Oba Saka Adelola Matemilola Otileta VII:Modernity meets the Crown

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As HRM decends from Ipebi after three months to Obamogbo family….

 

Return of His Royal Majesty Olowu of Owu, Oba Matemilola from Magbo

.Says my goal is to unite Owu people to realise their full potentials
…To make Owu the Centre of Business in Abeokuta and its environs

14th Olowu:Countdown to coronation begins

When you set out to meet a man of his calling,background and education,you’ll expect to meet an aloof and highly detached monarch who will probably have difficulty in coming down from the corporate world where he has ruled and reigned in the past three decades.

Olowu

Oba Ogunleye (l) Olowu and Abatan the CEO of Newdawnngr, during an exclusive interview in Abeokuta before the coronation

 

 

 

But as you sit with him in the inner recess of the Ipebi where he has had to learn the norms,values and traditions of the Olowu stool prior to his coronation today October 24, his depth of knowledge and elitist background contrast sharply with his simplicity and openess.
He comes across as an intelligent monarch imbued with courage to effect changes in line with his deep vision to uplift the Olowu stool and it’s people.
Today,he remains the most educated and widely travelled monarch than the previous thirteen Obas who has ruled and reigned in the Owu domain since they resettled in Abeokuta in the early nineteenth century after the years of inter ethnic wars in Yorubaland.
For Oba Saka Adelola Matemilola,OtiletaVII, who is mounting the throne today has come a long way having defeated twelve other contestants to the stool within the Otileta Ruling house.
After the thirty six minutes interaction with Newdawnngr.com you got a glimpse of how he was able to defeat the other eminently qualified contestants
. You find a man of deep intellect far more than his simplicity and easy going mien.
But inside of him is a bold resolve to breathe life and introduced dynamism to an institution almost at the twilight of it’s relevance.
After the encounter with the Petroleum engineer cum academician,you come to the conclusion that the institution and people he came to occupy must brace up for needed fundamental changes needed for him to modernise the institution he so much love and respect.

He comes arround as a Prince duly prepared for the office and it’s challenges after decades of travelling arround the globe to eventually meet his Crown.
There is no doubt that by the time he spends five years on the throne of his fore fathers,both young and the old would have one thing or the other to take from the mine of ideas needed to impact on humanity…for him,the race to unite Owu kingdom,develop the youths,empower the women and above all turn arround the socio economic life which for long has remained in the cocoon of arrested development,growth and modernity which has left it behind other kingdoms in the larger territory.
Matemilola is obviously endowed with human capacity and enormous resources and fast contact for development of Owu home and abroad.
Excerpts of an exclusive interview with Newdawnngr.com Editor,Tunde Abatan.
Very insightful and provoking.

Question : Your Highness, coming from your background, what difference would you like to make as the 14th Olowu of Owu, Abeokuta?
Ans: Thank you very much that is one of the key things that I really would like to put out there. Having lived outside Owu most of my life, for me I was surprised when I got very close to Owu, and saw some of the things that I expected would have been on ground which I discovered they’re not there. And I realized that one of the major problems was because of the environment, the ambiance : their relationship with our neighbours and our internal relationships within ourselves. Talking about unity, we need to first of all identify ourselves as Owu people, sons and.daughters of Owu, we need to reflect on our heritage and come together as one body. It’s only when we have that unity amongst ourselves that we can have unity of purpose.

PURPOSE, meaning developing ourselves collectively by the way Owu people successfully done differently for a long time.This is part of the track record that everyone can see. Collectively , we need to succeed and for us to succeed collectively, we need to have that unity of purpose.

Where do we want to get to? That is one thing that is really central to our nation anywhere. Once we have that unity of purpose, we can then set agenda for ourselves which I already have a framework for on the things we want to achieve as a people that will develop our territory in terms of structure and other things that our people are seeking which makes them to leave the shores of Nigeria.

These things are achievable, and I’m very happy that perhaps people are seeing the little profile that I put out there and are coming around indicating their readiness to be part of the vision. People are already promising their support to see us develop as a people, some are ready to invest, some want to build the headquarters of their organisation here in Owu Land, or anywhere in Ogun State.

