Hmmm, I don’t know why I always do this, that is look for trouble.

Why am I about to incur the wrath of my host and in laws, the Yoruba people? But Abeg what is life if we cannot look for trouble and laugh at ourselves while at it? So today I want to yab Yoruba people for their love of their Owambe party. These parties are usually organized to celebrate all sorts, weddings, burials, graduation house opening, release from jail and also rememberance amongst others. The planning usually takes months or even years depending on the prominence of the family organising it.

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It is usually a wonder to behold. The Yoruba people do not joke with this party at all as months earlier fabric called’Aso Ebi’ is sold and are fiercely fought for by prospective attendees. It is usually very colorful and marks out different groupings. The families, the in laws, the celebrants, the creditors, the mistresses and also even those who just heard that is the, ‘mogbo mo ya’ people all deck out in these materials. At the party, the colour of head gear and cloth determines the kind of service you get. If you are lucky to wear the identified official colour then your table will be filled with the choicest of food and wine. But if you are unfortunate to wear a colour closer to the mogbo moyàpeople then you would most likely go home hungry. 

Food is served in abundance. The staples for these parties include rice, pounded yam, Amala, fresh fish etc. Then you would be given deserts and sorry I should have said earlier appetiser, which could be fruits, akanmu and puff puff.  To me the highlight is usually the dance. The musician on stage is given a list of prominent people and he on the spot starts singing their praises. This usually leads to the big boys spraying the musician while ogling the women and choosing the ones they will go home with. Many men have lost their wives during these dances. All the predator does is to target one of the big bottom, light skinned with dark blotches on their ankles with his crisp notes. As she wriggles her waist to the melodious songs on the bandstand, the randy wolf starts spraying her with money. He strategically places the money on her forehead, her chest, her waist while doing this whispering into her ear that they should meet later.

Yoruba people never forget their traditions. Even in the US, the money spraying during owambe is very important

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With one eye on her husband, the target whispers her numbers to the man and the man takes down the number and completes the spraying and goes to sit down beside the husband. The women look forward to this so dance for different purposes. Some enjoy the praise singing, others use it as a platform to flaunt their goods in the hope that they will meet or find a husband, others do it for the money they would earn by wriggling their padded buttocks, while the rest just love the dance showing off their carefully chosen shoe and bag.

Finally as the party draws to an end, the last fight commences. This is fighting for the various parting gifts usually shared by the celebrant and family. The coolers, plastic buckets, notepads are the usual gifts distributed and the scramble for these gifts make the Yoruba people some of the most agile people ever. You should see the scramble and fight for these buckets which they have over ten in their homes .

The Owambe party have come to stay so let’s get used to it.

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Joseph Edgar is an investment banker, he writes as a hobby and blogs at Josephedgarng.blogspot.com

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Photo credit: Jgatesvisuals

Just last week, Ajimobi admitted that his government
was in shambles financial wise. He admitted to the financial mess he’s sitting
on as a governor, when he told a presenter on a radio station that, “Next
(this) week, we should be able to access the Federal Government bailout of
N26.6bn. As of today, we owe the state workers N21.3bn but all we could get
from the bailout is N17.3bn. So if we get the money today, we will still have
to look for more money to balance the account so that all the debt can be paid.”

Ajimobi said government should take a sheer size
of the blame for the economic woes facing Nigeria. According to him, “We should
blame the culture of spending without saving, lifestyles of Nigerians,
ourselves and government for the position we find ourselves today. We have not
managed the economy well but government should take the larger blame. So much
money had been stolen.’’

Do you take Ajimobi serious, when he speaks? No. I
don’t. One follow-up question to his treatise on the bailout issue is: who
stole the money in Oyo State since Ajimobi only succeeded himself and not any
other person or party?

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During his last campaign, Ajimobi promised free
education to his people, but now he has backtracked. A few days ago, he made a
surprised “change” in his education policy. He cancelled the government sponsorship
of the final examination for the senior secondary school students and in
addition introduced N3,000 levies to be paid annually by the students in Oyo
State. Not only has the governor stopped WAEC fees, but at the same time, in
what looks like a clueless policy, he also re-introduced tuition fees in public
schools.

In the new arrangement, primary school pupils will
be paying N3,000 education development levy per session, which will be paid in
three installments of N1, 000 per term. This poor policy is Ajimobi’s response
to “abysmal academic performance” of students in Oyo State.

How do you respond to an outdated idea such as
this? Let’s look at the United States. That is a country that is far gone is
education policy. Primary and secondary education are not only free, children
equally enjoy free ride to and fro whenever school is in session. Only
recently, when the US government realised that people from certain race in the
country are not enrolling for college education as expected, it started to promote
the idea of free education up to the first two years of college (university).

 The Oyo State example is a bad example for governance in south-west Nigeria. And that idea that development levy should be paid
for students to be serious with their education is obviously for lack of ideas.
What happened to the taxes being paid by the residents? Any state government
that knows its onions must be creative about how to fund elementary and
secondary education, if such state must be ranked high in development.

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I’m embarrassed that Ajimobi as a governor could
leave Nigeria to go and organize wedding for his daughter abroad. It makes
mockery of leadership in Nigeria. That simply says something about his
political party as well: lack of discipline. I know a number of people may find
words to describe it as “once in a lifetime thing,” but not when a state
governor is unable to pay salaries or fix deplorable education system and needs
to rely on a bailout to get things done. That is unjustifiable. If you take
major federal government infrastructure out of Oyo State today, the capital in
particular, you’ll likely see a rustic state. Ajimobi has not impressed me so
far, although he’s got that opportunity and exposure as someone who had lived
and studied in the United States. It is saddening that a man who observed Chief
Obafemi Awolowo’s legacy of development and took part in the social
opportunities it provided will be removing social opportunities from this
generation and still don’t care a hoot about what people think. That is not
leadership.

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