The town Eti-Oni at Atakunmosa East Local Government in Osun State is a quiet community with a lot of memories. Historically, Eti Oni is a Cocoa Producing Community. That is the occupation of the people of that area for many centuries now. Exactly, Cocoa Production started 121 years ago.
Oba Dokun Thompson is the Oloni of Eti Oni, he succeeded his father, who joined his ancestors in 2007. When he came on as King, he established Eti-Oni Development Group to Champion the course of building the model smart town, part of the initiatives is the annual Cocoa festival.
Last week, this stylish Oba was at City People Awards for Excellence 2018 and he was also honoured for his contribution to the growth of his community through the promotion of cocoa.
He spoke to City People’s ISAAC ABIMBADE why he has remained the only King to have been installed in a church and his programme for his town. Enjoy the excerpts.
You are the Oloni of in Eti-Oni, Osun State. Tell us more about yourself, sir?
I am Oba Dokun Thompson. I am a Christian. If you know a little bit about me, I am a twin. And I was the first Oba in Nigeria to have been installed in the church and everything I do is according to the principles of God. My entire being is all about service to humanity.
Tell us about your town, Eti-Oni?
Eti-Oni is located in Atakunmosa East Local Government and it is the oldest Cocoa Plantation in Nigeria. We started producing Cocoa in 1896 after the Kiriji war. Today, we celebrate that every November/December, after the harvest of the main crop. The whole idea is to create a renaissance in the Cocoa industry and redefine the Cocoa Industry. The Cocoa Festival is a celebration of peace, love, and development.
We say peace because it was after Kiriji war after a peace treaty was signed. We say, love, because the end product we produce is chocolate and chocolate is a food of love, and development because when Cocoa was brought to Eti-Oni it was to act as a catalyst to building the new community, as far back as 1950/60, that particular cocoa was used to develop Western Nigeria and we achieved what I would like to describe as being in the fore front of civilisation of contemporary Africa but all of a sudden everything went down, but recently, Ghana that has advanced its cocoa production, cocoa processing, and everything and defined the industry properly is even being defined today as the fastest growing economy in the world and this is the same thing we had as some point in time.
But I am hoping and I am working towards it to change that and In a few years down the line, we would have been able to create a model smart town in Eti-Oni.
Every time you are always in white attire, can you tell us the scope behind this sir?
I wear white not for any particular reason other than the fact that my father used to wear white and he was known as Baba White, and when he passed on I thought if he could have created an identity or name out of that, I would just carry it on because he is my icon, everything I know, everything I represent, I got it from him and it is out of pride that I wear the white to remember and honour the memory of my father.
Tell us about your father?
My father passed on in 2017. He was what I can describe as a nobleman to the core when I say noble, I mean he was not someone that was cut out with anything that undermined integrity. He was a man of honesty to a fault. For him, it was pride to say he worked with several ministries as a civil servant and not a penny was missing at any point in time at every area he served.
This is a man that was so humble and taught us that nobility is about humility; that position of leadership is a position of service. He taught us that when you find yourself anywhere it is not as a result of your doing but it is out of God’s grace over you. And for you to continue to work along that path, you need to continue to follow guidance from the Bible
Before you became an Oba, tell us briefly about yourself sir?
Well, I studied Mechanical Engineering in the University of Ibadan and I had a number of businesses; one of it was event management. I also used to run a facility management company, we used to support telecoms and power industry. On another side, we did a little bit of trading across Europe and Nigeria.
You just won an award, what does it mean to you, sir?
You know most times, people associate awards with achievement, for me it is not an award for achievement, it is actually a call-out to service, a challenge that exposes us and asks us to do more and tell us we can’t fail and we have no option to fail because it is not about today or 2, 3 years, it is a lifetime programme. Don’t forget, my great-grandfather started producing cocoa as far back as 1896 and all I am doing is just to carry on that and redefine it in such a way for the purpose of wealth creation, not just for Eti-Oni but for Nigeria as a whole.
You have this unique appeal; many people won’t even know that you are a King. What sets you out from every other Oba?
I don’t know (smiles). I said earlier on that I was installed in the church by priests of the Anglican Church, Christ Apostolic Church and the Apostolic Church. Perhaps, that sets me aside, I don’t know but oil was poured over my head like David was installed. That alone can set anyone aside and my life has to recognise that God’s name is at stake in all I do.
How have you been able to impact the lives of people through the production of cocoa in your community?
What we are doing now is that, we are working on producing our own chocolate, our own Eti-Oni Chocolate. It will be in the market in about a month or so but that’s not for the Nigerian market, it is for the European market. Reason is that, cocoa is not yet a culture in Nigeria and that is what we are doing.
When we create a culture out of cocoa, the value of cocoa will be multiplied by over 20 times and that is exactly what we are doing; we need to be able to eat it, we need to be able to use it.
Right now, we eat it not as producers, we eat it as people that produce the raw material exported and brought back as a luxury item. It can be a luxury item in Nigeria if we understand the values and that is what we are doing; we are working on putting the value on it. Eti-Oni had its own stand at the recent Chocoa show in Amsterdam to tell people what we do, to tell people our history and to tell people about our heritage, in terms of cocoa, economy.
And mind you, it is not just about cocoa, what we are doing is about creating a template that other communities that are producing one thing or the other can follow suit for the purpose of wealth creation that can develop those communities in a way that unemployment will be a thing of the past, lack of infrastructure will not be a deficit in our country and we can avoid all these things, if we understand what we need to do to redefine our environment for the purpose of wealth creation.
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