• Oba MICHAEL AJAYI
Recently, the Elerimo of Erimo Kingdom in Osun State, His Royal Majesty, Oba (Dr.) Michael Odunayo Ajayi, JP. Arowotawaya II celebrated the 10th year anniversary that he ascended the throne of his forefathers. The iconic celebration was a week-long affair marked with different activities. It was an event which attracted notable personalities from different parts of Nigeria to the ancient town. King of Juju music, King Sunday Adeniyi (KSA) was on bandstand. The Ooni of Ife, HIM Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi was present live. Of course, Oba Michael Ajayi has every reason to celebrate. It’s been 10 amazing years on the throne as Elerimo. Erimo under him as king has witnessed unprecedented developments. From roads to education, health, commerce, electricity agriculture and other sectors. The revered and colourful Elerimo, through private-personal partnership, has touched virtually all aspects of life of his people. This is not surprising at all. Those who know Kabiyesi’s background and antecedents know the stuff he’s made of. His achievements in the private sector, working for international organizations in both Nigeria and Ghana, speak volumes about his personality. All these, coupled with his experience as a Management Expert, are what he has brought to bear on his position as Elerimo. He has a very rich CV and an outstanding record of achievements to show for it. So it’s was in the spirit of the anniversary celebration that City People team led by its Correspondent Dare Adeniran (08057639079) and Photo Journalist Wale Osanyintola, penultimate week, visited Oba Michael Ajayi in his palace.
Sitting majestically and still basking in the euphoria of the anniversary celebration, the monarch barred his mind on how Erimo has fared in the last 10 years under his kingship. The strategies he has deployed in achieving the laudable projects that he has executed in the past years and all that. Kabiyesi also spoke extensively on his next plan to harness potentials of his town for more developments and benefits of his people. It was quite interesting session with the Elerimo. Enjoy the excerpts…….
Let’s first of all congratulate you on the celebration of your 10th anniversary as the Elerimo of Erimo-Ijesa. It’s quite amazing how far you’ve progressed in your developmental plans for the people of your town. Could you tell us what the experience is like in this past years? Has it been encouraging or otherwise?
Well, when you are on the path that God has appointed for you everything becomes encouraging. Nobody has the power to determine what he wants to become. This journey is a divine call for me, and so, I would say it’s encouraging. It’s tasking, it’s been challenging but very encouraging. And I’m where God wants me to be. So it makes me happy serving my people in this capacity. I give God Almighty the glory, and I feel elated. It’s not been that easy. A lot of people don’t really know what goes through with the king. All they see is the paraphernalia of the office but beyond that, there is a lot more. But what is important is one, to be sure that you are where you are supposed to be. Number two is that you are rendering services that will change the lives of the other people which is what I have tried to do in the last ten years. So I give God the glory, and there is absolutely nothing than to thank God.
How have you managed the challenges that come with the throne in the last ten years? Is there a particular strategy you have adopted?
As you know, I had my entire career working for international organizations in and outside Nigeria. So I would say that I have had quite a number of experience in the administration but that is not enough. When you become a king you are going back to school again to learn. Now we are talking about dealing with people. You can’t get angry and fire somebody in the town. You have criminals, you have good people, you have elderly people etc. You have to manage all their expectations, all the issues and all that. I would say that it’s only the wisdom of God that can see a king through. It’s beyond human knowledge. And sometimes when I decide to do something people wonder where did this idea come from. I keep telling myself definitely it’s from God because it’s God who will just speak on the idea for you to serve his people. You know God is somebody who knows the end from the beginning. As result, even when you are on a journey and you don’t know, God knows the expected end. I would say that it’s important to have a feedback mechanism in kingship or any leadership position. When things are done you must have an arrangement where you can hear your people, not listening to your own voice alone. No matter who they are whether downtrodden, elderly, rich , old or young. That is why Yoruba would say “Omode gbon, agba gbon lafi da’le ife’’. Meaning that you will combine the wisdom of a young, the youth who people believe doesn’t have much resume but has a lot of knowledge with the wisdom of an elderly person who has seen a lot. And we are talking about a lot of changes in the world. As we are moving into every decade there are new changes. There was a time everybody was running all over the place. Suddenly Nigerians are now able to transfer money now. We are able to reduce the cash outlay. A lot happened after the Corona virus pandemic, it has changed the way people work. A lot of people now work from home. So many things have changed in the world, and life has to keep changing. So even though this is a traditional institution, it’s an institution that has to be dynamic to give room for changes. You keep adapting to changes and keep determining the best way to reach out to your people.
