Civil servants terrible, worse than politicians —Eburu of Iba

The Eburu of Iba, Oba Adekunle Adeogun-Okunoye Oyedeji II, in this interview by GBENGA OLUMIDE, speaks about his enthronement two years ago, and other national issues.

You clocked two years on the throne on February 19. How has it been?

You know the typical prayer for traditional rulers is for 200 years to be like a year. Honestly, for me, it was just like yesterday. I believe that it was due to the fact that there has never been any dull moment and I am sincerely enjoying the responsibilities of my position. Thus, the past two years have been wonderful and God has been very good to me and my community. I have enjoyed the support of our state government and I hope to see improvement in local government administration which was designed to directly support the city government.

How would you assess your achievements since your enthronement?

The beauty of traditional ruler is perpetuity which makes achievements a creeping phenomenon. Our goals are broad and very general as you will expect. I am the head of a city nation and there is no aspect of our living that could be neglected. If you look at my vision, then you will agree that there is no point assessing achievements at this stage. Most of our efforts now, are to lay the solid foundation for the future and prepare our people to join in our developmental efforts.

So far, we are doing great on that front. Remember, due to the glamour that comes with the 21st-century traditional ruler, everybody wants to be the king, especially those without royal blood and ruling houses. That usually led to unnecessary struggle and division in the community.

Also, there is partisan politics dimension. Despite the fact that it is a common knowledge that traditional rulers are part of the government, some local politicians still expect them to be partisan. They could sometimes constitute themselves into opposition to the traditional ruler within the community. Without ensuring that unity and trust are restored to the community, nothing can be achieved.

The traditional rulers have no public funds for anything and when you rely on donations from the community people to function, then it is imperative for people to be united and have deep understanding of monarchy. My resolve is to continue addressing enormous problems confronting my community and supporting policies of the government that deal with the development of my community in all ramifications. Our five years of interregnum has unintended consequences and dire effect on all aspects of our life in Iba community. Majority of my people lost their sense of community and when you factor in the general attitude of our people to volunteering, the challenges become critical.

We are satisfied in the state of our community and we are aligning strategy with our vision. We are restoring the spirit of community and volunteering in our people without which much can’t be done. We have embarked on several basic infrastructure projects but we are not interested in propaganda, they are all considered as part of our basic responsibility and no need to publicize them.

What do you think are the most pressing needs of your community. What are the challenges?

Human needs are insatiable and so the needs of my community. I will not refer to any of the needs as pressing because every basic need is essential to our survival. There is no reason why we cannot guarantee those needs at all time. Without being too academic, we need infrastructure that will address all dimension of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

We have been very grateful to our government in their infrastructural development efforts and we sincerely understand the state of our nation’s economy which is hindering what can be done. Our primary need is Water. Our mini water works no longer function and my people suffer too much, especially during dry season. All our roads are very bad and it is affecting the economy of the community.

Our sanitation system is very poor and our health and well-being need serious attention. Imagine that we don’t have a single resident qualified medical doctor in the entire community, much less a basic well-equipped hospital. The city is also not well physically organised and our security could be better. Despite the effort of the government of Governor Rauf Aregbesola on Education, our school system in Iba still needs improvement. If you carefully study the list, most of them are actually our responsibility and that’s where my main challenges lie.

Our people just don’t want to do anything. They want the government to be responsible for everything. Don’t get me wrong, the government has huge responsibilities, especially with our funding system that largely depend on allocation from the federation account, yet we must play our own part. Our people are reluctant to support initiatives that they are even the sole beneficiary. Our people are also not benevolent and everybody only thinks of themselves.

Instead of us to come together and build infrastructure that will support the entire community, individuals want to take care of themselves. For example, everybody wants to sink the private borehole for water supply and install the generator for electricity without concern for neighbours and other community members.

Whereas we can come together and use those individual resources to benefit all. Our people are slow in responding to community levy and it is highly difficult to get free services off their mind, especially when it comes to public service.

Unfortunately, the local government areas are not responsive; they only embark on activities that enable them to share our funds. Civil servants are terrible and worst than politicians. Most genuine and good intentions of the governor are sabotaged by the leadership of the local government with the assistance of the civil servants.

Whenever I made attempt to offer advice to our local administrators, they are quick to remind me that they take directives from the ministry. Can you believe that some local government administrators still consider sinking borehole as a government project in 2017/2018 and continuous grading of roads are the convenient avenue of syphoning money from local councils? Only if we expand 10 per cent of our resources on development, we will just be doing excellently.