An indigene of Owu said he want to build a 50 storey headquarters on Owuland in Abeokuta. You can imagine that massive development here in Abeokuta.

And you can imagine what that will be if we are to achieve that and they are very aggressive about it. Another one talks about his wanting to have ICT Center and a lot of Special Schools here in Abeokuta.

Among our youths, today we are already looking for spaces where these structures can be put. If you see the geographical location of Owu, you’ll discover that there are lots of traditional compounds, hence we need to look at particular areas where these projects can start from. These is also leading to other business opportunities, this is one of the things I have in mind and believe you me, I’m going to make Owu a Centre of Business in Abeokuta, it’s a mission that I have, already plans are underway.
This will make a lot of difference in the outlook, in the way other parts of Abeokuta and the whole of Ogun State people see Owu, when that begins to happen.

This is just one out of many things that I intend to do.
We also intend to begin to engage our neighbours (we are already doing that by the way) within Abeokuta and Ogun Central so to speak, on how we can begin to live together. If you look back at history, in the early 1800, before we came to Abeokuta, what actually precipitated our movement was that spirit of unity amongst the Yorubas that were in the Southern parts of Oyo Egba territory. If we had that unity then the war that ravaged the Yoruba people at that time wouldn’t have happened. An adage says Injury to one is an injury to all. In essence what I’m saying is that we must begin to build that sense of unity, we have to live together in peace. No section can dominate the other and expect to live in peace, even looking at it globally, once any group of people decide to be the only dominant force or they want to oppress, they’ll never know peace. They cannot succeed, because you’ll push the other part to such a state that they become so desperate. As the saying goes, he that is down needs fear no fall, it is you who think is up there that will now begin to be afraid, you now want to protect all that you’ve acquired by any means. And it may be that those who started the conflict would have gone by then, then their children will inherit those things and will be the one suffering for it. So when we think about the philosophy about our coexistence, it must be unity, mutual respect, justice. That is one of the things that I’m already engaging my colleagues and my people living in Owu. We need to be just, need to think first of the common benefits before the individual interest. But if we put individual interest before the common interest, then we’ll always have problems

Question: Sir, I know there are some villages and communities we have in Owu from here till somewhere in Gbaja cannot be less than 200, these villages constitute the people that you’ll govern. With the history that you know, and the book you’ve read, and those you’ve met in the last 3months, looking at your background, international exposure and education, how do you hope to integrate them so that they can key into your vision ?

Ans: It’s about peoples management, it’s about making people to realize that whatever you want to achieve, you can achieve it in a way that will benefit all of us and themselves. At the end of the day, they will still get what they are looking for with the approach, the approach is when you do it in a way that it’s a win win for all, then you’ll benefit. We will be having meetings regularly with all these villages and towns where we’ll interact and strategize on what we need to do to ensure that we coexist peacefully, to ensure that we all develop in a way that will benefit us individually as well after the collectives. I know there issues which has been on ground for decades and I don’t want to go back to all of that. I know that some of them bother about land issues, about who want to take advantage of others, among others. But then it is only when people begin to see the benefits they’ll enjoy if they play the game in a fair manner. It’s not a one day work, it requires patience and perseverance

But when we start and we begin to see the progress we are making in terms of people coming together, it becomes easier for others to join and be part of the common good.
So it’s all about continuous engagement and ensuring that we live by what we see

The reason is when people see someone who walk the talk, they are better convinced.

Question: Sir, you spoke about attracting people to come and invest, but such things cannot be done except the human capital is developed and the Obaship traditional institution alone cannot do that, except with govt, so how do you intend to bridge that knowledge economy by partnering with govt and actively engaging our youths ?

Ans : The government is there and with all due respect we know that the mentality hovers around how things are governed.

