"Every generation must out of relative obscurity discover it's mission, fulfill or betray it"
One of the most indirect and miss use of perspective is to allow other people understand you well enough to use your own brain to judder up their own thinking. Every one adopts his or her own style. That's the essence of rationality. The golden counsel is "in a matter of style, swim with the current, in a matter of principle, stand like a rock". The evaluation of the aspect of the "matter of principle" particularly within the political context is what propelled Einstein's conclusion that politics is more difficult than physics.
The foregoing was part of my reaction to a friend who called my attention yesterday to a "not too gentle breeze" that blew from our Egbon,i Ismaila Ashipa, the one and only Ashipa Shango. The message was not itself as acerbic in content as in the intent. It was a rushed judgement, a fallacy of what a student of philosophy will refer to as "argumentum ad hominem". I have long noticed and appreciated the fact that Egbon Ashipa has a mind of his own and would not call a spade just one farm tool, but a spade. But the major weakness is intolerance of others' views. That's fundamental. Once you are not in the same mental wavelength with him, you have your fingers burned. He acts with such a hauter of a pilot familiar with every continent. Replica of a man who in the words of David Hume is guilty of "unpardonable arrogance" for concluding that any argument that escapes his investigation, does not exist, he moves in an indecent haste to paint the Oyo APC flag bearer in a bad tar without finding out information even when he has unfettered access to the man. He preferred to bawl out where he should whisper.
Whereas, Adelabu is entering the political arena with a piano, the old Charioteers who are only accustomed to the Agidigbo drumbeat are facing difficulties of twisting their legs to conform with the new rhythm. They want an Omelette but not prepared to break eggs. A typical system of social challenges in the contemporary world and the main reason many empires collapse like a pack of cards before they are built.
Leadership sometimes means going a path less travelled. It's time the old Charioteers got themselves amenable to change as not to loose the race against time. The earlier they know that the new Sherriff is leading a liberating struggle, the better. He is not poised to take surveys to satisfy the desires of the few against the majority. He is moving at his own pace and that I know, reaching out to political leaders and co-contestants in the Guber primary silently. He believes in building consensus and will not be swayed by negative profiling from any quarters.
Oloye Adelabu did confirm to me in a conversation after the APC Guber primary that he has reached out to many people, including Egbon Ashipa, who for reasons only known to him is now putting the gentleman's nose in the trough. If the old Charioteers think they can corall the new Sherriff into doing only their billings, they are in a self delusion. The motto of the new Sherriff is "Oyo state first". The only difference is in the interpretation of the "reaching out". May be in due course, Oloye Adelabu Adebayo will "reach out" the way our Egbon wishes to be "reached". But that should be considered a privilege, not a right.
For now, I can only appeal to my Egbon and other "Charioteers" to rally round Oloye Adelabu so that the vision to move Oyo state to the next level will soon be realised. It's a collective task that is more honourable.
Isiaka Kehinde writes ....
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