By LASISI OLAGUNJU
(A Review of 'J.S. Olawoyin: A Century of Legacy and Leadership' at its presentation , in Offa, Kwara State, on Tuesday, 5 February, 2025).
A book reviewer is a first taster. I got a printed copy of this book four days ago. But before then, a computer printout of the contents had provided an opportunity to peep into what it has in its belly. I skimmed the text; I coughed, I put a call through to Chief Segun Olawoyin. I asked him what his father's ancestors looked like; their oriki orile. He told me: Ikoyi ni wa. Ikoyi ni Baba wa. Ikoyi l'a gba d'Offa. My response was that I expressed no surprise. I told myself that the Yoruba alale, those who sired the race, were so wise in their ways. They said eni ba bi ni l'aajo. Bi omo o jo sokoto, yi o jo Kijipa.
What I spotted across the pages of the text is a confirmation of the J.S. Olawoyin we watched on TV and read of in our years as beginners. He was tough, he was thorough; he was daring; he was a lover of laughter, of fairness, of justice. He was a loyalist of loyalty. Above all he was a warrior. That is the life of every man who answers Ikoyi:
Omo ar'ogunjo.
Omo ar'ogundara.
Omo ar'ikuyakin.
Ikoyi
Omo eru fisan fisan...
When a man comes ready with this pedigree and he goes into politics and into public life, you know what to expect: Courage and fearlessness; patriotism and self sacrifice in service. Sometimes you find what you find in war. All is fair. These are what I found and which you will find in this book that celebrates J. S. Olawoyin, a man of mirth and grit who was born on a day of war exactly 100 years ago.
A compendium is a concise treatise; a structured collection of texts. It is a collection of useful hints on a given subject. Those are what dictionaries say it is. I have had the privilege of reading this compendium ahead of most of us here. I am here to tease you into eating what I tasted. What we will be engaging here is a carefully assembled bundle of seminal chapters, reflections and testimonies, photos, letters, documents and book excerpts.
How do you review a book of many authors? I have spent days examining the various styles and forms; the authors' use of language, the book's plot structure, its themes and motifs. I have checked and marveled at how all these are coherently and cohesively arranged and weaved together to drive the themes and achieve the objective set by the unnamed editors. The language is simple and accessible across all the parts; the styles appear not complex also.
Let us start by taking a look at the man as recorded in the book we are presenting here today. He was from Offa; offspring of the one who builds a dedicated house for fights, for war and for battles (Omo a ko'le ija l'oto). You ask who is an Offa man and the bard answers you on page 77 of this book:
Omo pin re, laa re
Olalomi, omo laare k'o d'ogba,
Okan o gb'odo ju kan l'Offa.
Iyeru Okin,
Bi okan ju'kan, bi okan ju 'kan;
Oba nii ko won roro...
Listen to that. It celebrates Offa as a community that valorises equitable justice. The man who was their very first Asiwaju grew to demand fairness and justice and won't quake or quit even if you would kill him. It is right there in their oriki: fair is fair and equity produces the equitable.
This book of 257 pages celebrates the valiant spirit of Offa, the ancestral home where we are told the umbilical cord of Moremi lies buried. We all know the story of Moremi, her courage, patriotism and sacrifice. There is a part of the book that claims for Offa the heroine married to Ile Ife. The legend of Moremi is on pages 73, 74 and 75. Indeed, from what the book tells, if Olawoyin had come as a female, the baby would have qualified as Moremi reincarnated. But he came as a man. And, he continued the Moremi story on a scale grander and on a battlefield larger and fiercer.
The Offa man won't stop because the powerful asks him to stop. It would appear that activism and resistance are the Ijakadi that we are told is the oro of Offa (see page 75-76). We see that in this book. I quote a paragraph on page 52: "In Offa, going to detention on account of political activism became a joyful experience for all patriots. A number of Offa citizens ....who were unjustly detained for their freedom struggles were recorded as heroes in the J. S. Memoirs." I read that buried deep in a thicket of pages that grapples and wrestles with thorns of subjugation and feudalism. Whether rich or poor, the spirit rebels against domination, against injustice.
Won ni omo otosi Offa
K'o lo s'odo lo re pon mi wa,
K'omo olowo o ri mu
Omo otosi Offa
O loun o nii lo s'odo lo re ponmi wa;
K'omo olowo o ri mu...
