Iporo, one of the several townships in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital is a permanent member of the Egba Traditional Council.
It is also a permanent member of the Egba Regency Council and one of the kingmakers involve in the selection of the Alake and paramount ruler of Egbaland.
Traditionally, Iporo is headed by an Oluwo, who currently is an accomplished and successful businessman, adminstrator, Chief Suarau Alani Olayiwola Bankole.
The octogenarian ex- banker, statistician and veteran politician is also the Apena of Egbaland.
Below is an excerpt of an interview with the Egba traditional and cultural impresario.
Q. Sir, by September 17, 2024, you will be 83 years old but even at that, you're not looking the age, what's the secret?.
A. I have taken life simple and easy, probably because of my age, experience and exposure. Everyday, I now realise more than before that there is nothing in life. It is about vanity. You can be happy in life only if you give yourself happiness. I come to agree more and more with the Shakespeare in "Macbeth" when he said" Life is like a walking shadow.... It is like a tale told by an idiot full of sands and fury signifying nothing". The more you realise this, the more you take life easy. The more you become contented in any position you find yourself and that's the extent of life. If you are not contented, you will have nothing. When you look at it, when we were coming to the world we came with nothing. But unfortunately, most of us when we got to this part of the world, we began to grab everything as if one day, we would not leave them behind. Why then do we struggle to amass wealth which we do not need?. Why do we struggle to achieve so called "greatness" which means nothing?. Everything is nothingness!. I no longer bother myself with all the vanity of life!
Q. How have you been coping as the Apena of Egbaland?.
A. The appointment and confernment is a call to duty to serve my people at the community level. Initially, I was a bit hesitant to accept the title because of my age as it demands a lot of attention in the palace of the Alake. I was of the opinion that it might be too difficult because of my age. However, I accepted the offer after I consulted with my family. So far, so good. The Apena title is not fetish as many people perceived. The last but one Apena Egba, the reknowned erudite lawyer and politician, the late Chief Akintoye Coker was also the Baba Ijo of African Church. This led credence to my believe that the position has nothing to do with religion, but purely administrative. When I was made Oluwo about 25 years ago, I became so close to the Egba traditions, working closely with the late Alake of Egbaland, Oba Mofolorunsho Oyebade Lipede.I thank God for the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo for giving me the opportunity to serve my people in that capacity. It is very demanding but very interesting.
Q. How do you combine being a practising Muslim with the traditional and cultural demands of an Oluwo and Apena?
A. For your information, I'm not just a Muslim, but an ardent one. I was born into it; brought up in it and still practising it. I will die in it. The tradition of the Yoruba people is the richest as I have had course to study the three religions. I was taught Christianity at St Peter's School, Ake during my elementary days. Our devotion in the morning and when we were closing; the ways of life. Later, I also had the opportunity of attending Catholic Modern School, where I was senior prefect in my final year. There, it was Catholicism throughout. I left the school for the Baptist Boys High School, BBHS. Again, it was Christianity all the way. While in the school, one of my best subjects was the Christian Religious Knowledge. I was even the President of the Bible Union. In fact, in my "A" Level, I did religious knowledge which was Christianity. While I was being taught Christianity in my schools, back at home, I was being taught Islam. When I returned from school, my parents particularly my father continued to drum it into my ears that on no account must I convert to Christianity. Although I did not understand the warning, but fortunately, my father's decision to me in those days were laws that must be obeyed. I followed his advice religiously. I remember very well that while other members of the family used to call me Alani or Olayiwola, my father usually called me Suarau, my Muslim name. I have read a lot about the three religions and I have discovered that basically, they are the same as they believe in Almighty God. The only difference is their ways of worship. The three religions believe that there is that supreme being - God; that is superior to everyone. It is out of ignorance of anyone or group of people to believe that because one is a Muslim or Christian, he should not be involved in the tradition of his people. I am a Muslim and proud to be a traditionalist too. Before my grandfather died, he was close to tradition and I was close to him too. He was always taking me around to meetings and other places he attended. For me, it us unreasonable for anyone to fight over religion.
Q.It is being suggested in some quarters that Nigeria should have a new constitutional conference. What's your position on this?
A. There is nothing bad in this because the way the last constitutional conference was conveyed was faulty. Aside that, our union as a country needs to be revisited and discussed. The way we currently go about things as a country is sending us backward thousands of miles into under development. We have more churches and mosques; yet we have more criminals.We have more churches than church owners (The British); yet we have more criminals. Also, we have more mosques than the owners in Saudi Arabia; yet we are not making any progress whatsoever. We have kidnapping, Boko Haram and other vices.
