment of the levy imposed on them by the departed Owa at their installation as chiefs. Others claimed that the departed Owa deliberately withheld their certificates, in order to hold a leash with which to moderate or control their conduct in office. Another strange excuse was that the local government officials claimed they could not find copies of the letters of appointments and certificates of appointment of these chiefs in their (LG’s) files. Who keeps the files? Whose responsibility is it to update the files? Were any of the chiefs invited to update his file with the LG before the exercise?

In my view, every one of these stories is laughable. It smacks of the antics of Nigerian politicians whenever they set their sight at achieving any objective, however objectionable.

I am worried that many are not outraged by these tactics. All these chiefs were chosen and formally/publicly installed into their offices by the departed Owa. Up to the last two days, no one questioned their positions or offices. Virtually all of them played one role or the other in the rituals and ceremonies related to the burial of the last king. At those sacred moments, no one demanded their LG files or their certificates. They were prevailed upon and persuaded to perform the rites demanded of their traditional offices.

I am concerned that we do not appear to care about the sensibilities of the other contestants. In every contest, only one person would emerge as the overall winner. But, It is quite easy to accept defeat when the process is fair and devoid of manipulation.

Something tells me that that last minute maneuver was totally unnecessary. As I stated earlier, in a truly fair and transparent process, Looja Adesuyi Haastrup would probably have emerged the winner, without any contrived administrative magomago.

I pray that the Lord grants all the stakeholders the grace to manage the transition. Amen