Now, coming to this. I’m not too sure that Ekiti State Government had a sitting Attorney General on the dated date, 18th October, but be as it may, my position is that Government is doing lots of harms to our communities by creating all the obaships and granting autonomous communities. I didn’t grow up in Ekiti, but had my primary school and University education in Ekiti. I knew the political strength of Elekole in those days and the “ifagagbaga” of the Elekole, Oba Adeleye with the Ewi of ADO- Ekiti. I knew the strength of Oore of Otun and how these Obas carried their offices with honor and awe. Those towns were developing well and gradually. Today, we have over 17 Obas in Ikole, with the funds for development going to servicing the various Obas and their palaces. Ikole has become a ghost of it’s old self. Ikole today, cannot maintain nor sustain two Banks, due to poor economy.
Today, in Ekiti, we have two or three towns from different geopolitical zones bearing the same name. What the Military tried to keep off from, we the civilians, because of political mileages plunged into them.
I’m aware that Ado – Ekiti is a settlement of various peoples, from Ila- Orangun, Ijan, Egba, Ise, people who were displaced during the different internecine wars and skirmishes, the aboriginals, called Esun, and with the people from Edo( Benin), with Ewi as the paramount ruler. If every of these people are to request for autonomy, what do we get on our hands?
From history, Oba- Ile Akure has been before the coming of Oduduwa and there were villages like Isarun, near Akure before Oduduwa came to Ile- Ife. Today, Akure is bigger than those communities, yet the live in peace amongst themselves. An adage says, ” fools rush in where the angels fear to thread”.
With all these autonomous communities we’re creating because of politics, we are inadvertently building up tensions that will erupt in the nearest future. The crisis will start from the farmsteads and spread to the main towns as people start fighting over farmland boundaries. We are practicing Presidential system of government, yet we create divisions all around. We pray for one Nigeria, but divide ourselves, saying, “I belong to Peter, you belong to Appolo”. Yet, in all these, the State doesn’t have the financial wherewithals to service the offices and bureaucracies we are creating. We say we’re educated, but we practice stone age agendas. Where are we going from here? We seem to be sitting on a keg of gunpowder and by the time it explodes, I’m sure those who are creating the problems today would have taken flight to America and Canada.
Whatever we do today becomes history tomorrow.
These balkanizations should stop, please
My name is Lanre Ogunjobi, SnrKosija