On January 12, 2019, it will be a full year since you became the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land. How has it been? Did you bribe the Alaafin of Oyo to occupy the position and how much was involved? Why do you think you merited this title and who else did you lobby to get this title?

Let me just give thanks to God. Anybody who has studied His Imperial Majesty, Oba Lamidi Atanda Olayiwola Adeyemi III, the Alaafin of Oyo, will know that he is a man of integrity. He is an intellectual in all ramifications. He understands Yoruba land very well.

There is no one that has become the Alaafin for a period of 10 to 20 years that would never be a billionaire and before the kabiyesi became the Alaafin in 1971— I was at his 80th birthday— kabiyesi was worth nothing less than €300,000. You know how much that meant then. As a stock broker, and as an insurance guru and as somebody that worked in real estate becoming an oba, he is an achiever. He is someone that is careful in protecting his integrity and his name, so giving him money for me to become Aare Ona Kakanfo is out of it completely. How much did I have to give to kabiyesi to become Aare Ona Kakanfo? I am an activist; I am a promoter of culture. You can’t count me as a money bag. You can’t count me as a very big businessman. The issue of giving him money did not arise at all.

It was about a day, may be May 23, that I went with a large delegation and told him that I was interested in this position based on the opinions of Yoruba people which I studied for a period of five months. Out of four people that were being featured on social media, I realised that I was rated about 70 per cent. After consulting with my friends and wife, about 90 per cent of them supported me, insisting that I would be useful for this position.

The first person who joked with me about being a generalissimo was the late chief Gani Fawehinmi. Whenever we were together, he would call me ‘generalissimo.’ At that time, I didn’t know the role of a generalissimo. The journey to the office of the Aare Ona Kakanfo started in January 2017 when the Alaafin of Oyo was hosting the Oodua Progressive Union World Congress. That was when I moved closer to my destiny. I was encouraged by Yeyewande Grange, who happened to be closer to the Alaafin. After the event, she said she overheard that I had a group which has representations in 77 countries.

They rolled out my profile at the event; after the programme, she asked why I was not vying for the position of Aare Ona Kakanfo. I was so reluctant. We argued for about two hours. Then I asked her to tell kabiyesi about the issue since she was close to him. After the third day, she came back and said kabiyesi insisted that I discussed it with him. I couldn’t go to kabiyesi for five months until after my birthday ceremony when one of the chiefs to Alaafin told the musicians at the event to start praise singing me as Aare Ona Kakanfo. That was the first day I developed interest in contesting the position. I saw that what they were singing in my praise was not bad. That was the day I picked interest. It was on May 1st 2017.

Until October 15, 2017, I did not go to kabiyesi. He asked me to send my profile. I did. Kabiyesi carried out consultations for a period of five months. After full consultations, he handed me a letter of proclamation on October 15th.

It has been roughly one year in office; how has it been?

The challenge is that the position requires a lot of resources. But there is also this notion that Yoruba obas believe that the Aare Ona Kakanfo is their property. That’s the belief and that’s true. But they gave Alaafin the prerogative based on history. And I was lucky. After I got that letter, the first place I visited was the palace of the Ooni of Ife and he gave his blessings. That pushed away the controversy on the position. I visited many Yoruba traditional rulers before the installation.

But our economy is a factor that I can say is a serious challenge. As the Aare Ona Kakanfo, you must not push aside the issue of being a philanthropist and you need that to move Yoruba forward.

And the second one is this issue of Fulani herdsmen. Two months after the installation, there were attacks in many Yoruba communities especially in Ekiti, Oyo and Ogun states. I sat down with my local groups; I haven’t had my cabinet. For me to have my council for deliberation of issues, it would be one year after the installation. A serious Aare Ona Kakanfo must have his own chieftaincy council. So I decided that I should speak with some of my friends and some enlightened people. We brainstormed on how to react to this issue of rampaging Fulani herdsmen attacks and we decided that the strategy for modern Aare Ona Kakanfo would be to fight the battle intellectually. The modern Aare Ona Kakanfo started in 1964 with Chief SL Akintola and the second one was MKO Abiola in 1988, I am the 3rd Aare Ona Kakanfo. Those before us fought battles, went to wars.

We wrote letters to all the governors of the South West and we wrote the same letter to all the councils of obas that there was need for us to have a South West security summit. Till today nobody has called me to tell me whether they were organising it. Nothing has been done. In that wise, I have limited powers to act.

