Oba Ajayi
The Akarigbo of Remoland, His Royal Highness Oba Babatunde Adewale Ajayi, a seasoned legal practitioner cum chartered accountant, spoke to GBENGA AKINFENWA in his palace on the significance of the annual Sagamu Day Anniversary, which kicks-off today, his goal, and efforts to address youth restiveness within the area.
The annual Sagamu Day Anniversary starts today, what is the significance of this annual celebration or is it just a mere jamboree?
We won’t say it is not a jamboree; we would have our jamboree, at the same time it is also an opportunity for our people to get together and think about the development of our community. So while we are doing our jamboree as you call it, we would also reflect and think about the development of our community.
You are marking this year’s anniversary for the first time on the throne, what makes this different from the previous editions?
The only difference maybe because it is of our first time on the throne it’s probably it will be a low-key event, with due respect to the committee, whether it is going to be high-key from that angle, I wouldn’t know and I encourage that if it is so.
But I do think it is time for us to reflect. In the last couple of months, we’ve had a very peaceful community; things have been working out right but in terms of development, in terms of infrastructure, in terms of things that we are thinking of, we are not there yet and this is probably a year of reflection for us.
This year will not be at a level we are talking about but I will probably be saying maybe in three, four or five year’s time, you should come back and come and see our Sagamu Day, probably we would have consolidated, we would know where we are going but this year my thinking and I say it cautiously because I don’t know what Sagamu Development Association (SDA) have in their arsenal to unleash. So if they want to unleash it and in encourage them to do so but I just think it’s a period for reflection and not just as a high-pitched event it ought to be because we are very new on the throne.
Aside the reflection and bringing together sons and daughters in diaspora, what do you hope to use this year’s anniversary to achieve?
Yes, actually, we are even thinking beyond Sagamu. You know Sagamu has been the capital of Remo and we want to cease the opportunity to bring the whole of Remo together, but it’s not something I want to do now, it’s a planning thing we want to carry all sectors of Sagamu and if you know Sagamu it is comprise of different towns and we want the people to have a sort of a Bible for whoever is in government to say look once you are coming in, this is what and what we expect you to do and we’ll keep records and in four years time, we’ll ensure that we come back and mark how far we have gone. But our focus actually is to develop our town.
Despite the protest from other contestant after your emergence as the monarch, how have you been able to manage your people, to achieve the cooperation and support you are enjoying now?
I don’t think there is any doubt that we came with a very popular support and we’ve been able to sustain that by being fair to all. Our is such that truth is always very constant, you cant go round with truth. And we encourage everybody to come to us with whatever they have in mind and I can assure you that people see us as a symbol, as somebody who genuinely believes in the town.
I can tell you that even those who contested with us, I don’t think there is anybody that you can accuse of not believing in the town if they now knew that there is somebody who is a rallying point what do you expect? Everybody is rallying around us and we’ll continue to do that and just hope that God will reward our efforts.
From an elite to a traditional ruler, how are you coping with the culture and tradition of your people?
I have always being somebody who is interested in all things. I have never being averse to tradition, I have never being averse to culture and I have never being averse to Christianity or Islamic religion and that is the way I am. We’ve been able to encourage all sectors, we had our wonderful traditional festival, it’s like the Christmas, we have our own season too and it’s been very fantastic.
So, the Oro community is very happy with us, the Egungun community is happy with us, the Eleku family is happy with us, and yet the Christians are happy and the Muslims are happy because you need to be able to do for everyone at least your bit.
I didn’t know that it demands to be like this, but we got it right and it is something that I have enjoyed, it’s more like how I wish we’ve started earlier. It just happened that this is the right time, the time that God has chosen and we are here.
There are high expectations from your people, as a learned monarch, what are your aspirations for this town in the next few years?
I don’t want to go dreaming and dreaming but I dream every time and I look at how this community will be. I think God has favoured us and in a couple of months people will know what I am talking about. There is something we call Ipebi in Yorubaland that is the normal seclusion that we go through as part of the process to the throne. The burden of expectation of our people that has been put on us are so huge and I do say it that we would not disappoint. The only problem we have is that we want to encourage our people to be patient with us. 11 months, one year is not something to turn around things, and luckily I think it has been said that it is a lifetime thing. I have no doubt in my mind that this community will be the envy of all. That is something I know will happen.
There is a stream here called Orisagamu Ewa, do you have any plan to convert it to a tourist centre, in order to transform the fortune of this town?
Well, I don’t think that is the only thing that can transform the fortune of this town; there are a lot of things that can actually transform this town. I will tell you something that you don’t know. Ogun State, in all the states of the country has been the state that has attracted most of investments in the country in the last two years and from that investment coming to the state, Sagamu, Remo community has taken almost 60 per cent of these investments. So, what are we saying? We believe that the Orisagamu is something g that we need to develop, we need to harness, we will do it and we are hopeful that by this time next year, what you are seeing is not what you’ll see. We would try and put some structures there, so that people can come and see the wonders of God and what our forefathers believed in.
We learnt that there is an Ifa school in Remo; do you have any plan to harness this and expand its scope beyond Remoland?
I also heard it and I am not going to talk about what I don’t know much about, but I have definitely heard about it, maybe along the line we should be able to pay a visit. One should not talk about what one is not really familiar with. Its something we will go and talk to the people, the initiators and see how we can harness what we have.
But one thing is obvious that I know and I think there is where your question is going is the fear that our culture and tradition will die, but I am telling you no. If you see the volume of our young men and women that are involved in tradition, you’ll be amazed. If you had asked me about 12 months ago, I would have told you that oh this thing is dying, but when I was in Ipebi the volume of young men and women then I know that this thing is moving on and I know that it will continue to grow because this is what we believe in and there is truth in it. And that is the beginning of life and whatever is takes us to synchronize with the modern day development we’ll do it.
Youth restiveness, especially cultism is on the high side in Sagamu and its environs, an educated monarch, what do you think needs to be done to address this social malaise?
I think the problems are enormous. I am not going to deny that we are not confronted with that, we are confronted with the challenge, and we are addressing it. But I think more importantly too is that our people-young men and women should have jobs, should have things to do. And we also need to let them know the value of working hard, because things don’t just happen over night, every little steps prepare things to happen. The idea of making million dollars overnight should be strange to everybody and our society should be able to know that their children who come home with hummer cars should be able to ask questions of how they acquire it. We are addressing it but part of the focus is attracting investment into our community, partnering with the government, making sure that our people are engaged. And some of the things we want to do is to be able to develop our own kind of industries in agriculture, and others to engage these youths.
Though people have told me that these people are not willing to work, but I said when we get to the bridge we’ll cross it, I just think we need to provide this atmosphere for them to be able to engage themselves meaningfully in production services, and all these cultism, yahoo yahoo and other vices will be a thing of the past. It is just because things are difficult and they are vulnerable, you see people using them to kill each other, giving them money to disrupt elections, but I can report to you that if you measure by index the degree of cultism or vandalism and other social vices in the last 12 months compared to the previous 12 months, even though I don’t have the statistics, I know that it is actually fallen.
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