Dialogue With Nigeria By AKIN OSUNTOKUN
Dialogue With Nigeria AKIN OSUNTOKUN
First, let me rejoice with the Orire local government school abductees for living up to the full meaning of Orire-which means good fortune. As the Yoruba would say, E kú Oríre (I salute you on your good fortune). May good fortune continue to guide your path. Ogbomoso has tended to play a significant role in Yoruba history. In Yoruba antiquity, the name of the city itself was derived from the circumstances of the valiant rescue of metropolitan Oyo from the siege of a seemingly invincible terrorist called Elemosho. Not until it ripens, does the fruit of fate drop and so it became for a local hunter called Soun.
This hunter had physically engaged with an intruder who had sneaked into his abode (under the cover of darkness) while he was away. The intruder turned out to be a loan shark to whom Soun was indebted. Before the hunter recognised him as such, he had overpowered and killed the Oshomalo (the Ijesha vocational money lenders). The penalty for the wrong he had committed was capital punishment. In a plea bargain with the ultimate judicial authority of the realm, the Aláàfin of Oyo, Soun offered to take on the dreaded Elemosho. He was obliged. In the epic struggle between the two, the hunter prevailed and decapitated the terrorist.
