Who Is Brave Enough to be Callous, Written by Nusrat MoniandLasisi

Bi o ba laya ko se ika, sugbon bi o ba ranti iku Gaa, ki o so to.

If you are brave, venture into wickedness, but if you will recall Gaa’s death,adhere to the truth.

Reading the biography of the infamous Bashorun Gaa at a time as tensed as this seem prophetic. There are no new nor old tales only humans living a plot that has been played out albeit, with various variations. We are all stories but what story is been acted right now in Nigeria?

Bashorun Gaa became the head of the Oyo Mesi during the reign of Alaafin Onisile. He was a brave and powerful man feared by the people of Oyo-Ile for his potent charms and supernatural strength. Gaa was feared to the extent that he became more authoritative than the Alaafin who made him the Bashorun. However, Gaa’s tyranny started in the days when Labisi was being prepared for the throne of Oyo.

Bashorun Gaa’s era and the current leadership in Nigeria have more similarities than differences. Bashorun saw to the end of the lives of four Alaafins in succession in the old Oyo empire. The first of these four Alaafins was crown prince Labisi. To enforce his power, he killed Crown prince Labisi’s friends before forcing him to commit suicide. Similarly, the first power move of President Tinubu to ensure mass servitude came in his first year when he removed the subsidy on fuel there by giving rise to inflation of food prices. According to BusinessDay, inflation rose by 50.3% between May 2023 to April 2024. The naira currency weakened by 191% at official market within a year. If this is not a move to widen and keep the majority of the citizens improvised then tell me what is.

Characteristically of a tyrant, decisions are often quick and lacking in concrete considerations.Bashorun Gaa, hastened in ending the rule of any Alaafin who refused to dance to his tune without having a second thought because, for some reasons, he believed he was untouchable. President Tinubu’s modus operandi is highly short-sighted, self-serving and stiffling. As stated by Bismarck Rewane, a prominent economic analyst who was appointed to Tinubu’s economic council in March,” The reforms came too quickly but there was no concrete plan to deal with the impact these reforms would have on the people,”

Ho Yanxi, of the Chinese Sung Dynasty , on his commentary on The art of war says “ The one who treats me well is my leader, the one who treats me cruelly is my enemy” this questions the humanity of the government. I am yet to see the humanness in and administration that spent a fortune acquiring a presidential jet and SUV for senators while more than half its population have been plunged into economic depression. As we speak, PMS is one thousand three hundred Naira per liter.
Bashorun Gaa, while executing each Alaafin, some of whom were the people’s choices ,cared less about the wishes of the people until the anger of residents of Oyo ile rose to the point where it surpassed the fear of Bashorun Gaa and on a fateful day in 1774, hundreds of angered people stormed Gaa’s compound and killed all members of the Gaa family. Gaa himself was dragged to Akesan market and incinerated marking the end of a power-drunk prime minister. Gaa’s life and death gave birth to the proverb
“ Bi o ba laya ko se ika, sugbon bi o ba ranti iku Gaa, ki o so to.
If you are brave, venture into wickedness, but if you will recall Gaa’s death,adhere to the truth.
The same lackadaisical and indifferent attitude Gaa displayed is the same president Tinubu keeps playing. Calling mass hunger and inflation “baby steps” shows nothing but callousness on his part.
Gaa was killed by a mob of fed up, angered and embittered citizens that’s to show the power of collective frustration. And that collective frustration is fueling the call to protest, the call to speak up in Nigeria and if the president is a true leader,he’d listen and act rather than quell the protest.

Nonetheless, it is a fundamental right of citizens to protest against bad governance and polices both culturally and legally. History record showed that in precolonial and colonial Yoruba era, people voiced their displeasure. The Abeokuta women protested the Alake’s tax. Alaafin Abiodun was criticized by his people so widely for his attacks on ijaye and popo till he committed suicide(Oyo monarchical form of dethronement.
Voicing displeasure is culturally and legally right and no one should be intimidated into doing otherwise especially from the leader who has failed to listen to the cries of citizens.

As in the case of Yoruba’s very own Bashorun Gaa, there’s a limit to the inhumanity the average human can tolerate and in no time, as prophesied by Karl Marx “the proletariat will inevitably become conscious of their own potential and rise to power through revolution, overthrowing the bourgeoisie”.
The most merciless set of humans are deprived people and history will record that President Tinubu and his cabals poured the first shot of cruelty that the citizens have been forced to sip.

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