By Dare Babarinsa

For the past 60 years, the 25-storey Cocoa House has been standing triumphantly at the epicentre of Ibadan, the political capital of the Yoruba people.
The edifice was conceived by the Western Region government of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and completed and commissioned by his successor, Chief Ladoke Akintola.

In the last 60 years, many cities like Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong, that were far behind the Ibadan of 1965, have each transformed into forests of skyscrapers.

Yet Ibadan remains the same, “a running splash of rust and gold, flung and scattered among seven hills like broken China in the sun” in the immortal words of JP Clark.

This is a sobering and disturbing reality that should command the attention and reflections of our leaders, especially politicians and imported royals who are busy fighting over disputatious protocols and dubious ancient privileges.

In our days in the great University of Lagos, Professor Ayodele Awojobi, the engineering genius, told us about the Theory of Alternative Motion. Said Awojobi: “When you are standing still and others are moving forward, it means you are actually going backward!”