Buzz by Olumide Iyanda
Email: olumide@qed.ng Twitter: @mightyng
It is a classic example of a man crying that he had no shoe until he saw someone without legs.
After reading and listening to different comments about the recently unveiled 20-feet statue of Chief Obafemi Awolowo statue Ikeja, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to pay a visit to the “sage”.
No sooner had I uploaded a picture I took with the statue to social media than someone drew my attention to the one standing in Awo’s hometown of Ikenne in Ogun State.
While the one in Lagos has Timberland boots, the one in Ikenne has no shoe. And the trademark Awo glasses are missing.
Beyond the missing shoes and glasses, the state of the statue itself leaves little to raise a victory sign for. Posters of different kinds litter the monument and the smell of urine would have made the statue cover its nose if it was a living thing.
Yes, no politician in Yorubaland has come close to filling the shoes Awo left behind 30 years after his death, but that is no reason to deny his statue of footwear. Or a befitting place to stand.
