Reality is that, factors that made someone today will make another tomorrow: ‘No champion forever’

Reality is that, factors that made someone today will make another tomorrow: ‘No champion forever’

Femi OGUNLANA

It is an ancient truism that power is transient. Evergreen Fuji maestro, Alhaji Kollington Ayinla in one of his songs, notes, “No champion forever!” That is the reality of life. Fighting it is like fighting life itself. Kingdoms and empires rise and fall, one goes under, another zooms up to continue the civilization. The best the one that gets run under could do is to accept fate and re-strategize. Clinging to past glory and expecting the honours and accolades accorded you when you held the world in your palm is like living in fools’ paradise. What is lost is lost! Those who gained what slipped from you would have their time too. A time it was the Medes and Persia ruled the world. At another time the Egyptians were supreme in their sphere dominating Israel and others; sometimes later, the Greek assumed prominence; then, the Romans ruled the world; the British had their time too among others, but once power slipped each of these former powers receded for the new champion to take the lead on its terms solely or in conjunctions with others. America once was colonized by Britain but today it is dominant over Britain and has indeed become the most powerful country in the world riding roughshod over others. None of the former powers raised ruckus claiming it once was the most prominent. They accepted their fate and are moving on, at least outwardly, extending honour to the new champion and deferring to them. The best a former champion can do is preserving its most revered legacies – culture, spirituality, arts, language and so on, but hoping to share the spoils and the glory with the new champion is expecting too much, and is tantamount to creating unnecessary tension. People should learn to accept fate. Rome preserves its legacy of Catholicism today; the Greek are honoured for their arts and culture in the contemporary times; Britain preserves the glory of its monarchy; Egypt prides itself in the civilization it brought to the world. They all tag along behind the new champion – America, even as new powers like China strive to dislodge it. For America to take the backseat or surrender the honour due her as the new numero uno in deference to some fallen or past powers cannot be contemplated, utterly impossible it is. That is the reality of life, you lose it you forget it, the best you can do is to work your yourself up again, scheming to stage a comeback. The difference is always the people, the military power wielded and its masterly deployment – that is what makes champions. At some point in history, Rome amassed immense power, had great men, who understood the complexity of raising conquering armies that trampled the world, but then when deterioration set in and it caught up with her, she began to have a succession of weaklings, corrupt officials as leaders and she inevitably fell, getting displaced. Then another domain elsewhere produced their own set of people at par with the former conquerors, performed similar feats of conquests – nothing makes one conquest inferior; conquest is conquest, it confers similar benefits.

That is why Oyo and the Alaafin need to tread softly. They lost it, new powers rose, the lesson of history is that the new powers must dictate the pace, struggling to share the spoil on the basis of some past glory or achievements of their ancestors like Oranmiyan, Sango and other great Alaafins is like courting trouble. The Alaafins of the past gained mastery over the land but some Alaafins came later who lacked the leadership wiles and the cutting edge enacted by their ancestors and so got run under. New people emerged, they became the new masters of the land, employing the same military superiority that conferred leadership on your predecessors and you are now fighting that, claiming because your progenitors were superior, the new leaders must submit to you and still kowtow to you. It is impossible, it goes against the grain of life, it contradicts nature itself. No conquest is superior, conquest is conquest! No conqueror is inferior, all conquerors deploy the same valour and superior strategies. The conquests achieved by Oranmiyan, Sango and other Alaafins centuries ago to make Oyo prima facie aren’t superior to the conquests the Iba Oluyole, Balogun Oderinlo, Balogun Ibikunle, Basorun Ogunmola, Abiola Ajimobi, Seyi Makinde and others accomplished for Ibadan or the ones the Soun Ogunlola, Jogioro, Toyeje, Jagun Olukuewu, the Areagos, SL Akintola, Alao-Akala and so on wrought for Ogbomoso. They are all great men and figures in their different days. The undeniable fact remains; Oyo fell under the superior firepower of the Ilorin-led Fulani army from the north, scattered and left desolate. And during that period of desolation, new powers emerged to stave off the advancing conquerors from the north, Ogbomoso particularly stood stoutly against the perils and with Ibadan eventually fended off the imperial army of the Sokoto Caliphate, when Oyo had seized to exist and lost its essence. The two new powers out of reverence reestablished Oyo recreating her the titular head. Oyo should enjoy its new role like Rome, Greece, Britain and so on. It may be difficult to accept but that is the reality. In fact, it is getting too much in its post-empire era. Power is used anyhow by the wielder, for good or bad causes, the inferior has to accept it, that is the way it is. America struck Venezuela and captured her president, what can anyone do except rant! Oyo and Alaafin need to recalibrate, re-strategize and devise means of re-launching to prominence rather than clinging tenaciously to some ancient glory. They should spare us old histories. Oduduwa was not born a king or prince, whether he migrated from the Middle East or he descended from heaven, he suppressed some people to ascend to prominence and proclaimed King. Oranmiyan did not leave Ile-Ife as Alaafin, he left probably as a prince but he recreated himself due to superior tactics. So, it is, and so will it be. Those who hold the levers of power would always wield it the way they like, to advance their interests and position. It is incomprehensible that Ibadan would hold such humongous power and watch a fallen kingdom ride roughshod over it. Oyo needs to repackage and forge new glories in tandem with contemporary times and if it wants, celebrate privately its golden age occasionally or reconquer the present generation, but to demand undue reverence in this age based on some ancient histories, and when it has not suppressed the present generation is overdoing things or overstretching their expectation or luck. It should take a cue from former world powers like Britain which continues to celebrate its monarchial institution through various means like the Commonwealth group; Rome which is content with upholding its Catholicism; among others. Countries like Korea, China, Russia and others on their own have long forgotten the glory of the past, they even discarded traditional institution, they are rather working assiduously to achieve greatness again. Time spent fighting superiority should rather be devoted to making new glories.