MATRIARCH of the Awolowo dynasty, Chief (Mrs) HID Awolowo, has fingered scheming for the leadership of the Yoruba race as the major obstacle to the unity of the race.

She spoke at the Awolowo’s home in Ikenne Remo, Ogun State, on Thursday, when the speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Honourable Monsurat Sunmonu, led some members of the assembly and a handful of their wives on a visit.

Chief (Mrs) Awolowo said the need to bring all Yoruba sons and daughters under a common umbrella informed the establishment of Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF), which meets at regular interval in Ikenne, adding that if politicians of Yoruba extraction could bury their political differences, the Yoruba nation would be the better for it.

“If we drop the notion that some belong to Paul and others to Peter, the Yoruba nation will progress and be unstoppable. The race is disunited today and so we keep asking: Who will lift Jacob up? Jacob’s friends are not many and worse still, there is disagreement among his children,” she said rhetorically.

Asked how she stood like the proverbial Rock of Gilbrata behind the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, she said she never for once forsook her husband through all the changing scenes of his private and public life.

She recalled how the sage had kicked against educating his children in separate schools from where the children of the masses were educated during the 1955 free education programme, adding that  it would have been contrary to the principle of equal opprotunities for all that Awo firmly belived in and demonstrated.

While thanking them for the visit, she enjoined the lawmakers’ wives to take after her and stand firmly by their husbands in humility and endurance, saying that their counsels would not be misconstrued.

Speaking earlier, the speaker had said they were in Ikenne to learn from Mama Awolowo and seek her advice on how to move the pace-setter state forward.

“Mama, the governor of the Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi; Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi and all the leaders in the state send greetings to you. You are recognised as the mother of this nation.

“We look round today and still see the giant strides of Papa Awolowo dotting the landscape of the former Western Region. We are happy to be here and happy are we that you received us as your children.

“At old age, Mama is still waxing strong and looking radiant and beautiful. Her memory is still very sharp and accurate.  We thank the Almighty for her life and we have come to drink from her fountain of wisdom and knowledge and we are full. We will now go and apply what we have learnt in her duties,” the speaker said.

The visitors were later conducted round the premises, relishing artefacts housed in the museum in the residence, the mausoleum, where Papa Awolowo’s remains were interred, as well as an old car the sage used to tour the entire country during his campaign rallies.

With Chief (Mrs) Awolowo to welcome the guests was the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director of African Newspapers of Nigeria (ANN) Plc, Reverend Sam Adesua.

Comments (6)

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written by Adisa Olayinka, August 03, 2012

May God still spare us your life for more years to come. You are indeed an icon of the Yoruba race. Those Yoruba leaders who refuse to identify themselves with your acceptability as our female leader and Mother-in-Israel are strictly on their own, God save our inesteemable Mother.

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written by jane100, August 03, 2012

Mama is very correct however because of me me me culture we are a divided race, even abroad an Igbo man would help you before your own brothers there some good yoruba people out there due however it always ends in how much you can give them nothing for nothing mentality

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written by Babatunde Ayeni, August 04, 2012

Somebody should please tell Awolowo's dynasty that they are the one disuniting Yoruba race.
They have turned their Tribune against the masses of the people of Yoruba by their reporting in support of retrogressive elements in Yoruba race who the late sage wouldnt have had anything to do with were he still alive.
The Tribune nowadays looks like what The Concord used to be in the early 80s with their reportage in support of PDP ( offshoot of NPN of old). One wonders if Awo were alive he would have been a member of PDP.
Somebody should tell mama that there was no where anybody sat down to choose Awo as the leader of the Yorubas, but his good work chose him naturally among his contemporaries. That time Awo was not the most educated person neither the oldest nor the richest when he emerged as the leader of the entire Yoruba race.
Today, Yoruba know who their leader is. They know who wants progress for the Yoruba race. they know who they can listen to. The way it was impossible for the enemies of Awo to stop him being the Yoruba leader , thousands of The Nigerian tribune can not be sponsored against the wishes of the Yoruba race.
Awo dynasty should stop fuelling amber of disunity among the Yoruba race. We can not all be in a political party.

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Awo would have turned in his grave
written by prince Adetokunbo Adewole Balogun, August 04, 2012

I agree totally with Tunde Ayeni for his analysis of the Awolowo family. The late sage would have turned in his grave seeing what has become of his followers, his family, his newspaper and most of all his political ideology.For people like papa Awolowo building a Yoruba race that is built on sound political ideology, correct economic principles and high level of accountability is important than uniting with some bunch of rogues all in the name of Yoruba unity where were the likes of of HID and her family when the likes of Akala, Daniel and there criminal friends raped democracy and looted the state treasury in Yoruba states. Where was the Nigerian tribune the supposed voice of the voiceless when the yorubas were openly raped .Ian saddened that the Nigerian tribune which papa struggled to build sothat the masses of the Yoruba race could have a voice has turned itself to the the mouth piece of retrogressive elements. Let it be known to all this people that the Yoruba youths will not fold its hand and some old irrelevant people bring our to disrepute.

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Frank session
written by Sola John, August 04, 2012

I hope mama was bold enough to ask the lawmakers what the state stands to benefit from the trip of their spouses abroad. Would Awo have sanctioned that.

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Illegal and wasteful association of wife of honourables
written by Sir Kay, August 04, 2012

I think there is a need for all ACN governors to sit down and share experience of what governance is all about from Fasola for all these laudable enactments. Especially, Senator Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State that claims to be too know and superior to everybody, take Oyo State for a ride, travel overseas once the monthly allocation of the State is collapsed to the State account from the Federation account while the governed are been taken away by floods on a regular basis with heavy traffic in every part of the state capital, Ibadan due to bridges that have warped in various parts of the city, award all the little uncoordinated contracts to his wife's cronies and even decided to keep the CBN Agric Credits Loan of N1.bn released to the state in an interest yielding account rather than distributing the money to the target farmers despite the fact the farming season for the year is getting to an end. It is only by so doing that the legacy of Awolowo can be kept alive and not all these illegal and wasteful association of wife of honourables. ‘Agba yin ko ni baje mama’

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