By Abayomi James Oluwanifise

About ten years, long after he had left the Presidency and retired to his Otta Farm, former President Olusegun Obasanjo became a subject of some mischievous but criminally nauseating paternity question.

From nowhere, a picture started circulating on social media with the subjective poser that the picture did look like Obasanjo. And what were those behind the mischievous question trying to say? That the person in the picture was the father of former President Olusegun. That was not even the issue. The issue then was that the man in that picture, with the irritating insinuation of being Obasanjo’s father, was an Igbo man! Can one beat that?

Well, that is why the ‘Obasanjo experience’ should worry someone like Senator Adeola Olamilekan, popularly known as Yayi, going by the growing but disturbing insinuation that he is from Ekiti State.

However, even at that, Yayi should also be amused. Amused in the sense if his opponents have just suddenly realised that he is not from Ogun State but from the state popularly referred to as the ‘Fountain of Knowledge’. It shows how redundant some of them are and how bereft of anything negative to pin on him.

This piece will not try to hold any brief for Senator Adeola. During campaign season like this, and when a candidate is seen, even by the harshest of his political adversaries as the man to beat, then anything becomes a political weapon. Even the most mundane of issues are elevated and constructive engagement is sent on sabbatical.

When this rumour first reared its funny head, perhaps the camp of Senator Adeola would have probably waved it a way as one of those malicious rumours that would die naturally with the belief that they usually have the lifespan of a mushroom.

However, the rumour has not only gained a life of its own, it has metamorphosed into a conversation that is gaining traction even if it is arrantly baseless. Baseless because there is a critical missing link which even those bandying the claim around have refused to interrogate. Even an elementary student of law would never be forgiven if he or she does not know that the onus of proof is always on he who accuses. That is why you don’t wake up and accuse someone of pilfering without saying what he or she has criminally approximated and, crucially, how he or she did it. And that is why even critical questions must be asked of the intellectual capabilities of those amplifying this puerile nebulosity.

Now, let’s raise some critical counterpoise here. Ekiti, where Yayi is claimed to have come from has almost a hundred and forty towns and villages. While each town has the suffix ‘Ekiti’ added to their distinct names, each has its uniqueness and peculiarities that stand them from the each other. Now, if you vaguely claim someone of the stature of Senator Adeola Olamilekan is from Ekiti State, especially when such classification and identity pigeon-holing is meant to score cheap political points, then it shows how lazy you are as a person if you cannot mention the town or village he comes from and his lineage. Why did I say this? I will explain.

Before going to town with this type of claim, there should be the little matter of which particular town and more so, the family lineage he comes from in the particular town. Let me go a beat personal here. My mother is from Ikere-Ekiti. I started schooling there. Her father’s house is in a place called Oke Ugele area of Ikere-Ekiti. Anyone familiar with that town will naturally know where Oke Ugele is in Ikere-Ekiti. Now, more critically, someone also familiar with that geographical location will easily tell you that there are people of the same age bracket with someone claiming to be from that area would have grown up with.

For the sake of argument, let us say Senator Adeola’s parents, especially the father, left the town they are claiming he comes from in Ekiti when Adeola himself was a toddler or even before he was born, then there must be a lineage. There must be people his father grew up with. The father must also have parents whose history some people are familiar with. Unfortunately, those bandying this mischievous heresy have never deemed it fit to provide the gerontocratic background of Senator Adeola from Ekiti State. Perhaps, they knew what they wanted to do ab initio: create a storm where there was never a wind in the first place. They can do better.

In this part of the world, nothing is too much to play politics with. Even the death of a child of a political opponent can become a tool. Personal challenges can become handy too. But all these pale into insignificance when compared to questioning someone’s ancestral background. And that is why we need to ask critical questions about whether the extent political actors go to in order to score cheap political points actually worth it.

You cannot be loved by all. Therefore, it is taken that Senator Adeola, will have his adversaries. But do not deny him his flowers. Cut him some slack and accord him his respect as a consummate politician who does not only know the game but also understands that power actually is not just a property of the people but also their inheritance. As they say on the streets, he has paid his dues.

He was at a time a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly for Alimoso Constituency II. This was between 2003 and 2007 before becoming a House of Representatives representing Alimoso Federal Constituency. He later became the Senator representing Lagos West Senatorial District.

The interesting part of Adeola’s political odyssey is that while many see political positions as opportunity to amass wealth and acquire properties, Yayi prefers to invest in the people on whose mandate he has been attaining these enviable political positions. Let me tell you some interesting connections between this writer and the inimitable propensity of Yayi to invest in people. Just couple of streets from my house in Lagos, the 500KVA transformer being used by that community was donated by Yayi. My mechanic’s wife who learnt tailoring benefited from Yayi’s free distribution of sewing machines just when she was still trying to raise money to procure one.

When he was doing all these, no one remembered he was from Ekiti State. How funny can politics be? I am not really conversant with the politics of Ogun State but stories are told of how much this guy has been trying to build communities, empower people and elevate his constituents’ quality of life.

It is a common thing with some politicians to see political positions as an opportunity to keep the people in perpetual servitude. To them, relevance is measured by the number of people who besiege their gated homes every morning to beg for handouts. To them, a mental orgasm is derived when they hand down large cash to their aides to share to hunger-stricken constituents who will be at their gate in another couple of days to beg for another handout. To them, that is the criminal yardstick for measuring relevance.

But those who know this guy say his own brand of politics goes beyond this unfortunate parochialism. To him, hand a man his fishing tools and apparatus rather than inviting him every evening to a meal of fish. He will eat to his satisfaction when you invite him to come and partake in eating fish. But can that also feed his family? Why don’t you let him fish, eat and then sell? Yayi’s brand of politics, according to those close to him, is teaching a man how to fish. They even claim he can even provide you a pond full of fishes to fish in.

That is the brand of politics that elevates humanity. For so long, politics in this part of the world is that which thrives on prebendalism. It is about how much one can take from an unfettered access to the public till. And that is why the nation is beset with a stunted growth. Since that is the main motivation for seeking political office, it is not surprising that there is always a resort to inanities and none issues when someone tries to be different.

Such inanities include telling someone that Obasanjo had an Igbo father or that Yayi is from Ekiti State. A man from Paayi, in Ilaro, Ogun State. As earlier said, we can always do better.

* Oluwanifise, a journalist and political analyst, wrote in from Lagos.