Saturday 15th January begins the voter registration exercise. Whatever it will cost you, if you are above 18, please REGISTER. Mobilize everyone around you to stand in the queue and registerTHE MYSTIQUENobody knew Okolo in Oyo until he almost burnt down the townYoruba proverbIn Yoruba folklore, Okolo was a slave in ancient Oyo kingdom. Inconsequential, unrecognised and like every other slave, uncelebrated. No matter his contribution to productivity or the prosperity of the royal household, no one spared him a thought, talk less of recognition. Tired of being such a faceless figure because of his less-than-human status, Okolo decided to change the picture. Even if it was going to kill him, Okolo decided that he would be famous even if by the channel of villainous notoriety.One day, while working in the royal plantation, an idea occurred to Okolo. He thought hard and long about it. As he settled the matter in his heart, a mischievous but satisfied smile played across his lips. Now everyone will know him. He went to bed that night with the conviction that the days of his anonymity were over for good.In the early hours of the morning, from one of the thatched huts, a cry went out that pierced and shattered the serenity of the night and ushered in a rude dawn for the entire community. Fire! Help, our house is on fire! It was the peak of the dry season and the harmattan wind was very inclement.To make matters worse, the only stream that served the community was a considerable distance away. Before you could say Okolo, several huts were already aflame and the entire community was thrown into pandemonium.Who could have done this wicked act people exclaimed as they went about trying to put out the fire and curtail the rage of the inferno that seemed to defy any appeasement. The lady who had let out the eerie cry described how she saw the silhouette of a man with a flaming brand in his hand slithering into the dark forest as she ran out of her burning hut. Three days after this monumental tragedy, anxiety heightened in the village as everyone waited with bated breath to know if the culprit would ever be unveiled. At the peak of the collective apprehension, Okolo went before the king and announced, I set the huts on fire.You did whaaaaat The king was dumbfounded. Okolo was unruffled. Promptly, the entire village was summoned. Asked if he had anything to say before he was publicly beheaded, Okolo told the whole village that for once in his life, he had done something that took him out of the orbit of anonymity. If the whole village, including the king would gather together to see and know hima thing that would never have happened if he had not done what he didhe was dying a happy man. From that day, Okolo, even if for the wrong reasons, moved out of the category of anonymity into the ambit of notoriety and became a prominent mention in the community lexicon.In the Yoruba language and indeed sociology, the words Lagbaja, Tamedu, Lamorin, Lakasegbe are, like Okolo, generic names that refer to no one in particular and yet to anyone and everyone. These are cognomens that are used to describe anybody especially when anonymity is needed in the conversation. In a generic sense therefore, Lagbaja is everybody in general and nobody in particular.Therein lies the mystique. The Nigerian musician Lagbaja always wears a mask anytime he appears in public. He has been able to carve a niche for himself precisely because of the enigma of anonymity. Two personalities are usually mentioned around the persona of the musician. There is Bisade Ologunde who is reputed to be the musicians Business Manager and there is Lagbaja, the musician himself. The riddle is that they never appear together in public. The strength of the Lagbaja brand is therefore in the musicians capacity, through the multiplicity of his various masks and shockingly unique costumes, to keep everyone guessing who on earth is the Okolo behind the mask. But make no mistakes; Lagbaja knows for sure who he is, but sustains the attraction by keeping everyone guessing and sometimes actually creating myths around the identity. With the toga of an unresolved public identity however, he is able to sustain interest in his person because he represents a mass of people who are trying to find definition and a place in a world that is constantly trying to fashion everyone into its own tailor-made mould. The only problem with that is that those who merely conform to that mould never stand out and are hardly ever celebrated. The mystique of Lagbaja is therefore in the brands ability to shock us and rudely awaken our interest in the absurd paradox of the man who claims to represent anonymity and yet sticks out like a sore thumb!And there ends the mystique...continued.Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is
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