The pendulum wall clock in my grandfather’s house has a way of announcing itself, though I never knew my maternal grandfather, Taiwo Ogunremi. He died before I was born in a tumultuous crisis orchestrated by political circumstances, reason my Aunt, Mrs. Olubunmi Oyegbami (AKA Mummy Betta) frowned at me having anything to do with politics!
She however beckoned on me to step up the grace in the midst of the abysmal performance of the Candidate she voted for in 2015!
Her phobia for politics is understandable given the circumstances of her father’s murder. I was told he was a man of means. He was one of the biggest Cocoa farmers of his era in Ibadan and its environs. Though, I was not privileged to meet him, but the legacies of his wealth were there for us to see and celebrate.
The old twin castle popularly known in the Alafara Oje area of Ibadan, Oyo State, Southwest Nigeria as “ile omo meji”, had Taiwo Kehinde Ogunremi inscribed in concrete on top of the building. The frontage of the house still serves as a truck park where hire can be effected, a fallout of many years of lining up his trucks there!
The symbol of his wealth that inspired this writing is the pendulum clock that hung on the wall of his modest sitting room!
The swinging system of the clock strikes in an hour and announces what time it is to everyone in the vicinity of our castle. Though, the pendulum clock is decorative and an antique value wherever it hangs today, its harmonic oscillator was its advantage as time keeps swinging back and forth in a precise time interval dependent on its length and resists swinging at other rate. A 1656 invention by Christiaan Huygens! Until the 1930s, the pendulum clock was the world’s most precise timekeeper accounting for its widespread use in the 18th and 19th centuries!
It was a public common sight of its era, a dynamic component of the industrial revolution of the late 17th century. Societies were structured around this now antique technology so much so that train stations had them on towers! There was one to which we use to look at in Dugbe, the then commercial center of Ibadan. The pendulum clock was part of the ecclesiastical institution. Churches were built with them, those who couldn’t afford it, improvised with a giant bell tower which were rang to call their host Community to worship!
The essence of the oscillator of the pendulum was to keep society abreast of time.
In 1999, our political power pendulum as fixed by the caucus whom Dele Momodu revealed to us recently as “owners of Nigeria”, swung southwards to one of their own who by all political calculations was out of the dynamics but he was the anointed one and so be it, when it was time for him to leave, the pendulum oscillated to the North, picked a sick man who was far from what was expected but the owners of Nigeria have said that was what shall be. Positioned with him was a man whose possible only qualifications was that he never wore a shoe as a child but the shoe of power seems fitting in the estimations of the owners of Nigeria and so he wore it!
He unfortunately stepped on toes of this clique of power with his Cortina shoes for which he dearly paid in 2015! He made them make a friend out of their enemy and the pendulum of power located and brought their “enemy” to the rocky pinnacle of the nation called the Villa. Truth be told, the dynamics of power in Nigeria is far from being democratic. There are unseen hands in the affairs of our political wall clock, who not only swing the pendulum but also the hands of the clock to give a wrong timing! The need to guide against time manipulation and make Nigerians to understand the time of the day in our nation, birthed Apostolic Round Table (ART).
Time is always out for all, but only the discerning know what to make of it. All Israel had it, but the sons of Issachar alone had the understanding of it and of what to make out of it. 2023 is the time, we all know it, but may wisdom prevail on all for us to recognize the sons of Issachar among us and give leadership of our structure to them, knowing they know what to do by God.
One of the mandate of ART is drive for leadership development through faith based principles. A project of Voice Of His Word Ministries; with a clear mandate; change of order!
At ART 2023, Green Shift, trending ideas, policy and transformation, the focus of our panel of discussant will be: who are the owners of Nigeria and what must the real owners being the people of Nigeria, do to reclaim the ownership? On the panel is Temitope Majekodunmi the #EndSars footman who stays the course till the very end, Adesunmbo Adeoye, a wife and mother with an intimidating rising profile! Yinka Quadri is the strategic portion of the pack! From the North East will come Engr Daniel Kadzai, immediate past President of YOWICAN, Dr Amaka Oforbuike, a woman with the wit of words will have her voice heard from the Panel. Then the big masquerade on the panel is Ambassador Stephen Bangoji, who apart from being the Chairman of Conference will speak for the Southern Kaduna people of North West Nigeria!
2023 is not just an election time table, but a timing in national destiny for a collective determination and decision we must exercise for what is ours, Nigeria, to take her back!
