WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND!
We all know but we’ll continue to sermonize it that the worst enemies of the people are the traditional rulers and the dubious religious clerics. The Obas, Ezes, Obis, etc are the agents who collect ’caused’ money from the politicians secretly and turn around to mislead their subjects into allowing wrong politicians in power, while the religious clerics profits from the emerging chaos and rots in the society.
Historicaly, we also know that it was these traditional rulers who willingly delivered their skilled and bodied men and women into slavery in return for cosmetic-powder, gun-powder and mirrors!
Our way to liberty is to acknowledge that the tradititonal rulers are agents of regressions, retrogressions, slavery, chaos, societal rots and degenerations, etc.
They planted chaos in our cities. They continually make emergence of beautiful cities difficult in our nation. How? Since the 1920s-1970s, Regions, States and Local Government Areas have in place, Master Plans and Development Plans that were to guide the growth of dwelling areas in orderly and effective manners. However, the traditional rulers, having been entrusted to hold the trusts on community land on behalf of the people, thrives on selling those land arbitraily to highest bidders mostly against all urban and rural planning laws, building codes and ethics. As such land segregated for playgrounds, public cemeteries, conservation areas, access roads, corner shops, public alleys, schools, utilities, waterways, etc are sold for haphazards residential dwellings. Majority of the times, they would stand to protect the illegal developers during constructions against Development Control/building codes enforcement officers in cases of contraventions being served.
If they are wise enough, they would have known that a piece of land in a planned environment like Ikoyis, Magodos, Omoles, Ikeja GRAs would yield higher returns geometrically than those in the slums like Somolus, Amukokos, Ajegunles of Nigeria. But for ignorance, they would have known that more than 80 percent of children from planned settlements attain successes cum urbane lifestyles early in life than their counterparts from the slums.
Aren’t the results of their continuing display of ignorances manifesting in the chaos, insecurity to lives and properties, monstrous armed robberies menaces, high infant/adult mortality rates,etc being battled daily? Would we be spending too much resources on security today if our traditional rulers had allowed law and order in their enclaves?
It is for this reason that an OONI, OLUBADAN, ALAKE, ATAOJA, etc, would not deem it wrong and sacrilegious, patronizing drug peddlars, drop outs, touts, rogue/murderers, armed robbers turned policians for patronage and favors. Systematically, they destroyed the hallowed institution because of greed. Today, they are the slaves in palatial robes under the whims and caprices of their supposed subjects.
As it is, who will bell the cat and tell the traditional rulers that “a stitch in time saves nine”.
Probably they might call themselves to jaw-jaw for a new beginning. Otherwise, their institution will melt away!
-Adeyemi Adetoye.