•Comrade OLAGOKE LATEEF, Asst. National Sec. Nat. Butchers Union
Two weeks ago, members and chieftains of National Butchers’ Union of Nigeria in South-West converged in Abeokuta, Ogun State to honour one of them in person of an Egba-born business man, Oloye Oluwagbemiga Ogunbunmi, popularly known as “Lakesi”, who was installed as the Babalaje Alapata of the region which covers the entire Yorubaland including Delta, Edo and Kwara States.
The inauguration ceremony which was held at the Abeokuta Sports Club was glamorous and highly eventful. During the ceremony, the Assistant National Secretary of the reputable association, Comrade Olagoke Lateef took time to educate the audience about the association and how lucrative being a butcher has been over the years. Below is the excerpt. Read and enjoy!
“It is important to make known the importance of being a butcher. It is a long existence business done by our predecessors in the past. The business became known and more prestigious about 40 years ago, precisely 1986 when the pioneer butchers founded and registered an association; “National Butchers Union of Nigeria”. The business is well practised across the length and breadth of Nigeria. In fact, the first president of the Nigerian Butchers’ Association was a northerner. The mantle of leader of the association continued to move across the regions of the country. Our current leader is from the South-South. He is High Chief John Osemede Adun (JP), a respected high-ranked chief in Benin Kingdom. Our association is deeply rooted across the land and we have executive leaders in all the 36 states in Nigeria and FCT inclusive. When it is time to install leaders, our President with other leaders always goes around to supervise and inaugurate them into office.
“Butchers’ union is a very important and sociable group in Yorubaland. Reason why is because from time past, you would see many top musicians sing the praises of our members. This is because they have done many great things in their business. Many of us and the younger ones in the business still work towards achieving their feats and emulating enviable virtues of our predecessors.
“In Yorubaland, it is a long-time practice to always honour outstanding personalities who may not necessarily be members of the association. As we honour outsiders, we also identify some of our reputable and successful members for recognition. Just like today’s ceremony where we are honouring one of us, Oluwagbemiga Ogunbunmi aka Lakesi as our Babalaje in Yorubaland. on the 23rd of October, 2022, we installed the the Muslim community leader (Aare Musulumi) of Yorubaland, Edo and Delta, Alhaji Daud Makanjuola as the grand patron of the Oyo State chapter of National Butchers Union of Nigeria.
“We usually honour influential people in the community because we need to tap into their wealth of experience in terms of advice and financial related support. We also explore their sphere of influence in areas where we need them the most.
“Why many people don’t reckon with our relevance in the society is because we are peace loving and don’t engage in violent acts. We are always dutiful at work. I could remember that there was a day we were holding an event at the stadium. It was a swearing in ceremony for our chieftains under our coordinator, Alhaji Eleshinmeta. It was at an event that the governor extolled us as very peaceful and well-coordinated. He said despite that we have lots of tools which could be used to foment trouble but we stuck to our work. He then gave us a huge amount of money and volunteered to be our patron.
– Jamiu Abubakar
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