Senator Solomon Adeola (Yayi), representing Lagos West with Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, Lagos State during a rally in Lagos.
I read a rejoinder by Kayode Odunaro, media aide to Senator Solomon Adeola, in response to my article of February 13, 2017, titled: “Adeola and the Burden of Ancestral Ties” wherein I, on behalf of the good people of Yewa, sought clarification on the origin of the incumbent Senator representing Lagos West and an aspirant in the Ogun governorship election in 2019.
Instead of addressing pertinent questions raised in my article, Odunaro merely went on red-herring and introduced innuendos, insinuating that I was a “brotherly associate” of the Senator amongst others. By making reference to an invitation I honoured from Senator Yayi to a programme in Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja, Lagos, several months back, Odunaro attempted albeit futilely to compromise me and vitiate my position against the Senator.
One of the things Odunaro forgot to add was that it was his principal, who invited me to discuss Ogun politics in continuation of an earlier interaction. Odunaro should ask his boss about my position regarding his political ambition in Ogun State when we met a year earlier at a function in Lagos. When Senator Yayi could not convince me, we decided to continue on the discussion at a later date.
That was why I agreed to meet with Odunaro’s boss on June 12, 2016. My meeting with Senator Yayi wasn’t a secret. It was an assignment undertaken on behalf of my people. If Odunaro would be truthful, the outcome of my meeting was made public and I dare him to come out with “details of any financial transaction” as being insinuated. It is an open secret that Odunaro splashed my picture with Senator Yayi’s on the Social media after the meeting, an indication of how much they wanted my support.
Why then attempting a blackmail now, if not for naked desperation. I bet Odunaro didn’t know Senator Yayi has been making frantic efforts to reach me since my article was published. Just how pitiable can people become when they work with a boss with whom they are not on the same page and for whom they will readily sacrifice integrity and if not cheaply trade away their ancestral root?
Odunaro’s rejoinder deviated totally from expatiating on why Senator Yayi initially picked Ishaga in Abeokuta North local government in Ogun Central as his home origin and later shifted to Joga Orile in Yewa North local government and recently Pahayi in Yewa South Local Government. I wouldn’t have written since I had asked him in private, even though he couldn’t give a satisfactory answer.
My write-up was a follow-up to reactions elicited by a letter addressed to Senaror Yayi by Omooba Damilare Oloyede, another concerned Yewa man on the subject matter. If building houses in a place is enough to make an individual an indigene, I should be able to contest for the office of Governor of Lagos State because I also have a house in Lagos. It is condescending for Odunaro, a true born of Yewa, to deride the ancestry of Yewa the way he and his cohorts have been indulging.
How would Senator Yayi’s monetary contributions to festivals in Yewaland confer on him the status of an indigene? I know a friend – a native of Ekiti State who wouldn’t want his name mentioned and who had contributed to such festivals in Yewaland in the past without making a fuss.
A good number of people have been elected into various positions in states other than their states of origin without having to lie or cook up stories to covet indigeneship at whatever costs. Why the desperation and feeble attempts to present fictions as facts? Should we then ask Odunaro why his own origin hasn’t been a subject of controversies? I don’t have a problem when people work to earn their pay but it is however sickening when people stand the truth on its head for whatever the attractions could be.
I challenge Odunaro to ask his boss why he has enlisted several persons to talk to me in the last few days over this matter. Why would there be need for such intervention if truly Senator Yayi has no issues with his Yewa ancestral claim? Odunaro has more herculean tasks to do forcing the falsehood of Senator Yayi’s ancestral ties down the throats of conscientious bonafide sons and daughters of Yewa and Ogun West.
This will be my last take on this matter for now. The people of Yewaland will definitely respond appropriately when the time comes. It is all about us, our homeland and our collective future!
This piece was written by Raheem Ajayi from Imasayi, Yewa North Local Govt. Ogun State.
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