We will support Olubadan as Oyo Obas Council chairman — Monarch

The Olugbon of Orile-Igbon, Oba Francis Alao, has assured Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, that members of the state Council of Obas and Chiefs will give adequate support to the new chairman, Oba Rashidi Ladoja.

Olugbon, in a statement released in Ibadan, the state capital, on Sunday, gave the assurance while hosting the governor at his palace in Orile-Igbon, Surulere Local Government Area of the state, on Friday.

Alao, who thanked the governor for the visit, said he and other members of the council were behind Makinde, adding that Oba Ladoja would enjoy the support of council members across the five zones in the state — Ibadan, Oyo, Ogbomoso, Oke-Ogun and Ibarapa.

The reports that the governor on Thursday inaugurated the state Council of Obas and Chiefs after 15 years, with the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Ladoja, emerging as its first chairman.

The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Akeem Owoade, was conspicuously absent from the inauguration, which was held at the House of Chiefs, Parliament Building, Secretariat, Ibadan.

At the inauguration, Governor Makinde explained that the chairmanship of the Obas Council would be rotated among the Olubadan, the Alaafin and the Soun of Ogbomoso.

According to him, it was an agreement reached at a meeting with the three first-class monarchs.

However, a statement released by the Alaafin’s media aide, Bode Durojaye, on Thursday said there was no such meeting between the governor and the Alaafin.

The statement read, “The attention of the Alaafin’s palace has been drawn to a statement credited to His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde, that he consulted with the three traditional rulers in the state — the Alaafin, the Olubadan and the Soun of Ogbomoso — on the rotational chairmanship of the State Council of Obas and Chiefs.

“The palace hereby wants to state clearly that there was no time that His Imperial Majesty, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Engineer Abimbola Akeem Owoade I, held any meeting with either the state governor or any of the two traditional rulers mentioned above,” the statement, signed by the Alaafin’s media aide, Durojaye, said.

Olugbon, who is the Deputy Chairman of the Obas Council, said, “Your Excellency, Engr. Seyi Makinde, we appreciate you for coming here.

“I would like to take this opportunity to explain that the government has done what is needful on the state Council of Obas and Chiefs. We are in support of the decision.

“The Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs has now been re-inaugurated, and we have a new chairman in the person of His Excellency, Oba Rashidi Ladoja, the Olubadan of Ibadan.

“I want to assure Your Excellency that we are all one in the council. We are united across the five zones — Ogbomoso, Ibadan, Oyo, Oke-Ogun and Ibarapa. People can say things, but we are members of one united family.”

Olugbon stressed the need for the traditional system to embrace contemporary realities, saying empires had given way to new power structures globally.

He said, “The world is not static but dynamic in nature. In the past centuries, there were the Roman, French and British empires which ruled the world. But looking at today’s world order, the United States, Russia and emerging China are the leading powerful nations.

“The system we are operating in Nigeria is not monarchy. I implore all traditional rulers across the state to cooperate with the government of the day. There is no perfection in decisions of government.

“We just need deeper understanding of our collective will in entrenching good governance, promoting economic development, security and peaceful coexistence in our dear state. Modernity has restructured the governance system in Nigeria.”

The traditional rulers who joined the Olugbon were the Aresapa of Iresa-Pupa, Oba Moses Ajiboye; the Aranyin of Iranyin, Oba Lasisi Olagbemileke; the Olujado of Ijado, Oba Hammed Adegbile; and Iba Abogunde Tajudeen Aminullahi.

Culled from punch