To His Majesty Ogiame Atuwatse III

 “Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.” – Shakespeare, 1564-1616 (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ P.25).

Royal felicitations, Your Majesty. Because I honestly believe that your reign on the throne was Divinely ordered, it gives me the greatest pleasure to perform one of the most important duties of those of us privileged to write columns. Fur­thermore, as the OLU OF WARRI, you are one of the descendants of the great Oduduwa of Ile Ife. Olu, incidentally is abbreviation of Oluwa, in English trans­lates to Lord. The first Olu was one of the sons of Oduduwa; who were appointed to be Lords over various territories. A Yoruba person listening carefully can easily partake in an Itsekiri conversa­tion. Most Itsekiri names have their equivalents in Yoruba names. Finally, when from 2009 to 2012, I was General Secretary of a Yoruba socio-cultural group – the Yoruba World Congress, or Agbajo Yoruba Agbaye, AYA, led by General Akinrinade (rtd), the late Olu was invited to the opening ceremony at Ibadan. He could not attend, for reasons which culture and tradition forbid me to disclose, but he sent a high-powered delegation and appointed a member to attend our monthly meeting.

Your Majesty, I have had to use so many words to state that you are our Royal cousin in Yorubaland. That places a solemn obligation on those of us who operate in the public arena to defend you as we would rise to the defence of the Oni of Ife, or the Alafin of Oyo for instance. At any rate, it is an integral part of our tradition and culture to support our relatives. When your cousin’s house is under attack by intruders, it becomes your business – and you damn the con­sequences of joining the fray; whatever those might be.

Thus, two weeks ago, just about the time a court judgment was delivered in your favour, the reaction from the ene­mies of progress was predictable. Like wounded jackals, they went to the cow­ards’ den – cash and carry social media outfits which have been giving the media a bad name – hoping, thereby, to obtain a victory which all the evidence available denied them. Certainly, they will fail. You can’t pray for a lie to become truth.

However, Your Majesty, some of your supporters, officially and personally, are falling into a trap; and dragging you with them. Let me explain.

RESPONSE TO DEFAMATION TRAP

Ogiame Atuwatse III

“It takes your enemy and your friend working together to hurt you: the one to slander you, and the other to bring the news to you.” – Mark Twain, 1835-1910.

The most defamed person in Nigeria today is President Tinubu; before him, it was President Buhari; and he received the dubious “Trophy” from President Jonathan. Surely, our Royal Father, you have heard that “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown”. Defamation and great power constitute two sides of the same coin and it is impossible to have one without the other. The mere exis­tence of a President, a Governor and a Royal Father denies others of coveted power and there is no reason to expect them to be happy about it. The bring-him-down-syndrome predated modern soci­ety and will exist anywhere more than three people share the same territory. Sir, get used to that. Once a leader comes to terms with the fact that there are always people eager to unseat him, by means fair or foul, he will also be best advised to embrace an age-long observation.

“Discretion is the best part of valour.” A mosquito perching on the wrong part of the male anatomy can be killed with a sledge hammer or a shot fired from AK-47. Few of us will recommend those solutions, however. The wisdom of our fathers and mothers from time imme­morial dictates that each threat must be properly evaluated with regard to its potential consequences in order to avoid over-reacting or under-reacting or to act when ignoring the nuisance might be the best option. In an article published on this page, just a few weeks ago, when one of the Elders and sons in Yorubal­and were locked in media combat over alleged defamation, I advised Baba to forget the entire thing. To me, that was the best option; despite the pains felt by the old man at 95. It took a bit longer and the intervention of Royal Fathers to bring the matter to an end. Papa can rest easier now.

