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Governor, I think you are looking for relevance where there is none, but unknown to you that, what you will get is embarrassment, rebuke, resentment and bombardment. You came to office through a very dubious election that is still being contested and challenged in court, you don’t know what the outcome will be, even the way you won your primaries was very unusual and left much to be desired, the least you want to do is to embark on an equally sensitive and controversial project that could mar the way your handful supporters see you. Your recent move does not portray a smart politician who can sway the public opinion to his side. This is a grossly miscalculated political endeavour on your part, only you know whom you are trying to impress, but certainly not the Yorubas and other well meaning Nigerians. Replacing Chief Awolowo’s statue with that of unknown soldier is not only uncivilized, it is barbaric, despicable and mind bugling. What were you thinking? Looking for fame, accolade or both? I don’t think so.
Mr. Governor, why don’t you follow your mind and be your own person. Why do you have to listen to the advice of the machinery dancing around you? These people are your detractors, they are certainly not your fans, but they are pushing and leading you astray, and they have succeeded in making you a laughing stock. By the way, Chief Awolowo spent his entire life fighting for the cause of down trodden and common people, He was a known soldier of the common people, and why will you replace the statue of a known fighter with that of unknown soldier?

Take it or leave it, Chief Awo fought fiercely for the common people of Nigeria, the only difference is that he did not carry a machine gun or drove armored tank. His vision can not be faulted by any Nigerian politician dead or alive. Even the military you are trying to impress and curry favour from treated him with respect and high sense of decorum. Your action did not and can not diminish the lager than life image of Chief Awolowo, the illustrious son of Africa. However hard you try, you cannot re-write history. As a Yoruba adage goes “Ajanaku Kooja mori nka firi, bi aba ri Erin, a o mo pe a ri Erin” Chief Awolowo, is till very great even at death, it is also not within your power to undo what Papa Awo had done during his lifetime. I can say with all humility that your action is not only myopic but jaundiced and not well thought of before you embarked on it, or better still, one can say that you have very unseasoned advisers around you, otherwise somebody who has a good head on his shoulder should have told you that your action is not only an affront to the Awolowos, but to all Yoruba race on the face of this earth! By this singular act of sacrilege, you have opened up a Pandora box, the fall out will not be palatable for your administration or anybody in your circle for that matter. Like Fela once said, “trouble sleep, yanga wake am”

Agreed that an unknown thug vandalized Chief Awolowo’s statue, we do not need an equally “unknown governor” to complete the handiwork of the savage thugs who started it. I will expect a governor like you to salvage it and restore the statue to its previous position. Tai Sholarin in his book, “Message to young Nigerians” said, “Life is like an echo, what ever you give comes back to you” it follows that, somebody long after you might have gone off the stage, will obliterate your memory, it’s that simple!
Chief Awolowo gave the best he had to all Yorubas and indeed to all human race, he was known far and wide, nothing somebody like you can do now to alter that fact.
I was sad when I read in the news paper that, you have the gut and the effrontery to replace Awo’s stature with that of an unknown soldier! That is a wrong move, politically incorrect, nonsensical and costly attempt at looking for relevance. Your action could open up an old wounds that people want to put behind them for good. You think about this, an Ogbomoso man, demolishing an Obafemi Awolowo’s statue only to erect another statue of an Unknown Soldier in the same place that formerly played host to Awo’s statue. How do you fell about that? Your behaviour singles you out as somebody who has little respect for elders, contrary to the image you were trying to portray when you fell flat on your face for your political godfather chief Adedibu, I don’t know of any other Yoruba man well brought up in the culture of our race who will do what you have done to an elder-statesman who spent his entire life defending the defenseless.

Your action exasperates many Nigerians, not Yorubas alone. The only logical thing to do now is to show contrite and apologize to all the people you have offended as well as all Yorubas home and abroad for forgiveness. What you do today becomes history and it remains long after you. How do you want history to remember you, a builder or somebody who tears what other people have built down? Chart your own future!