It’s not about bringing external investors but about how people believe in a cause and believe that we can achieve this goal together.
When they start and investors begin to see the progress being made, they see that their investment will be safe in Owu territory, it attracts them. So it’s not about what government. does alone, it’s about how we help ourselves. We would be happy to get support from govt, but it’s about how we help ourselves and our agenda is around that.
We know that already there are Owu sons and daughters who are actually already on board in terms of mentorship around education, about Business, about different professions and we’ve set up the framework for that. When we begin to do that, that’s where development start from. Schooling is one thing, but education and development goes way beyond what you get in the classrooms. It’s about when actually people come in and support each other. Internships is one of the things I’m passionate about, apart from people getting their degrees, it’s about getting opportunities for internship, attaching our youths to mentors in different areas in terms of capacity building. I met some very good structures on ground with the Owu Empowerment Foundation. When I came in and I saw it on ground I was elated, I’m already latching on to it as we speak. When I came in and I saw there are foundations already laid, solid ones and when I saw what they’ve been doing, I was highly impressed, so there is nothing new to create but rather, latching on to what is existing, to deepen and expand on them, and we are there.

Question: There are four other Obas in Abeokuta, you’ve heard a lot of things and having interacted with your intending Chiefs, is there any missing link in the way the Institution have been relating with each other that you want to do differently?

Ans: I think it’s just lack of insufficient cooperation and trust. The traditional institution is not about the Oba alone, it is the people around him. But when the Oba is convinced about the sincerity of the other sections, it becomes easier for him to convince his people and to stand his ground in terms of direction in which he goes. And I’m already engaging the others, by having a one on one chat, I had one recently with the Alake of Egbaland,Oba Adedotun Gbadebo 111 and I could see his readiness to brave cooperation. others are also ready to ensure to we work together. I can see the openess with which they are receiving us, it’s now up to us (myself and my people) to latch unto that and work together with them. Development is not about Owu alone but Abeokuta in general. It’s when they see the benefits to then as well that they’ll come on board and also support to ensure it happens.

Question : Sir, you’re coming on board when the General election is very close, what is your advice generally?

Ans: Politicians should know that election is not a do or die, if you’re truly going there to serve, to use your resources, your connection, then it cannot be a do or die affair unless you’re going there for selfish interest.
So we warn our people not to get involved with such politicians, so as not to be used for selfish purpose. Both winners and losers must be ready to work together.
Our success as a nation depends on our politicians doing the right thing. Also our youths should not allow themselves to be used as political tools. Once they too realize that it’s their lives that is at stake, their future and that of their children, they would not allow themselves to be used by the politicians. We should also shun partisan politics, we should be careful with our utterances, behaviours not to heat up the polity because that will create problem.

Que: Sir, the fact that you watch development and you symbolize modernity, what do you expect from your people as you’re stepping in, that they’ve not done before ?

Ans: One of the things I’ve already seen in the last two and a half months is that spirit of selflessness, volunteerism doing things without expecting a reward is very difficult for them to do. I’ve realized in the course of my volunteer work in life that a lot of people do things because either they want to be seen. The motive most times is about what they want to get. We need to change that orientation, once that begin to spread then we’ll see things differently and see how that helps the general society rather than what I can get away from this.

When people give and they begin to see the benefits of what others have given and they realize that if they also give in their own little way, that is the mindset that I want to change: Life is about giving and not about getting.

Question: As a father to all, Sir, how do you intend to harmonize all the various religious groups?

Ans: From my experience, one of the major problems we have globally is religion. Religious leaders over the centuries have been the one that has created the most havoc and with all due respect to different religions including mine as well. It’s only when we respect each other’s religion. Also, over the century, we’ve relegated our traditional religion to the background and make it look backward and barbaric. This is wrong.Our forefathers did what they did with purity of mind and we’re able to achieve much. Until we begin to respect our choice of religion.It is only when we begin to see things from that point of view, that we begin to have that peace and unity and begin to live together. That is my view.

Question: Sir, you’ve spent almost three months here what are you taking away from this seclusion?

Ans: One of the things that gives me joy mostly is that I’ve come across a number of people here who truly want to render their support, this gladdens my heart a lot.

Question Sir, have you any special love for white or is it personal or traditional?

Ans: I love white, but God created colours, do I have to be colourful. Even though white may be my best colour so you’ll be seeing me in others colours but you’ll see me more often in white. But then here in the palace you’ll see most of the people with me majorly in white that is traditional. But once we go out you’ll see me in other vibrant and brilliant colours.

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