What do you intend to do with the situation on ground?

What we are trying to do is to look for plan b. The plan b is what I will not reveal to you, it is what we are planning to forestall this ugly act. This is because the insult is becoming too much. You will recall that when the letter came out, the Fulani herdsmen attacks were relaxed, that means they were being coordinated by certain people. Immediately they saw that we didn’t do anything, they have sprung up in different communities especially in Ekiti and Osun. A PhD holder was killed in Esa-Oke. I think this position is a rallying point for Yoruba people, because less than a year in office, I now see the importance of that position in Yoruba land, I now see that I have a role to play. I have been trying my best.

But what we are doing is to build the council of between 14 to 20 members that would be called Aare Ona Kakanfo Council. And what we have agreed upon is that there must be a representative in every state, not only in South West but including Kogi and Kwara states. Those that we are giving the positions to would be representatives of every state in Yoruba land. With that, we can get the first hand information of what is happening in the states. There would be a group chat and we would be meeting physically every two months so that we can deliberate on our own responsibility to Yoruba land. We would liaise with all Yoruba obas.

And another thing is that we have written a book that would be launched on the 9th of January; it would show the beauty and part of the historical facts of Aare Ona Kakanfo. We have written a book and another one detailing what happened between when I was handed over the letter of proclamation up until now. So two books are coming out. The books would be launched on the day anniversary celebration.

How did you feel when the governors and traditional rulers did not respond to the security summit?

I have been in this game for long and I know how some of our governors think. Their political interest always supersedes any other interest. I wouldn’t deceive you; the Yoruba nation has been caged. We have been caged.

By whom?

I wouldn’t tell you by whom but we have been caged. This is not the Yoruba we met when we started the struggle in 1993. The respect other tribes had for us could not be quantified.  Most of the great politicians and activists of the Niger Delta, even in the North, passed through the school of thought as freedom fighters in Lagos and Ibadan but unfortunately, certain politicians have infiltrated many Yoruba organisations, socio-cultural organisations. The worst part of it, the civil societies and NGOs have been infiltrated to the extent that they have minimal approach to the interest of Yoruba.

Even among the religious leaders now, we have a limited number of radicals unlike in the past. Then, we had people like Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, Baba Adetiloye, and other radical clerics. Now they have reduced in number. Hardly would you see any governor talking about restructuring in Yoruba land. What majority are after is how to win election in 2019.

We are losing serious coordination in politics; the governors have the mindset that they are the ones that can do it alone and at the end of the day, they have different interests. In any issue involving politics, every stakeholder must sit down, even though you wouldn’t take all the advice, but you take their input. So that when elections come, you would set a direction, at the end of the day, people can vote for candidates of their choice. So we are not well coordinated unlike when we had a leader like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, that a political meeting would be held and a decision taken in Ikenne on the way to go. Even when Baba Adekunle Ajasin was alive something similar would happen, the meeting in Owo then went beyond Afenifere where they would take decisions on Yoruba. By then the North and other parts of the country respected us. Even when Baba Adesanya was around too, there was fear of the Yoruba people. There was a rallying point, now the money bag is just throwing punches at any reliable organisation. That’s a fundamental problem we have.

There is no unity yet among our obas. I am one of the people that are suggesting that we have to revive the Yoruba Council of Obas. When there is economic attachment, unity will come. The only thing they would do is that there would be a constitution to give them the boundaries of the meetings. Our intellectuals would map out areas they can operate, they would fashion out a mission statement on what they can discuss about the way forward, about the Yoruba nation. The issue of insecurities can be tackled within the council of obas.

You said that the Yorubas have been caged and now we have an Aare who is supposed to open the cage, who is supposed to disentangle the race and the Aare is sitting down here trying to form another council. How do you react to this?

It is only someone who is ready for liberation that you can liberate. You can take a horse to the stream but you cannot force it to drink water. If you make any move beyond those two letters without their cooperation, they will set you up. Some of the governors would call Abuja and say arrest him, who gave him the power? What is he talking about as Aare Ona Kakanfo? Do you know I went for my blue passport, and they refused me? And when Abiola was alive he was using diplomatic passport. They refused me my blue passport at Immigration Office after I met all the criteria. The Ondo State Secretary to the Government wrote a letter of recommendation, that was one of the criteria and the chieftaincy letter given to me. I gave them at the Immigration Office; they still refused because of political sentiment. But some of the Serikis of the Fulanis have blue passports. I was in South Africa, even the Nigerian mission there was not happy as they asked: Aare where is your blue passport?

