By Bankole Taiwo
The 10th Alake and Paramount ruler of Egba land, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo Okukenu III is one highly revered royal father in the country who commands so much respect and honour because of his undisputed love for the progress and development of the country.
The Paramount ruler even as a young soldier, long before ascending throne had shown his capacity as a personality that is very keen about providing qualitative leadership for his kindred and by extension the whole nation
It is therefore not surprising that in the last one week the people of Egba land have rolled out big tomtom to celebrate the resourcefulness, the dynamic leadership and the unprecedented growth and development that are closely associated with the birth and the reign of the Alake on the auspicious occasion of his 80th birthday.
There is no doubt that the royal father has remained a beacon of light and sparing nothing to make Egba land be at the forefront of development
Speaking recently about the summary of his 80 years on earth, Oba Gbadebo said, “I will tell you that I don’t know where all the years have gone. It was just like I was one day in primary school and then secondary school, then I attended higher school. I went to the University of Ibadan, then I went to the Army for 16 years, went into business for 20 years and I have been Alake for 18 years. When you add the whole thing together, you’ll get 80 years. So, my question is: Where have all the years gone?
“So, I want to count every day as the last and do something because you may not have that opportunity again and that’s what I will tell every one of you. When you leave the house in the morning and you lock the door, don’t think that everyone who locks the door will come back to open that door. So, I always think that one may not be the one to come back and open that door, not because you have done something bad but because that is how God has so destined it.”
As if to further confirm that all along he had only been living out the desired of God for his life, Alake while speaking to some selected journalists said “almost 200 years ago, it was predicted that when the 10th Alake gets to the throne, Egbaland will change for the better and so, in my first six years, I was wondering what was happening, whether the Ifa had lied but suddenly, somebody came and we had flyovers all over Abeokuta and people don’t have to go to Lagos to stand on a bridge and see vehicles moving below instead of water.
“We haven’t reached there anyway but we are getting better. I want to thank those who have contributed in various ways to what we now have in Abeokuta. It is like any major capital anywhere in the world, apart from a few things like water and insufficient power supply which by the grace of God will be things of the past.”
One other thing you can also not take away from this fabulous royal father is his support for the promotion and protection of adire industry. Adire is an indigenous fabric that is locally produced in Egbaland, in fact, it is a major industry through which thousands of the residents make their living and of course contribute to our growing economy.
However, recently there was a report of some Chinese variant of these adire finding their way into the Nigerian markets, this may certainly prove fatal to the continuous existence of this locally manufactured adire that are original and more durable than any imitation under whatever guise.
Commenting on this challenge recently, Oba Gbadebo said, “for adire, that is our pride in Egbaland and now, we have Chinese adire, which comes in cheaper. Two days ago, the adire traders and the designers approached my palace in large numbers and I asked them to go back and do their homework. Let them tell us where the Chinese adire came from. Somebody said that a company in Lagos was producing the adire.
“Others said they were smuggled in from Cotonou and I said we would get the Customs to come and raid all the markets and take all the adire from China and discourage people from buying the cheap and colourful adire if they were smuggled in. If you look at the material they use, there is not much cotton in it, so it makes you uncomfortable when you wear it, though it is very colourful.
“For the colour, they got that right. So, let us find out where those things are manufactured. If they are manufactured in Nigeria, then they have to employ our people and then, our adire makers will have to go and improve their designs so that they can keep on outshining the Chinese adire. However, if it’s smuggled into Nigeria, then we can ask the law to deal with them appropriately.”
In all of these it is not difficult to safely conclude that what has so far marked out the 80 years of this world class traditional ruler is nothing but selfless service. One would therefore not blame the people already besieging the Almighty God to keep the royal father for many more years to come knowing fully well that his reign will continually usher in unprecedented growth and development as well as peace and tranquility in Egbaland, Ogun State in particular and Nigeria as a whole.