From Bode Durojaiye, Oyo.
The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi 111, has advised politicians to desist from any further emotional outbursts, most of which has led to inter-ethnic hatred among various people, who have been living together peacefully for several years.
Oba Adeyemi gave the advice on Thursday while addressing a cross-section of residents, including traditional rulers and religious leaders who besieged the palace to felicitate with the monarch on his 43rd coronation.
The paramount ruler said “it is a bad omen that each time
there is a crisis of confidence among our political elite, the
territorial integrity and corporate existence of the country is
usually the pawn”.
He said each time there is crisis, it is better to proffer solutions based on justice and equality within the context of one united country, rather than the threat of disintegration.
‘’If our political actors know the extent of damage they do to the daily business and commercial activities of our down-trodden masses, who are scattered all over the country, through fear of insecurity and attendant threats to lives and properties, they would have desisted from the sporadic threats of secession or disintegration. Many Hausa or Fulanis who were born and bred in Yorubaland, where they have their
economic base, or the Yorubas whose entire lives had been spent in Enugu, have no other country than Nigeria to fall back to.’’
Oba Adeyemi recalled that the current clamour for disintegration is child’s play compared with the inclement political tide which the Yoruba directed towards Alaafin Atiba about the middle of the 19th Century.
“But the Alaafin was able to make a successful voyage through the violent ocean of political vicissitudes, employing the weapon of foresight, courage, patriotism and diplomacy, via the palace motto of justice and mercy, which remains till today. It does not matter that most of those
who had passed through the benevolence of justice and mercy of the Alaafin are today being haunted by Oyo phobia to the point of shallow-boxing in an imaginary battle with the Alaafin.’’
Oba Adeyemi further explained that “based on historically verified truism, areas of inequity such as revenue allocation formulae, power sharing strategy, manipulation of census figures designed to favour areas sparsely populated at the expense of densely inhabited areas, the so-called quota and federal character system, even after fifty four years of independence, the cut-off marks policy that favours one particular section of the country and at the same time
debars students of proven mental capability in the other section of the same country from gaining admissions into the universities are some of the salient issues agitating the minds of the people.’’
