Yoruba leaders, youths berate Tinubu, Omatseye •Over attack on Awolowo family

FOLLOWING the tirade by Mr Sam Omatseye against the Awolowo dynasty, prominent Yoruba leaders have continued to react to the publication

in Monday’s edition of The Nation  newspaper.

Former governors of  Ekiti and Oyo states, Chief Segun Oni and Adebayo Alao-Akala, were joined on Wednesday by others like Senator Akinlabi Olasunkanmi; Aare Latoosa, Chief Mabinuori Adegboyega and a youth group, Yoruba Youths Consultative Forum (YYCF), in condemning Omatseye’s comments.

While Chief Alao-Akala said that Omatseye, by his vituperation on the Awolowo family, had demonstrated that he lacked good parental upbringing, Chief Oni said that the attack “on Chief (Mrs) Awolowo and the entire Awolowo family is an insult on the Yoruba nation.”

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune by telephone on Wednesday, a furious Alao-Akala said that it was maddening that “an expired journalist who was brought home from abroad for rehabilitation can speak so low of the family of a man who has continued to be the reference point in the polity.”

Stating that an average Yoruba man, who was well brought up in the culture of respect for the elders would not so easily yield to his paymaster’s desire to annex the entire race, the former governor said that it had become obvious that Senator Bola Tinubu was desperate to acquire the status of Asiwaju of Yorubaland.

“Our late father, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was well known to have been a man who did not covetously seek to be the leader of the Yoruba people. Though he passed on to eternity over two decades ago, he has remained the reference point in national issues simply because he emerged as a leader naturally without forcing himself on his people.

“Though I don’t know anything about the background of the man called Omatseye, he had displayed the fact that he has no good parental upbringing. If this were not to be so, it is only a fool that would be referring to those who are not at the beck and call of Tinubu as stupid people.

“I am sure that Omatseye, like his sponsor, doesn’t know the virtues of a good family background. Tinubu, if he is bold, should tell us the real names of his father and mother; he should tell us the names of his blood brothers and sisters.

“If Omatseye thinks that his sponsor can forcibly become the Yoruba leader by castigating other prominent leaders of the race, who have rich cultural background, then he can as well wish our revered Mama Awolowo dead.`

“I have been saying it that everybody should be bearing his father’s name. Our brothers on the other side should stop using Awolowo’s name to score cheap political gains. I doubt if Omatseye, an Itsekiri man, still has a parent. Otherwise, he would have cautioned himself against how to talk to elders.  

“If somebody who refers to himself as an experienced and good journalist can be abusing a 95-year-old woman, then people like us, who he usually referred to as illiterates, should not be bothered about their antics and desire to serve the interest of their paymaster.”

Former governor of Ekiti State, Chief Oni, appealed to Chief (Mrs) Awolowo not to worry over the “garrulousness of any irresponsible person,” against the Awolowo family.

The former governor, in a statement made available to newsmen in Ado Ekiti, on Wednesday, said “the attack on Chief (Mrs) Awolowo and the entire Awolowo family is an insult on the Yoruba nation,” pointing out that “no one dares ridicule Sir Ahmadu Bello in the North, as Sam Omatseye did to Awolowo in The Nation and expects to be praised.”

According to Oni, “no human being either plucked or grafted or born by a woman can succeed at demystifying either the Awolowo family or the Awolowo legacy.”

Oni said: “The Awolowo dynasty was planted on an unshakeable godly platform of truth, honesty, unalloyed commitment and genuine service to humanity devoid of selfish aggrandisement,” adding that “it is a platform which no temporary political hurricane, tsunami or tornado stoked by any leadership-seeking irredentist can erode.”’

The former governor said “we should all look beyond Omatseye, the agent of destruction, but the mastermind, who is desirous of forcing himself into the big shoe of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo,” and warned that “‘whoever is behind this latest attempt at denigrating the Awolowo family should learn from the fact that those who tried it in the past met their doom at the point of their glory.

“The Awolowo dynasty is not a business for those who cannot point to their origin to feast on for undue publicity, attention-seeking stunts or any blind and bland foolish irredentism,” he said.

Chief Oni pointed out that those who are engaging some poor fellow to denigrate the sage and by extension ridicule the Yoruba race just to further their political expansionist agenda would give account of their deeds before God some day.

Former Minister of Youth Development, Senator Akinlabi Olasunkanmi, described the attack on  the Awolowo family  as un-African and highly condemnable.

According to him, “whatever the motive, the vituperation against Mama is un-African and I am sure those whom the writer strives to impress would not be proud of his uncouth and rude language to an elderly matriarch of the Yoruba nation. The conduct of the writer is gravely condemnable.’’

In his own reaction, Aare Latosa, Chief Adegboyega said: “This is a big problem. If a nonentity will wake up one day and start talking ill of our hero, then it’s something we should look into.

“Chief Awolowo, when he was alive did so much for this nation. This nonentity, what’s his own contribution to humanity?

“We ought to be grateful to Chief Awolowo’s family. We love Awo. We respect the living. This [write-up] is uncalled for, not at this time that the nation is seeking for peace. The man should be called to order.
“Why all these? Can’t we respect elders again? What brought about all these?

“Does it mean that we no longer have heroes in Nigeria? Has it come to that?

“That we don’t respect our heroes again? When people that have nothing to contribute to the development of the nation start talking ill of our heroes, it is very bad!”

The incessant-sponsored media attack on the Awolowo family by Tinubu has also been described as an insult on the entire Yoruba race that holds the late sage in a very high esteem.

The Yoruba Youths Consultative Forum (YYCF), in its reaction to Omatseye’s article, said it was sacrilegious for Tinubu to be using his newspaper, The Nation, to denigrate the family of Chief Awolowo, adding that “it is only a Yoruba person, who is a bastard, that would speak evil against the sage and his family.”

YYCF, in a statement signed by its Director of Communications, Mr Ayo Olorunsola, warned Tinubu and his “political almajiris” to desist from attacking the Awolowo family or face the wrath of the youth.

“Our attention has been drawn to the highly ridiculous and blasphemous article written by The Nation news-paper’s Editorial chairman, Mr Sam Omatseye, entitled:  “Awo family without an Awo.”

“Though  one would have simply ignored the article, but an attempt by anyone, no matter his or her moral standing, to bring the revered name of Chief Obafemi Awolowo to opprobrium cannot be ignored by any Yoruba person worth his or her birth.

“Most importantly, considering the source, motivator and intention of the article, we cannot keep silent, even when we understand the dilemma of Tinubu and his ilk.

“In their desperation for Yoruba leadership, Tinubu and his political hanger-ons must know that no matter how hard they tried, they cannot equal the achievements of Chief Awolowo and the good name he left behind.

“This is because unlike Tinubu, Awolowo never sought to purchase Yoruba leadership with ill-gotten wealth and highly compromised media. The sage simply became Yoruba leader on merit!

“Therefore, Tinubu and his hatchet writers are warned to desist from disparaging and blackmailing the Awolowo family, simply because the family has refused to be conscripted into the ‘Yoruba leadership for sale’ agenda.”