Dr TUNDE AKANNI reviews a collection of essays on the Aare Onakankafo of Yorubaland, Otunba Gani Adams, titled, Voice of the Media, Voice of the People, edited by Dr Qasim Akinreti and published by the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Lagos State Council
Otunba Gani Adams’ story is yet another version of the proverbial grass-to-grace narrative that we all pray and aspire to realise in different contexts. Born to the Pa Lamidi Adams and Late Madam Dada Adams, nee Aduloju, he attended many primary schools due to the itinerant nature of his father’s job as a driver. His educational exploits started at the Army Children School, Oturkpo, Benue State, where he got as far as primary three. At this point, his father was transferred to Lagos, where he completed his primary school education at the Municipal Primary School, Surulere, Lagos, in 1980.
Adams subsequently proceeded to Ansar-Ud-Deen Secondary School, Randle Avenue, Surulere, Lagos, for his secondary education before picking an interior decoration job at an Italian Construction Company, Visinoni Stabilini, Apapa, Lagos.
Cultivated for independence early in life, Gani commenced its actualisation by resigning from Visinoni Stabilini to establish his own interior decoration business, Gadson Interior. Still with a thirst for more knowledge in a world where the indispensability of knowledge keeps heightening, Adams returned to school to bag a Diploma in Tourism Management from the International Aviation School, Tema, Ghana in 2003. Not done, he went further to obtain another Diploma in International Relations and Strategic Studies from the nation’s best State University, Lagos State University. Gani had fallen in love with LASU and therefore returned there to cap this up with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science.
Obviously well immersed in the doctrines of such renowned radicalising political science literature, including but not limited to those of Frantz Fanon, Walter Rodney and the likes, he got further fired up to challenge the pre-existing social order in Nigeria largely occasioned by the military rule of that time.
Young Gani thus became a pro-democracy activist in 1992. He joined the Campaign for Democracy in the struggle to end military rule in Nigeria.
Energetic Gani had a big and daunting responsibility thrust on his shoulders when he became the public relations officer of a branch of the CLO in the Mushin Local Government Area of Lagos State in 1993, as well as a member of the Oodua Youth Movement, a pan-Yoruba self-determination group. He was a foundation member of the Oodua Peoples’ Congress when it was formed in 1994.
Like the proverbial huge elephant that cannot pass unnoticed, Gani Adams was the overwhelming choice for the position of the first Deputy National Coordinator and now the National Coordinator of the group. This availed him the needed opportunity to distinguish himself and earn a recommendation for the much- revered Aare Ona Kakanfo title.
This work presents a somewhat palpable translation of the meaning of the media as the mirror of the society, having mirrored the Aare Ona Kakanfo of this generation extensively. Otunba Gani Adam’s nomination for the exalted office attracted a flurry of reactions in the form of a national newspaper’s editorial, presidential courtesy, messages from state governors, traditional rulers and political leaers, as well as media leaders across genres.
“In spite of the fact that I hold 52 traditional chieftaincy titles, none has drawn as many comments and commendations as this,” Aare Adams noted in the post-installation speech also contained herein.
In all, there are 61 entries divided into no fewer than eight categories, apart from sections on the profile of the Aare, his inaugural speech, the news report on his visit to Ooni Ogunwusi and the appendix.
The eight groups of messages include editorial commentaries, presidential commendation, editors’ comments, royal commendations and political acclamation. The rest are eminent personalities’ approbation, socio-cultural group endorsement and media applause.
Some of the messages are polite and celebratory responses to an invitation to attend his investiture, which was scheduled for January 13, 2018. Expectedly, the most rounded or balanced of the commendations is that of the Zaki of Arigidi Akoko, Oba Yisa Olanipekun, who is the monarch of the birthplace of Aare Adams. Kabiyesi is not only full of kind words, which betray his admiration for ‘his son’, he is also profoundly grateful to the Alaafin of Oyo for finding ‘their own’ worthy of the huge honour.
He even reports the support from all the monarchs in the adjoining communities for the appointment of Otunba Gani to the exalted position.
While Dr. Fasehun, also of the OPC, concedes the right to the Alaafin for his choice for Aare Ona Kakanfo, Asiwaju Tinubu describes the generalissimo as a man with “heart of steel”. Joseph Evah, leader of a coalition of Niger Delta groups in Lagos, finds Adams as deserving all goodwill for, among other reasons, supporting their kinsman, former President Jonathan, when it mattered most.