By Tunde Odesola
‘Ga’nu sí’ is a six-letter Yoruba phrase with three syllables. The first syllable, ‘ga’, means to ‘set open’. The second syllable, ‘nu’, is a contraction of ‘enu’ (mouth) while ‘si’ means ‘to’ or ‘upon’. Therefore, a literal English translation of ‘ga’nu sí’ is ‘set open the mouth to/upon’…. Examples: (1) Wasiu ‘ga’nu sí’ dollars. (2) Omogbolahan ‘ga’nu sí’ Tinubu.
Now, I’ll track back a little for lucidity sake. Some days before the ‘ga’nu sí’ saga broke out, I had picked a side in the raging online war that tested the elasticity of respect among the Yoruba, when Talazo Fuji creator, Alhaji Wasiu Ayinde, referred to President Bola Tinubu, using the ‘o’ singular pronoun during a private telephone conversation, which was unethically recorded and posted online.
By the way, the Yoruba and their culture are huge on respect – the reason why elders and superiors are shown respect through prostration and the use of the ‘e’ singular pronoun. In contrast, the ‘o’ pronoun is used for younger ones and agemates, among other forms of veneration.
To lampoon Ayinde’s act of crass stupidity, I began this two-part article, “The unkingly Timi and lousy Wasiu Ayinde,” last Friday, with the article’s first part kicking off with the indiscretion of the Timi of Ede, Oba Munirudeen Lawal, who knelt to the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari.
This week, I had hoped to conclude the second part of the article by showing Wese Boy why his act of irritable arrogance and idiocy makes him unworthy of the Mayegun and Olori Omo Oba Akile Ijebu titles he holds.
Neither the late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, nor the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, would be proud of Ayinde’s abuse of privilege, disrespect for old age and the Office of the President.
But the ‘ga’nu sí’ imbroglio broke out and appears to catch up with the second part of my article because I partly like the stance Ayinde took against the alfas, thus leaving in my mouth a pinch of salt and a fizzle of fart. Salt is tasteful; fart is distasteful, so say the Yoruba proverb. I’m prepared to consume both.
Then, my mind wandered back to the burial of the mother of Orobo Fuji creator, Ajibola Alabi aka Pasuma, in 2023, when Ayinde told the ‘ga’nu sí’ alfas at the occasion that Fuji artistes in attendance would not give money as sàárà at the burial. Afterwards, some aggrieved alfas called Ayinde an Ifa worshipper and they threatened thunder and lightning. But no personal tragedy befell Igi Jegede since then.
So, when the ‘ga’nu sí’ video went viral, and I loved it, I started to wonder if the fake alfas who accused Ayinde of using ‘mádaríkàn’ were not right, after all. Or, why have the two issues left me with salt and fart?
I’ll dismount the horse called tie-back this minute and address ‘ga’nu si’ headlong. If the non-Yoruba wish to comprehend the insult contained in ‘ga’nu sí’, the inner eyes called ojú inú need to travel to the jungle and picture a lion chasing down an antelope, with dust swirling, veld swaying and the ground quaking.
At last, the lion corners the antelope: two hearts pound madly to the beat of life or death – the die is cast. The lion leaps, claws unsheathed, tail hard as bone and jaws wide open, aiming for the antelope’s jugular. When death opens the door, life exits.
F-r-e-e-z-e! Here’s the picture! The lion’s open-mouthed leap is the perfect example of ‘ga’nu sí’. Yes, the lion, by intent and purpose, ‘ga’nu sí’ the neck of the antelope, like beggars ‘ga’nu sí’ sàárà – solicited money.
For those defending Ayinde, ‘ga’nu sí’ is not a dignifying phrase. No one smiles when smeared with the ‘ga’nu sí’ tar. Probably, its temperate cousin, ‘t’eba si’, could have been a better choice for Ayinde to use in describing the beggarly action of some alfas at the eighth-day fidau prayers offered during the burial of his mother, Alhaja Halimotu Shadiya Anifowose, who lived to 105 years.
