By Chief Niyi Akintola SAN, CON, Life Bencher
Of course, every empire will expire, “Kò sí ẹnití oko baba rẹ̀ kòní digboro” is the wise saying of the Yoruba.
There is none whose father’s prosperous farm would not later becomes fallow. He who is on the Horse ride should occasionally look down from his Olympian height.
I am a proud “Omo mama Alakara” My mum sold akara till she clocked 80 years of age when I had to stop her by moving her to my kid sister’s house in Ikorodu, from my homestead, Omi Adio.
My mum was the past Iyalode of Omi Adio who loved her akara trade so much that even after her demise at 89, she lied in state at Omi Adio for numerous traditional rulers, Chiefs, movers and shakers including the present President of Nigeria paid her tributes for her discipline, hardwork, moral virtues and fear of God. I am a proud son of mama alakara.
It is rather unfortunate that the golden charge given to the Nigerian youths was misunderstood and weaponised for political reasons by those who will never see anything good in PBAT, his family members, his political associates and even the objective bystanders who though have no stake in PBAT government but realistic enough to deploy their intellectual gifts into empirical analysis of PBAT reforms rather than pathological hatred and jaundiced opinions of the naysayers who believe everyone must swallow their thoughts hookline and stinkers.
To them, pointing out benefits of PBAT reforms automatically mean you are at the dinner table with PBAT administration. It is their belief that everybody must join in condemning even the most beneficial piece of reforms or a golden advice like the one coming from the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, distinguished Senator Oluremi Tinubu, CON.
I say golden advice because I was once scorned and bad mouthed by some fellow worshippers in my former church in Ibadan some 13 years ago for my audacity to call out the youths and jobless in the Church to explore the abundant opportunities available to them even in the church which many were neglecting.
I had been invited by the church leadership to come over and give a pep talk to the army of jobless youths in the church. Many of them possess chains of University degrees without skills and in the interim, I had advised that exploring small scale enterprises and learning technical skills as better alternatives to sitting at home lazying about and spending valuable hours on the Internet learning worthless values of the West.
Not knowing that as of that year, my third child and daughter was the CFO of a leading commercial bank who resigned her enviable position to become a chef and an events planner. She was doing cooking, supervising cleanings and smiling to the banks as against her modest fixed salary as a banker. One of the doyens of the Bar and a Resourceful SAN, former Chairman of BOB and disciplined leader of my Profession of blessed memories had a graduate son who studied in the UK and came back home with a Master Degree in entrepreneurship had taught us valuable lessons just like Senator Oluremi Tinubu was trying to before the social media mob turn her good nature as a mother with sense of values into a huge social media joke.
Our Oga who would remain nameless was a very successful legal practitioner in every sense of the word. He had amongst his Children successful children such as Doctors, a SAN, a Professor, a Chartered Accountant to mention but a few. But this last card of his armed with a Master degree declined being engaged in white collar job. He incorporated a company called “Alagbafo Nigeria Limited”. Before long, this young man who will remain nameless took the dry cleaning by storm. Many of us in my estates of residence in Lagos and Ibadan became his clients. I do not intend to embarrass anyone but I know not less than a hundred of compatriots on this platform who patronise him.
He has added house cleanings, sewage removals etc to his portfolio and he rakes in billions as revenue annually. I am sure he is one of the good tax payers and favourite of Lagos and Oyo state governments. I would not know if he has not even diversified into other areas of businesses making waves and becoming big boys amongst his peers.
These were the examples I gave to the youths of my church but before long, uncouth language and abuses words started flying about first within the congregation and later spread to the wider congregation. Such abusive words like, Ṣé o lè sọ wípé kí àwọn ọmọ tòhun máa se oúnjẹ tà tàbí kí ó máa ṣe alágbàfọ̀? Could he have advised his own child to become a chef, an alamala or a was washerman? How ignorant could people be? Have they traced the history of the founding of KFC, McDonald, Burger King and the rest?
Today in Nigeria we have Amala Sky in Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, Cape Town in SA with many outlets in many Nigerian cities. We have Biobak in Abuja, Ibadan, Lagos etc and we also have 805 Super Restaurants on Kents Road in SE London, Same in Wuse Abuja, 805 in VI Lagos and many other Resourceful enterprises by young talented Nigerians doing wonderfully well in PH, Lagos, Abuja, Enugu, Owerri etc.
In other to disabuse the minds of my mockers and bad mouthers in my former church, I invited my aforementioned daughter who is well known to the congregation any way to the same church to lecture the ignoramus who asked the rhetoric question “Whether I could advise my own child to become a chef.” She was in the church one day life and direct proudly displaying her profile as a Celebrated Chef and cleaner with two Masters degrees and a PhD in Economic and Finance from an Ivy league University in the United States.
She later left Nigeria to join her husband abroad and became a bank executive there. My advice to her Excellency, the First Lady of Federal Republic of Nigeria, distinguished Senator Oluremi Tinubu CON is for her not to be detracted by the naysayers and pathological critics.
They have nothing positive to add to the society and have never impacted anyone positively in their lives. You have touched the lives of thousands of children and women positively even as the First Lady of Lagos State. You pioneered the “Spelling Bees” Competition in this country with your husband graciously keying into your vision by yielding his office as Governor for one day to hundreds of impressionable children in Lagos. The programme still subsist till date.
Your Excellency, rest not on your oars. You’ve done what a napoleon could not do in the area of being a mother and moral compass. Let your detractors continue to wail. It is in their DNA to wail as you continue with your noble ideas of moulding the youths to think outside the box and reach for the sky as their starting point. Great thinkers like you should not listen to the lazy ignoramus who think working in NNPC, banking Sector, entertainment industry are the only Five star area of Labour. You are not the first to be so mocked Your Excellency. Great thinkers and fathers of the Nation were so mocked. The Great Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Azikwe, Jakande and even Gowon were so mocked but where are their mockers today?