Your own matter is similar in some respects to the legal battle which made the headlines a few weeks ago. The al­leged defamation was published in a book which very few people read; most probably not including Baba himself. One of them must have drawn Chief’s attention to it and hell was let loose. One totally unintended repercussion of the well-publicised litigation was to shoot the book to the top of the Best Seller list. The enemy had been inadvertently em­powered by the defenders of Pa. There is a lesson to be learnt from that. Great men should never send rejoinders to alleged defamation published in obscure online social media or books through adverts taken in leading newspapers. That reac­tion invites millions of people who would never have read the original allegation to go and look for it. Additionally, the rejoinder in a leading paper brings the perpetrators into main stream with their story. That is counter-productive.

Your Majesty, my advice is simple. Thank those who took out adverts in leading newspapers for their support. But tell them to stop now. There is a bet­ter way of getting rid of mosquitoes than rocket launchers. You are already great don’t wrestle with ruffians. Almighty God will guard and guide you to the end. Amen.

SIR HIGH CHIEF OLUFEMI DARAMO­LA, KJW, MY SAVIOUR – 2

NOTE: The first part of this story ended last week with my arrest in VAN­GUARD Office on Monday by the DSS. Below is the rest of the drama.

The car conveying me to Awolowo Road, Ikoyi was sandwiched between two cars in front and two cars behind; and I sat in the back seat stuffed between two mean-looking and over-sized armed men. Forget escape. These guys were driving as if possessed by the Devil. They probably were.

Fast forward. I was at first given the honour of being placed in the Gani Fawehinmi room because the late hu­man rights activist vacated the place two days before I became the new tenant. But, whereas Gani was only being harassed, my case was different. My front page Analysis had hit the nail on the head too hard for comfort. It was assumed that I had insider information and the best thing was for me to be deleted. I was determined to go down fighting; but how and with what weapons?

Almighty God provided everything needed. The fellow assigned to my room turned out to be a great fan of FRANK­LY SPEAKING. He revealed the plans and offered to help me contact anyone who can help. VANGUARD had tried and government had lied to Uncle Sam and the Editor that I was no longer in their custody; that I was interrogated, warned and released – thereby prepar­ing the ground for my assassination. I was at first sceptical about the offer to help; I thought it might be a trick to find out who my associates were and to arrest them. Saturday was my day. So, like a drowning man who would grab at anything floating, I accepted the offer to help. He smuggled paper and biro into my room and I prepared to send a note. Then I asked myself: “who can I rely on to receive the note and who would act on it before Saturday?”

I had known Barrister Olufemi Da­ramola briefly, when he was the Secre­tary of the Lagos Island Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, when they approached VANGUARD to help publish an NBA Directory of Lawyers. I was assigned the responsibility of get­ting the Directory published and Chief Daramola was in charge for NBA, Lagos. The Law Directory we published was, so thorough, it became a reference material for determining seniority at the bar for years. It also helped to weed out several fake lawyers. That was all. Yet, when my life was hanging on a decision, it was to him I turned; and he saved my life from Abacha. When my life was hanging on a thread of hope, I had to choose one person on who to gamble it. Something about Chief Daramola’s frankness and boldness during our meetings, while working on the Law Directory, told me that he was the best choice. It was Divine inspiration; bearing in mind that a stone-throw from Daramola’s chambers, my half-brother, same mother, had his own law chambers. But, he was gutless. Left to him, I would not be alive today.

I wrote two notes, one inside the other and addressed the envelope to Barrister Daramola, 10, Simpson Street, Lagos Is­land. Why? I still don’t fully know. But, on Friday morning, the day before my planned end, a senior officer came to my room with my clothes freshly laun­dered, asked me to dress up, and go, but warned me not to grant any interview. It was then that I knew that a total stranger had saved my life while risking his own — Sir, High Chief Olufemi Daramola, KJW, of Ilawe-Ile, OMUO-EKITI. My Saviour!!!

P.S. Why was the note not sent to VANGUARD? Because, I was told by my informant that they intended to arrest others in VANGUARD after the noise about my disappearance had died down. Late Alhaji Animasaun was next. So, VANGUARD was out of the question. Going there would only have endangered somebody else. Better to go down alone.

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