A fon on ko dun,
A tee ko ya nu,
Oro wa dile Abiodun Oba Alaafin
Atobatele Baba Ijadu
Oba ni k'omo otosi Offa,
K'o maa mo'wo lu aka e jeje
Olalomi,
Omo bibi ile wa,
K'o maa mo'wo lu aro...
Those class war lines are not from this compendium. They are from Adeboye Babalola's 'Awon Oriki Orile Metadinlogbon' (2000:93). They are a further exposition of the spirit of activism that founded Offa.
Structure
A book's plot structure sets out the order of events - how they unfold, blow by blow, stage by stage. The compendium opens with an exposition, an introduction that explains the purpose of the text (to honour Chief Olawoyin), the significance of the text (the historic moment of his centenary), and, then, the scope of the work - What is in the text and how far it covers the subject matter. Then, what lessons today has learnt or should learn from the past. The compendium is an ocean - its depth and breadth are for the reader to explore.
The plot we have here is linear. It starts from the prehistoric, general history of Offa and its people; it moves kolokolo like a river, through rapids and falls and empties its waters into the ocean of the historic present. Imagine this on page 71: "Igbati Iloffa o gba wa/ A ko lo s'Offa Oro/ Nigbati Offa Oro o gba wa/ A ko lo s'Offa Irese./ Nigbati Offa Irese o gba wa,/ A ko lo Igbolutu. Nigbati Igbolutu o gba wa mo/ A tun pada si Offa Eesun./ Nigbati Offa Eesun o gba wa mo/ Ni a wa ko wa si Offa Arinlolu Olofa..." What a journey!
Let us discuss the first chapter. It is true that the book is for a celebration of Chief J. S. Olawoyin's centenary, but it is also true that okun kii gun gun gun k'o ma ni ibi ti o ti fa wa (every long rope has a beginning). Chief Olawoyin was an Offa man. If he was an Offa man, then it means he was an Oyo man. If he was an Oyo man, then his roots must be in Ile Ife. If his roots are in Ile Ife, then it means he was a Yoruba man. Who then are the Yoruba?
This question is what part of Chapter One answers. And, in answering the question, the architects of the compendium ensure a structure that accommodates a one-page teaser, headlined 'Offa in Yoruba History'. It prepares us for the huge cultural treasure which that chapter is. Authored in a most gushing, authoritative manner by grand old Yoruba patriot and activist, Chief Ayo Opadokun, the chapter carries the title, 'Yoruba Origin and Early History'.
I call this chapter a book within a book. In length and breadth, it presents a solid foundation upon which the edifice stands. It explores the known and the unknown terrains of the dense, snake, croc infested rain forest which Yoruba history is. The known terrains are the weather-beaten accounts of Oduduwa, where he supposedly came from, who were his children; where are they today and why are they where they are? The unfamiliar terrain intricately binds Offa and its various battles for survival, to the struggles of the Yoruba generally as a panting people before Nigeria came to be, and after Nigeria became a reality that happens to everyone, north and south.
I will also call Chapter One the first part of the book; the remaining chapters, I call Part Two. What the first part espouses, the second part expands and defends with documents, with testimonies and witnesses. I call the producers of the compendium consummate architects and structural engineers with an eye on beauty and functionality.
Chapter Two is a brief on Chief Olawoyin, his early life and background. Chapters three and four speak to his epochal political journey, his political battles, travails and triumphs. The fifth chapter is on what is called reflections, excerpts from his autobiography. Chapter six takes us into confidence on his tactics and strategies, his values and principles and his engagements with his community. Chapters seven and eight speak on Olawoyin as a man wedded to unbending loyalty and the essential virtues and values of Omoluabi. Chapter nine attempts a rendition of his legacies and achievements and their impact on contemporary political thoughts and actions. Then, we have chapter ten titled 'Impressions and Expressions: Tributes, interviews with political associates. A two-part wrap up of the contents of the compendium is what we have in chapter eleven and a succeeding addendum called 'final reflections'.
After satisfying itself with its exploration of who the Yoruba is in Chapter One, the book plunges into a thorough analysis of who the Offa people are. It is here we are told that the toponym Offa is a contraction of 'Olofagangan', a cognomen that speaks to the proficiency of Olalomi, the founder of the town, in the use of ofa (bow and arrow). We learn of how the town was variously unsettled and was forced to move from sites to settlements. They had to move. Movement was forced by exigencies dictated by war from the Nupe. Quoting books and articles and people, knowledgeable and informed in the history and lores of Offa and its people, the chapter gives us the king list of the town and a list of their troubles and tribulations. From the founder, Olalomi, through a succession of pioneers, we see a careful set of rulers who weathered the founding turbulence of Offa. A second set of obas took turns to build on the works of the pioneers.
