Hate him, love him, admire him, vilify him, whatever your feelings are towards this persona, you cannot take the fact away from him that he is an Enigma. The 15th Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Ganiyu Ige Abiodun Adams is a man worthy of keen study. From his rise from the rubbles of Oduduwa Progressive Union of the old, to the newly formed one that is more than 5 million members in Yoruba land, you cannot but doff your hat for this hero.
Yes, I call him a hero. Do you know his humble beginnings? Do you follow his trajectory in life? Always involving and evolving and building himself to be one of the topmost in Yorubas today. Apart from his personal evolvement, he has made his mark in Yorubaland by being a force to reckon with.
He is greatly underrated and undervalued. I remember a day he was speaking to members of Oodua Progressive Union in Canada (OPU), one of the branches of the over one hundred and thirty branches worldwide, he brought out a map of where all the bandits were hiding in Yorubaland.
He spoke of intelligence gathering of his gallant Oodua Progressive Congress (OPC), the proof of a parallel security infrastructure driven by self-reliance and nationalism to secure Yorubaland if only Federal Government would allow it. He is a man with mission, purpose, care and deep love for Yorubaland. The question then is why is this man not celebrated and recognized for his contributions to Yorubaland and Nigeria as a whole?
Apart from organisational skills, Adams has proven himself in the notoriously unstable security environment. Undeterred so frequently, he has placed himself consistently as a defender of Yoruba interests in a scenario where banditry, terrorism, and communal crises have stretched the very fabric of society to its breaking point.
But for such documented influence, Adams is Nigeria’s most underappreciated man. His name too often is reduced to agitation clichés or dismissed by critics resistant to looking beyond appearance. But history will be no such simplification. His cultural work, from fighting for Yoruba celebrations to imparting identity to a new generation’s awareness, has been vital in protecting heritage in the era of globalization. His extreme activism is now being interpreted as prudence in the context of Nigeria’s pervasive governance problems.
The question, therefore, is not whether or not to celebrate Iba Gani Adams. The question is why he has not been more extensively celebrated for his contributions to security, culture, and the Yoruba renaissance. In a nation where patriots are all too frequently celebrated too late, there is danger in leaving it to history to validate his efforts.
One thing is certain: time will deflate propaganda, prejudice, and politics off the surface, and only the truth will be left behind. And when that truth is written, the books of Yorubaland will remember him not just as an activist, not just as a keeper of culture, but as a Generalissimo who did not shrink when others did. A warrior who did not sleep when others were snoring. A man that acted when others were scheming.
He is a man of history.
Kemi Amusan (Lady Kay) writes from Toronto Canada.
askladykay@gmail.com