How do you make sure that you are on the same page with your subjects, since you are required by tradition and custom to interface with them on a daily basis?

Despite the fact that I am a traditional ruler, I employ modern city management and administrative techniques. My subjects don’t need an appointment to see me and I enjoy meeting with them in the open market square. Historically and culturally, people are meant to serve and obey their kings without much questioning but modernisation has changed the approach.

The mode of governance in Yoruba monarchy system as instituted in Old Oyo Empire and adopted in entire Yorubaland and beyond has an inherent democratic system which provides for participation, engagement and involvement. It is even better than the representative democracy. I have my palace chiefs that perform executive, legislative and judicial functions. I also have various other groups with various responsibilities through which we function and discharge our responsibilities to and interface with the community.

Despite that, I constituted various boards and commissions to ensure that we are able to swiftly respond to issues in the community. They are responsible for the implementation of our strategic development plan. Since we draw the membership of these boards and commissions from the community, their approach is participatory and decision making is bottom–up. I often set up task-forces to address specific issues in the community.  The heads of compounds are also there as the voice for members of their households and compounds. Unfortunately, the structure is not very effective in today’s modern Nigeria as I would have preferred. That is due to lack of resources to support it. All my palace chiefs and other support groups are volunteers. The boards and commissions’ members are not paid and their responsibilities are enormous, they need to earn their living and they have little time to volunteer. That makes city governance very difficult.

You seem cut between two world’s: ICT and African traditional customs. What is the attraction to the latter, given your giant strides in ICT?

From time immemorial, ascending throne anywhere is always a battle and serious struggle among princes and princesses (where allowed).  Most princes and princesses irrespective of their life accomplishments still want to ascend the throne. Nothing can be bigger in life than being a king over your people.

It surpasses all life accomplishments if you have a royal blood. After family, kingship is another institution that is as old as human existence, ordained by God, and it is still very relevant today despite all influences and effects of modernisation. I am highly proud of my achievements in my professional career but I only considered them as preparatory for this bigger role. To me, it is all one world and I have been able to blend them. The throne is not an attraction for all legitimate princes and princesses but the interest to accept the responsibility only varies among princes and princesses. Fortunately for me, the course of my life made it very easy for me and despite my education, Christian religion, profession and travels; I still have a great appreciation for Yoruba culture and tradition.

It might interest you to know that I am one of the pioneer students at Obatala Centre for Creative Arts founded by Chief Muraina Oyelami at Iragbiji, Osun State. I studied Bata/Dundun drumming, Adire Textile design and Print Making, that was when I just graduated with distinction in Mathematics at college. My mother was a very good Christian with the strong background in Scripture Union of Nigeria and she led us in that way, yet I don’t have the conflict with my spirit in handling some misconceptions about our culture and tradition. I enjoy and promote all aspects of our culture to the extent that my Christian faith permits. I know the border between culture and religion and of course, rely on God when I am in any doubt. Those are the issues that I have settled in my spirit long before I ascended the throne.

I digressed to religion due to its sensitive nature and its importance and meaning to an individual.  Religion and traditional institution of Obaship are one major area of conflicts and if I could manage it well, then the professional career as I said, only simplifies my role as a traditional ruler. Instead of it posing any challenge, I have been able to merge the two worlds. Luckily, most of my academic research works were focused on developing countries and I have worked on using ICT in the preservation of Indigenous knowledge. I am also working on an institute to bridge my professional career and my position as traditional ruler. One of the centres at the institute will be on exploring issues on ICT, African Culture and Tradition. Already, one of the centres has started operation, dealing with issues of leadership and governance in rural areas.

Does the throne impose some restrictions on your lifestyle?

