Caption:From the r-l Osile of Oke-Ona, Oba Dapo Tejuoso, Olowu of Owu, Oba Prof. Saka Matemilola, and Chairman of the 2nd Olowu Coronation Symposium, Prof. Tunji Olaopa, Chairman, FCSC.
“Tunji Olaopa Professor of Public Administration & Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, Abuja(Speech by Prof. Tunji Olaopa, Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, as Chairman of the Symposium held to Celebrate the 2nd Anniversary of the Ascension to the Throne of His Royal Majesty Oba Saka Matemilola, the Olowu Of Owu, held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library Auditorium, Abeokuta, on the 2nd of August, 2024)”
I stand here with a deep sense of gratitude for the opportunity to chair this grand occasion. Indeed, to have been asked to chair this very auspicious and significant celebration of the second anniversary of the coronation of our dear and esteemed monarch, His Royal Highness, Professor Saka Adelola Matemilola, Otileta VII, the Olowu of Owu, still beats my imagination, though I am not surprised. Indeed, chairing an occasion that celebrates the king and has in attendance Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, and this array of statesmen, cultural icons and most distinguished personalities, is one task that could make anyone quake with trepidation. It is therefore with a great sense of humility that I set the tone for this occasion in terms of the historical and sociocultural contexts that makes the Olowu throne and its present royalty most fundamental not only to the Kingdom of Owu but also to Nigeria’s developmental possibilities.The Owu Kingdom occupies a most prominent place in the annals of Yorùbá history. According to written sources, Owu was established shortly after the advent of Oduduwa, a historical fact that explains the popular Yoruba saying that “Owu lakoda”, which according to Akin Mabogunje, means Owu was the first to be founded after Ile Ife. Drawing their ancestral root from the loins of Okanbi, Oduduwa’s son, therefore, the Owu forebears became embroiled, like other kingdoms, in the internecine warfare of the nineteen century that pit one Yoruba group against the other. It was from this historical cauldron of intense conflicts and the migration attending them that the Owu ancestors further consolidated their hardiness, courage and bravery, especially during the famous Owu War. And no other personality embodies this historical character than Chief Olusegun Obasanjo whose sociocultural and national persona, both as a statesman and a warrior earned him the title of Balogun of Owu. It is with a deep sense of pride therefore, that I always trumpet my association with Baba Obasanjo as a father, a stateman, a warrior and a trailblazer in Nigeria’s political development. These same values and traits recommend His Royal Majesty to us as a worthy predecessor, a truly courageous scion and custodian of a crown that his ancestors earned. Since His Majesty ascended the throne and for the past two years, we have witnessed an energetic replication of the same spirit of accomplishments, fearless disposition and ferocious commitment that his forebears displayed in their many battles and struggles to protect their ethnic identity, moral dignity, territorial integrity and communal development. For the past two years of monarchical oversight, no one can deny the modelling case of a generous, thoughtful, committed, foresighted and development-minded monarch that is defined by community development and compassionate leadership. Oba Matemilola also has the profundity of a professorial status that makes him an enlightened monarch carrying the weight of sociocultural refinement and progressive improvement of his people. In putting the Olowu in context of a commendable growing trend in Nigeria, I like to say that with the increasing number of urbane, educated, core professionals, accomplished elites, and cosmopolitan modern traditional rulers all around Nigeria, we have been witnessing a resurgence of radical rulership. One that is just not content with occupying a sinecure status and thereby harvesting elitist opportunism devoid of political and social capital that could be deployed to reconnect their people back to the democratic imperative in Nigeria. Traditional institutions as nodal point for social mobilization, along with community-based organisations (CBOs), had filled in for the comatose state system and local governments as organizing framework for vibrant local self-help, catering for the needs of the communities, far and above the capacities and capabilities government agencies, over the years. An opportunity is therefore building up with this corps of expanding demographics of exemplary leadership like the Olowu who have offered to cumulate their efforts into a bigger advocacy for enlarged influence in the governance spaceThe Olowu’s brand and its significance therefore provides a veritable reference by which we can begin to understand the modernity of tradition. I had earlier argued that, Nigeria’s constitutional system notwithstanding, traditional institutions like the Obaship, Obis, Emirs, and all, have roles to play which cannot be interpreted as the rude intrusion of useless traditions. In other word, traditional rulership still wields sufficient local authority and indeed constitute enormous cultural and political capital in a measure that our refusal to recognize will continue to render constitutional order empty in terms of legitimacy, in spirit and in truthThe status of His Majesty is even more significant when situated within the local-national governance dynamics in Nigeria. Just recently, the Supreme Court of Nigeria delivered a landmark