Ooni’s naked Coup against Ogunsua!

Ooni’s Naked Coup Against Ogunsua

MODAKEKE, a prominent town in the South-Western part of Nigeria, is not only newsmen’s delight as anything having to do with the ancient town which population was between 50,000 and 60,000 as far back as 1884, will not pass the eagle-eyes of a news editor who is worth his professional salt, it is also a veritable zone for any politician in the state who desires victory in his political pursuit because of the block-vote nature of the people inhabiting the community.
This socio-political posture of the town is borne out of the fact that they always work in unison to achieve their desired communal goals. Some of the social infrastructure that can be found in the community today are products of self efforts of the people of the area who had suffered untold neglect and hardship because of their nearness to the cradle of the Yoruba which leadership has never hidden its desperation to arrest the development of the town under an excuse that the Modakeke progenitors were refugees from the old Oyo Empire who sought refuge southwards when the Fulani jihadists were hell-bent in dipping the Holy Quoran into the Ocean.
History however, has it that it was Ooni Adegunle nicknamed ‘Abewela ila gbagada gbagada’ (one whose okro leaves are very broad) who appointed the Oyos as the Modakeke people were then called, a settlement outside the walls of the city of Ile-Ife. It was one Adeworo whom Ooni Adegunle asked to lead one Wingbolu, an Oyo man who was a smelter of iron, who was conferred with a title of Ogunsuwa, meaning – one whom Ogun, the god of war has blessed with fortune which has become the title of all traditional rulers of Modakeke to date.
BASED on the above explanation which has historical backing in ‘The History of The Yorubas‘ by Reverend Samuel Johnson, it is however strange and unbelievable that a compound out of over 200 compounds making up Modakeke that had existed for almost two centuries, can wake up overnight and be laying absolute claim to the title of Ogunsua. With the successive travails of Modakeke in the hands of its predators and persecutors, it is an act of God that the town still remains an entity till today.
The latter day contention of a certain family that when this chieftaincy title of Ogunsua was conferred on Wingbolu by Ooni Adegunle, it must remain a permanent property of his descendants is not only wicked but a calculated attempt by a group of people to reap where they did not sow. It becomes treasonable against the Modakeke community when the insignificant percentage of the people who are clamouring for winner-takes-all solicited the effort of an external force known not to want peace for the community to hanker after what is the legitimate property of the entire people of the community.
It is saddening that some people are exploiting their closeness to the government of the day in the state to wage war against their community. The contents of available correspondence from them to their emergency royal godfather and those from the superfluous aggrieved elements are not only offensive but any true born of the community will find such unbelievable to have emanated from some supposed subjects to their traditional ruler before and after the 5th September, 2009 coronation and presentation of staff of office to Oba Francis Olatunji Adedoyin, Olaogbin 1 because of the displayed arrogance therein.
The people of Wingbolu compound in Modakeke should know that a part can not successfully fight the whole. What happened to the defunct Republic of Biafra should be fresh in their memory. It was sad that the protagonists of the civil war that caused untold hardship to some innocent people of the South-East of Igbo extraction for thirty months were themselves not victims of the needless war. It was the innocent and common ones among them that suffered. No single man can fight over 200 others. Even if the case is won in any court of law, how about the moral implication aspect of it especially when those who are beating the drum of war in the 21st Century will not be monarchs over the people of their compound alone. Those who are being used against their people should desist from being willing tools in the hands of avowed enemies of Modakeke, taking into cognizance the fact that it is the people that choose their ruler; presentation of a staff of office by a government functionary is a mere formality.
WHAT is the plight of Ibadan and Ode-omu that is not applicable to Modakeke? The tradition and history of Modakeke predated the stool of Ogunsua because unlike the ruling houses arrangement, the community is made of an aggregate of people who have agreed (ogun-suwa-po) to have an orderly succession by promotion in order of seniority of the entitled holders, a process that produced the past traditional rulers and the present Ogunsua of Modakeke, Oba Adedoyin.
The orderly succession by promotion in order of seniority of the entitled holders is exactly like that of Ibadan in Oyo State and Ode-omu in Osun State. The Wingbolu compound which is just one of the over 200 compounds in Modakeke had also benefited from the agelong promotional arrangement. If the Ooni Sijuwade had not wanted to deliberately cause confusion in Modakeke, why did he present, under a questionable circumstances, a hurriedly prepared ‘Amended Declaration Made Under Section 4 (2) of the Chiefs Law, 200, of the Customary Law Regulating The Selection of the Ogunsua of Modakeke-Ife’ on the 5th day of September, 2009, made by the chieftaincy committee of Ife East Local Government, signed by the Ooni himself, the council chairman, secretary of the chieftaincy committee in the local government, the commissioner for local government and the permanent secretary, ministry of local government and chieftaincy and community development?