Kabiyesi, you must have learnt a lot of new things in-between all these?
I would say I came in as a novice like you are getting into university like a Jambite. You really don’t know much but you have your IQ. Something got you into that place. But you have to now learn how to live in that place within the circumstance. When I became king everything looked a bit strange to me. Even though, like I said earlier, this is a divine call. It’s not my personal wish to be king. It’s the will of God. God planned for me to be king. Long before I was born, the prophecy had been foretold that I will be king and so it just happened when the time was right. I have learnt how to relate more with people. I have learnt to understand that different people have different IQ levels, different expectations and different wishes. And so as king and as the leader, the Job of the leader is to harness all these which is a job of a manager in a corporate setting. To harness available resources to achieve expected target objective or aim. This is what a king has to do. In the olden days the kingship was more about war, taking over other kingdoms and things like that. Right now it’s about developments. Two issues essentially, one, taking care of the welfare of your people. Number two, looking for how to develop your community because the government can’t do it all. You whose relationship with your people is a bloodlines relationship now has to take that beyond the level where the government might have stopped. The government come to different communities they offer services to and they go. They owe that to so many other communities. But as Kabiyesi in Erimo my duty is now to look at what are things that my people need. And I don’t have to wait for the government. This is why you would notice in Erimo we have gone out of our ways to erect, installed and drilled boreholes in almost every part of the town to ensure that people have portable drinking water. This is why when we had electricity issues, we had problem with our transformer. We repaired and replaced a transformer. We have bought a brand new one all through private, personal partnership efforts not through governmental effort. This is why when our market which is several hundred of years old became too old and not safe to use, we built a new market. This is why we are offering scholarships to indigent students who are intelligent and brilliant. So many things like that. These are not what government can do because the government can’t meet everybody’s needs. But I would want to because am interested in living legacy that the coming generation can see and build on and even do better.
So you can boldly say that you have achieved the targeted developmental goals you had when you became king?
From my background in the international corporation we always do a financial year plan. We do a five-year plan, we do a ten-year plan. When I became king first I had a five-year plan, next I had a ten-year plan and so on. Then I had the overall and universal plan. And so I have always had a concept of thinking big but starting small. The concept was what I brought into my kingship to say well, this is where I have met Erimo, this is where I want it to be. How do we do that? First of all, we have to improve on the infrastructure which we have done largely. As you can see a lot of tarred roads, even federal government road passing through Erimo and all that. Number two is electricity that have been built and improved upon. If you are looking for industrialization the facilities must be adequate. Then number three, education is the key aspect of my policy. My father was the first university graduate from Erimo and the environ. So it became like issue for me to ensure that every child goes to school. It’s still difficult for many people to pay or attend school despite government’s efforts. So what we have done is to identify those who are indigent but intelligent and then offer scholarships at the primary and secondary school levels. Over the years with the support of some of my Indigenes abroad, we have paid the NECO fees for our students. This year for instance, we have paid the JAMB fees to encourage our students to get to higher institutions. We have built the educational infrastructure through our relationship with World Bank, getting grands to improve on our facilities. Some of our schools are 70, 80, 90 years old and of course need constant rejuvenation in terms of rebuilding and reconstructing them. In terms of personal relationship, we have also set up the Arowotawaya Microfinance and in that we are offering interest-free loans to micro and small scale entrepreneurs. We have a Garri (cassava flour) processing plant here because there is a lot of cassava. My people are farmers mainly. We have large scale cocoa and because of that we have built Cocoa House which allows us to grade cocoa and get them ready for sale or for export as the case may be. We are rice growers too until certain incident made everybody avoid it. Now we are building it up gradually so that after a while we will be able to plant and produce rice the way we used to and better than before. So many other little little issues like that.
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