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Omooba ABIODUN OGIDAN, PRO Fusengbuwa Family
How did the family feel when you saw contestants on Facebook and social media campaigning?
I’ll tell you what. It’s the era we live in. It’s unfortunate. We wake up every morning, we all rush to our phones. Not me. I’m one of the old school.
So, it’s unfortunate. I always tell my staff and my children that phone and data is for business. In the era we live in, the most popular people, the richest people, are from social media right now. Some people sit at home and make money from social media. So, how can you tell them not to do social media?
It has been bastardized as a reflection of Nigeria. You see, people always try and isolate things. Ijebus are Nigerians. They live in Nigeria. So, what are we talking about? It’s like they say our policemen are not good. Are they not Nigerians? Somebody selling bad fuel—they are Nigerians. They are a reflection of our society.
In the society of Nigeria today, people believe that you have to promote yourself. Wake up in the morning, carry your phone, start doing video.
So, what is happening in Ijebu became a reflection of our society. People started thinking this kingship is more like contesting for a position within the society, that is easy for you to advertise and say, I am the king. Select me.
What are we talking about? It’s still the same thing as the local government chairman or the executive governor coming in somewhere.
I’m a very blunt person. Who does it anywhere in the world that somebody will start distributing gifts to become a senator or a governor? So, if you cannot complain about that, how are you complaining about someone that wants to become the Awujale?
Yes, I can say it boldly in front of people. You come out, you do rallies, you distribute gifts to people. Give them cars, give them generators. So, definitely, the next man will think, oh, that’s the way to go. I have to take care of people before I can become the Awujale, but it’s not so. These are revered positions. People should go and take it easy. If they make mistakes, they should retrace their steps and calm down and see that position as a revered entity that the people look up to.
The Awujale of Ijebuland is one of the known Obas in Nigeria. If they call ten Obas to come and sit down in Nigeria, when our late Awujale was alive, he would be one of them.
So, they should take it easy and not turn it into a jamboree. That’s my own take.
I was also going to ask you that, predictably, it’s going to be difficult to find an Awajale that can step in to the shoes of the late Awajale intellectually, in terms of robust nature of personality, and all that.
Are you saying that, because I know some people share this with you, that it might be difficult to get someone like that through the process we are doing. On the contrary, I disagree.
I disagree because I have seen it for years and years. I’ve seen it, or I read about it in the Bible as a Christian, when King David was one of the greatest kings, and people thought, oh, after David, nothing. And Solomon came, and was even better than David.
So what are we talking about? We are not God. God made Awajale Adetona, and in time, God took him. If it is the divine will of God, he will give us somebody young in Yorubaland, there’s an adage, that says the Young are wise, the Old are wise that’s what created Ife. They used Ile-Ife, because that’s the cradle of Yoruba existence.
So there are youths that are well endowed with knowledge and wisdom, and there are adults that are also knowlegeable. And on the contrary, there are fools who are adults, and there are big fools, or bigger fools that are youths. We have a lot of young people controlling the biggest banks in Nigeria.
Young men, less than 50, 60, directors, EDs, go to the cabinet of the government, see a lot of young boys controlling CBN, controlling NNPC, they are young men. So if they can do that, they can do easily one of them, or one of the candidates. That is why they have to go back and do interviews for them, to know who is who, where have you worked, what have you controlled, what’s your passion.
That’s what we need to find out first, not all this back and forth.
Is it possible for a lady to be Awujale?
What I know from history, we have in our history in Ijebuland, three females who have been Awujale. Believe it or not, three women have become Awujale in the past.
So, there is nothing in the law that excludes a gender. So if really, we find ourselves at a crossroads where it fits perfectly, that we cannot find certain things in those men that have contested, and those certain things, that woman has it all, she’s just been ticked and ticked, and there’s no reason why the female cannot become Awujale. Though it seems a bit far fetched because of the numbers of candidates on the file but at the same time. It is a long short.
talking about the fact that you have so many people contesting, is there anything that talks about whether it’s from the male line or the female line?
You see, like I said initially, if you heard me, there are two laws that is being conflicted right now.
There is I think the 53 or 57, 19 something law, and there’s a 20, 22, 23 something law. There is a law, initially, that says you must be from the male line. You must be an Abidagba.
That means you were born during the reign of a king. Then there’s another law that has somehow pushed all that to the side and said, you are this, you are that. So we don’t know.
That one is left to the authorities and the government to decide which of the laws is their own choice. But for an Abidagba man, on the streets of Ijebuode, on the streets of Osasa, name it, ask them, they will tell you, you must be of the male line.
So that is folk law. Whether it is the law of the land, it now leads to the legal people to interpret.
