When the news broke out of Oshogbo, Oshun State, that the Attorney General of the State is Femi Akande, the son of Chief Bisi Akande the APC founding interim chairman, something in me snapped.

The junior Akande an appointee of Governor Oyetola nephew of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was privileged with the appointment of his wife, Mrs Oyinkansola Akande as his Special Assistant was going to join him on Government pay roll, I knew the mighty has fallen, a true Awoists has become a faithful disciple of an hyper hypocritical outcast of the Awolowo’s Afenifere clan. Akande with Tinubu has become the foremost Apostles of “Awoism” in the market place of Nigerian politics.

Like Peter and John they are often seen together at the beautiful gate, but not to say; “silver and gold we have none”, for Awoism has become their wares and progressivism their business.

Their allegiance to mammon has made them so rich in silver and gold but poor in the value of Awo’s political ideology which they claim to propagate.

No one indeed can serve two masters; for he will either hate one and love the other. Jagaban and his companions have chosen to love mammon and hate their master.

Their descent into the abyss of poverty of minds compelled me to take a peep at the life and legacy of Cheif Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo.

Awo, is a study beyond the written, a political research unbounded by the four walls of any library. Awoism is a “religion” driven by a political socialist culture and values.

You cannot understand Awoism except you have encountered an adherent whose life isn’t words and make believe but true reflection of the Man Awo.

One common value of all true Awoists is lack of desire to own the world. Contentment as their golden rule sets them apart and concern for the masses among whom they often live, is their known identity.

Recently, the exit of the man, known as Baba kekere, who never wore Agbada since 1962 till he died because the role an agbada played for his incarceration with Awolowo (a story for another day).

The life of Baba kekere was celebrated by the Lagos State Government and Nigerians alike. He was indeed a miniature representation of the great Awo.

The greatest tool of oppression in our oppressors’ hands is not power, but rather our ignorance of historical details of our emancipation as a nation and roles of our heroes and profile of the portrait of the life they lived.

A people with knowledge of their history are never in doubt of where they are coming from, where they are and the place they are headed.

“Bi omode o ba itan a ba aroba, aroba si ni baba itan”. If a child doesn’t have access to historical records he will, to narratives of events by eye witnesses and this is superior in facts to history.

On May 13, 2021 at about 2:19pm, I was enriched by “aroba”, when I had the privilege of speaking on phone with a reliable and dependable custodian of Awoism, an Awoist extra ordinary, the man who stood on the legacy of justice and fairness of the Awolowo political family’s value of “Afenifere” to make Bola Ahmed Tinubu Governor in 1999. I had missed Baba Ayo Adebanjo’s call, few days before then and courtesy demand that I return his call.

Though Baba wouldn’t remember why he had called me earlier, he was as vibrant as ever, articulate on what the narrative guiding political space today should be. Veritable counsel was given, and then Baba dropped something like this “at your age, we stood for nothing but value. We were everywhere, London, Lagos, all over the place championing same”. I got the massage.

The message was clear: the tenets of Awoism is like a political religion. In one word Awoism is value, selflessness and service to humanity to see an egalitarian society..I was immediately reminded of my favourite line in the UPN anthem; “…egalitarianism is our national watch word”. What a moment of nostalgia!

Hypocrisy is the greatest challenge of every known religion of the world.

In Islam for example in Nigeria, we have the Boko Haramist whose disdain for western education and civilisation is the war ravaging the country.

Yet this Jihadists are prosecuting their war against the rest of us with products of western education and civilisation. What an irony!

Another extreme view guided a group of Christians in Nigeria in the 70s and early 80s, who then referred to “Tell the vision” (Television), as the devil’s box.

But today, their social moderation and bridge building efforts across denominations are out in the open, an example for all of us. Ignorance is the grip upon minds which is inherent in the human nature, but it must fade in the light knowledge.

Any group whose today is not better than their yesterday is nothing but a stagnant stinking pool with no hope of life. The Deeper Life movement is an example of yesterday’s revival and a light in today’s renewal, path to a sustainable ever evolving tomorrow. May God bless their future.

How much of influence the Sage, Awolowo exerted upon the young mind of God’s General, Williams Folorunsho Kumuyi in his formative years at Mayflower School Ikenne where he was tutored by Tai Solarin a foremost disciple of Awo’s socialist culture only our father in the Lord can tell.

Awoism is today faced with the challenge of who are the true Awoists among many who are making merchandise of the ideology. No doubt, Awo sought for a better Nigeria while he lived and laboured for a greater western Nigeria, (Yoruba Nation).

Baba kekere gave up his Awo like fashioned Agbada, but never the socialist ideology of the man Awolowo. Many today are capped in Awo’s cap but without the mind of the sage.

They share his round shaped spetacle but not his power of hindsight, insight and foresight. I grew up to know Jakande with one house address, Ilupeju, Lagos, where he lived his entire life, before, in and after Government till death struck.

“Peter” and “John”, leaders of our “progressive” family recently walked hand in hand past the beautiful gate of the Villa to wine and dine at the table of the oligarch where issues of “national interest” must have been tabled and a message for the common people of South West Nigeria must have been sent.

Coming out from a Villa where the light is 24/7, but unfortunately rules the perpetuity of black out over our country.

Men who were known to transact political business on behalf of the oligarch in moneys so much only bullion vans can “ferry” are calling a meeting for Sunday the 23rd of May 2021, with South West Governors, to discuss, not the Yoruba nation or at least our desire for restructuring, but the “secessionist idea” according to the public communication of errand runners of the Fulani lord, whose marauding brothers must either takeover our ancestral land as grazing fields for their cattle or they make it our burial grounds. The meeting was called by the caucus of the hypocritical Awoists, led by their atona ibi, a former Governor of Osun State.

The “Olumona of Lagos” and Alejo of Kano, the Asiwaju monafiki of Yoruba land, whose ambitions like Afonja has blinded his sight and deafen his ears.

He must rule Nigeria at all cost and has thrown an abridged history into the public space that Yoruba and Fulani are one. He will also have a seat at the meeting.

The Governors must therefore not forget that as elected leaders of the people their position at the meeting must be in consonance with the people.

What the people want, must come ahead of the progressive political business deals that has seen one man becoming the “owner of Lagos”, whose intention to rule Nigeria, may be a greedy venture of owning more than Solomon was given.

His drive for an Emirate institution where one man owns all is no longer a hidden agenda. With or without Nigeria the Yoruba nation must watch out for this greed and it must be checkmated. Nigerians must accept the responsibility of funding our political parties, as it was back in the days of Action Group, Unity Party of Nigeria until “olowo eko” came in the generation of Alliance for Democracy and asked everyone to hands off. What they thought was a relief is of course the albatross of party internal democracy and by extension good governance.

We await the outcome of a meeting where the interest of the Yoruba Nation will be discussed under, “secessionist agenda”, without the presence of any Yoruba socio political group, “O di igba na na, ka to fomo oba fun osun”, till then we keep our fingers crossed.

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