By Gbenga Oladeji
The court judgment that invalidated the selection of Pastor Afolabi Ghandi Olaoye as the Soun of Ogbomosoland is not just an unfortunate development but a decision that is likely to give Ogbomoso another image if not quickly resolved.
It is quite unfortunate that at this age when the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) method reigns supreme, siblings are still engaged in a legal battle over a task that requires sacrificing time, energy, and influence to serve their fatherland.
I am not a good student of history, but as a good listener, I have not heard anywhere in the history of Ogbomoso that the court removed the already installed Oba. But now that it has happened, what is the way out? How do we resolve this so that it won’t escalate beyond this level and the love lost will return to the entire Aremo Olaoye family and Ogbomoso in general?
This is not the appropriate time to apportion blame to the major actors or external factors who are in the background fueling the crisis because of personal or collective interest, but this is the time when they should all come together as brothers to right the wrongs and move on.
One could understand that the bottleneck being encountered in the making of a new king further establishes God’s world in John 16:33, and it’s part of the trials that will make Kabiesi appreciate and value the journey to the throne, but the intra-family conflict occasioned by the selection process shouldn’t go beyond this level in the interest of Ogbomoso and the entire Yoruba race.
Oba Ghandi Olaoye’s triumphant entry into the palace on September 14 established the fact that the Ogbomoso people love him and want him as their king. He further won people’s hearts with his speech. “It is a new day in Ogbomosoland. A new light is here; you all know what we went through before this day happened. To those still aggrieved, let us join hands for the progress of Ogbomoso. This is God’s doing; let’s work together to achieve great strides for Ogbomoso. We cannot say we love this town, and if we allow crises, we will make Ogbomoso better.”
To what extent did the son back his statement with actions, particularly in reaching out to the aggrieved members of his family who are not happy with the way he was selected, throughout the entire process? It has polarized the family; the aggrieved won’t come to the palace until they are completely pacified and realize the genuineness of the Kabiesi’s call for peace, unity, and interest in making Ogbomoso a place of pride.
Dr Saka Balogun, an erudite scholar, historian, and one of the elders in Ogbomoso, in an interview with journalists during the traditional installation (Ikije), insisted that there must be genuine reconciliation, right from the Olaoye family, between Oba Ghandi and other contestants for the throne and, by extension, other aggrieved external factors.
He said, “The first step to take is to effect very amicable reconciliation with his immediate past contestants because it was not easy to get him accepted as a candidate. Some of the contestants sent petitions and went to court. So, I think the first thing to do is to effect reconciliation, and he is pivotal to that. Without his body language and expression of peace, that area will remain turbulent for quite some time.
There have been challenges here and there, but because I believe he is the choice of God, that is why he has been able to overcome all the challenges, and I believe he will overcome whatever remains of the challenges. And I believe that one of the ways to overcome the challenges is reconciliation, and there are quite a good number of us, men of goodwill, who will assist him in getting that done.”
“If the man of God believes that he is coming to lead his people and believes that not all his people are Christians, he will use a different approach to handle the community, which is multi-religious, different from what he used to do, to shepherd his church.
He must be open-minded; he must be aware that if God wanted everyone to follow the same religion, God was capable of doing it. It’s in the Qu’ran that if God wanted everybody to be a Muslim, God had the power to do it. He wanted diversity, progress, and understanding; that is why we have so many religions. Both Christian, Muslim, and traditional worshippers are from the same stock. So, we are all creations of God. The Oba must have an open mind and must be very familiar with the historical process.”
To this end, one expects leaders of thought in Ogbomoso, kingmakers, traditional chiefs, and all the relevant stakeholders to as a matter of urgency, initiate a genuine reconciliatory process that will not only broker peace among the aggrieved members but bring everyone together on the same page for the interest of Ogbomoso.
Ogbomosoland cannot afford to wait for another year(s) to have a king; the majority are pleased with Ghandi, and the whole world is watching and waiting to see how Ogbomoso will resolve their dispute. Let us come together.”Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
To the aggrieved and the external actors, the contest is not a do-or-die affair; it is a call to serve, and whoever is selected to represent the ruling house as king should be accepted and supported. Please put whatever has happened during the selection process behind you and embrace their brother in the interest of Ogbomosoland and its development.
*Gbenga Oladeji writes from Masifa, Ogbomoso
