Serial Presidential aspirant, civil rights activists and journalist, Omoyele Sowore has come out severely against one Mrs. Ebunola Adebusoye, a retired Lagos teacher who is opposing the naming of a bus top in Lagos after Veteran singer Charles Okputa otherwise called Charley Boy.
Sowore took to his social media platform to pen down a statement criticizing Mrs. Ebunola for his comments, describing her as ethnic bigot attempting to stir tribal hatred against Charley.
Below is a complete statement published by Omoyele Sowore:
STILL ON CHARLY BOY BUS STOP! LAGOS IS NOT A KINGDOM, IT IS A CITY OF THE PEOPLE!
I read a hubris written by one “Mrs. Ebunola Adebusoye,” who claimed she is the “Deputy Women’s Leader of the Indigenous Lagos Teachers Association,” a group I had never heard of before, but let’s assume it does exist.
She presents a diatribe laced with xenophobia, political cowardice, and ethnic-baiting; in it, she invented grievance and tried very hard to weaponize culture.
What “Mrs. Ebunola Adebusoye nee Babajide Sanwo-Olu” did was use falsehoods, bitterness, and insecurity to trigger ethnic purity, whereas this is just a weak attempt to create political allegiance to the godfather of Lagos in Abuja, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his Lagos boys.
This reminds me of the age-old propaganda scripts once used against the Afrobeat Maestro, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the same argument they offered in hounding Charly Boy was also used against Fela, who was a bona fide Yoruba, they also claim he didn’t pay rent, that he was a bad influence on the youth, that he was harassing his neighbors, that he killed his electrician, and that he kidnapped a police officer’s daughter. That he prevented the railway from crossing, and next, they burnt down Kalakuta Republic and reassigned his property to the state.
When Fela Kuti died, his Ikeja Shrine was reportedly converted to a church in the place now known as the “Computer Village,” it should have been” Fela’s Village.” They were so eager to erase his legacy, but it was a futile attempt, for Fela’s legacy has now become a global phenomenon. But they never learn. Ask yourself why the scripts haven’t changed.
The attack on charlyboyareafada is still the typical strategy to criminalize creative dissent and try to silence those who challenge authoritarianism.
The truth remains that Lagos is NOT a kingdom; it is a city of the people. Lagos City’s greatness was built by the Yoruba, Igbo, Ijaw, Hausa, Ibibio, Brazilian returnees, the Saros-Sierra Leoneans, and many others. No tribe owns Lagos more than those who live in it and make it breathe. They make you feel like they care about the indigenes of Lagos, yet they are the first to dislodge them from their natural habitats when non-indigenes crave pricey landed property/ies.
Mrs. Ebunola’s diatribe also wasted time on a baseless attack on my educational background, Sahara Reportersand , and protests; these show exactly why Nigeria is stuck, because those who should be retired into silence are screaming the loudest with poison-laced tongues.
Revolution Now
I hereby reproduce the trash below:
Charlie Boy Does not Deserve a Bus Stop in Lagos
My name is Mrs Ebunola Adebusoye. I’m the Deputy Women leader of Indigenous Lagos Teachers Association
I write this in my personal opinion. My group has not authorised me to do this on itse behalf, but I have to do it after consultation with the Lagos General Secretary, at least to avoid organisational indiscipline. I’m happy I was given to go-ahead to write my own personal opinion.
I speak on the reigning issue of the renaming of Charly Boy Bus Stop in Lagos to Badoo Bus stop, an exercise executed by the Chairman, Bariga LCDA.
First of all, I thank the Chairman for living up to the expectations of the people of Gbagada where Charles Oputa, alias Charly Boy also referred to as Area Father lived and tormented the residents for many years. As a Lagos indigene and from the Royal home, we are proud of what the Chairman did.
At 65 and as a retired School teacher, I have a sense of what morality means.
Having a Bus Stop with the name Charly Boy is an attempt to glorify immorality of the highest order.
Firstly, Area Father never had a Bus Stop allocated to him at Gbagada. When he moved here many years ago, the first thing he did was to pull down the existing Bus Stop signpost which was second Pedro named after a prominent Lagos family that had put in sweat and blood to the growth, fame and rise of Lagos.
Charly Boy was never officially allocated any Bus Stop. That is the truth. Calling the place Charly Boy was his own creation.
Secondly, Charly boy lived in this area as a little beast. He tormented the reisidents, turned the place into a jungle, a hub for hard drugs including cocaine and hooliganism. I lived close to him for about 5 years. Myself and my husband had to relocate to Ikorodu because of this nuisance.
He was an extremely bad influence on youths and the core values of Yoruba Nation.
I recall his attack on a 70 year old Mr Akinyemi who challenged his rascality.
He ordered his thugs to beat up the old
man who he stripped naked.
I recall the children of this old man who came to challenge him were also beaten up.
These actions if taken in any civilised world would have been challenged by the relevant authority and Charly Boy would have been sent to jail.
He was contemptuous of Yoruba people who he derided and insulted so often.
He has no respect for the tradition and values of his host.
He owed his landlord 7 years rent which he never paid. The landlady, a Yorubaland woman died of hypertension
Charly Boy converted the rented apartment into a studio that his wife managed. He pulled down the fence and converted the building to his own shape.
He would insult and harrass the woman, playing music all day and all night. The woman died.
People who support Charly Bus stop should tell us what single contributions he made to Lagos or to the people of Gbagada. Monuments should be named after heroes not hooligans and common criminals.
I’m shocked that a certain Omoyele Sowore is supporting Charly Boy. Does it mean that he learnt nothing from the University of Lagos he claimed to have attended? Does it mean he has no tradition, no culture and no morality? Does it mean Sowore never read history and he is unaware of what is called the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People to the extent that Indigenous people exist in Lagos, a history Sowore wants to eraze through his unbridled, shallow, crude, infantile and self serving revolutionary pretences? A true Revolutionary should deserve honour nor scorn from his own people. Perhaps this is why his futile, ashes-in-the-wind Presidential ambition is nothing but a profit driven venture to scam people and enrich himself. Sowore had dug his own political grave. I never knew he was such a senseless, rabid illiterate.
Does Sowore know what Yoruba people are going through in our own land? Where was Sowore when 4 traditional rulers were killed in Yorubaland? Where was he when Owo was bombed and many Yoruba people killed? Which Nigerian does he speak for? Where does he seek to votes when he portrays himself as Yoruba enemy? Does he know what Yoruba people are going through at Ladipo in the hands of Igbo people?
How can someone who wants to lead Nigeria urinate on his own people? Does it mean Sowore has no wisdom at all?
Does he think his DIGBOLUGI protests will take him anywhere?
Where does he get the money to run Sahara Reporters? Who funds him?
Any Yoruba person opposed to the renaming has no sense of shame. I do not know of any ethnic group in the world that would allow her values and heritage to be trampled and turned into sputton, and all the people do is to watch
How many Bus Stops were named after Yoruba people in the whole of Eastern Nigeria?
Some irresponsible Yoruba people claim Lagos belongs to everyone.
That is an insult and an assault on us whose ancestors own the land.
Kano, Enugu, Owerri, and Calabar belong to certain ethnic groups, so why should Lagos belong to everyone? It is just silly and provocative for anyone to slogan this assault on we the people of Lagos.
We hereby caution and warn those who think they can continue to spit on Lagos heritage to beware of the wrath of our ancestors and at the fullness of time, we shall challenge them BY ALL MEANS NECESSARY.