Ìjímèrè, the small brown monkey, is counted among the wisest of the dry-nosed primates. Its resilience is legendary; its endurance unmatched. No other primate survives hardship with such stubborn patience.
Yet even Ìjímèrè has a weakness — hunger. When hunger becomes desperate and hope disappears, the creature does the unthinkable. As the elders say: when only the cheapest morsel remains in Ìjímèrè’s home, the palace of Alákedun, the monkey king, becomes the next target (Tí ó bá ti ku èko òníní sí ilé Ìjímèrè, ilé Alákedun di àjerun fún ọmọ òbo).
The short story that births the above saying goes thus: In the days of yore, Alákedun lived in affluence. Being the king over other Primates, the group subordinated their sovereignty to their king. The king was not just powerful; he was the custodian of the essence of the people. His palace had the largest store of all the food items. The king of monkeys lived in abundance; his subjects lived in abject poverty. He determined who would eat or would go hungry. Alákedun could not be bothered who died or lived!
Basking in the euphoria of his position and influence, Alákedun forgot that his position as the king notwithstanding, he also hopped from one tree to the other like other monkeys. So, instead of treating the other monkeys with respect, Alákedun employed the weapon of hunger to punish the tribe. He rationed food items in small bits that could barely sustain others. The affliction was too much.
Then, a time came that food shortage became biting. Mothers watched their children die in their infancy due to starvation. The other monkeys knew that something must give. Who would bell the cat was the issue. Ìjímèrè, being naturally endowed with endurance, continued to manage life; hoping that reason would prevail and Alákedun would open up the storehouse for the monkeys.
Nothing of such happened. One day, Ìjímèrè checked its storeroom. What confronted it was disheartening. Only one wrap of èko was left on the rafter; the room was empty. Ìjímèrè looked at the empty room again and wondered what it would tell its expectant infants, waiting to be fed. Just before any idea came, the town crier gong rang through the empty storehouse. Alákedun had asked all Primates to show up for their next rations.
All the other monkeys ran, their hinds touching their heads, towards the palace. Getting there, they were met with disappointment. Alákedun had nothing substantial to offer the people save his usual miserable rations. Ìjímèrè, looking from afar, saw behind the king, the locked store house. Something stirred in its stomach. The brown monkey, despite its miniature stature, felt a rumbling bigger than the ape, moving all over its body.
Without warning, Ìjímèrè leapt forward. It gave the order like the General holding a parade. The child of the monkey cannot die of hunger when Alákedun’s palace is full of supply. Ìjímèrè shouted the words other monkeys had been waiting for, for years: “Ilé Alákedun di àjerun” (Let the palace of Alákedun be devoured).
The stampede that followed was unprecedented. All the Primates present made for the palace and its numerous store houses. There was no holding back. Alákedun escaped being lynched by the whiskers! The entire store houses were looted. Nothing precious was left in the palace itself. After all, the people built the palace. The king and his palace can only be beautiful because the people supplied the ornaments.
By the time normalcy returned, the palace laid waste; its beauty and elegance gone. The people took back what they subordinated to Alákedun. A king is royal to the extent the people want him to be! A palace can only remain sacred when the people are happy and filled. Hunger does not respect sacredness; empty stomachs prostrate for no king!
In appreciation of the leading role it played in the revolt that broke the yoke, Ìjímèrè, in its small stature, was crowned the father of all monkeys; hence the saying to date: Ìjímèrè baba òbo! Alákedun lost its primus inter pares position among the Primates because of its insensitivity to the needs of its people.
This is why, when our elders ask Tortoise high up the tree why he keeps dropping the ripe fruits for those at the foot of the tree, he answers: “He who assists the Tortoise in climbing the tree also has the capacity to bring it down” – Eni bá l’ágbára láti gbé Alábahun gun igi ní agbára láti gbée wá sí ilè. A leader is a leader only when the people say so.
There is always a limit to people’s resilience. It is called hunger. Only an asinine leader like Alákedun tests the people’s will with hunger. History has never been kind to leaders who give the people miserable rations from the surplus milked from the masses. It is even more inhuman if such rations are flaunted as privileges!
SccienceDirect.com, says: “Hunger acts as a powerful driver of political instability, acting both as a symptom of fragile governance and a catalyst for revolution, riots, and violence. When substantial portions of a population cannot meet basic nutritional needs, the social contract breaks down, leading to increased desperation that can topple governments and fuel conflict.”
The above aptly described last week’s almost-tragic outing of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s second term campaign cum empowerment programme laundered under the image of the City Boys Movement, headed by the President’s son, Seyi Tinubu, and held at the Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu Square, Owerri, Imo State.
At the programme, the rent-a-crowd ‘attendees’ were mobilised from the five states of the South-East geopolitical zone. Various items ranging from food to electronic gadgets were on display to be given to the pre-selected beneficiaries before hell was let loose on the organisers, who were forced to scamper to safety.
