Remi Oyeyemi's Open Mind


As far as I am concerned, if there is any ''individual horribly lacking in restraint and discipline,'' that individual is the monarch at Benin who, frightened by his own diminishing smallness....
Monday, August 23, 2004



Remi Oyeyemi

ANNOUNCE THIS ARTICLE TO YOUR FRIENDS
TO EREDIUAWA - NO APOLOGY:
A REJOINDER TO HILLARY ODION EVBAYIRO



"Some minds are like trunks, packed tight with knowledge, no air and plenty of moths."
-- Life, January 31, 1918.

ne has just read the "condemnatory response" of my article IFE/BENIN CONNECTION: The Relevance of Dating and The Burden of Smallness" by Hillary Evbayiro. He raised some issues on the facts of the article and expressed his disgust at my approach which he described as the "crudest and most reprehensible."

First, let us have a look at the major issue he raised. Evbayiro wrote inter alia:

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"While he cleverly avoids the facetious story of Oduduwa's descent on chains from the sky, Oyeyemi however introduces a very interesting twist to the history of the origin and life of Oduduwa that historians may have to grapple with. Contrary to the story that has been told all these years that Oduduwa gave his son, "Omonoyan" (corrupted to Oranminyan in Yoruba), to the Benin people when they went to him for a ruler, Oyeyemi is claiming, to the brutal shock of all and sundry, that Oranminyan was the grandson of Oduduwa."

It is acceptable to be angry at me and be very upset at my perceived disrespect to Erediuawa for which I have no apology, but to insinuate as in the above paragraph that this is THE ABOSOLUTE TRUTH, simply because Oba of Benin shared such inanity and found it useful for calling undue attention to himself (something I was accused of by Evbayiro when he said I wrote the article to be noticed), is the height of odious intellectual chicanery. Anyone with any iota of familiarity with the history of Yoruba, knew and still knows that Oranmiyan is a GRANDSON of ODUDUWA and not his son. Oyeyemi did not make this up. This is what is taught in schools (elementary, secondary and tertiary) all over the world, except in Oba of Benin's palace and probably the "glorified college" he attended overseas to lend a dubious credibility to his weird and wild claims about Oduduwa and Oranmiyan.

Scholars who wanted an objective history of Yoruba have respected Professor Saburi Biobaku and Samuel Johnson but have disagreed with them on aspects of their work. Some have actually inferred reasons (complimentary and not so complimentary) for why both of them make certain claims in their works. And I still do remember that we were made to do a critique of these works back in my undergraduate days. It was not Oyeyemi who made up the fact that Obatala and Oduduwa were rivals (see Professor Jide Osuntokun of the University of Lagos, Guardian, June 21, 2004). But I did not hear this postulation from him first. I have known this from MORE CREDIBLE Oral sources for a long time in my short intellectual quest. I raised this issue with Professor Banji Akintoye, an eminently distinguished scholar/historian and former Senator from Ondo State in the second republic, who referred me to the publication by University of Ife Press among other literatures. It was not Oyeyemi who postulated that he (Oduduwa) was a Prince in Ife (but I found that postulation more credible based on the history of the Ife principalities before the emergence of Oduduwa and the unified Ife kingdom). And it was not Oyeyemi who manufactured Okanbi as Oduduwa's son.

All I did was to put this information out for the public to see and I noted specifically that the effort to find out a more truthful truth continues. And this would continue until we have a position that would stand the test of time, place, science, and reason (for instance, a few days ago, a discussion was held to bring the Ooni of Ife to permit carbon dating the Opa Oranmiyan and other artefacts in Ife to further clarify the dating of these glorious men's time in history).

The second part of the piece was not a mistake. It is my take on the dangerous adventures of Oba of Benin. Most of those who sent me mails were very happy with what I did, though some of them disagreed with this part of the piece, for which, with due respect, I have no apology. Some few irredentists also haul some abuses. The point here is that all these information really make Erediuawa look bad, funny and unserious. But it really does not have to be. However, because Erediuawa's objective is self aggrandizement and validation, it has to be so, from the perspective of his intellectual sentries.

The brazen intellectual fraud and dishonesty of Evbayiro could not have been more ignominiously displayed when he wrote that I "cleverly" avoided "the facetious story of Oduduwa 's descent on chains from the sky" when in fact I addressed that issue in item D in the said article, comparing that myth with the one built around the "Black Scorpion," Brigadier Benjamin Adekunle. It is obvious to all and sundry,(including those who really hate me and my "brazen bravado" as Evbayiro desribed it) why the Oba of Benin and his sentries would like to frustratingly clinch to that mythology. It is the only way Erediuawa's hallucinations could command any modicum of vacuous credibility.

