By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
Few minutes after 10 of the eleven Kingmakers in Ibadanland recommended High Chief Lekan Balogun to Governor Seyi Makinde as the Olubadan elect, a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Oyo state, Barrister Michael Folorunso Lana has faulted the recommendation.
Barrister Lana in a letter addressed to Governor Seyi Makinde said all the Ibadan High Chiefs elevated to beaded crown wearing Oba by the late Senator Abiola Ajimobi regime have no right to be part of the Kingmakers, ( Olubadan in Council)
In the letter dated January,5 2022, entitled, ” RE: INSTALLATION OF A NEW OLUBADAN OF IBADANLAND” , the former Attorney General stated that the Olubadan in Council ” consists of High Chiefs simply and not Oba/High Chief.”
According to the letter entitled, ,” RE: INSTALLATION OF A NEW OLUBADAN OF IBADANLAND”, ” the elevated High Chiefs have no right to recommend any person to your Excellency to be installed as the Olubadan “, and that ” such letter to you is void and can be challenged in court.”
The former Attorney General maintained that ” by law, these Obas have no right to be part of Olubadan-in-Council as that body consists of High Chiefs simply and not Oba/High Chief.”
” They therefore have no right to recommend any person to your Excellency to be installed as the Olubadan, such letter to you is void and can be challenged in court.”, he said
Barrister Lana added, ” Your Excellency needs to know that these same lawyers instituted Suit not on behalf of Chiefs but on behalf of Obas and the first Claimant is HIS Royal Highness, OBA SENATOR LEKAN BALOGUN so if they want to revert back to the customary law of Ibadan where only High Chiefs can become the Olubadan, why did they not sue simply in their capacity of High Chief?”
He stressed further, ” Your Excellency, their said letter deliberately omitted to state the intendment of the Obas in instituting Suit No.1/22/2020 which was to set aside the Terms of Settlement which nullified their instalment as Obas. In other words, they want to remain Obas”
” That being the case, where is it in the Olubadan Chieftaincy Declaration that an Oba/High Chief can be elevated to the position of Olubadan or any position under Olubadan? Lastly, the solicitors tried to make a distinction between two nomenclatures that have no bearing on the title of Obas illegally bestowed on their clients, i.e His Royal Majesty and Imperial Majesty.”
The former Attorney General said, ” I challenge them to show to your Excellency which law bestowed these nomenclatures on any Oba. A king is a king: what was created by law are their chieftaincies. Nowhere in any law is any Oba given the additional nomenclature.”
” Now, Your Excellency, it is in the public domain that because of the illegal conferment of Obaship on these chiefs, they started disregarding the authority of the Olubadan and they copiously disobeyed him even in death these Chiefs refused to pay condolence visit to his palace nor were they present at his burial contrary to the custom of Ibadanland.
” Your Excellency will note that under the Olubadan Chieftaincy Declaration of 1957, this is enough to disqualify them from ascending to the throne of Olubadan. That Declaration states inter alia thus:”Any chief from any of those embraced in proviso (a) above found guilty ……of disregard of or disrespect to the position or authority of the Olubadan… may not be eligible for nomination”.
Barrister Lana stressed,” I therefore urge your Excellency not to allow strangers to mislead your Excellency in further desecrating our tradition and custom. Your Excellency, as an Ibadan man, it behoves on you to get our tradition back.”
Part of the letter reads, : My attention has been drawn to the letter dated January 4, 2022 by some learned solicitors who claimed to be solicitors to the Olubadan in Council in response to my earlier letter to your Excellency dated January 3, 2022.
First, I know as a fact that they are not solicitors to the Olubadan in Council, rather they are solicitors to the High Chiefs who were made Obas by your predecessor and it was in that capacity that they instituted Suit No.1/22/2020. I know as a fact, that High Chief (Senator) Rashidi Ladoja is a bona fide member of the Olubadan in Council and at no time did that Council meet to appoint the said Solicitors, its counsel, to institute an action against High Chief (Senator) Ladoja or respond to my letter.
Secondly, I note that they stated in their letter that my said letter was ‘self-serving’. They seem to have forgotten that I am, unlike them, an indigene of Ibadan who has a say in the affairs of Ibadanland. I am not like them, who are not from Oyo State, not to talk of being from Ibadan. Thus it is of no moment to them, if they mis-advised their clients to dig deeper into the grave of illegality. They therefore have no qualms if Ibadan burns.
They argued that the right to the ascension to the stool of Olubadan cannot be eroded by the conferment of the right to wear beaded crowns because at no time was any of them installed the Olubadan. I have never seen any argument that is so fallacious. The question they failed to answer, is whether an Oba can again be elevated to an Oba or whether in their own various towns, being Yorubas, their chiefs have dual title of Oba and Chief at the same time. However, Your Excellency will note, that in order to cover-up the illegality, they conveniently did not mention that these High Chiefs have been elevated to Obas and that this elevation is the crux of Suit No.1/22/2020 which they instituted; they only refer to the right to wear beaded crown.
