By Abanikanda Olumoro (UK)
CITIZENS COMPASS– I am an unapologetic sympathiser of Lagos State indigenes and so am very conversant with development as it concerns them.
Sunday December 29, 2024 meeting of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu with a group called Egbe Omo Eko sent me to the archives only, for the first time in my research experience, for me to return with no clue as per what that group is,.what it stands for and who the people so called in that meeting with the president went there to represent.
Vanguard Newspaper did a good job bringing the meeting to the front burner as seen in one of its two front page photographs with Alhaji Femi Okunnu, a former Federal Commissioner for Works, senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and father of a high court judge (to the extent that I know), conspicuously standing and flanking the President to the left.
Others in the picture included (From Left) former Deputy Governor of Lagos State and former President Muhammadu Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Sustainable Development Goals (SSA-SDGs) now retained by Tinubu, Her Excellency Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, the Erelu Kuti of Lagos, Her Royal Highness Princess Abiola Dosunmu, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, Governor of Lagos State, His Excellency Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, Mr. Mutiu Gbajumo (although he and Prof. Bode Leigh were not named in the photo), Bashorun JK Randle, among others.
On the backline behind the President were Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Mudashiru Ajaiyi Obasa, and Chief of Staff to the President, Rt Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, who were also seen in the picture taken during the meeting with President Tinubu on Sunday.
The question is, how many Lagos State indigenes have heard of this group, Egbe Omo Eko, in the last three months talk less of six months or one year or more? Please, I am asking this question because I do not want to be sentimental in my approach so nobody would come out to accuse me of any bias.
I have done background checks and no answer, but I still state it here and anticipate that an answer will come. I am aware there is an Egbe Omo Eko Association, whose status as at the time of writing this piece is unknown but not the trustees listed on that profile was at the meeting with President Tinubu on Sunday.
Now, we know of some Lagos indigenous groups including Omo Eko Pataki, De Renaissance Patriots Foundation, etc, and have not seen where Egbe Omo Eko was once stated as an indigenous group of Lagos people, whether in Ikeja, Badagry, Ikorodu, Lagos Island or Epe (IBILE).
Having said that, I gathered that the said Sunday December 29, 2024, was the day presidential security and protocol cleared for Lagos State indigenes to meet with Tinubu. Can we say this strange Egbe Omo Eko actually went to that meeting to represent the true aspirations of the natives (the IBILE people) that we have heard of as the true ‘blood of the soil’ over the years?
Lagos State indigenes have been clamouring that they want their sons and daughters to occupy the political positions in the state come 2027. They want the control of the political process in the state to the extent of having indigenes as Governor, Deputy Governor, Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Secretary to the State Government (SSG), and Head of Service (HOS). Was that the basis of the presentation those who went to that meeting with President Tinubu made to him? If not, who did they go there to represent?
For a clearer picture, we know Prince Tajudeen Olusi, Chairman of Governor’s Advisory Country (GAC), to be an indigene of Lagos State but he does not believe in the indigenous rights of his own Lagos people let alone believing in what they are asking for. This same man led the Egbe Omo Eko to the meeting with President Tinubu.
Prince Olusi, who was Lagos State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry under the Military Administration of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola in the state, would always and unapologetically challenge those clamouring for leadership of their state, asking, “who are the indigenes of Lagos State?”
Papa Olusi has been reminded on several occasions that Lagos indigenes have no other place to go than their own state let alone that, in those other states, political offices are cultural heritage and rights of their indigenous people and not for non-indigenes.
Non-indigenes, who are in political power of the state, use population to say indigenes are less in number but they have no emperical evidence to support that claim from all that I have read. The particular position that Prince Tajudeen Olusi uses to deny his own indigenous people of Lagos is that non-indigenes pay taxes in Lagos and can aspire for any political position in the state.
If that is the case, let me ask, is there any other state in the federation other than Lagos State where payment of taxes becomes an automatic qualification for non-indigenous residents to occupy political power as governor among others?
Before I rest my case, let me also advise genuine Lagos State indigenes by telling them that if their progenitors and those who fought for creation of the state – such as Chief Oluwa of Lagos, Oba of Lagos Musendiku Adeniji-Adele II, Prince Ibikunke Akintoye, H.O. Davies, T.O.S. Benson, Oba C.D. Akran of Badagry, Adebayo Doherty, Adeniran Ogunsanya, Dr. JK Randle, among many others – were as divided as they are currently, allowing non-indigenes to usurp their rights to political power of their own state, would there have been a Lagos State today?
On a final note, let me end this piece by quoting Suzy Kassem, who said, “Humanity is lost because people have abandoned using their conscience as their compass.”
A stitch in time saves nine!
Abanikanda Olumoro, a Nigerian in the Diaspora and writer, writes from United Kingdom
