When I was at the Obafemi Awolowo University (1980-1984 and 1986-1988) I was a member of the Kegite’s Club – I still am. OAU is the World Headquarters (WHQ) of the Kegites Club because that is where the club started in 1963. In 1986 when I went back for my Masters program, we had a problem when it was time for the annual leadership transition of the club.
The Chief that had been chosen by the Council of Elders was facing resistance from a sore loser and his associates. Somehow two factions had emerged in the club. One was the ‘Old Guard’, those of us who had become Kegites at OAU and owed our allegiance to the World Headquarters and the values of discipline, respect and portraying a good image of the club and University.
The other faction was made up of mostly Kegites who had joined the club in other tertiary institutions before moving to OAU, they found our ways too strict and stuffy for their liking. We in turn did not regard them as good team players. We the ‘Old Guard’ wanted one of our own trusted Comrads to be Chief. The other faction backed one of their own.
The Council of Elders was dominated by members of our own group so our candidate emerged. The other camp started to cause problems, so in order to settle our grievances, the Council of Elders delegated four of us (2 former Chiefs and 2 Life Senior Fellows) to go and see one of our older club members on campus who was a Professor. He was a Life Senior Fellow of the club and a father figure. We narrated the developments to him and asked him to convene a meeting at which both factions would be present and settle the matter by asking them to reconcile themselves to the choice of Chief for that year. Our delegation was in for a shock.
After listening to us, the Professor said, ‘Why have you people chosen a Yanmiri boy to be Chief here at Ife? How is he going to communicate with our ancestors? I cannot support this’.
We could not believe what we had just heard. It had never occurred to us that Chief Tony Ogidi did not qualify to be Chief at WHQ because he was Igbo. The criteria for becoming Chief back then was ‘Kariability’ which meant commitment to the goals of the club, good character and the ability to inspire.
The Kegites Club has always been a melting pot for people of all ages, ethnicities, faiths and classes. We left our Professor very disappointed but determined not to heed what we believed was unethical counsel. It was not the Kegites way. It was not the Great Ife way. We went ahead and solved the problem ourselves by making peace with the other side and promising them that there would be no actions taken against any of them. We coronated Chief Tony and he was a great leader.