I was one of those who doubted the earlier intention of the Ooni to give accent to the Ogunsua as a beaded-crowned monarch because of the antecedents and pathological hatred the Ile-Ife monarch has for the people of Modakeke. It was on the coronation ground that the Ooni executed his perfected coup on the entire people of Modakeke by presenting what the Ogunsua thought to be ‘a coronation gift’ from the father to his son in a well-covered and decent case that looked like that of a perfume. Sources close to the Ogunsua’s palace disclosed that the brand newly-crowned oba could not open the case until the night of Monday, the 7th of day of September, 2009 after his numerous visitors and well-wishers that trooped to his palace had departed.
It was after the Ogunsua had opened the case, the third day after the coronation that he discovered the Ooni’s Greek Gift which turned out to be the illegal amended declaration of the chiefs law. The Ooni should know that he is only courting anarchy by planning a coup against the entire community of Modakeke through imposition of the illegal chieftaincy declaration law which was signed on a Saturday on the unsuspecting people. It will not last; it’s a question of time. It is needless to tell the royal father that such cannot work in this 21st Century.
It was a pity that what the Ooni could not achieve through the normal channel; he thought he could do it through the back-door by adopting the system used by the British imperialists who were using the natives against themselves. In this case, it is visible to the blind, audible to the deaf and tangible to the idiot that the unconventional route through which the Ooni wants to create confusion in Modakeke is via the Windolu compound, the people who are referring to ‘the people of Modakeke’ in their numerous correspondence to the Ooni and the state Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola.
In order to add salt to the injury of the people of Modakeke, the Ooni’s secret amended declaration of the laws regulating the selection of the Ogunsua came up with a seven-member kingmaker, the chairman of which is an Ile-Ife indigenous chief, the Lowa of Ife while three members are to come from representatives of Balogun Ruling lineage and the remaining three members are to come from the Ooni’s self-styled and imposed representatives of ‘Wingbolu dynasty’ in Modakeke! This is a ruse which can neither stand nor fly. What right has the Ooni to select kingmakers for Modakeke? How many Modakeke indigenes are kingmakers in Ile-Ife?
It is an insult which the Ooni should stop forthwith. This development simply shows that the Ooni Sijuwade is not attracting genuine peace to Modakeke. He’s only paying a lip service to ensuring peaceful relation between Modakeke and Ile-Ife. While other obas are attracting meaningful developments to their domains, Ooni’s stock in trade is importation of confusion and policies that can not stand the test of time. Whoever advised the Ooni to toe this present path is basically not interested in peaceful co-existence between the Modakeke and Ile-Ife.
The Ooni’s intervention in the obaship affairs of Modakeke is selfish, bogus, controversial, needless, provocative and arrogant, the eruption of which, if not properly managed, is capable of shaking the two communities to their foundation. The Ooni should be patriotic enough to leave a worthy legacy in Ifeland; enough of bloodshed in the area. The ubiquitous rubbles from the crises of the recent past are enough reasons for him to adopt the path of peace. That fiery human rights attorney and humanitarian, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), died in Lagos recently and his demise has been attracting glowing tributes both from within and outside the shores of this nation simply because of his good deeds while alive. People in the position of authority should know that everybody will give an account of his stewardship in the great beyond.
THE only way the state government can help to sustain peace in the area is for the state governor to have the will power to refuse the approval of the Ooni’s bombshell because it is against the letters and spirit of peace between Ile-Ife and Modakeke communities; it is only when a sitting oba is on the throne that a declaration is made or amended; Ogunsua stool is a non-ruling house stool as rightly depicted by the instrument and staff of office which the governor presented to Oba Adedoyin on 5th of September, 2009; the imposition of unilateral issuance of an amended declaration was without the knowledge and inputs of Modakeke community as the stakeholders and their oba; the purported amended declaration is at variance with the tradition, custom, aspirations and wishes of Modakeke community with its over 200 compounds and almost 200 years of existence and the amended declaration seems to have assumed that the stool of Ogunsua is a minor chieftaincy under part three as against the recognized chieftaincy that is under part two of the 2002 chiefs law of Osun State.
Some of the other reasons why the amended declaration should not stand are because neither the Ogunsua Adedoyin nor anybody else in Modakeke has demanded for alteration, amendment or cancellation of the community’s orderly succession by promotion in order of seniority of the entitled holders; it is intended to cause disaffection between Ile-Ife and Modakeke on the one hand and within Modakeke community on the other hand; it is against the provisions of the current chiefs law of Osun State, cap 25 which means that only Modakeke community can lawfully and legally make declaration for itself and that the chieftaincy committee wrongly composed of Ifes cannot legally declare the Wingbolu family a ruling house among others.
Where was the latter day ‘Wingbolu dynasty’ when the enemies of Modakeke were ceaselessly working against the corporate existence of Modakeke? The present scenario on the affected compound which is now seeing heroism in the avowed enemies of the land in another neighbouring community amounts to corner-cutting and royal ambush which should be resisted by genuine sons and daughters of Modakeke. What the Ooni is working towards is to create confusion and anarchy in the peaceful Modakeke community, scheme for deposition of Oba Adedoyin and enthrone his lackey from the self-styled ‘Wingbolu dynasty’. On this note, a new slogan among Modakeke youths and progressive oldies alike henceforth should be “NO TO WINGBOLU DYNASTY”.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

ChatClick here to chat!+