By Shola Oshunkeye
A leading traditional ruler in Oriade Local Government Area of Osun State, Oba (Dr) Michael Odunayo Ajayi, Arowotawaya II, has outlined how Nigeria can sustain and consolidate on the labours and legacies of the country’s past heroes, beyond bestowing national honours and remembering them on the anniversary of national milestones.
The Royal Father, an international businessman and a former President of the Nigeria-Ghana Chamber of Commerce, paid glowing tribute to President Muhammadu Buhari for making June 12 Nigeria’s Democracy Day and honouring Basorun M.K.O. Abiola, who won the June 12, 1993 presidential election but was denied his prize by the General Ibrahim Babangida military junta.
“History will forever be kind to President Muhammadu Buhari for officially recognising Basorun M.K.O Abiola as the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election and giving him the highest national honour in the land,” Oba Michael Ajayi declared, adding: “It is a great way of healing that deep-rooted wound.”
But it should not end there. He listed other ways of honouring and preserving the legacies of Nigeria’s past heroes.
“One of such ways is the restoration and reinforcement of history in our school curriculum,” the highly respected royal father said. “Our children do not know much about their country. They do not know their past, how such past has impacted our present, and how it will shape our future.
“For instance, how many of the present generation of Nigerians know about what M.K.O. Abiola, what happened on June 12, 1993, and the fall-out of the annulment? How many of them know about past heroes like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Alhaji Shehu Shagari and Alhaji Aminu Kano, the renowned leader of the talakawas; or Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim, the author of politics without bitterness; or General Murtala Mohammed,General Yakubu ‘Jack’ Gowon’;even Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu? But they can tell you about all the rappers in the whole wide world and so on.”
Nigeria has to wake up and do something serious about the teaching of Nigerian and African history in our schools, Oba Ajayi submitted, otherwise, our youth would continue to revel proudly in ignorance.
Th Royal Father did not stop there. He also said the authorities, parents, and, indeed,all Nigerians should work hard at reinforcing and strengthening our local languages some of which are in the threshold of extinction.
“Our indigenous languages face imminent danger of disappearing totally,” he said. “By some ignorant design, our local languages are in a present danger of extinction. They have been subordinated to the English Language. It is common to find parents, even pregnant mothers speaking English to babes in the womb.
“In our schools, speaking of our indigenous languages is tagged ‘vernacular’, and therefore outlawed. Yet, research has long proven that fluency in the English Language does not necessarily translate to knowledge, or wisdom. On the contrary, teaching in indigenous languages has been proven to be more effective in impacting knowledge. China is a beautiful testimony to that. They teach in their language and they are now a major economic power in the world.”
Still on June 12 as Democracy Day, Oba Arowotawaya II saluted the courage and dedication of Nigeria’s past heroes who, he said, suffered excruciating pain, intimidation and persecution in their unrelenting determination and struggle to ensure that Nigeria takes its rightful place in the comity of nations, particularly the popular democracies of the world.
He recalled that “exactly 28 years ago, Nigerians, irrespective of ethnic, religious, class and regional affiliations, stood with one voice with their votes during the June 12, 1993 elections.
“Therefore, what we are witnessing today as Democratic Rule would not have been possible if the annulment of the June 12 election had not elicited nationwide resistance and demonstrations against the military regime that superintended the annulment of that pan-Nigerian mandate.”
The King insisted that all Nigerians owned our past heroes the responsibility of consolidating Nigeria’s hard-earned democracy, a democracy watered with the blood of martyrs like Basorun M.K.O. Abiola, the symbol of June 12.
Oba Arowotawaya also counseled Nigerians, regardless of creed, political affiliation, or ethnicity, to remain resolutely united and preserve their cultural diversity as a bold and true testimony that the labours and efforts of our founding fathers had not been in vain.
On the soaring insecurity in the land, the monarch called for ” a comprehensive and wholistic approach” to solving the myriad of security challenges threatening to throw Nigeria off the cliff.Such approach, he prescribed, should be in addition to the prevailing kinetic approach by the military, and should transcend politics and other primordial considerations.
He congratulated his good people of Erinmo-Ijesa, and Osun State in general, on this year’s Democracy Day celebration, assuring them that Nigeria will overcome its present challenges and become great again.
Oba Arowotawaya also urged his people to always be security conscious as “security is everybody’s business.”
