There was this day, I sat right at the foot of chief Adewale Bello(the Osuomona/Asiwaju of mopaland) listening with rasp attention to be able to pick every words that comes out of his mouth. You need every attentiveness to hear and understand him due to some degree of impairment in his speeches. He was telling me a story of the early political involvement of mopamuro sons.
He, as the first indigenous construction company owner in Nigeria in the late 60s/70s.
He was rich and well connected. He was at a point the anchor and the links between the then civil service okun cabals overseen by the then chief Stephen Ade john and the Northern political class.
He, according to him together with chief Adejohn influenced late chief Awoniyi to resign from civil service and pursue a carrier in politics.
Late chief Awoniyi won the membership of the constituent Assembly of 1976(?). From that point, mopa domination of political activities in okun started off.
Thereafter, Late chief Daniyan stepped in. We had the late chief Bello Ijumu, late chief R.T. Alege ,late Dr Ayinmodu and host of others who held sway in okun politics.
At a point, political decisions starts and end in mopa.
However, “… How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished”! Apart, from Osuomona(Asiwaju) Adewale Bello, all the aforementioned political gladiators are late and the political glory of mopa stowed along by them.
The generations of men attempting to step into the shoes left behind by these super heroes, are just too big for them to wear, hence the ensuing retardation occasioned by many factors which I will put up for discussion on another essay platform.
However, the reason why am tell this story is not far from the present apolitical out look of our people .
In a local government where we have about 22,000 register voters, it’s rather appalling to have during election, a total figures of people who voted to be around 6000+.
The recent election shows that the total number of people who voted in mopamuro local government were less than 7000 out of the over 20, 000 registered voters.
The reasons were obvious;
*. Thuggery
* Violence unleashed by these thugs kept people away from the polling boots.
* General political apathy.
* Bad leadership
* Economic factors.
The effects of these political ills are enormous.
We are no more taken serious again within the scheme of things.
When it comes to political calculations, we are termed as minor and minority that can not make any difference in a deciding votes. For example, ELDER LEKE ABEJIDE had over 3000 votes from mopamuro in the just concluded national assembly election which he won with an overwhelming 22,000+ votes. With a distance of over 12,000 votes over the second positioned person, if 3,000 which he got from mopamuro is deducted from his total summation, he would have still won the vote with an overwhelming 8,000+ votes.
This coming Saturday 18th March, 2023 is another opportunity to TELL OUR STORY CORRECTLY!
We must vote proportionately to correspond with our registered voters strength.
We must avoid violence by warning our wards the consequences of such actions. Violence and thuggery is giving us bad names, hence reducing our political relevance.
Let’s vote as if our survival depends on it, and as a matter of fact, it does!
Let’s show them why we are mopa (in particular)!
Go out and vote for your candidate peacefully and celebrate the victory with decorum. Remember, we are brethren.
ON SATURDAY 18TH MARCH, 2023, LET’S TELL OUR STORY!