BETWEEN RASCALS AND OMOLUABIS IN THE SOUTHWEST
In Yorubaland, there are two words with which the character of a child is described. A child is either an Ipata (rascal) or Omoluabi (well behaved). The concept of Omoluabi, which every parent would love their children to be is well defined. An Omoluabi is an honest, upright and hardworking person, who is always conscious of his father’s name and won’t for any reason seek to achieve anything through dubious means. Ipata or Omo papanlagi is the opposite of everything that an Omoluabi stands for.
It is in the above context that I opine that President Goodluck Jonathan’s comment that the Southwest was too important to be in the hands of rascals was an arrow that must have pierced the heart of those who believe they do not come close to being referred to as an Omoluabi. Obviously, they must react. President Jonathan had said at Ibadan, while addressing crowd of supporters at the campaign ground of Mapo Hall that; “I can assure you that we will take back Lagos, Ekiti and Osun; we will control the entire South-West. The entire South-West is too important, too sophisticated and educated to be in the hands of rascals.”
As expected, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and its agents have since then been up in arms against the president, the latest being the party’s sole-proprietor and former Lagos State Governor, Mr. Bola Tinubu, who referred to President Jonathan as a “drunken fisherman.” Judging from Tinubu’s comment alone, it won’t be out of place to say that the president was indeed right to have said that the Southwest must be rescued from the hands of rascals! But can Mr. President be blamed for saying the obvious about a party that parades serial document forgers as leaders and governors who got into office through black market judicial victories? Absolutely no! Again, is there any other word with which people that emerged as governors through fraudulent means can be described other than rascals? Definitely not too!
Is it not on record that the Justice Isa Ayo Salami installed governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, through his egal counsel; Mr. Sulyman Babakebe forged an affidavit in the name of Late Adrian Forty while Governor Rauf Aregbesola allegedly forged the Police Report with which he obtained favourable judgment in his case against Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola? He (Aregbesola) was only saved from going to jail by the controversial Appeal Court judgment that used votes of 20 out of 30 Local Councils to make him governor. The serial forgers in the ACN could not even spare their own party documents. They forged the party’s voters’ register in Ekiti during their “primary elections” that never produced any candidate.
The ACN leaders also deposed to false affidavits during the recent primaries. Besides, while President Jonathan can be referred to as a son of a fisherman, can it be said with any measure of certainty that Tinubu is a son of anyone? Again, can a group of people, who tricked aspirants into parting with their hard earned money as nomination fees and party levies only for them to be told that the party tickets had been handed to wives, children, in-laws, friends and concubines of some of the party leaders be regarded as Omoluabi? Even for obvious reasons, Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State that the ACN desperately wanted as an ally has chosen to be his own person. It is also more laughable that the ACN Spokesperson, Mr. Lai Mohammed in demonstrating his crass hypocrisy about happenings in Ekiti and Osun States since the ACN’s fraudulent take-over of government said Governors Fayemi and Aregbesola were already restoring hope to the people.
Perhaps, he (Mohammed) chose to close his eyes and mind to the blood-letting, deceit, fraud, executive rascality, thuggery and other anti-democratic acts that had been perpetrated in Ekiti since Fayemi bought his way to the government house. In Ekiti over ten people have been killed since Fayemi became governor. It was in Fayemi’s Ekiti that Chief Adeleye Awolumate and Makanju Omoniyi were murdered in broad daylight while a pregnant civil servant, Adeola Akanni was being slaughtered like a goat before she was rescued half-dead. Chairman of the ACN, Mr. Jide Awe was a victim of the party’s display of rascality in Ekiti. He was assaulted right inside the party secretariat by the gun-wielding thugs and for weeks, Awe did not come near the secretariat. Forgery, perjury, thuggery, deceit, blood-letting, fraud, executive rascality and other vices that cannot be associated with an Omoluabi are hallmarks of the ACN and its leaders. Yet, they are assaulting the President for telling them exactly what they are. Perhaps, in their own world, a rascal is an Omoluabi while a well behaved child is an Ipata! If not, no one would have taken pride in defending a group of serial document forgers, killers and 419ners, who obtained millions of naira from their members by trick only for the aspirants to be told later that other people had been picked as candidates in crass infraction of the Electoral Act 2010?
Olayinka, a journalist writes from Okemesi-Ekiti.