Yes, like every position of leadership and responsibilities. This position demands the high level of morality and being cultured. Even as a prince, there is a high expectation of your good behaviour in the society because of your possibility to ascend the throne. You are expected not to engage in any activity that can bring disrepute to your family and the ruling house. Apart from restraining from all forms of social vices which anyway not expected of a prince, the mandatory seclusion marks the boundary between a prince and a traditional ruler. Because the society held you in very high esteem, there are lots of things you must not do, not only because they are bad but simply to discourage others who might not be matured enough to engage in such acts. There are categories of restriction and they are imposed for various reasons. I am highly cautious of the consequences of my lifestyle, pronouncements, attitudes and behaviour and what my people think about me. Whatever I do have a direct bearing on my people and that seriously guide me. Like I said, many things are not necessarily bad but traditional ruler must avoid all possible scandals. The responsibilities of a king are too many to be distracted with negative publicity. Many of recently installed kings in Nigeria are highly educated and well-travelled with exposure to western industrialized countries’ culture. It definitely comes with lots of benefits to the community but it also comes with risks.  The process of appointing a king has a very strong inbuilt control and that was why the best princes often emerge as the king. But occasionally when we venture outside the established process, the result is what you witness in the behaviour of some of us today. In the recent years, we have seen kings engage in domestic violence, there has been an allegation of rape, public disturbance and all sort of ills among royal. Some of us are finding it difficult to understand that kings are not a celebrity and need no advertisement. We are noble and royal, we don’t need to compete for attention with our subjects

How cordial is the relationship between Eburu and other traditional rulers in your neighbouring communities?

I am very fortunate to be surrounded by seven communities – Otan Ayegbaju, Oyan, Ijabe, Okuku, Inisa, Obaagun and Iree and I am very close to some of the traditional rulers in those communities and have a good working relationship with all. But my relationship with traditional rulers transcends beyond my neighbouring communities and spread across the country. We live in the modern world where time, space location and geography are being redefined. One of the major sources of dispute between neighbouring communities is boundary but thank God that government is directly in charge of that and on a few occasions that crisis has erupted that related to that, we are able to amicably settle it in without recourse to violence.

Traditional rulers complain that they are marginalised by not giving them the right role in the governance unlike in the past. Is the complaint justified?

Well, let’s look at it in this way. What’s the point of appointing excellent professionals with some of them highly paid without fully engaging them? I can immediately count at least 10 earned PhD holders, many successful business leaders, Engineers and many professional among Obas in Osun State before I even start going national. The government paid millions of naira for skills and expertise that are abundant among Obas that were made redundant and considered ceremonial.  If Emir of Kano qualifies to be the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, then for him not to have a say (by law) in the affairs of his city, much less local government areas is unimaginable. It is a great disservice to the populace. As you know, the government of Osun State is leading the trail on innovation in local council structure and governance.  I am sure if giving more support, Governor Aregbesola will definitely assist us to define appropriate roles for traditional rulers in a republic. It is not that the government doesn’t want to give us roles in governance but they just don’t know how to go about it due to the kind of constitution we run.  Monarchy doesn’t work in a Republic but since we have chosen to keep monarchy at the city level, we just need to be bold enough to blend the two systems and it will definitely work though challenging. You can imagine the outcry that follows the recent adoption of the parliamentary system in my state. In the near future, Governor Aregbesola and his cabinet shall be celebrated for their foresight and understanding of their responsibilities. Even now, traditional rulers are being partially involved in governance by appointment to relevant boards and commissions at a state level. The parliamentary system we are running at our local government level in Osun is paving the way for more involvement of royal fathers in local administration. Our complaints is actually not about ourselves but more about calling the attention of the government to free labour that is left untapped and left redundant across communities in Nigeria.

There has been the clamour for restructuring, what is your stance on this?

My concern about our nation is that we all know the truth and the right thing to do, yet we continue to pretend. We wish things will just change and our Saul will overnight become Paul. We don’t honestly understand democracy as it is being practised where we copied it and until we contextualize it, we will continue to chase shadow. Our so-called representatives are representing themselves and they turn themselves to our Lord. They formulate policies and promulgate laws that may not necessarily benefit people. They never come back to seek the opinion of people that voted for them. They are not accountable to us and only to come back and donate to us like refugees. It always amazes me that no one ever questions the source of money they use to buy those gifts and how much tax they are actually paying if they are that wealthy. We celebrate looters in the name of the dividend of democracy and they exploit our poverty to continue to enslave us. Why should someone sit in Abuja and assume that the need of Iba people is the same with the needs of people in Numan in Adamawa State? Because they want to control resources at the centre, they concentrate all power and major share of our funds in the federal component of our federation whereas, the governors are directly responsible to the people. We don’t even need to be creative or innovative in this restructuring debate, all we need to do is to copy the US system, adjust for our local factors and apply it.  We already structured ourselves along ethnic lines, religion and history. For example, we need not deceive ourselves, it will be a long time to use residency instead of a place of origin for the political contest as it applies in the US, and those are kind of local factor that we need to adjust for in adopting true federalism. We need to have very small government at federal level and make a state more effective. Each state should be allowed to adopt their suitable local government system.