Did you call any of the people you think could intervene on your behalf for assistance?

I don’t approach things like that. I would allow you exhaust your options. At the normal time I would approach it. Look, what is supposed to be yours would come to you, it’s your right. But they refused me blue passport which is junior to official passport, I have kept quiet. There is a lot of injustice on ground. I am not a person that would be shouting over a denial of blue passport. If you are holding it, it does not mean an automatic visa in some embassies. It is an honour; it can just reduce days of processing your documents at embassies.

Let’s talk about the council you are trying to put up.

The council is traditional. From the beginning of all Aare Ona Kakanfos of Yoruba land, including Latoosa, all of them had their own councils. If you don’t have your own council, how would you go to war? Even in OPC, we have a structure.

When you go into the history of Aare Ona Kakanfo, after the council, they have 71 Esos, after the main council. The 71 Esos also have another layer under them for command. Only Samuel Ladoke Akintola and Aare MKO Abiola, out of the remaining 14, did not care to form councils because of political and business engagements. Like Abiola, he was a business man, he didn’t even have the time and four years after he got the title, he moved into politics and Akintola in his own case served only two years.

Are you also going to move into politics?

I don’t know, but you don’t divorce Aare from politics. Aare is politics, politics is Aare. Without Aare, do you think Oyo Empire could have stayed long to that extent? Do you know the reason they formed that position? The Alaafin Ajagbo realised that any time there was a war, it was the Alaafin that always led and in the process some of the Alaafins died in the wars. They sat down and resolved that it was not good for the Alaafin to go to the war in order to sustain the empire. The Oyo Empire started in 14 or 15th century; they resolved that for them to sustain the empire, they needed somebody that was very powerful in Yorubaland. There was a time an Aare fought Ashanti in Ghana. So they gave the military authorities in Yoruba land to Aare.

If I don’t have this council, I will not be able to perform. If I have this council, we can deliberate on Yoruba land. If there is an issue in any state, we would have a representative in all the eight states. I can call the representative in that particular state and find out what the issues are. I can’t be running the office of Aare with the structures of OPC; OPC is just an organisation fighting for the Yoruba people but Aare Ona Kakanfo is an institution on its own.

How many people will be in that council and what are the criteria for selection?

The first is that you must be a Yoruba person. You must be a person of integrity and the third aspect is that you must be learned. We are in a global village; somebody representing the Aare Ona Kakanfo must be able to communicate in global language and also in Yoruba.

A good example (pointing at one of the nominees who was present at this interview), he is a lawyer and has been in practice for 20 years. By the grace of God, on the 12th of January, he would be installed as Asoju Aare Ona Kakanfo. He has been playing that role before and since I became Aare. All of them are graduates except one who would be installed as Borokini. B’Aare Selu title is being given to a former Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly while the title of Baameto goes to Honourable Hakeem Ige, the minority leader of Oyo State House of Assembly. He is a lawyer. The position of Mayegun goes to Mr. Kayode Ajulo, the Odofin is Kole Omololu. Barrister Kehinde, who is my personal lawyer, is also among them. He is Baamofin. The Baaroyin is Sola Osunkeye, he is the CNN award winner.

You talked of picking your council members from each of the states; are they residing in those states so as to enable them have access to needed information that would be of assistance to you?

Some of them are residents of those states, majority of them. It’s only maybe in respect of two of them that we picked from Osun. You know when you want to pick someone you have to pick someone you can trust.

In Osun State, we picked Baaroyin, he is from Ilesa and B’Aare Jiroro is from Iresi in Osun State. The two of them reside in Lagos. Journalists can go to anywhere and get you pieces of information despite the fact that they reside in Lagos.

By the time you were gunning for this position, you had a dream, is that dream being met and what exactly is the dream?

I have a blueprint. Before the installation, we had a blueprint on what I would do after the installation. As I speak to you now, the blueprint is still there and that was why I started with the issue of resources. We have academic programmes that would be run at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile- Ife; the programmes would be on Yoruba Language. We also have the aspect of philanthropy.  And we have registered the Aare Ona Kakanfo Foundation which will be useful in coordinating these programmes; we have a website for it.

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