HRM Oba Oyekan Adekambi Ilufemiloye Ajose Possi III JP of Apa Egun Awori Kingdom is the 28th Oba on the throne of his forebears. He told Podo Sunday in this interview that the Alapa stool is not a product of any political promotion or a modern instrument of state. He also spoke about the umbilical cord between the Egun and Awori of Apa Kingdom and the history of two people, one throne, border closures and how the 20 kilometers ban on fuel stations has significantly affected the socio-economic activities of the 48 communities in Apa Kingdom and its environs. Excerpts:
Apa Egun Awori Kingdom is often described as two people, one throne. This sounds like a confluence of peace. Was it a creation or an inheritance?
The traditional and historic arrangement which we inherited in Apa Egun Awori Kingdom is a test case of love and trust that dates back centuries between our forebears and remains the only kingdom in Lagos State today with two distinct tribes of Egun and Awori with two quarters and two Ruling Houses. It has a long history of peace and harmony and with no records of acrimony or betrayals. Socio-cultural integration through inter-marriages has also strengthened our bond as one great people. Apa is, indeed, a model kingdom where all men are born equal; that gave birth to one people, two languages and one throne.
In Lagos State, Badagry is the only local government area whose chieftaincy committee is split into three chieftaincy committees. Isn’t this a threat to Egun Awori unity in Badagry?
Well, while there is diversity in unity, there is also unity in diversity. Since the creation of LCDAs by then Gov Bola Tinubu, now President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, his idea was to bring development closer to the people. The idea of three chieftaincy committees therefore instead of a single house was equally meant to be responsive to our local people and we still inter-relate culturally, do several things in common traditionally because Badagry is still one and we remain one indivisible people.
The Owode-Apa Road is moribund, forgotten so to say in spite of the fact it’s one of the oldest international and economic roads in Nigeria. What would you say is responsible for this neglect and how has it affected life here generally?
The Owode-Apa Road has almost become a political project that has failed for a long time. We have held town hall meetings on this road and appealed several times to the government and their agencies, both Federal and State. The issue has always been the Federal, State road dichotomy. Unfortunately, we have always been at the receiving end of pains and loss of livelihood despite being such a strategic and economic road in the ECOWAS corridor.
How about electricity that has also become a scarce commodity in the whole of Badagry West?
Electricity has been cut off from the entire Badagry West Local Council Development Area for years now and most of the cables that run here were either damaged or stolen in spite of the pole to pole road blocks by our security men here. Just recently our son at the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Solomon Saanu Bonu, came here with the House Committee on Energy; it was a big entourage to inspect the effect of the darkness, they promised to deal with the light issue, but nothing has happened yet since then.
You are also grappling with the 20- kilometer ban on fuel stations in your area and the ubiquitous multiple roadblocks on this axis and border closure. How would you react to these issues?
The Army, Police, Customs, Air Force, Navy, Immigration and Civil Defence personnel are all on the road here extorting, molesting and harassing my people as if they are not Nigerians. The economy of this area has collapsed. There are things you can no longer buy, even made in Nigeria goods from Lagos or nearby Badagry Market are being stopped and you will be accused of smuggling and you must pay or they seize the item(s), even agricultural produce. It is terrible and provocative and all the security men are involved in this act with the exception of the Federal Road Safety Corps, who are very civil on duty.
Those building houses and businesses here at Owode-Apa area have all stopped their projects because of issues mentioned above such as the deplorable road, lack of electricity, militarisation of the area and brutal harassment of persons, and of course, the fuel palaver. Recently a gentleman roofing his building was bringing in roofing aluminum sheets and was stopped at Gbaji check point and was asked to bring clearance from Customs headquarters. The vehicles were impounded for weeks before they accepted settlement.
It has been a very terrible situation here and it has reached a crescendo. We are appealing to the Federal Government to visit here and see the dire socio-economic situation so as to save us from this untold hardship.
As a father of all, how has Badagry fared under this democratic dispensation in terms of quality representation and dividends of democracy?
While as an observer, and father of all as you have rightly mentioned, our local politics is growing, at least we are not where we were yesterday. We now have two state executive members and Assembly 1 and 2 and a member, the Federal House of Representatives. They are all young men doing fantastically well and they are all visible and accessible unlike what we used to have. But there is always room for improvement, so we can get more dividends of democracy, especially physical government projects, into our communities and employment for our children who are graduates.
The Badagry Deep Sea Port is expected to take off any time soon and it’s expected to draw development to your communities. As a host community, what efforts has your Palace made to address several contentious community issues relating to land acquisition and how prepared are you, especially the youth who are expected to compete for skilled jobs if they don’t want to be left out?
This is long overdue. The journey started in 2012, but we are not losing hope. We have held several meetings here with communities with stakes in the land and there is no contention capable of hindering the project. Even when the governor came to ASCON for a stakeholders meeting, I made it abundantly clear at the meeting that we are all in support of the Port project and we are not going back on that.
The youth have also held several meetings in my Palace overtime and some have additional and relevant qualifications to take up employment there, especially in technical positions. One more important thing we are also keeping to our chest is what the governor told us, that we should not sell our lands and we have complied with that.
About the delay in the project, I must emphasise here that it has nothing to do with communities in Apa Kingdom. We are in total support of the project; we are only appealing to both the government and project managers to expedite action. But again, the governor has recently assured us that the project has come to stay and the rumours of taking the project to somewhere else were unfounded and misleading. We are upbeat about the ultimate benefits to our communities, Badagry Local Government Areas, Lagos State and Nigeria as a whole. We are also appealing to the media not to neglect Badagry West in their coverage as it concerns our maltreatment by the security agencies working here.
