Igbos and the Akiolu Challenge

That he is both high-handed and uncouth are two known signature identities of the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu. Lacking institutional discipline in terms of disposition and public carriage is yet another defect that typifies his personae. However, these attitudinal deficiencies are often glossed over by a majority of the people for many reasons. One, a certain school shares the belief that such misbehaviours or character deficiency – regardless of age and status – is generally identifiable with the police and for Akiolu who rose to the position of an AIG, he certainly cannot be better than the system that molded him. The other grace he’s savoured over time has been because of the traditional institution which he represents. But no Oba in contemporary history of Lagos or the Yorubaland as a whole has undermined the traditional institution and ridiculed it like Akiolu. He carries on recklessly and often forgets the imperative of acting decently in public or speaking with utmost circumspection and discipline. The lead up to the governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) became heated, not because a leader of the party, Bola Tinubu had spoken through his body language, where he stood but because Akiolu, who supposedly is the Oba of everyone, irrespective of political affiliations came public to anoint Akinwunmi Ambode, governorship candidate of the APC. Although a majority of the people would later dismiss him as having been “influenced”, the fact that he gets away with such deliberate excesses is the reason he keeps repeating them. Otherwise, how does anyone explain this: “On Saturday, if anyone of you goes against Ambode, who I picked, that is your end. If it doesn’t happen within seven days, just know that I am a bastard and it is not my father who gave birth to me. Jonathan is my son and I speak to him everyday. By the grace of God, I am the owner of Lagos for the time being. This is an undivided chair. The palace belongs to the dead and those coming in the future. “On Saturday, if anyone of you, I swear in the name of God, goes against my wish that Ambode will be the next governor of Lagos State, the person is going to die inside this water. “I’m not ready to beg you. Nobody knew how I picked Ambode. Jimi (Agbaje) is my blood relation and I told him that he cannot be governor in Lagos for now. The future belongs to God. I am not begging anybody, but what you people cannot do in Onitsha, Aba or anywhere, don’t do it here. If you do what I want, Lagos will continue to be prosperous for you. If you go against my wish, you will perish in the water.” In what name do you justify this ungodly, arrogant and highly conceited statement from an Oba, who claims to own Lagos? This, no doubt, is a challenge to the Igbos. It is either they prove to the Oba that they are not who he thinks they are but also have a great stake in Lagos or chicken out and live true to type as a people, who are wont to sell out for as long as the price is good. The Oba of Lagos has challenged them and called them out to a battle of survival. Lagos is cosmopolitan and since Akiolu has refused to recognise that fact and intends to bully them to submission, the Igbos must as a matter of fact make a statement this Saturday. What Akiolu has done is to have declared war on the Igbos in Lagos over their right to choice. This portends larger implications for the Yoruba too. What if the Yoruba are issued similar death threat in other parts of the country? And to worsen the case, rather than come out sober and apologise to the Igbo community, the Ambode campaign group dismissed the statement that it never happened. That again is arrogant and counter-strategy. The palace too denied but eventually gave itself away when it alluded to some resentful palace tradition about the lagoon. What a story for the gods! Unfortunately, that bit only confirmed that Akiolu said so. What more, the audio has already gone viral, so there is no more denying! For emphasis, the Igbos, like any other residents in Lagos retain an inalienable right to vote whoever they choose to and no Oba, not even Akiolu will deny them that constitutional right. Akiolu is just an Oba and not God. Intimidation and harassment is explicably undemocratic and except they make a statement with this election, they will remain a “Second Class Citizen” not only in Lagos but in the country they call theirs. Let’s see if they’d be cowed by this empty and needless threat or stand up to be counted. Posterity is taking note. Fingers crossed!