Ladoja: I am the target but thousands of Ajimobi can’t stop me from becoming Olubadan if God wishes

“Governor Abiola Ajimobi should stop playing God. Thousands of Ajimobi can’t stop Ladoja from becoming the Olubadan, if it is the will of God. High Chief Ladoja believes that only God chooses the Olubadan as clearly demonstrated in the divine enthronement of the current Olubadan, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Saliu Adetunji, who was three steps to the throne. May God lengthen the years and reign of Oba Adetunji in sound health”.
With these words, former governor of Oyo State and Osi Olubadan of Ibadanland, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, on Tuesday, declared that the ‘illegalities’ perpetrated by Governor Abiola Ajimobi with the review of Ibadan Chieftaincy Declaration, culminating in the installation of 21 monarch-chiefs at Mapo Hall, Ibadan on Sunday, was clearly an action to stop him from becoming the Olubadan in the future.
He insisted that “Ajimobi has shown beyond reasonable doubt” that he is the prime target of the review of the Chieftaincy Law by asking him to either “join in the mockery of obaship and agree to be made a government-appointed oba” or forfeit his right to the throne.
Ladoja, who spoke through his media aide, Alhaji Lanre Latinwo, said he remained the Osi Olubadan of Ibadanland and would neither agree to being a government-appointed oba with no domain, chiefs and subjects nor “support any attempt at desecrating the Olubadan throne.”
Latinwo, in a statement, said: “We will like to make it abundantly clear that thousands of Ajimobi can’t stop Ladoja from becoming the Olubadan, if it is the will of God.
“People continue to ask the question why the mockery of obaship in Ibadanland is the most important thing to Ajimobi of all the challenges facing his government. It is now clear that Ajimobi has found in this futile exercise, a distraction from his six years of misgovernment in the state.
“Ajimobi is using temporary executive power for ego trip and feels that he is humiliating perceived enemies and also playing God. Why should the governor turn himself into a kingmaker, ignoring the long-established peaceful, self-reforming chieftaincy system of Ibadanland that has become the envy of many cities because it is rancour-free?
“Today, August 29, 2017 makes it exactly 21 months to the expiry of Ajimobi’s governorship. The state will surely be freed from the stranglehold of the Emperor and the office will outlive the officer. Very soon, Ajimobi’s portrait will join those of ex-governors hung on the wall of the Executive Council Chambers. Whatever has a beginning must surely have an end.
“Again, we will like to appeal to the people of Ibadanland to remain calm and peaceful, even in the face of provocation, as this misuse of power, pursuit of vendetta and bastardisation of a rancour-free process will be challenged to the end through constitutional and peaceful means.
“High Chief Ladoja is already in court over the matter and we await a judicial pronouncement on it soon. Ajimobi that set up a panel disregarding Ibadan traditional system, received its report and interpreted its recommendations to suit his selfish agenda against the popular wish of the people of Ibadan and the Olubadan. This is laughable.
“Without recourse to the state House of Assembly which has the constitutional duty to make or amend laws, he has appropriated legislative function and added such to his executive role. This charade can’t obviously pass a judicial challenge.
“We ask him to enjoy the remaining months of his governorship while it lasts,” the statement added, “we wish to remind him that he has booked an unenviable chapter for himself in the annals of the history of Ibadan and posterity will be the judge him.”
In a related development, the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII), on Tuesday, said 90 per cent of Ibadan indigenes worldwide supported the Ibadan Chieftaincy Review.
Chief Yemi Soladoye, the President-General of the body, said that the council had watched with caution, the public reactions to the series of social media misinformation that greeted the recent review of the Olubadan Chieftaincy System.
“For the avoidance of any doubt, the CCII wishes to confirm that the change that has just taken place was desired, initiated, supported, applauded and appreciated by the generality of Ibadan indigenes worldwide.
“We wish to reiterate that constant changes and reviews are in fact the ingredients that have sustained our well-organised and rancourless ascension to the throne of Olubadan of Ibadanland,’’ he said.
Soladoye said that CCII had made it clear to the state government, through its representatives on the committee, that nothing should affect the supremacy of the authority of Olubadan of Ibadanland.
He said that the ugly by-product of Ibadan’s unique, peaceful and enviable traditional democracy is the continuous ascension to the throne of Olubadan at ages too close to the end of their lives.
“In the last 20 months, we have lost five members of the Olubadan-in-Council including eminent personalities,’’ the council president said.
He also raised issues on the preservation of the hierarchical nature of ascension to the throne of Olubadan of Ibadanland, saying that it must remain sacrosanct.
According to him, the coronation of the new obas has achieved our desired end-state and also preserves what matters most to us.
“The authentic version of what happened in Ibadan on Sunday, August 27 has settled our request on the review.
“Nobody has created any new ruling houses; every bonafide Ibadan indigene still has the right to aspire to become Olubadan.
“The former High Chiefs can now physically carry the authority of the Olubadan, work for development in their communities and create flamboyancy around the kabiyesi at public functions,’’ he said.
Soladoye said that since years immemorial, an Ibadan High Chief is graded as equivalent of a second class Oba in Oyo State in terms of salary and status; hence, there is no monumental increase in government expenditure.
The council president said that the review had helped to balance their salaries with their prestige.