I do agree with Evbayiro when he wrote that "relevance is like respect; it has to be earned through objective and purposeful contribution without being jaundiced." Yes I agree that the Oba of Benin did not earn that relevance and respect he was seeking by being wantonly subjective and morbidly jaundiced, but he (Erediuawa) achieved his purpose of calling undue odious attention to himself. Distorting history is not the same thing as adding value to it. Adding value would mean bringing out new facts and revelations that could be seen to be "objective" and not a scythe political agenda.

He accused me by writing that "Aside from the desire to be noticed and seen as relevant, there is no reason for the gratuitous display of effrontery in a show of brazen bravado." If anyone is guilty of "gratuitous display of effrontery," I think it is the monarch at Benin. He is the one seeking relevance. He is the one that is chasing an elusive old glory that is patently and obviously beyond his reach. He is the one who used selective facts to justify horrendous hallucinations that have no place in history, and insult the origin of the Yoruba by insinuating that one of their most prominent ancestors in Oduduwa, was a "rascal."

I am not oblivious to the fact that Evbayiro may be correct when he claimed that "Edo people do not whinge over trifles and vicissitudes of politics," and one has no problem with that because it could be true. But what is unmistakable, is that obviously and troublingly, their Oba does. This is the crux of the matter and it is also the problem. The cocoon shrouding such an unbecoming act ought to be pierced through for the world to see the motive of the man behind the mask.

Otherwise, rather than publish weird and wild claims in his so called memoirs, why did Erediuawa not make public steps to seek serious intellectual inquiry by working in tandem with other Obas? Or we all just have to roll over and accept his baseless claims because he is a monarch in Benin? If the Oba of Benin has no intention to be "rude and obnoxious" to his ancestors; if his motive was clean and not surreal; if his goal was not to unduly seek odious attention to himself; if he honestly wanted to clarify history and not seek vain self validation, it was within his reach not to take "extravagant pleasure in haughtiness" (apology to Evbayiro) and approach the Ooni of Ife and other Yoruba monarchs (since there is no dispute that they all descended from the same line, except they also want to change that one too tomorrow, when they find it convenient) to suggest harmonization of the historical facts with a view to straightening out the contradictions as he saw it and give the rest of us something to grapple with.

But when you go ahead and make wild and weird claims in the so called memoirs, regardless of your status as a monarch, you must expect to be challenged, especially where there are sources and facts contradicting your position, in any way and by all means possible. Erediuawa's action is symptomatic of those who use their offices as cover to commit acts that are very unbecoming. Erediuawa is too much preoccupied with his own relevance to the point of abusing his stool and his limited influence by spurning his half truths. The danger such behavior constitutes could not have been more succinctly put, as Evbayiro himself did, when he wrote inter alia:

" History stands to attest to the evil society can breed when people are overly conscious of their relevance. Obsessive preoccupation with one's relevance can make abuse of power inevitable."

Yes, I agree. I agree hundred percent that what the Oba of Benin did was tantamount to abuse of power. This is an "evil" everyone must come together to checkmate, not just gloss over it, or sweep it under the carpet, simply because it emanated from an otherwise respected stool, as Evbayiro would want us to do, when he wrote thus:

"To respond to Oyeyemi's in similar fashion would be quite condign for the vexatious and abhorrent lack of deference for the revered Oba of Benin."

Though, this was after he used the words "crudest" and "most reprehensible," which to me, is not problematic, but at least Evbayiro (and his ilk) could be more honest about themselves and save the rest of us the "holier than thou" and "above the fray" duplicity, which we can all see through.

As far as I am concerned, if there is any "individual horribly lacking in restraint and discipline," that individual is the monarch at Benin who, frightened by his own diminishing smallness and misguided by his own selfish ends, proceed to trivialize, distort, confuse, and blackmail history, obviously hoping that his stool and title would shield him from the consequences of his tantrums; and by so doing, brought himself to ridicule.

The Oba of Benin did not show circumspection in his approach. It is not because he was not capable of it, but because he is held captive by his need for unnecessary self validation. I am unwilling to allow half truths to remain unchallenged no matter the bearer of that half truth, be it a monarch in Benin or a market sweeper in Lagos, because as my ancestors are fond of saying, "aileeja l'onje 'ile baba mi o de hin in."

As for the Evbayiros of this world and their ilk, they can choose to continue to believe the tall tales told by their own monarch. They can continue to hold on to the slippery straw of sordid mythology, if it serves their purpose. They can continue to behave like an ostrich, burying their heads in the sand, if it makes them feel invulnerable. Or if they wish, like the quote above, they can remake their minds into trunks, packed tight with the tendentious tall tales told by their monarch, bereft of necessary and life sustaining refreshing air, but with plenty of mutant moths. Neither will stop the Yoruba to continue to research to authenticate their history. Simplicita.