judgment that goes a long way in reaffirming Nigeria’s federal status, and a possibility of a democratic redemption for our ongoing experiment in democratic governance. The local government areas constitute a legitimate tier of government that has suffered almost irreparable dysfunction due to our anomalous federalism. The framers of the Nigerian constitutions were wise in adopting a federalism that ensures that the government interfaces with the people at the level of local governance located at the local government areas. This is why the grassroots is where we need to transform our governance imperatives, and it is the traditional institutions and structures, supervised by the traditional rulers, that hold the key to this transformation. It is in this sense that the Olowu of Owu and his ilk—Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Ugochukwu Achebe (the Obi of Onitsha), Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi (Ooni of Ife), Oba Sikiru Adetona (Awujale of Ijebuland), and many more—have become exemplars of a traditional institution with a modern significance. As an erudite scholar and urbane professional, His Majesty the Olowu brings a certain wisdom, forthrightness and pragmatism to the monarchy in ways that our constitutional framework can no longer ignore. In recent times, the fortune of traditional rulers in Nigeria has plummeted tragically. And this is due in large measures to the willful character fault of those involved. And yet, we cannot afford to throw away the baby of the constitutional utility of these traditional rulers and the traditional institutions under their charge with the bath water of the immature endeavors of a few of them. If all hands must be on Nigeria’s national deck to make our national development work, then we cannot neglect the fundamental importance of traditional rulers, especially those, like our Olowu of Owu, who are not just run-of-the-mill monarchs. These enlightened monarchs have a sense of a legacy of a sustainable model of community development and local governance that harvests the collective passion, energies and resources of people at home as well as the expatriates in the diaspora to address the yearning of the grassroots for poverty alleviation, industrial growth and sustainable development. This is my cogent but simple argument: local government autonomy and the sustainable model of local governance that it makes possible affords Nigeria the opportunity to get a leap on its democratic governance, especially measured through the achievement of the United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). Getting started is not a function of reinventing the wheels. In both theories and practices, there have been efforts on the global, national and local scales to develop a framework of decentralized governance that enables the grassroots to develop, own and participate its own methods of development and local governance that is driven internally. The principles that sustain this grassroots model is essentially that of subsidiarity, social capital and the capability thesis. In its most simple formulation, subsidiarity insists that governance matters ought to be handled and adjudicated at the lowest and most decentralized level of competent authority. Social capital on its own refers to the social networks and other dynamics of reciprocity that people call on to make sense of their lives. Lastly, Amartya Sen’s idea of capability speaks to the freedom that citizens have to become whatever they want to become and to function for their own good. At the local level, two initiatives underscore the critical role of sustainable development and its possibility. The first is the home-grown OPTICOM (optimum community) model through the theoretical and practical efforts of the late Professors Ojetunji Aboyade and Akinlawon Mabogunje. This is a rural development model that leverages subsidiarity, social capital and a community’s capability for sustainable development. Specifically, OPTICOM was built around four strategic objectives: organization, technological innovation, credit institution and market access. The second initiative that speaks to local governance is the Ijebu Development Initiative on Poverty Reduction (IDIPR) whose theoretical inspiration is Prof. Mabogunje, and whose motivational patron is Oba (Dr) Sikiru Kayode Adetona, the Awujale of Ijebuland. There is no other evidence that is needed as to the possibility of connecting traditional institutions at the grassroots to sustainable development as a model of local governance that instigate democratic governance. As we all celebrate the indelible strides of His Royal Majesty, Oba Saka Adelola Matemilola, Otileta VII today—and commend his willing energies to commit to more giant strides on behalf of the Owu people—I call on us all to reflect on the deeper significance of this celebration. We are celebrating not only the second-year anniversary of the coronation of our great monarch. We are also leveraging on his achievements, in the cohort of other great monarchs in Nigeria, as the framework for rethinking Nigeria’s development challenges especially at this crucial time when Nigerians are groaning under the burden of economic austerity. Once again, I salute the deep courage of His Royal Majesty, the radical breath of your vision on behalf of the Owu people, and your dogged commitment to a model of development that is still struggling under the burden of Nigeria’s development neglect, but which constitutes one of the building blocks of our economic and industrial redemption. Long may the king reign!
Share your story or advertise with us: Whatsapp: +2347068606071 Email: info@newspotng.com
