Former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Rasidi Adewolu Ladoja has declared that the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji did not support the proposed review of Ibadan Chieftaincy declaration.
He said that the purported support for the review of Ibadan chieftaincy declaration by the monarch may have been due to pressures. Hide quoted text
Ladoja who is also the Osi Olubadan of Ibadanland made this revelation on Saturday while featuring on an Ibadan based radio station, Splash FM 105.5 monitored by journalists.
Senator Ladoja who reiterated his call for the state governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi to steer clear of the Chieftaincy matters, insisted that “the government can use the power of the media and the government to suppress anything at anytime”.
Chief Ladoja who said Oba Thiophilus Akinyele moved to review the succession processes, said successive Olubadan like the immediate past Olubadan, Oba Samuel Odulana Odugade 1 received a report of a committee but the report was set aside due to the fact that most of their recommendations have been taking into consideration.
He said those efforts were done only by the Olubadan and the Council and not the state government.
For instance, Ladoja said that all the arguments of the government to ensure that the Olubadan succession processes meet the current challenges were already taking into consideration by the successive committees during the reigns of successive Olubadans.
He said the Olubadan, Oba Adetunji during a meeting with the governor may have been forced to support the review based on what he saw in the leaked video where the Olubadan rejected the move to review the chieftaincy declaration.
Ladoja said “I have a material on my whatsapp, the Olubadan during the meeting with the government did not support it. Look at the video.
“You see the power of the media and the government has power to suppress it.
He said in terms of age and educational level among other recommendations, the system of selecting Mogajis has already taking care of itself.
“There is a committee headed by Chief Daisi and the committee are very many and prominent Ibadan and they did beautiful work, and they made a report, there are two reports, there is a minority and majority report, titled Ibadan Chieftaincy system review committee, there is nothing bad in Ibadan people to review their own chieftaincy system, so after doing the report, they now sent it to the then Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Odugade.
“Oba Odugade looked at it and I am lucky I was there, he said what are they recommending, he said they are saying that younger people should become Mogaji, he said of course, that is already happening and reforming itself.
“Because when I became Mogaji, my father was still alive. Before, it is the oldest person in the family that becomes Mogaji but now it is the young people that is becoming Mogaji, the system is reforming itself, so when Kabiyesi looked at it, the son of Niyi Akintola (SAN), erudite lawyer who is under 25 is a Mogaji now. In the report they said that a Mogaji should not be more than 35 years, so a 25 years old had become Mogaji so what are they reviewing again?
“They said that the person must be educated, I am proud to tell you that apart from the present Olubadan, all of us in Olubadan-In- Council are graduates, so if we re graduates today, anybody that is coming after us, don’t you think he will not be a graduate?
“Another thing they said is that they wanted to shorten the, so that younger people will becoming Olubadan, it does not work that way, they are recommending that the line should be shorten to maybe 12 instead of 22, the Kabiyesi said look whether it is 22 or not, whoever got ordained that would be Olubadan, don’t take the hand of God out of this issue that as long you have people in the line, it is not possible for all of them to become Olubadan because even if you pack everybody and said the person who will become Olubadan is 40 now, are you telling me that the person that is following him will remain 40 if he spent 50 years on the throne, is he going to be 40 when he becomes Olubadan, he will become 90, that does not solve the problem.
“They recommended also that the Olubadan should retire at 85. Of course, Bi Oba Kan Oku, Ikan O leje (If one king does not dies another one will not be crown). That is the position of Obas everywhere in the world, the queen of England, nobody has ever said that because Prince Charles was there, what about Soun of Ogbomoso, what about Alaafin of Oyo, you are young when you become king, are they going to pack you when you are old, when you might have acquired a lot of wisdom, is not working that way.
“After that one, there was no other thing that is important and he said they should go and pack it?
“I know that it is not the right of government to do it, whether I am convince or not, people are making some mistakes, they think it is a fight between Ladoja and Governor, it is not. It is not fight between Ladoja and governor, it is a fight between Ladoja and government, because governor comes governor go, if you go to the government house, you will see pictures of governors, so a governor will come a governor will go, today maybe Ibadan people are looking to an Ibadan boy as the governor, tomorrow it can be somebody else. It is not the right of Ibadan people to become governor, anybody can become a governor. Is he going to continue dabbling into Ibadanland, they have other things which they are not dabbling into, because the government itself said they just settled 34 years traditional crisis in Ado-Awaye on who was to become the Oba.
“There is no Oba today in Saki because of dispute, in many places, apart from Igbo-Ora that got five Obas, Igboho has got four, a one town that is not bigger than Moniya, so they cannot understand our system that why is Ibadan as big as it is have one Oba.