A two-minute-fifty-two-second video of the pandemonium came with a troubling footnote thus: “The village Boys invaded the City Boys empowerment in Owerri and took what rightfully belonged to them, leaving the city boys on the run. Power indeed belongs to the people. Using food to play with hungry people is like teasing a lion with fresh meat dripping with blood. Things can and will eventually go out of control.”
That was exactly what happened in Owerri. The crowd waited while the razzmatazz of the jamboree lasted. Like a hungry Ìjímèrè leading other hungry-looking packs, the people watched as Seyi Tinubu, the ‘National Leader’ made to begin to distribute the items. Then, they surged forward. It was impulsive. The security cordon was compromised as the crowd broke the barriers and went after the items with fury. It was a sight as some carried the head of sewing machines while others carried the wooden frames. Would they meet later to couple the items? Or each would simply keep what he took as mementos of when their oppressors came flaunting their arrogance in their faces?
The Nation Newspaper, in its reportage of the event says: “Hoodlums loot relief packages at City Boys empowerment programme” I laughed at such a misleading reportorial. Were those women and children carrying bags of rice on their heads hoodlums? Who brought them from across the five States of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo in the first instance? They were ‘hoodlums’ yet the organisers hired vehicles to convey them to the venue?
Again, the headline says “relief packages.” Pray, which natural disaster happened in the South-East that warranted the distribution of relief packages? If the items were meant to cushion the effects of the economic crisis created by the ineptitude of the present administration, how many people would the packages have taken care of? The World Bank, in early January 2026, stated that 139 million Nigerians, over 60 percent of the population, live below the poverty line! The report added that the number increased from 81 million in 2019, “driven by high inflation and economic reforms.”
This is where the problem lies. Any discerning mind who watched the video of the ugly outing would know that what happened was too spontaneous for anyone to read jejune meanings to it. The people, like the footnote that followed the video stated, simply took what rightfully belonged to them! Who are the City Boys, if we may ask? Where did they get the money to buy the items from? Beyond being the son of President Tinubu, what other pedigree does the so-called ‘National Leader’ of the body parade?
Rather than looking for excuses for what happened, our leaders should start thinking of what they will face in the weeks and months ahead as the hunger in the land becomes biting every day. We have said this long ago on this page that unless those in authority make conscious efforts to mitigate the pain in the land, a time will come when they will become vulnerable! Owerri’s event could as well be the opening glee for the theatre of the absurd that looms.
Hunger has no respect for dignitaries. No level of security is too thick for hungry people to break through. Nigerians are getting to that level that politics of tokenism will become an albatross for those weaponising poverty to hold the people down. We are approaching that season, when politicians and their lackeys come calling with the loot from our patrimony in the name of ‘relief packages will be chased away. History abounds, especially of food riots, for our leaders to learn from.
The Salt Riot, otherwise known as Moscow Uprising of 1648, records say, happened because the government of that era took the tax madness to a new level when it introduced Salt Tax. Again, in 1650, when the then Russian Government traded off the people’s grain to Sweden, thus creating artificial scarcity, the way our government has traded off our crude oil, the people revolted in what is known in history as the Novgorod Uprising of 1650.
In the 18th century, the masses of Boston, Massachusetts, had three riots known as Boston Bread Riots, between 1710 and 1713. Ditto the 1775 French Revolution commonly known as Flour War was caused by the inability of the French working class to buy common bread because of its price!
When grain became unaffordable for the Irish people, the masses trooped out on June 6, 1842 in protest that led to the death of three people, killed by the Irish Constabulary. Berlin had its own Potato revolution in 1847 and Italy had its bread riots in 1898. By the 20th century, Santiago, the capital city of Chile had what is called Meat Riots in 1905 and Japan had Rice Riots in 1918, followed by many other food-related riots of that era.
In our contemporary 21st century, West Bengal, India, went aflame in 2007 because of hunger occasioned by food shortages. The 2007-2008 riots in Egypt were all linked to rising food prices; ditto the 2016 and 2017 riots in Venezuela. South Africa had a taste of food riots in 2021 and Sri Lankans protested food shortage in 2022.
If the cited cases above happened in faraway places, what about the 2024 EndBadGovernance protests in Nigeria that lasted from August 1 to August 10, under the watch of this administration? What lessons did we learn? What steps have those who lord it over us taken to avert a repeat?
It does not matter the level of third-party advocacy engaged in to change the narrative of the City Boys outing in Owerri. As long as poverty walks in three-piece suits on our streets and hunger dances skelewu in the eye sockets of the masses of Nigeria, outings like the Owerri City Boys empowerment programme shall continue to be avenues for the village boys to possess what rightfully belongs to them, even forcibly! One can only pray that there should always be escape routes for the oppressors!
The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.
