Olua Min Igbomekun, Kabiesi o!

By Morufu Omigbule

The latest in the series of verbal assault against the Ooni is the much publicised manner of exchange of greetings between the Ooni and the popular Nollywood star, Chief Peter Edochie. Thanks to Mr. Odesola of Punch who, as usual, made a big show of it to give an impression of a vile cultural aberration. Was the Punch newspaper columnist the only one rattled by the event? The answer is capital NO.  Those rattled by the incident range from the known obsessive sceptics and pessimists to the bandwagon followers and the genuinely distraught. Rather than brood over the known critics of the Ooni whose diatribes patently oscillate between scepticism of a mischievous alarmist and pessimism of the pathologically perfidious, the present writer would want to address the issue of cultural assault said to lie beneath the latest brouhaha.

It can be understood why many are in denial of the fact that cultures are constantly negotiated either at major or minor fora, on formal and informal bases, in abstract and concrete terms, and so on. The irony of such a state of denial is that many who wail the most over perceived cultural assaults are big time dealers in constant cultural negotiations without being conscious of their immersion. We are in a period of persistent cultural negotiations that never guarantee absolute safety of any cultural reserves, essence and regulations.

Edochie, the veteran’s veteran

Of course many Yoruba are in a state of denial of this stark reality and would rather aver Yoruba culture is innately insulated against annihilation. White lie! A culture left un-negotiated for long risks atrophy. Part of such negotiations, I would admit, include constantly reminding occupiers of cultural institutions of the kind of agential roles the people whose mandate they hold wish they play or need them to play.

But to so remind is never to turn institutions and personalities we wish are treated with utmost reverence into objects of open castigation, ridicule and puerile polemics.  Herein lies my point of objection to those posing as rescuers of cultures who only shout on top of their voices ‘’fire, fire fire!’’ thinking (pretending?) that is the most effective way to put out an inferno. You aren’t helping by attracting busybodies, stirring peaceful souls, mystifying genial spirits, and wearing out rational minds.

The whole world is in a cultural mess. So, if any Yoruba perceives an assault on Yoruba culture and uses the metaphor of inferno to depict it, I might even suggest a deeper conceit to drive home the point the more. But we do see while crying ‘’Ti a ba n sokun, a ma n riran’’. So our forefathers nattily observed. That brisk observation has always remained with us. Who can deny the postcolonial circumstances across the whole continent of Africa? The sledge hammer of colonialism felt on African cultures repeatedly, smashing the totality of our ways of life into rubbles. Those rubbles constitute the African postcolonial realities which are being shattered under the pressure of neo-colonial landmine of globalization. The opposite can only exist in the imagination of the stone-blind or totally cataleptic.

On the parameter of Yoruba culture and tradition, Ooni Akande Ogunwusi is in a class of his own, a million miles ahead of his traducers who themselves are visionless to the dangerous precipice on which Yoruba culture has for long hung, awaiting (God forbid) an eternal free fall. For the stone-blind a way to rescue Yoruba culture is for the Ooni to be laid back, revel in the glory of old, stay in the ancient palace of Olofin to await honour, powers, authority, voluntary remittance of resources from across Yoruba cultural formations for his majestic upkeeps.

What’s new? A fellow Nigerian from Ibo extraction greeted the Ooni without the usual prostration the Yoruba do observe as a gesture of reverence for their kings. What’s new again? The Ooni was unruffled by it. But what’s not new? Ibos don’t prostrate in reverence of their kings. And their manner of greeting their kings isn’t devoid of reverence. And that is the manner adopted by Peter Edochie, a high chief of Iboland, who himself is well known to be well-cultured. In fact what is not new at all to the very traditional Yoruba culture that those shouting ‘’crucify’’ claim to be defending is that prostrating does not amount to good character. Ïdobale kii se iwa. This is a well-known Yoruba proverb. Traditional Yoruba culture has never taken for granted the possibility of hiding deceit in prostration. This same way we need to take to see through the deceit of Ooni’s known traducers who put on the gab of guardians and keepers of Yoruba culture.

Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, President-General, Ohanaeze

The time to call the attention of the public to dangerous presence and continuous production of poisonous information, remarks and narratives cannot be latter than now. May the reign of Asiwaju Bola Hammed Tinubu usher in a Nigeria of positivist opinion moulders rather than those fixated on doomsdays, tragic turns and falls.

Of note is His Majesty’s simplicity and tolerance. What some of us do know but perhaps is unknown to many out there is his gift of intuition for progressive and productive approaches which I personally think his genuine critics have not been unable to factor into their criticisms. His promptings, I wish to modestly declare, will never ever be quite calculable for the less circumspect. They will only get there when they are able to gauge sacrifices for harmony that touches the lowly and the mighty, that cuts across the immediate vicinity and the remotest end of the space in terms of difficult concessions.

Certainly the known and unknown naysayers of the Ooni may not have observed certain uniqueness in His Majesty — his genius. From the street to stardom like the Shakespearean Prince Hal, he is conquering far and wide. Yes, the conflict between royal etiquettes and street wisdom would befuddle purists, perfectionists. Unchecked sticklers may never be willing modernists, and so unfit for the Nigeria of today.

Need I say we are irresistibly in a fast lane modernity. We may wish to caution, correct and even condemn the Ooni’s style based on our high expectations of the institution of the Ooni. Yet modesty should be our watchword. By the way, to what extent are we even aware of the changing cosmological belief of the Yoruba and how this reflects in our cultural outlook today? Read some good critical pieces here and there.

It is our right to safeguard our cultural heritage. The institution of the Ooni is central to our intangible cultural heritage to which lots of tangible heritages are inseparably connected and, in some cases, dependent. Taking the path of a non-omoluwabi such as seizing upon a perceived slip in leadership to throw invectives at an Ooni and the position he occupies can never ever be a wise option. Never stop criticising but stop abuse and disparagement. Be patient without taking your sight off the fault lines. Onto us a peace-loving trailblazer has been given. In a fast lane modernity or postmodernity like the present times, leadership requires adherence to tradition and, at times, careful adjustment in situations of contradiction, except the bigger goal of a harmonious and progressive society is not in focus.

As I end this piece, permit me only one message to His Majesty, Ooni Babatunde Adeyeye Akande Ogunwusi, Ojaja II: Baba, you have done so much and are still doing a lot to restore the glory of the Yoruba, nay Africa and the whole black world, but your children, teeming lovers, cheerers, and well-wishers say just one little addition is all that is left – MAJESTIC RESTRAINT OF YOUR FOREBEARS (Ìṣe bíi ará’gbẹẹ̀). May your glory never wane. Olua min Igbomekun, kabiesi o!

The author is of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife