The last bastion of our identity and custodian of our culture are our traditional leaders. So it was shocking to watch the video of a public event where the Oba of Lagos, refused to accord the due respect and reverence to the Yoruba principal king, the Ooni of Ife. As clear as day, we all witnessed the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, 74, refusing to properly acknowledge the Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi, 42.
We saw the Ooni lean over to greet the Oba by shaking his hand, and the Lagos Oba gave a dimmisive swipe of hand with a look of disgust and disdain that should have been reserved for an odious loaf. Oba Akiolu’s behaviour is not new. In the run up to the 2015 national election, he threatened ethnic Igbos living in Lagos that if they did not vote for his candidate of choice that they would be thrown “into the lagoon”. So, he has got form. This is not a behaviour becoming of a royal office holder. The holder of such office should at least be beyond reproach, a diplomat and a person that unifies his people and other communities.
“The Oba’s behaviour undermines the royal institution of the Yoruba people,” says Yoruba scholar Kola Tubosun. He continued that “this kind of gesture shows that traditional institutions are in need of deep reform. It sends a wrong signal – that the norms, values and culture of the Yoruba people are being taken for granted.”
This is a seismic cultural insult and one that holds a significant bad taste in the history of the Yoruba people. Let us be clear here, if this was a century back, heads would have rolled and it would have meant war.
One of the core values of the Yoruba culture is the reverence and respect you demonstrate to your elders. The cornerstone of what you are taught right from year dot. So to witness a supposedly leader of people of Lagos, public debasing this cardinal rule to a significant and a more senior office holder of the Yoruba people is an insult to all Yoruba people everywhere. So no matter of much damage control the white cap Chief Ajose wants to gaslight this major incident, it is not going to wash. Our elders should be an exemplar of diplomacy and good manners.
To have demonstrated such grand scale insult to the Ooni of Ife, the spiritual head of all Yoruba people is an insult to all Yoruba people. And for the record, the Oba of Lagos should know his place in the line of seniority and importance. He may be older but he cannot rewrite history and he should know better to respect the office of custodian of the Yoruba culture. Does he know the standing of the Ooni in the country and with the Yoruba people around the world?
After the rebuff, the Ooni of Ife, showed class and grace with the way he dealt with the whole debacle. Disgraceful and disrespectful. Do not get me wrong, usually I am not a royalist but, I understand the significance of the Yoruba culture and the role of the Ooni.
No matter how young the Ooni is, he deserves to be respected by the virtue of his office and the historical significance in the Yoruba culture. This Ooni is definitely worthy of the crown and its significance. That is how a real king carries himself.
My humble advice to Oba Rilwan Akiolu: time to send an emissary to the palace of the Ooni and act like you deserve the office of the Oba of Lagos. As a Lagosian, I want to apologise to the Ooni of Ife. Long may you reign and thank you for leading by example.
Malaria vaccine Advancement
“I pointed out to you the stars, the moon and all you saw was the tip of my finger” -Sukuma proverb
This week marks World Malaria Day. The event raises worldwide awareness of the devastation of the disease, prevention and the current update on the world-wide collaboration and scientific research programmers to reduce the ravages of the disease on the most prone areas and people. It was announced that a new malaria vaccine will be tested on a large scale in Kenya, Ghana and Malawi by the World Health Organization, with 360,000 children to be vaccinated between 2018 and 2020.The vaccine, known as Mosquirix, was developed by the British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in partnership with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, and the large-scale three-country pilot will test it on children aged five to 17 months.
The drug passed previous scientific testing— including a phase three clinical trials between 2009 and 2014 — and was approved for the pilot programme in 2015.
This injectable vaccine RTS, could provide some limited protection against a disease that killed 429,000 people worldwide in 2015, with 92 percent of victims in Africa and two-thirds of them children under five.
“The prospect of a malaria vaccine is great news. Information gathered in the pilot will help us make decisions on the wider use of this vaccine,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa.
Of course, this is not a magic cure all but the vaccine can be used as well as other preventative measures such as bed nets, insecticides, repellents and anti-malarial drugs, the WHO said.
“Combined with existing malaria interventions, such a vaccine would have the potential to save tens of thousands of lives in Africa,” Moeti said.
“This vaccine is a weapon amongst others, it is one of the tools at our disposal,” she added.
This large-scale pilot is the latest step in decades of work seeking to eradicate malaria with the numbers dying falling nearly two-thirds since the turn of the century.
I remember the days of the old health inspectors, the wole-wole. The community health inspectors were tasked with going from door to door, neighbourhood to neighbourhood inspecting compounds, looking for stagnant waters where mosquitoes breed, and providing advice and treatment where necessary. We need community basic hygiene and some fines to those who flaunt the laws. We have to take collective responsibility for individual and collective health. We should not leave it to big pharmacological giants to seek out the answers to an age old health concerns.
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