When you were first pronounced as the Aare Ona Kakanfo, what went through your mind?
What went through my mind was that this is a very big task. This is a service to Yoruba people, to Nigeria and even to Africa, because my projection goes beyond Yoruba race.
I intend to project my activities not only as a freedom fighter but also as a promoter of culture. We will promote our culture, our identity, beyond the shores of Nigeria, to other African countries. There can be a synergy among the various tribes in other continents, because one of the main problems we are having in the global village, not only Africa, is that we are losing touch with how God has created us. We are living the modern life now but modern life does not say we should recreate ourselves. Trying to recreate ourselves, trying to build another identity by the various tribes and ethnic groups in the world is affecting our growth and progress. This is not happening only in Yoruba land or Nigeria or Africa but in other continents, too. We are witnessing a lot of calamities in different continents, which are alien to the world. We have to search our minds and find out what is wrong. Is it something we are doing that God does not love? Have we deviated from the way God created us? So, the cultural evangelism will be beyond the Yoruba race, beyond Nigeria and even beyond Africa, because every human being is a product of God and we have to continue to seize any opportunity to render service to humanity. So, I see this as a platform for me continue and upgrade my service to the people.
Among the people who have been Aare Ona Kakanfo, who is your mentor?
I can tell you authoritatively that Chief M.K.O. Abiola is my role model. And I read the history of Chief S. L. Akintola. I love him, too, because of his oratory. Baba [Obafemi] Awolowo was an achiever. But the main mentor is Abiola. If not because of June 12, there would not have been anything like OPC.
The organisation is an offshoot of June 12 annulment. Immediately June 12 [the 1993 presidential election, won by Abiola] was annulled, the Yoruba came together and formed different groups. The Campaign for Democracy had been on the ground. Ewe boosted it. I was the PRO in Mushin. When we realised that this was a national group, we had to put our house in order and now formed the Oodua Youths Movement. After doing that, we realised that youths could not do it alone, and then somebody, Tony Igrube, advised us to form a group that would have elders, women and youths. So, eight of us started with Dr Frederick Fasehun; we formed the Oodua People’s Congress. It was because of the annulment of June 12 we thought we should form OPC. And if there were no OPC, would I be where I am today? So, definitely, there is nothing I can do in life without mentioning Abiola. And then, he paid the supreme price for democracy. Not only him; his wife, Kudirat, was gruesomely murdered, gunned down in broad daylight. And his businesses were run down. Look at the defunct Concord Newspapers. Look at the bakeries….everything was ruined. Any time we are commemorating June 4 [the death of Kudirat Abiola], you would pity the family. The house was dry; only one of his daughters was using the house as the office of Kudirat Abiola.
So, definitely, Abiola would be my mentor regarding the Aare Ona Kakanfo. And the philanthropic aspect of it, I am doing my bit but it is not like Abiola. I have the Gani Adams Foundation, which I have registered since 2005. Every year, I spend between N5 million and N6 million – even more than that in some years. We normally acknowledge Humanitarian Day. We give goods and packages to motherless [babies’] homes, like 10 of them. On World Literacy Day, we give schools books, stationery, even money. And we normally organise the Gani Adams Cup, too, to empower the youths. We give them money after the competition through the Gani Adams Foundation. We have the Olokun Festival Foundation for promotion of culture. We have another group now in 78 countries, the Oodua Progressives Union, different from OPC. We could have gone to the United Arab Emirates, Algeria and Egypt for the launch of the group but in view of this latest development (the conferment of the title of the Aare Ona Kakanfo), we had to change the date to December. I will probably be in the United States, Friday next week, for an award. Currently, we have structures in 12 out of the 52 states in the US. So, as regards the philanthropic aspect, we are doing our best in our capacity. You know I am not rich like Abiola; I am still an activist. But in a little way, we are trying our best.
As the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, you want to promote culture and tradition but if the territorial integrity of Yoruba land is threatened, what will you do?
