If We Engage the Active People, it Will Be a Lot Easier For Everyone of us.

An Obalufonic Call for Reforms II

HRH Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi (the Ọjájá II) CFR at Special Summit on National Security by the House of Representatives on May 26, 2021, Abuja, Nigeria.

“We don’t have any other place, the nation belongs to all of us. We are here talking, the organizer, the honorable speaker spoke first and welcomed all of us, followed by the Senate President, we also know the positions of this country, the Senate president is by virtue the number three man in this country, the Speaker too is the number four man in this country.

His Eminence spoke as well, as you can see the trajectory of everything that they are saying the same thing. The gatekeepers of our dear nation are here, the service Chiefs. If you look at this hall, the average age of every one of us is between the age brackets of fifty and early sixties, and anybody can challenge me if I am wrong.

Our dear country that has brought all of us together here, the youngest serving Governor is only forty-six years old, and we all know the demography of this country, the demography of this country is above fifty to the age of dependency is less than 30%, but between the age of eighteen to under forty, we have them in numbers of more than 70%.

And we are talking about security, who are the active participants? Whenever we have the breakdown of law and order, it is the average age of eighteen and thirty-nine, and that is the truth, are they ghosts? Are they invincible?

The answer is no, they are human beings. Even our laws, our constitution, they would say at some point that very active civil servants should leave on the average of sixty years old, because they know why because they are getting tired, maybe the judiciary extends till seventy years old, some sixty-five years, they will even say thirty-five years in service or sixty years of age whichever comes earlier, we all know all these laws, but every time we are talking the talk, the numbers two, three, four men, they are all saying the same thing, the way His Eminence said it and the participants are not faceless, they are not ghost.

It is very idiotic and stupidity for us to be doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result, let’s be truthful with ourselves in this country, we all know our problems. How well are we carrying along these people in that age bracket? Who is representing that age bracket in this hall? The answer is no, we are not engaging them at all, but whenever we want to go for political posts and appointments, we go back to them, we know the bad, ugly, and the good in their category.

They are the most active in our system, let’s tell ourselves the truth, they are hungry and angry.

All of us that are here, I will be very happy if anybody can raise his or her hand and say that I can stay there (local governments) in peace for one week, who can do it here? Including our gatekeepers, the Senate president, and the speaker. You left the traditional rulers, the district heads, and the baales to continue to stay there and you are saying all will be well in this country. We are the ones facing all these youths, we know their problems and we have been talking every time.

You sit in beautiful offices and you think all will be well, let’s us be very truthful in this country. Look at this beautiful building, as beautiful as this building is, if the foundation is wrong, the entire building will collapse because the foundation has a problem. In this gathering, the Senate President mentioned the key factor, the collapse of the local government. It has completely collapsed, because that is the only arm of government that is the foundation of this country, we don’t have any other foundation, we are only building on a castle that had completely broken down, that is the foundation that would gather the most active age bracket for you in this country.

You say we have 774 local governments and several wards, where do we have these wards being put together, it is under the local government constituents, they are under-funded, you don’t even reference them in anything, you don’t even care about their administration.

Where did we get it wrong in this country? We all have faults, all of us here, if we keep talking every time, we won’t get results, it is getting worse.

They are getting more emboldened, they are now very bold and ready to face anybody because they are hungry and angry, let us change our strategy, let us change our style, you leave this age brackets, if there would be problems, you will give them guns to start to move around, you will never see anybody above our age in our comfort zone here that is ready to face the music.

We need to engage them in every program in this country, you have neglected that category completely, the hall we are in right now, you have neglected them because they are not represented here, so, what are we going to come out here to talk about and this is our foundation, it is our foundation, we should be very serious in this country now, we should talk very seriously.

This issue of security, this national security is not the problem of the service chiefs, lawmakers, or the executive arm of government, it is the problem of all of us how many of these active populations are under you that you are taking care of? What is the essence of you being a politician that you cannot move freely? You cannot, do you think Abuja is only Nigeria or Lagos is only Nigeria? we have 36 states in this country with the nation’s capital, some people are there you left them, you abandoned them, and you are making laws and administering, what are administering?

I don’t know, so, let us talk to ourselves very seriously, these people are not ghosts, these people that are agitating left and right, we need to engage them, we need to engage them, and separate the corn from the shaft, we know the good and the bad among them, we can easily separate them by easily engaging them, draw them closer.

Let me give you an example from my community. Ife and Modakeke war had been the strongest communal clash in southwestern Nigeria, it has been on for a very long time, but what did I do?

A practical experience, I decided to engage the youths, for me to engage them one on one so that I could separate the good and the bad ones. Something happened recently, we almost had another breakdown of law and order, the boundary line of the two communities, some people started shooting sporadically and the two communities started converging and moving away from the boundaries and they were agitating the war started again.

I had to come out and call the youths around, that we need to do it at the dead of the night, let us go to the boundary and see the people that are doing all these things, lo and behold, we went to the boundary and we realize that the youths of the two communities are trying to protect their territory, at the end of the day, it was just an artificial noise that they were just raising.

If we engage the active people, it will be a lot easier for everyone of us. On this note, I want to thank the organizers, and I want to tell us that enough of us talking the talk, let’s work the work.

God bless us and God bless Nigeria.”

Note; Ọbalùfọ̀n Aláyémọrẹ (Ọbalùfọ̀n II), whom this Blog is name after, was the 3rd and 5th Ọlọfin of Ilé Ífẹ, whilst Ọlọfin Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi (the Ọjájá II) CFR, who is the foremost custodian of the Obalufonic flame in theory and practice, is the 51st and current Ooni of Ilé Ífẹ.