Ayinde, speaking with an unidentified middle-aged man, declared in aviral video, “Ile baba mi ni Fidipote, awon afa, won lo be; ibi ni gbogbo wa se kinni? Ni won wa ga’nu sí,” lamenting how Muslim clerics pitched up at his residence with their oral cavities wide open.
Since the Wasiu Ayinde ‘ga’nu sí’ outburst, two images have refused to leave my mind. One is the image of wild-growing mushrooms with big caps; the other is the image of crocodiles with jaws flung apart, lying doggo as they ‘ga’nu sí’ oxygen.
In my writings, I’ve been more caustic of Christian clerics than their Muslim counterparts, though I’m a Christian. Because it riles when robbers in Christian cassocks mount the pulpit and boast like God was answerable to them, lying shameless and extorting their foolish congregations, who hail in delirium.
One of such robbers on the pulpit, a light-skinned stark illiterate, who calls himself a lion, was formerly a shoemaker from Anambra; another, an apostle, said he wished for COVID to continue because he bought a jet during the pandemic while another, a bishop, ceaselessly lies about tithe and offering. Yet, all of them fled into their holes until science reined in the reign of COVID.
I had thought Islamic clerics were more organised until I witnessed an Islamic burial where the alfas were soliciting money in a fashion unbefitting for Area Boys.
In an interview, an A-list thespian, who attended both Pasuma and Ayinde’s ceremonies, disclosed told me, “I was at the burial of Wasiu Alabi Pasuma’s mother, where alfas acted shamelessly. Some were at Pasuma’s house for eight days, sleeping inside vehicles. What’s the meaning of that? And, those clerics were the uninvited ones.
“When they see a dignitary come in, they call him or her to come and donate money under frivolous pretexts. But when it was time to share the sàárà money, a bitter fight broke out openly among them.”
“Wasiu Ayinde invited me to the burial of his mother. I was in the town a day before the event. I lodged in a hotel. I saw how the uninvited alfas were struggling to extort dignitaries. It was this set of people that K1 was referring to as, not the credible alfas he invited.”
Personally, I enjoy the threats of fire and brimstone against Wasiu by some known and unknown Muslim clerics who ‘ga’nu sí’ microphones, belching illogical reasoning to drive online traffic. A couple of them even threatened Ayinde and his family with death. If the God they profess is as vindictive as their hot air, Wasiu should be with his mother by now.
The powerlessness of their threats should open the eyes of their followers that Allah is best encountered on a personal level rather than relinquishing access to Him to some alfas who only bark without bite; whose only knowledge of Allah is the ability to cram the Holy Quran and speak in Saudi tongue. Is that all that is to serving God?
I return to Aso Rock and its haughty bard. Ida ahun ni a fi n pa ahun. The tortoise is killed by its own sword. Without seeking the permission of Tinubu, Wasiu recorded a private conversation, which found its way online. Similarly, the ‘ga’nu sí’ conversation the musician had with the middle-aged man was recorded and sent online.
Therefore, it would be wicked of Wasiu to mete out punishment to the person(s) that sent the ‘ga’nu sí’ video online. As the saying goes, what is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander.
I listened online to a non-Lagosian commentator say using ‘o’ for elders was an Eko thing. I disagree. I was born at the Lagos Island Maternity Hospital, Lagos Island, and was bred both on the island and mainland. My parents never raised me to use the pronoun ‘o’ for my elders or superiors.
If Ayinde had a sense of perception, he should know that the younger generation would not hesitate to use ‘o’ for their parents and elders after seeing him use ‘o’ for the President.
If Tinubu could allow Wasiu to get away with such a high level of disrespect, I wonder what values he imbibed in his children. Some commentators attribute the disrespect to some unlit dealings between the two in the past, but I don’t care. All that matters to me is that both should not bring their dirty linings to the public laundromat. Period.
Concluded.
Written by Tunde Odesola and first published in The PUNCH, on Friday, January 31, 2025.
Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com
Facebook: @Tunde Odesola
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