Trust Nigerians, most especially, the Yorubas of the South West.
They are very gifted and resourceful when it comes to creating songs to fit prevailing circumstances and register such circumstances in history.
The Yorubas have a rich tradition of composing songs to appreciate a peaceful and fruitful reign of a Monarch during the pre colonial era and I think they still do to some extent now.
They also have a tradition of composing songs to condemn the reign of Monarchs laden with hardships.
” Laye Olugbon, mo daborun meje, e o maa pee lorin, laye Aresa, Moda borun mefa, e o maa pee lorin…”, these songs were sung to appreciate the reigns of Olugbon and Aresa, whose reigns must have been prosperous back then.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be celebrating a year in office by May 29, 2024. A few days away.
I saw a video where some Yoruba women were singing about his Government and I thought those women actually captured the mood by many Nigerians.
Their song goes thus ” laye Obasanjo, a njeyan, laye Jonathan, a njeka, laye Tinubu, la njepo isu”.
What those women were saying in plain English is that during Obasanjo’s presidency, they were feeding on pounded yam, in the time of Jonathan, they were eating Amala but in Tinubu’s time, they have been feeding on yam peels.
In Yoruba Land, pounded yam is considered as the king of swallows, followed by the Amala, a swallow made from cassava flour.
Naturally, there is another swallow, the corn meal, ” eko tutu ” which is considered fit for eating only when neither pounded yam nor the Amala is not available.
I was surprised that those women did not even consider the corn meal in comparing president Tinubu’s time.
They chose the yam peels.
A food given to goats!
Unfortunately, those women are spot on.
The hardships Nigerians are passing through in the one year of Tinubu’s presidency is monumental. It is unprecedented.
Even those women are still magnanimous.
The yam peels are not available in millions of homes today.
Though, I think they also know this facts but have decided to choose the yam peels for symbolic reasons.
There is the story of a Monarch somewhere in Oyo state long time ago.
He became King and things became so tough.
The name of that Monarch was Adebowale.
It got to a point that the womenfolks could no longer bear the hardships.
A protest erupted and the women began to chant songs to describe the harsh times that characterized his reign.
I still remember vividly how the song goes, ” nijo Adebowale joba, iyan toro o yo majesi, o joba tiyan tiyan, njo o ba ku, ekuro la o fi sinku e, njo o ba ku”.
You can imagine the sadness a king would feel listening to such songs where he was being told that his time eralded famine and hardships.
In the pre colonial era, those who ruled as Kings were those who had the ” Omoluwabi” ethos of the Yorubas.
There was no king who did not dread negative public perceptions.
Unfortunately, our world has changed.
Governments have mastered the tricks of deceits and excuses.
I have been wondering for some time now, what will president Tinubu tell Nigerians on May 29?
Will he be humble enough to admit that things are bad and apologize to Nigerians with a promise to make things better?
I am sure he won’t.
I have prepared my mind to see a president who will come to us to lecture Nigerians about his ” giant strides in all the sectors of Government”.
He will tell us about the ” courage” he had to remove the fuel subsidy.
The gains from the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the Naira.
He will give us some Economic indexes that shows his Government is on the right track and lecture us on some Economic terminologies.
He will give us another promises concerning the Port Hacourt refineries and how it will crash the prices of petrol.
Unfortunately for the president, while reading his speech that day, he is going to look like the king in the stories who always believe that whatever he did was the best.
In the end, the king was deceived to dance naked in the market square.
There is nothing president Tinubu is coming to say on May 29 that will sit well with hundreds of millions of Nigerians who have been going through hell under his Government.
No matter how beautifully crafted, the speech of the president will fall flat in the face of the harsh Economic realities.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, unlike any before him have dispatched policies that have continued to pauperize Nigerians.
Nigerians are still struggling to survive the double poison of the subsidy removal and floating of the Naira when the president dispatched further doses in form of taxes.
The president must be told in clear terms.
Nigerians have been missing former president Mohammadu Buhari as bad as things seemed to be under him.
I thought they said president Tinubu is a master strategist?
Where are the strategies here?
Where is the magic wand that purportedly ” built Lagos”?
The president have been completely dimistified.
If the president wishes to determine the extent of the evils he has visited on the Nigerian people, let him send people to go to the markets incognito, let his team do a survey on the prices of food and essential commodities between last year February and now.
Perhaps, that will wake the president and his team of ” Lagos Boys” from their fake dreams.
As we speak, president Tinubu fits into the narratives of Oba Adebowale in the story and that is the plain truth.
Incidentally, some godless individuals have been perfecting plans for 2027 for this same president.
Under this terrible circumstances?
Who told them there would still be anyone for them to govern by 2027?
Who told them they wouldn’t have sent almost everybody to their graves with hunger before 2027?
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a fantastic critic.
He criticized Obasanjo, Jonathan and even Buhari whom he helped to be president.
Now, after all the ” karamo” of “Emi lo kan”. ” I have been preparing for this for long”. ” Don’t pity me” and so on, it is a pity.
Is this all Tinubu have got?
Eng. Oluwasina Adeyemi.
