GOING ON WITH ONE UNIQUE MONARCH AND LAUREATE: OBA EREDIAUWA CFR

“The Cradle of ideas: a compendium of speeches and writings”

28th of November 2013, was indeed a historical reality. Different strokes for different folks. The Omo n’ oba nedo uku akpololo’s book “The Cradle of ideals: a compendium of speeches and writings”, was publicly presented at the oba Akenzua II cultural complex. General Yakubu Gowon Rtd. Was chairman of the occasion and Prof. Wole Soyinka was presenter. History repeats it self “not exactly in the same way or mode, but it overlaps in a similar manner.
General Yakubu Gowon detained Wole Soyinka during the civil war for going to Biafra to try and save soul. That to led to the writing of “The Man died”, a book I read when I was sixteen, did not understand, and tried to read again when I was forty. The week I picked the book up from my fathers library, the old man died. My father G. N. I. Enobakhare was the first Benin man to possess a degree in mathematics. He was the first indigenous principal of government college Ibadan. He taught both Wole Soyinka and Omo n’ Oba nedo.
Wole Soyinka’s books are powerful, spiritually and otherwise. They are page turners. Prof. Places antiques on the table he writes on, to give each book a soul. His inspiration to us as a “Generation that almost did not exist, not wasted like his” is enormous when he believes in a cause, he puts everything on line. For instance, his belief in the return of stolen artifacts goes beyond the ordinary. He actually went to Brazil and “stole one“, just to return it back to the original owner at ife. The frustration of finding out that it was a British museum copy made him shave his hair during Oba Erediauwa’s coronation 1979.
The night before the book presentation, I ask General Gowon “did you ask Alabi Isama to be relocated to kirikiri?” His voice changed. He explained that he did not detain Alabi Isama, even though the detention saved his life. He (Alabi) would have died at Asaba with a whole battalion lost while trying to cross a wired Niger River. The Omo n’ Oba, a Cambridge trained lawyer, was a federal permanent secretary under Gowon. A head of state who owned no house at end of his abruptly terminated tenure.
The Oba’s book presentation did much more than raise money (about two hundred million naira). The political history of Nigeria was reprogramme. An event of this significance and magnitude only occur once in a century. Things has not fallen completely apart. We are yet to unearth Abiku’s Limbs. The Aladuras still “pray for Nigeria”. Especially general Gowon.
The Omo n’ Oba has cast the first stone. Many others will follow. I congratulate His royal Highness Prof. G. I. Akenzua. He and a dozen other gentlemen and women put this event together (including my humble self). I salute the Comrade Governor for his belief in relevant things. He said this event was the most important event he has hosted as governor.
I look forward to a hundred years from now. When the sun must have set on us mere mortals that congregated at the cultural complex. Innocently, we made history. Comparable not to the birth of Jesus, but to the end of apartheid. The man must not die in our intellectual considerations and compilations. The man must not die in our developmental strides – hiccups and all. With Solomonic wisdom, the man is alife. Alife in this great book by a “unique royal majesty of a unique kingdom”. It is a road map into there future of the Benin monarchy. A Cambridge library material. A terrain that only the brave explore. I implore that Wole Soyinka and General Gowon Phd embrace. The royal majesty has made it possible. Oba gha to okpere ise.

AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF “CRADLE OF IDEAS: A COMPENDIUM OF SPEECHES AND WRITINGS”
OBA EREDIAUWA CFR OBA OF BENIN IS AVAILABLE THROUGH PROFESSOR G. I. AKENZUA 08036815451, Email: giakenzua@yahoo.com
COST $1, 000 INCLUDING POSTAGE. ALLOW SEVEN WEEKS FOR DELIVERY

via: Eno Louis fb