The structure for defending our territorial integrity is there; OPC is there. If we are talking of culture, that does not mean we should disrobe ourselves as defenders of our lives and property. We have been promoting culture for the past 15 years and people think OPC is weak. They don’t know that we are keeping OPC for any eventuality. The structure is growing every day. The people thought we should assist the police on Badoo [menace]. Ikorodu had been overrun by Badoo. They were killing about six people every day. We got the intelligence report but we couldn’t do anything because we did not want the police to turn it against us. And when the police called us to complement their effort, within one month, it [Badoo problem] became a thing of the past. Thanks to the new [Lagos State] Commissioner of Police – he was Deputy Commissioner of Police then; he was resolute to resolve that issue. Even when we were in a meeting and some of his officers disagreed, he said, ‘We have to do it and we need the OPC!’ This man made it clear that they needed us. Anytime we were going for an operation in Ikorodu, we asked our coordinator in the affected local government area to lead them [the police] to the criminals’ dens. Even the DPO would tell his men to stay at the back; that, ‘You were here before and couldn’t stop this thing. Let us try a new body to complement our effort’. It got to a stage where he said if we had licensed pump-action guns, we should take them along. The officers would look curious and he would tell them, ‘I mean what I am saying. We are here to save the lives of Lagosians. We are not here for play. We are not here for ego. The responsibility given to us by the government is to save lives and anything we have to use to do this we have to use. We are the ones that licensed it for you, if you have a pump-action gun, take it along.’ So, that is a very good example.
The supervising coordinator of OPC in Edo State told me – you know, our people do a lot of things without publicity – that in Ore, in the last two weeks, they arrested four [suspected] Boko Haram members on a farm. But they could not inform the media that it was our members that apprehended those people and handed them over to the police. When the criminals invaded Ikorodu, we know the effort we made not only physically but also spiritually. So, the OPC is still there. If there is any territorial invasion, we will do our best within the confines of the law. We have gone beyond doing anything against the law.
You have been a promoter of the Yoruba culture. How many Yoruba festivals have you financed?
Apart from the OPC, we have a group that we call the Olokun Festival Foundation, which promotes 18 festivals annually. We started in 2004 and in the past 10 years, we have upgraded and increased the festivals to 18. We have received about 63 demands, letters, from different communities in Yoruba land, including Obas, asking us to come and promote their various festivals. Some of them even called us. But we did not have the capacity, not even in terms of finance, because when you talk of festival, the major content is crowd. When a festival is being held in any community, you have at least 3,000 people. But how many places will we send our followers to? To how many communities will we share our followers? Apart from that, some of the communities will want my presence. It is part of the capacity. However, we have been able to increase the number of our ambassadors to seven. We used to have to only one ambassador in the veteran actor, Mr Yomi Fash-Lanso. We just unveiled six more ambassadors. We decorated them in Southern Beach. And we are thinking of moving from the entertainment industry; we are going to make renowned journalists, industrialists, academicians – some of those who deliver our lectures – our ambassadors, so that we can be able to have 25-30 ambassadors. These ambassadors can represent us at some of these festivals, because how many places will Gani Adams be?
Who is sponsoring you on these 18 festivals?
I can tell you that God is our sponsor. No corporate organisation, no political stakeholders are involved. The members of our group and I sponsor the festivals. As a journalist, you can attest to this. You have been a part of most of our festivals, have you seen any organisations advertising their products there? We had been writing them and we realised that they were not responding, so we had to close that. We know Nigerians; maybe they thought we were begging them. But we thank God that the more they did not partake, He was giving us strength. The grand finale of the Olokun Festival will be held Thursday next week. We have done about four programmes in respect of the festival and we have spent N4.8 million already. Definitely, we will spend between N5 million and N6 million before the conclusion [of the festival]. So, definitely, the total cost will not be less than N10 million. The money normally comes miraculously. That is what I have realised about culture. When you are promoting culture, you will have three things: you will not be poor; you will not lose fame or stardom and, if you do it right, you will live long and your name will be written in gold.