“That is our system, why don’t have many kings in England, why don’t have many kings in England, we are talking of Ibadanland. We are not talking of something. And you see, you are making a mistake, the beaded kings they are talking about, of course, Kabiyesi Olubuse, the late Ooni of Ife crowned some of his chiefs, he gave them crowns, but it is the prerogative of Oba to do whatever he likes, if the Olubadan decide that, that is what he want, it is not the government that will decide that one for us, it is not Oyo State government that will decide that one for us, the law if not the law of Oyo State, it is the declaration of Ibadanland. “Yes. It is not their job”.
On Adio commission which many believed was set up by Ladoja, the former governor said, “I told you, governors are very busy, when I was governor, I know how busy I used to be, governors are very busy, so they cannot go to the nighety gritty of things, I did not start the Adio commission, it was my brother Alhaji Lam Adesina that set up the Adio commission, yes, it was not me, I saw the document but it was not useful to me, so I did not implement it. I saw the report, it was mainly about relationship between one Oba and the other, particularly as it concerns House of Chiefs. And it is not only that time, it was a creation of who is going to be the president of house of chiefs, so that is mainly what is there. If you looked at it, the area that was amended was this one is going to be rotational presidency particularly during the time we are once with Osun. The Ooni of Ife was the chairman, the Olubadan of Ibadanland, the Alaafin of Oyo, Soun of Ogbomoso and I think the Orangun of Ilaland, went to court to challenge why should it be the prerogative of the Ooni of Ile-Ife to be the permanent chairman, so they want it to be rotational chairmanship, so that is the chief law that was being attack, it was not the Olubadan, nobody has ever talked about declaration because there was no need for it. There is hand of God in Ibadan chieftaincy”.
When asked if he will support Olubadan to have beaded crown, Ladoja said, “Leave that to us that is our internal Olubadan affairs. During the regime of my brother, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala when he wanted to give some Baales crowns and they went to court, and the case is still in the court, Oba Odugade took the case to court, his contention is that it is not the responsibility of the Oyo State government to dash out crowns, if we are going to crown anybody, it is we the Ibadan people.
“It was done in Ijebuland, Kabiyesi Awujale crowned many of the small, small Obas, it does not make them the king, but is the Obas that did that of Ife in Osun State, it not the government of Ogun state that did that of Ijebu, so why should the government come and interfere in our own thing, is it because we are the capital.
“Like it told you, it is not there responsibility. If that is going to be, we are the one to do that, we are the one to determine that, the Olubadan.
“Seven of us agreed to go to court, they all backed out on reasons best know to them.
“The people who are suppose to advice him (the governor) are suppose to advice him not to do it because it is not their job”.
On the issue of LAUTECH, FundLAUTECH, state of education in the state, Ibadan Circular Road and other sundry issues in the state, Chief Ladoja said, “I was asked to speak with power that be to ensure the university is opened.
“They came to me that they wanted to raise 1 billion naira in 90 days, if that is the solution to the problem, then what is wrong with my contribution to the project?
“And they told me that they will use the money after the problem has been solved, they will use it to build an ICT centre. As at that time when I was governor, the university was the first state university and number 5 in Nigeria.
“This crisis would not have happened during my time. I said during my own time the university was the best state university and number 5.
“We decided to put education first, that is a question of choosing priority.
“Only God knows who will become Olubadan, the Olubadan was number 3, we have the Otun and the Balogun, within on month, God took them. My politics is not confrontational and I don’t attack anybody. The governor knows what I did to his government in 2011. We are not in alliance, he appealed to us and we sat down and they said okey I will give you 20 percent and he did not leave up to his promise.
“I am not claiming the Ibadan circular road, that is the truth, we did it. Let us give honour to whom is due. It is in the archive.
“You are not a member of my party, who said so, I am not running a feudalism party, I am running a party the way it can be run. There re three parties in Oyo State. When you go to a state, you will look at the parties that are in the house of assembly. We have the Accord, APC and Labour.
When asked whether he will run for governorship in 2019, Ladoja said “Who told you that I will be alive in 2019, I have to weight my option. I have contested two times and lost, what else will I do. Why should we be in alliance with any party, if anyone approach us and I think the idea is good with us, we are opened.
Ladoja while making reference to purported endorsement of the chieftaincy review by some people, Ladoja said most of those who supported the move were misinformed.
“I believes the chiefs are misinformed, I told them that out of 8 people, we have only two Ibadan and they said they will add more, it means that they know they are in fault.
He said he is not against the government but, he will not support anti people policies.
“The elections are over, I don’t want anything that will distract the governor, I told them that they have priority, they have many things to do. I told them that they should not dabble into Ibadan Chieftaincy issue.
On whether he will support the call for restructuring of the country.
Ladoja said, “I was lucky to be a member of the conference and I said I am in support of restructuring. That the state will have more powers.
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