One of the ethos that the Yoruba people hold dear is the concept of ‘omoluabi,’ a concept that thrives on the fulcrum of integrity and good character. The Yoruba people, like most other ethnic nationalities, hold these twin-virtues so dear that they (virtues) define who they choose as their leaders in the traditional setting, especially the monarchy.
Their forebears, who were sapient in the ethereal world of traditions, used to place these virtues above wealth in the criteria they considered in picking who they installed as kings.
In most cases, the right candidates were traditionally discerned or deciphered through an established process completely devoid of subterfuges. This arrangement had remained invariant for ages before the vagaries of modernity began to gradually upbend it.
It is in this context that we view the conviction and imprisonment of the Apetu of Ipetumodu in Ife North Local Government Area of Osun State, Oba Joseph Oloyede, over a seamy game of larceny in far away United States of America, as an odious turn that has desecrated the sacred sanctum of Oduduwa heritage.
The monarch, who is said to hold a dual US and Nigerian citizenship and resides in Medina, Ohio, was tried, convicted and sentenced to 56 months (almost five years) jail-term on August 26, by a U.S. District Judge Christopher A. Boyko.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, who released the information via a statement, said the monarch was also ordered to “serve three years of supervised release after imprisonment and pay $4,408,543.38 in restitution”.
According to the statement, Oloyede “also forfeited his Medina home on Foote Road, which he had acquired with proceeds of the scheme, and an additional $96,006.89 in fraud proceeds investigators had seized.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the monarch led a conspiracy to exploit COVID-19 emergency loan programmes created for businesses that were experiencing hiccups owing to the COVID-19 negative headwinds.
The statement said: “From about April 2020 to February 2022, Oloyede and his co-conspirator, Edward Oluwasanmi (another Nigerian), conspired to submit fraudulent applications for loans that were made available through the U.S. Small Business Association (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.”
In April, the duo fessed up to wire fraud and tax fraud charges linked to a pandemic relief fraud, siphoning a whooping $4.2million in federal stimulus funds.
The court heard that Oloyede, 62, who also worked as a tax preparer, “operated five businesses and one nonprofit, while Oluwasanmi owned an additional three business entities.”
The U.S Attorney’s Office added that both Oloyede and his partner “used their businesses to submit loan applications using false information. They obtained approximately $1.2 million in SBA funds for Oluwasanmi’s entities and $1.7 million for Oloyede’s entities.
“Oloyede submitted fraudulent PPP and EIDL applications in the names of some of his clients and their businesses. In exchange, Oloyede would receive 15-20% of their loans as the fee, or kickback, for obtaining the loans for them, without reporting this income to the IRS on his own tax returns.”
Investigators said the duo used funds obtained from these loans to acquire land and build a home and purchase a luxury vehicle. In all, Oloyede, a tax consultant and the 27th monarch of Ipetumodu, “caused the SBA to approve 38 fraudulent applications, amounting to $4,213,378 in disbursed loans and advances.”
The monarch’s 62-year-old co-conspirator, Oluwasanmi, was earlier sentenced in July to 27 months in prison. He was also ordered to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution, forfeit a commercial property purchased with fraud proceeds, and surrender more than $600,000 held in financial accounts.
The Osun monarch’s conduct that led to his inglorious conviction is a complete moral somersault because, even in these modern times, malfeasance tending to larceny remains largely a rarity around royalty in most communities in the country.
Indeed, in these modern times when obscenities have begun to conflate with tradition to corrode moral values, royal courts remain a delight to covet in many communities and royal fathers in these climes still carry themselves with a grace and radiance that enchant.
Oba Oloyede’s abominable act is particularly saddening. The opprobrium that it has stirred and is still stirring, the reputation damage he has brought to the Yoruba traditional stool and his people in the entire Ipetumodu – both at homa and in diaspora – is gargantuan, in scale and depth.
His case is a parody of the systematic turpitude that has increasingly tainted the selection of monarchs as modernity gradually supplants the people’s culture and traditions. As a result of the incursion of western style of life, the mode of selecting candidates for many royal stools is no longer sacrosanct. The traditional ways are being jettisoned.
Most communities now prefer to install highly educated, sophisticated, the well-heeled and politically connected personalities as traditional rulers. As a matter of fact, it is becoming a fad for military top brass, public office holders and top civil servants to retire to their communities as monarchs.
This, in itself, resonates well with the times as these modern-day very important personalities (VIPs), who mount the throne in opulence, use their clout or political ‘connections’ to attract modern amenities and other strands of development to their communities.
However, this practice is now being seriously abused in many of the communities, where ascendancy to the throne is now like a bazaar, a game of the highest bidders. In some places, candidates to the royal stools literally buy their way through. In some instances, contestants with deep pockets “buy” over the rightful but less financially endowed heirs to the throne, and then lure the kingmakers into acquiescence with money!
Yet, a growing trend is for the kingmakers in many communities to reserve the throne for princes or personalities in the diaspora, principally because of the allure of their palms being greased with foreign currencies. So, it is becoming a vogue to install ‘Tokunbo’ princes or personalities who can dole out dollars and other foreign currencies, with little or no regard for how they made their money abroad.
This is what Oba Oloyede’s disgraceful fall tends to exemplify. Even now, it is so shocking that Ipetumodu’s kingmakers and princes are divided about the move to replace the jailed monarch. Meetings convened to discuss that possibility have so far been rancorous and stalemated because some of the kingmakers are reluctant to replace Oloyede.
If some of the kingmakers have their way, they will prefer to wait for their man to complete his term and retake the throne because, according to the grapevine, the monarch was “good” to them. That is the level of corruption that has overtaken the monarchical institution, especially the selection process.
The Osun State government should intervene and effectively end the shenanigans in Ipetumodu by spearheading the move to replace the jailed monarch as soon as possible.
The division about whether or not the jailed Apetu should be immediately replaced is causing serious tension between the kingmakers and the princes. This is needless. The matter should not be allowed to fester any further.
It is reassuring that Governor Ademola Adeleke has already directed his Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to do the needful. The government should fast-track the process, install a new Apetu without further delay and end Ipetumodu people’s suspense and anxiety.
The Ipetumodu bad example is a big lesson for other communities that have the proclivity for luring ‘Tokunbo’ princes to the throne without digging into their backgrounds and activities abroad.
Where possible, let kingmakers rise above the lure of filthy lucre and return to the olden days’ transparent mode of picking candidates for the royal stools. That is the greatest safeguard against embarrassing situations like the Apetu’s.