The themes
A book must have its recurring, dominating ideas. The English man calls that the theme. The themes of this elaborate text are in the various lines of Offa and the oriki of the man it celebrates: Courage, fearlessness and resistance; patriotism, loyalty, self-sacrifice; justice and equality; equity and fairness. The subject of the compendium, the town of Offa, its king and people embody them all. And we see this in each of the eleven chapters of the book.
Oba Okunoye Moronfolu took over as Olofa at a time Ilorin ascendancy threatened Offa and everything it represented. If the old Offa ran from Nupe marauders; this last Offa stood firm in righteous resistance to Fulani incursions. The Oloffa who started the resistance managed to die peacefully but a long list of successors did not enjoy that good fortune. His son who took over from him got frustrated by internal intrigues and betrayal and abdicated the throne. The one who succeeded him sustained the activism and was deposed by the Ilorin Native Authority. Another who took over in 1906 and did as his predecessors did had his staff of office withdrawn in 1917. The one who took over from that one would not drop the ball and was deposed three years after. He lost the throne in 1920 and was detained for 19 years in Ilorin courtesy of Ilorin Native Authority. His tormentors freed and returned him to Offa in 1940 not as oba but just on time for him to die at home. The one who succeeded him was as trenchant as his fathers. He was equally dethroned. After him was another unbending oba who spent just four years on the throne and died in 1936. Then came Oba Wuraola Isioye in 1937. He was first retired n 15 February 1957 on the funny ground of old age. The real reason was that Chief Obafemi Awolowo's Action Group party won the 1956 elections in Offa.The "retired" Oloffa was pronounced deposed on 28 May, 1959, a few months to another election. The author's word is worth quoting here (page 15): "He was deposed and was to be exiled to Dekina in today's Kogi State. But Chief J. S. Olawoyin, having got intelligence report about the government's wicked resolve, freighted Oba Isioye out to safety by 9 pm to Ibadan ahead of the arrival of the government's coercive agents." The oba was housed by Chief Samuel Owoola Lanlehin in Ibadan. He was in exile for five years. There was Oba Mustapha Keji who reigned in the absence of the deposed. Oba Isioye came back to the throne but was lucky that the military was more nuanced in their exercise of power. There was relative, uneasy calm. He died in 1969. Oba Mustapha Olawore came and reigned between 1969 and 2010 and was succeeded by the incumbent, Oba Muftau Oloyede Esuwoye II.
Offa people are Oyo Yoruba; and Offa is a Yoruba town. So why are they in Northern Nigeria? Or, rather, what factors or sentiments informed the boundary between the Northern Region and the Western Region? This book has a copious mass of materials on this contentious issue. It tells stories of war and conquest; tales of death and suffering and resistance. It explains what role Ilorin played, what role Ibadan played. What action Lord Lugard took and the Macpherson Gazette Extraordinary of 1952 that appeared to have sealed the fate of Offa finally as a vassal of the rulers of Ilorin. Descendants of everyone connected with that story need to read this. It is of epic battles which dragged into Nigeria's independence struggles and the years that followed 1960. The result are a floating people, bats who are neither south nor north. The lamentation of one of the authors brings home the frustration: "As an Offa citizen, I am made to look like an inferior being. While competing for anything in the north, I would be told that I am a Yoruba man. If there is something to compete for in the South West, I would be reminded that I am a Northerner. Permanently, I am an inferior citizen until this lopsided, skewed, warped national structure is re-configured" (page 22).
Courage and resistance
We discover from page 56 to 68 of this book series of letters to the powers that be written by Chief Olawoyin and one by Alhaji M. K. Ijaiya. accusing them of injustice and of creating instability in Offa and other Yoruba towns in the north. There is a letter to Sir Ahmadu Bello; there is a 2nd August, 1967 letter to the governor of the Central West State, Ilorin. Which state was that Central West State? That name and why it is lost in our history and geography is part of the conundrum that defines Nigeria's geopolitical structure. Because isu atenu moran kii jona, there are other letters in this book. The last one (written possibly in early or mid 1967) by Chief Olawoyin was addressed to the government of northern Nigeria. It demands independence from Ilorin Native Authority Council and complains bitterly on how certain persons from Ilorin were nominated to represent Offa and Odo Ogun districts in Ilorin Native Authority Council. We read here of the several injustice suffered by obas and people around Offa. Borderless Olawoyin even fought for Ilorin people and I quote him:
"It is without any dispute that Ilorin division has more educated people than any other single administrative division in the north. But, apart from the N.A officials and Alhaji Yahaya Ilorin, Alhaji Sanni Okin and only two others, all the other nominated members and traditional members with the exception of the Emir of Ilorin, are stark illiterates. The selection of these illiterates is deliberate and meant to ensure that the council is made a tool in the hands of a few people" (page 67).