Those three things are natural. You can see people like Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe; their novels are about culture, indigenous culture and norms. You can see the greatness of these two writers. And in spite of Ola Rotimi’s death, his book, ‘The Gods Are Not To Blame’, survives. You also have Professor Akinwumi Isola and the late Chief Adebayo Faleti. When you see them, the recognition comes immediately. You can’t compare them to some academicians who do not believe in their culture. When you promote your culture, your language, the spirit of that race will back you up.
Having been pronounced the Aare Ona Kakanfo, some people have expressed the view that you are militant, stubborn and will only lead the Yoruba race to war. Will you lead the Yoruba race to war?
We have been monitoring the reactions of those who comment even on social media. Those people who are pessimistic, who are negative. I can tell you that from Sunday to today [Thursday], they are just two per cent [of the Yoruba population]. I was shocked at the positive reactions. Let me say, on Sunday, they [the pessimists] were four per cent, Monday, three per cent, Tuesday, two per cent and by now, hardly will you see any. I have monitored everything since receiving that letter. Some of those who have commented negatively – I am talking of this minority, tiny minority – do not even know what they are saying. The last person that held the title was 19 years ago. Even I was 28 years old then. So, talking of these young guys on the social media, the majority of them, about 95 per cent of them, they are less than 50 years old. Some of them are even in their 20’s, 30’s. Most of them, even the elderly ones, may not know the history and norms of the Yoruba race. They don’t know history. They are educated but they don’t care to research on the Yoruba race. So, some speak, based on ignorance. Some speak, based on partisanship; they imported the hatred of 2015 to first register their opinion. Notwithstanding, in a small community in Yorubaland, if you want to become an Oba, you can’t get 100 per cent. If you are able to get 85 per cent, that means you are overwhelmingly popular. The title of the Aare Ona Kakanfo goes beyond the Yoruba race, even Nigeria. They were jubilating in the Republic of Benin. All the Yoruba Obas there, they were jubilating. I got information that the Onikoyi in Porto-Novo started a party immediately the news came. I have received calls from more than 60 Obas in Benin Republic. So, it goes beyond Yoruba race. It reflects to the Itsekiri. The Itsekiri are descendants of Oduduwa. It reflects to Bacita, to Jebba. So, I am just praying to God to give me wisdom.
The first prayer is for God to give me wisdom because this is a race that people outside see as gold, but we couldn’t cherish ourselves, we couldn’t love ourselves. I have travelled to many South American countries. When some of them want to come to Yoruba land, they think they are coming to paradise. But by the time they get to this soil, they would now see that you do not even care about what God has given you. And that would have been another tourism opportunity for Nigeria, not only for the Yoruba race. Most of our leaders do not even think about it; some of them because of religion. And there is a difference between religion and culture, and tradition. Even in Saudi Arabia, which is a strong Muslim nation, they have their own culture and tradition. In Israel, they have their own culture and tradition. In Israel, about 50 per cent [of the population], practise Judaism. But here, it is so funny. That was the first battle I fought through the cultural promotion.
When you are promoting culture, won a l’o n b’o’risa (they would say he is worshipping idol). What is orisa? Orisa is a spirit and in the spiritual realm, there are good spirits and negative spirits. Even the negative ones, if you are smart enough as a human being, you can use them positively. So, it depends on how you use them. There are no spirits in the world that do not want to do good; it depends on how we influence them. And the majority of them [the spirits] in Yoruba land are positive, I can tell you this authoritatively. I am a deep person spiritually but I won’t show it to you. I am not a babalawo (a priest of Ifa, a religion and system of divination). I am not a priest in Islam, Christianity or the traditional religion, but I am deep [spiritually]. But I don’t blow my trumpet. If I am not deep, will I control six million people without giving them money? These are people who are okay. Some of them are wealthier than me. But people do not know [this]. The impression of the beginning of OPC is still registered in their minds: ‘they are nothing, they are hooligans’. That was the beginning. And it was not hooliganism, it was about moving from military [system of government] to democracy, for which we were prepared for war. But when democracy came, even the politicians we assisted to gain democracy now turned out to be our enemy. The strength of the organisation created more enemies for us in the political circle. But we thank God. In spite of all the tribulation, with all the impediments on our way, we sailed through with the support of God and our ancestors.
