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Penultimate Saturday, I was in Abeokuta, my primordial homestead attending this year’s conference of the South West Authors’Forum (SWAF).
The three-day event which actually started with a meet-and-greet and gala night the day before, featured discussions and resolutions of matters in some state chapters of the regional writers’ body, ratification of a newly drafted constitution, conferment of awards, book exhibition, a lecture and excursion to some of the tourist attractions in the historical city, including the famous Olumo rock, Ibara market and Ita Sodeke (the forecourt of the compound of the leader of the Egba who led the war-like people
to found the town in the 19th century.
A most exciting time, delegates from Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states would testify! What with our hosts’ warm hospitality and lavish feasting of the guests for the entire period it lasted.
But for me, perhaps, the most fulfilling part of my participation was my meeting with the Olowu of Owu Kingdom, HRM Oba (Prof) Saka Matemilola, the Otileta VII, one of the royal quartet who rule over the beautiful and compact Ogun State capital city.
The monarch was there both as chairman of the opening ceremony and as recipient of SWAF honorary award in recognition of his remarkably intensive and relentless promotion of literacy, literary arts and development within and even beyond his domain.
The First Class Mechanical Engineering graduate of Nigeria’s premier University, the University of Ibadan, and Cambridge Ph.D holder, has only been two years on the throne.
Though accompanied by the retinue of the palace bard, Kakaki blower, Police orderly and chiefs, the Olowu cut the image of a simple, unassuming man. Lanky and handsome, with a fair skin and well-trimed silvery beard, he breezed into the venue, the Association of Secondary Schools Academic Union Secretariat at Leme, in the heart of the city, in a traditional attire of rich fabric albeit simple design with a cap and traditional beads to match.
Yet, the aura of his royal presence and immanent greatness was unmistakable as he sat with dignified reserve though the proceedings.
When it was time for him to address the gathering, my pulse would give doctors a fright as my blood, of 100 percent Owu composition, surged and swelled with pride!
Why?
I was simply mesmerized by the sheer wisdom and beauty of the King’s words. They advertised logic, depth, candour, patriotism, cosmopolitanism and empathy that declared a sense of justice and an undisguised solidary with the underserved – a virtue clearly uncommon with Nigeria’s elite class.
But what majorly blew my head off was the monarch’s engaging and impressive manner of expression – not for him the tired, weak and dead words and sentences public figures bore us with and of which we are warned, as writers, to steer clear off, if we hope to be successful.
In place of predictable trite verbiage, he had elegant substitutes of choice diction and turn of phrases that delivered his message with penetrating lucidity and impact on the minds of the audience.
And to think he is only an Engineer? Oh, yes! He must be an engineer of words too!
Then, it dawned on me – his affinity and identifying with our tribe, the weavers of words.
It also dawned on me the correctness of his pick by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and other Owu kingmakers, as the Olowu, after his predecessor, Oba Adegboyega Dosunmu joined his ancestors in December 2021.
Oba Matemilola is a paragon of excellence and distinction.
But no surprise there at all. It’s just in the chacter and pedigree of Owu, an acknowledged special and highly cultivated breed of the Yoruba people, he leads.
Proud to have in Owu Kingdom a royal father not content with merely filling a sinecure office and enjoying its perks, but who feels as one with the people and is committed to serve.
“Owu lakoda o!
Bi e d’Owu, e bere wo!”
It was too big an opportunity to miss, so, before he took leave of us, I presented to the Olowu a copy each of my book, ‘A REPORTER AND HIS BEAT’ and my sister, Lola Fabowale’s poetry collection, ‘NOSTALGIA AND TEARS F’ORILE”.
The king took kind interest and time to chat with me on the books which he promised to read.
I was really humbled by the dignified humility and patience the Custodian of the first of the beaded crowns Oduduwa, the progenitor of the race, awarded to his descendants, exhibited throughout the conversation.
Yes, even though the origin of Olowu’s dynasty is not by direct descent, not being one of the seven heirs (male children of Oduduwa) his crown is revered as the foremost in the entire Yorubaland having been sanctioned by Oduduwa himself to whom he was a favorite grandchild (his first born’s first son).
That’s what makes us, Owu, unique and the envy of others. That’s the heritage we will queue behind our new royal father to uphold!