Loyalty
The book exhibits Chief Olawoyin as a paragon of unwavering loyalty. Chapter 10 has 75 pages of tributes from eminent Nigerians. Virtually everyone whose tribute is published from page 156 to 231 in the book acknowledge his resilience and loyalty to worthy causes. The incumbent Attorney General of the Federation, Alhaji Lateef Fagbemi, SAN says Chief Olawoyin "embodied service, leadership and justice." A former Attorney General Bayo Ojo says he epitomized "the finest ideals of public spiritedness" (page 186). Businessman and current Asiwaju of Offa, Chief Tajudeen Owoyemi, describes him as a man who "championed social justice and unyieldingly pursued fairness and equality for his people" (page 193). Former Senate President Bukola Saraki describes him as "a courageous, committed, and compassionate epitome of what an opposition leader should be." He says J. S. was "a selfless and progressive leader" who "loved his people, lived his life for them and they loved him too" (page 168). The old man is exhibited throughout the book as "dependable and accessible" to all without discrimination. He wasn't like some of today's leaders described by one of the contributors who I understand is also a nephew of Chief S. L Akintola, Dr Akinremi Akintola, as "awon Elemoso, eni ti a ko ri" (page 211).
Chief Olawoyin was elected into the Northern Nigeria House of Assembly in 1954. The premier, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello offered him a ministerial appointment. He turned it down and picked that of opposition leader. And while the north was threatening to secede from Nigeria because the south was demanding independence, Olawoyin counter-threatened that the Yoruba of Ilorin and Kabba divisions would also secede from the north if the north dared doing so. He was that tough and predictable. It is in this text that at the peak of the Awolowo-Akintola crisis of 1962, Chief S. L. Akintola made a dash for Olawoyin's hand; he desired a political marriage with the spirit from Offa. Wily Chief Akintola thought an appeal to blood being thicker than water could win him J.S.' support. Akintola told the leader from Offa (page 213): "Omo iya mi. Odo mi l'oye ko wa. Omo Oyo-Yooba kan naa ni a. Emi Ajala Agbe, Iwo omo Ile Agbe. A tun jo ko'la" (My brother, you should be on my side. We are both Oyo Yoruba. I am Ajala Agbe; you are from Agbe compound. Both of us are also blessed with tribal marks). Olawoyin stayed solid with Awolowo. And because of that loyalty, he went to jail. On his release from prison, he issued a defiant statement asking Nigerians to remain "sensitive and jealous of our rights...". The book records for him 18 journeys into and out of jail for standing by his people.
Patriotism
Not many men would risk their life for anything, for anyone, whether leader, follower, king or town. But that is not what we see here. The years before independence, and even after independence were a period when the Olofa of Ofa was an oba in perpetual danger of arrest, dethronement, and, even, curiously, retirement. An Olofa was pronounced demoted from District Head to Village Head, then summarily retired because he made a call for the transfer of his town to the Western Region. On a particularly bad day, the powers that be thought they should arrest that Olofa. And policemen were indeed sent to fetch the oba for supper in Ilorin. Then, J. S. Olawoyin, intrepid, daring, loyal and courageous, confronted the cops and outwitted the arrestors. The book says "he snatched the banishment order to be served on the then Olofa, Oba Wuraola Isioye, and sped away in his car." If that is not daring and daredevilry, then we will inquire what it was. But, then remember, Olawoyin was an Ikoyi:
Omo s'iri n t'ogun.
Gbaro n t'Ogun.
Jigan n t'Ode.
Ikoyi o r'ogun ja o ja gboro...
Otun le fi ka ila,
Aronimoja.
E f'osi ka 'kan
Gengesi aya le e fi k'oju ija n'Ikoyi...
Eso r'Ogun jo.
Onikoyi dide, dide Ogun to lo.
Ikoyi omo eru fisanfisan.
A collection of generously used photographs, letters, and other memorabilia illuminates the book; the collection gives life to the text, it gives it beauty, and confers credibility on its claims and assertions. However, I have a question to ask - or should I call it a c
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