Former president Olusegun Obasanjo, in his weird element of a headmaster mannerism, spoke a drill to some Oyo State monarchs, as if addressing his pupils, during a projects commissioning event organized in Iseyin few days ago, by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State who played host to the old man among other eminent personalities.
Obasanjo has been seen in a video clip going viral where he addressed the monarchs present at the event on the need (according to him) for kings to adore public trustees like a president or a governor with open respect under all situations.
In a fiery attitude of mind, the former president, who by law, has become an ordinary man, lost the presence of his traditional mien when he chose to drill the seated monarchs on the way a governor or president should be greeted in a public occasion.
No one is sure of the purpose Obasanjo’s personality was anticipated to serve at the event that made him to dishearten God, the soul of the Yoruba tradition and its progenitors by choosing to drag the mystique of a race in the mud, matching Ori Ades (crowned heads) up and down in a manner that gave
offence to moral sensibilities and of course, injurious to reputation.
We are still puzzled at what exactly Obasanjo was eager to take home by deriving toward himself the opportunity to disgust the public air with his evidence of shallow level of the Yoruba world. Can it be a manifest lent to the allusion that the former military man does not share origin with the Yoruba progeny?
At first, he was grumbling but in a jiffy, he had his words for the royal fathers by trouncing them against his own perceived moral order upon which a president or a governor must be greeted in the public.
But if it can be asked; who was the president that Obasanjo wanted should be greeted at the Iseyin occasion? To the extent of visibility and protocol, there was no President present at the event. But if Obasanjo was referring to himself as such a president to greet, he must be presumptuous and grossly incensed with power.
He needs be tutored that standing to greet him as when a president cannot become a lifetime benefit. If by nature, Obasanjo is genuinely Yoruba, he should have been courteous enough to select the cause of honour to find a silent and modest way of addressing his pains.
The way Olusegun Obasanjo angered his emotion into perfidy against Yoruba was enough to erode the vestige of respect socio-traditional institutions in Yorubaland might have built for him over the years. Obasanjo bungled off reasoning for real.
At any rate and contrary to Obasanjo’s claim, the trusted moral instinct of Oke-Ogun stirred up in the affected kings as they, in truth, stood up to honour the governor as he moved on the podium for his address. Why did Obasanjo not notice this? Why did he not notice that the way the government protocols arranged their seats did not help the matters? Can the monarchs be blamed for the imperfections of government officials?
But some people were laughing as Olusegun Obasanjo was basking in his classic ignorance. Why? Can there be award of honour for a killer of culture? Can we be impressed by Obasanjo’s grip of manacles on our standard as a race? What mystique for the Yoruba race if our traditional rulers cannot weigh heavier than a piece of wool in the presence of politicians whose political contests are always supported into victory by the fathers Obasanjo demeaned? The effigy courts ignominy asking people to allow it be taken to the river for baths.
Is history dead to Obasanjo to forget the way Chief Bode Thomas allegedly died? We do not wish the ex-soldier the bad of fate but a glorified Obasanjo should note that he became a president of a circumstance and not a product of merit. He needs to know too, that, he has the moral responsibility as a statesman to play a role for the right keep of history in his old age rather than being a petrel that breeds the storm in cultural and traditional worlds.
The Oke-Ogun Crusaders hereby charge Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to tender an open apology not only to the Oke-Ogun traditional rulers but to God, Oyo State Obas and the Yoruba tradition in its entirety. This is the only acceptable offering to heal the desecration.
Signed:
The Oke-Ogun Crusaders.