The same set of people colonised about the same time with us who are not practising either Christianity or Islam the way they do are the most progressive and efficiently run government system in the world today. The Indian Ph.D holders were all over Nigeria in the early 1980s teaching in our secondary schools. But their economy was nothingness, yet they were sending 50 percent of their salaries home to build their economy. Today, they are now world class economy. Malaysia is the biggest producer of palm oil. They came to Nigeria to take sample of our palm kernel and oil and yet people who are claiming to be our leaders would not learn from this. The more we are practising the so called democracy, building more mosques and churches, the more backward we are moving. We need to revisit and discuss ourselves as a country. In the late 1970's, I was earning 15% interest of my deposit in UK, 14% of my deposit in America, 22% of my savings in Canada. Today, if you fixed your money there, the interests they would pay you is zero because they do not need your money anymore. One of Nigeria's problems is production. As a country, we just consume without producing and this a bad economic theory. When consumption is more than production, there is crisis in the economy of such a country. The way out of this is for us to go back to production. How can we explain as a country that in the past 25 years of our democracy, we couldn't increase our electricity production beyond 5,000 kilowatts when a country like South Africa smaller than Nigeria in population and landmass is boasting of 60,000 kilowatts. The small and middle size industries which are engine rooms for any proper development are now dead in the country as there are no power to propel their engines. I have personal experience. Seven years ago, when power became too epileptic, I bought three big generating sets to run my factory. At that time diesel was N60, but when later it became N120, it became impossible for me to operate the machine profitably. The place had since been closed down with all machines rotting away and the building decaying. I would have lost the factory and investment to the bank if I did not have the resources to pay off the loan that I secured from the Bank of Industries when I was settling up the factory. I had to sell one of my biggest properties in Lagos to offset all the moñey I was owing banks so that I could have rest of mind. It was after this that I returned to Abeokuta to retire and rest for the rest of my life. I am sure that that has happened to thousands of Nigeria. A lot of many big organisations have left Nigeria for Ghana and other West African countries to establish their factories because of the conducive atmosphere including their power generations which are fantastic. With all the billions of Dollars that we have spent, what is the problem?. The problems can be traced to our leaders. What is the justification for our national assembly members to buy N160 million cars for themselves. What are they doing there?.They are not producing, but just talking!. What does that translate to in the Nigeria's context. How can more than 50% of our budget be spent on recurrent?. How can we make any progress with such a frivolous spending?.We need to cut cost of governance. The presidential system of government is too expensive for us to operate. Let us go back to the Parliamentary system of government.If every government is allowed to run the way it wants, there will be healthy competition. A system that allows local government chairmen to sit down in their respective office and at the end of the month collect money from Abuja in not good for the progress of the country. I commend the moves by the federal government through the Attorney- General of the Federation, to ensure that local government autonomy is effectively implemented by state governments in the country. Currently, local government running in Nigeria is being hampered by the greed of state governors. Also, let states through their local government police their states. In essence, I am canvassing a local government policing and not even state policing as being taunted. Let each local government be given complete autonomy with authorities of the local chiefs where Obas would be assigned responsibilities as it was in the past. I am also of the opinion that the INEC should take over the conduct of local government elections in Nigeria. In some states, you can't be councillor or member of assembly if you are not a nominee of the governor. There seems to be no more politics in Nigeria but diabolical dictatorship at all levels particularly at state level and unfortunately people are ignorantly blaming the federal government. I want to suggest that membership of INEC should be directly proportional to the straight of the political at the national level. Indirectly, what I am saying is that the president should not nominate all INEC commissioners, but rather it should be prorated by the political parties in the National Assembly. It is regretable that in Nigeria, the purpose of banking system has been defeated by our bankers who at the detriment of many industries are declaring huge billion profits. Are they not supposed to finance and encourage development in the industry and economy?. We used to be at standstill, but we're now retrogressing as a country as our banks are not helping the country's economy with frivolous interests that do not help Nigerians. As a banker at the then UBA, the highest interest rate we gave was 8% and when I became director of the FMBN, we were charging only 5% for those who wanted to build houses. Can you get any liberal loan from any bank to build a house today in Nigeria?.
Q. What is your assessment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the past one year?
A. My advice to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is for him to take things easy as well as to convince the banks, governors and National Assembly to faithfully and honestly support his agenda and change their negative attitudes. I also want to appeal to him to adopt Chief Obafemi Awolowo's development of education, agricultural and rural area. Also, I am of the opinion that he should be bold enough to cut costs of running his government as well as the National Assembly members by 50%. They do not need all the money they are allocating to themselves. He should remain steadfast and not to allow noise makers to push him around. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been struggling to make a difference but has he succeeded?.
Q. How do you assess local government running in Ogun State?.
A. It is a bunch of failure!. Since the administration of Governor Gbenga Daniel, I make bold to say that the state has never had it so good. Under Chief Olusegun Osoba it was fantastic. Under Daniel, it was fair as councils were grading roads in villages; helping farmers with farm implements and tools. We should ask those who came after Daniel what they have done with monthly allocations from Abuja. I am aware that aside their monthly allocations from the federal government, they are supposed to take 10% of state's internally generated revenue. But has it been so?.