The Three Wrongs of Owo Memorial Park’s Demolition -By Festus Adedayo

The furore over the recently pulled down Owo Memorial Park in Ondo State is said to have thawed, which is gladsome. There is, however, the need to further examine the subsisting issues in the drama. The park, constructed by the late governor of the state, Rotimi Akeredolu, in honour of victims of a terrorist attack that occurred on June 5, 2022 at St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, with casualties of over 40 people, was dismantled by the current governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa. At the hub of the crisis was the Park’s location opposite the Olowo of Owo’s palace. Ever since its dismantling, it has generated such hoopla at the center of which was wife of the late governor, Betty the Ondo State government and the Owo palace. While Mrs. Akeredolu believes the pulling down of the Park was a continuation of perceived acrimony of Aiyedatiwa against her husband, government maintained that it merely hearkened to the call of the Owo palace to respect tradition and pull down the “offending” Park.

Rather than a clash of culture and religion that many see in the tiff, I tend to see arrogance of position on the sides of the three parties. Whipping up sentiments and emotions in a video she posted on her X page, Betty wrote, “Darling, I’ve always known you to love your people. See what they’ve done to you. They didn’t blink an eye in rubbishing your memory and legacy. Spearheaded by the Olowo of Owo, whom you single-handedly installed, and ‘Lucky’, the enabler, ordered the demolition of a monument built to remember those massacred. Nobody was buried there — it was symbolic. They travel abroad and see how memorials are treated with respect. Why do we do things differently? To score political points? The Oba that doesn’t want the so-called cemetery — but it’s not a cemetery — sleeps with the dead. All the Olowos were buried where he lived. Look at the hypocrisy! So long as I live, they will not succeed. They will not rubbish you. Aketi lives on.”
You may not be able to stand the face of Betty, especially her constant veers into ethnic slants, but that post is replete with a lot of sense. Promptly, the Olowo-in-Council issued a statement which stated that the palace was taking responsibility for the demolition as it personally urged government to demolish the Park due to its affront against Owo long-held culture. To underscore its enjoyment of an Owo-wide acceptance, a group of protesters recently openly affirmed that the decision was done in the interest of Owo culture. The palace statement said, “It must be made clear that the decision to site the structure in that particular location was resisted by the Olowo-in-Council and frowned upon by the people of the community when it was being conceived by the government of the late Governor, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu.” The palace then thanked the “listening” Governor Aiyedatiwa for acceding to its request.

The tripodal blame on all parties goes thus: One, the question to be posed to the palace is, if the “unlistening” Governor Akeredolu hadn’t passed on, what would have happened to the Park? If nothing happened to Owo for almost three years of the construction of the Park, why is the palace mythifying culture by claiming that erection of memorial parks is a palace taboo? Again, which parks had been constructed close to the palace before now, so that we can know its negative effects? If none, how come the palace still holds on to it as a taboo? How many taboos of ancient past have been moderated in the face of modernity or does the palace observe all of them till today, hook, line and sinker?

Lastly, the other question to ask is, is culture made for man or man was made for culture? No one needs to tell anyone that Owo needs to memorialize that gory event of June 2022 when some misbegotten blood-seeking vampires killed worshipers in one fell swoop. Akeredolu did well by constructing the park so that the memories of the dead would be kept alive and Owo itself would be reminded to be on its guard against repeat occurrence. More importantly, why didn’t the palace ask government to demolish all the infrastructure that Akeredolu constructed in Owo since it is so rankled by the late governor’s footprints? These questions needed to be answered and sincerely too so that some people seeking to even scores won’t hide under a nebulous culture they created.

For Mrs. Akeredolu, having lived for decades in Yorubaland, she should have realized that Yoruba revere their culture. They won’t even stand an outsider making mockery of it. Using foul words on the monarchy of Owo, especially when her children, bona-fide children of Owo, would forever need the ancient town for, especially, validation all the days of their lives, is akin to destroying their future.

While the Ondo State governor must be commended for promptly acceding to the request of the palace, Ondo people would be more excited if that government deploys same alacrity it took it to dismantle the Akeredolu-built Park into finishing the many projects the governor’s late boss began but which death prevented him from concluding. Hiding under the banner of “palace request” to execute a governmental philosophy is mean.