Ibadan Chieftaincy: Leave Olubadan and the High Chiefs alone – Agoro to Ajimobi.
By; Bayo Akamo, Ibadan.
National Chairman of the National Action Council (NAC) and the patriarch of Aladura Churches worldwide, Dr Olapade Agoro yesterday said Governor Abiola Ajimobi lacked the power to ask for medical fitness of High Chief Rashidi Ladoja and 8 other Ibadan High Chiefs before they could be elevated by the Olubadan of Ibadanland.
Dr Agoro in a statement made available to journalists in Ibadan declared that with his recent steps, Governor Ajimobi is only meddling into an issue he ought not to have dabbled into.
According to Dr Agoro, there are several other issues on ground for Governor Ajimobi to attend to instead of looking for ways of causing distraction for his administration .
“Whereas, the people are expectantly waiting for the governor to roll out his policies on education, health care delivery, his numerous abandoned road projects, workers’ welfare through prompt payment of salaries and allowances and many more. The local government councils in the state have been in limbo for about a year now with people agitating for election into the legislative and executive arms of that tier of government, no cabinet formation well over six months after assumption of office among several other germane issues begging for the governor’s attention. So, one cannot but be worried when all these issues raised are there unattended to and our governor is asking for medical fitness of members of the traditional institution and if one may ask, fit for what? In what way or ways will that affect either the Ibadan people the High Chiefs preside over or his governance of the state?” he said.
The NAC leader pointed out that traditional matters could not be subjected to political vagaries hence the need for the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII), Ibadan Council of Elders as well as other stakeholders in the Ibadan project to call the governor to order before he brings not only the highly cherished Ibadan traditional system, but the entire Ibadan into disrepute.
He stressed that the inherent values in the Yoruba traditional system would be eroded by the kind of meddlesomeness being exhibited by Governor Ajimobi if not checked, saying, “how much of the real burning issues affecting the state has the governor really attended to since his second term victory in April and subsequent swearing-in last May”.
Dr Agoro stressed that the impression being created by Governor Ajimobi through this current zeal in Ibadan Chieftaincy Matters has been that of lack of enough to do.