So, when you talk of festivals, our self-determination is the promotion of culture, because sometimes, we may be broke. We now sit down. If we had planned that the festival would cost us N3 million or N4 million, we now downsize it to about N1.8 million and we would get results with very good planning. When we started the festivals in some communities, there were always antagonists. Some people would support us, others would say no. We used those who supported us and outsiders to build the festivals and within three years, the entire community would feel the same way, because of the commerce, the tourism, the popularity. When they now realised that the festivals were giving their communities popularity and we were making money within three days of the festivals and people kept coming and the festivals were peaceful, all of them would come in.
A good example is Iseyin, Oro Ebedi. You know it is a very strong Muslim community. There would be Oro [festival] and there would be fighting between the enthusiasts of the festival and the Muslims to the extent that the Muslims went to court. But when we got there, through communication, we have been able to douse the tension between the Oro people and the Muslims. I told them that ‘I, who have reopened the festival for you, am a Muslim, too, but what we are doing here is not about religion but about our heritage’. I told them that you people inherited the Ebedi Hill – God created it there – and Oro is our inheritance, too. There is no family that does not have their own Oro. The Yoruba would say Oro Ile. When a child is crying too much, won a ni Oro Ile e l’o n se. T’o ba d’agba, a ro (he is under the influence of the family’s Oro spirit. When he is grown, he will become calm). When you see somebody singing so much, they would say Oro Ile won ni, won maa n like k’on maa k’orin (it is their Oro spirit, they like to sing in their family). The issue of Oro is beyond being a cult and scaring people in the night. Oro has different meanings in the society. So, we explained to them and now they have keyed into it. We held the last one three weeks ago. The crowd was overwhelming. Mmebers of the different sectors of the community came. So, we thank God.
Even in my own community, Arigidi-Akoko, there was impediment when we started the Okota Festival. But the first thing they realised is the economic advantage of the festival. After they realised that they were making money from the festival, they concurred and we continue to explain to them because they have been brainwashed. It is unfortunate. I am a Christian, so before coming down from upstairs, I prayed. If you get to my room, you will see the candle still burning. Every day, I pray with the light of a candle – if I am in Nigeria. I pray three times the Christian, Muslim and traditional ways every morning within a short period of one hour. So, it is not as if we are working against any religion. And it is not as if we are building any religion.
I am not a part of the Ifa Council Society. Those are the ones building the traditional religion. I am not an Ifa priest but I will encourage them because it is our own. The Yoruba would say ‘tiwa ‘n’ tiwa (what is ours is ours). They would say ‘Omo ale nii f’owo osi juwe ile baba e’ (only a bastard would point to his father’s house with the left hand). If we don’t sustain our identity, there is no way we can grow. So, we have lost one thing and that is giving us problem. And the government does not care to support us. Immediately you write a letter to them, they say, ‘Ah, don’t give Gani money o; don’t build him again. He has too much of structures. When he gets money, he will be too powerful’. And if you don’t give me, God will give me.
Yoruba Language faces the threat of extinction. What are you doing to stop this and promote the language?
I am thinking of registering another group that will be for language or we create a department in the Olokun Festival Foundation. But we have been doing that through our festivals. Most of our communication during the festivals is done in Yoruba Language. Do you know that we are the ones that wrote all the state assemblies that they should be using Yoruba Language, at least, once in a week during their plenaries. Osun State has started. Lagos State is doing well on this, on Thursday. At the same time, we wrote all the state commissioners for education and the governors that Yoruba subjects should be brought back in the curriculum. We are doing that on different levels. And there is no time in my speech that I would not use two or three paragraphs on the promotion of our language and our culture. We have been sensitising people and we will do more on that. More resource people will come in to work with us. Everything will be sorted out, especially now that we have the title of the Aare Ona Kakanfo. We have been given more power to do more.
and then