Ibadan monarch to High Chiefs: Your threat to remove me, a comedy
The Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji yesterday described the purported threat by 21 Ibadan High Chiefs elevated to kings to recommend him for removal as “an affront to the people of Ibadan and end-of-year entertainment programme.”
The High Chiefs, who the Oyo State governor, Abiola Ajimobi, had elevated this year to the position of beaded crown kings in Ibadanland, had on Monday given the Olubadan, the paramount traditional ruler of Ibadanland, a 21-day ultimatum of dethronement.
The new kings have described themselves as constituting the Ibadan Oba-in-Council. The monarch, in a statement issued by his Director (Media and Public Affairs), Adeola Oloko, said the so-called Obain-Council was unknown to the Oyo State Chieftaincy Laws and wondered how a group of educated individuals such as the High Chiefs could resort to what he maintained was an illegality by commenting on a matter before the court.
He urged the High Chiefs to wait until the determination of the case, which hearing continues today at the Oyo State High Court, Ibadan, in a suit the Olubadan had filed against the Oyo State government on the controversial chieftaincy review.
Oba Adetunji, who has pleaded with the court to take judicial notice of the “persistent contempt of court” on the matter before it by the defendants in recent times, opined that “if a scapegoat is not made of, at least, one or two culprits, there may be no end to court contempt.”
Commenting on an issue raised by the so-called Oba-in-Council, the Olubadan contended that the council in question, which comprises him and the high chiefs only, is basically an advisory council with no force of law, customs and traditions backing it.
Oba Adetunji, moreover, maintained that the baale (low-grade community leaders) whom the embattled high chiefs had added to their number to become 21, were not members of the Olubadan-inCouncil and, therefore, “should not be dressed in borrowed robes, as they have no power whatsoever over their lord.”
According to the traditional ruler, he, the “prescribed and appointing authority can promote and/or peg the promotion of a high chief” as long as he wished, but added that he did not contemplate such a decision as he did not see himself as an absolute monarch.
Oba Adetunji said there was no time that the embattled high chiefs were barred from attending palace activities, adding that they were the ones who spurned palace invitation in their “desperate rush for multiple crowns and cheap royalties.”
He expressed delight that despite the chiefs’ absence from official palace activities, he had been exercising his duties “without let or hindrance.”
He stated that even when the Olubadan palace was being “harassed and molested” in the city streets and called “unprintable names”, he had been doing well to calm down frayed nerves in order to guarantee the safety and security of the people.
Instead of stirring trouble, he said, he went to court to diffuse tension.
Oba Adetunji reminded the chiefs of a Yoruba proverb that says the okro can never outgrow its reaper, stressing a high chief can’t outgrow the king by threatening to recommend him for removal.
The statement read, “By custom and tradition, no Olubadan has been recommended for removal from office by any high chief or group of high chiefs at any time, and my own reign will not be an exception.
“We have received applications from families of about four of the embattled high chiefs asking for their immediate replacement. But we hope that, like the prodigal son, they would sooner than later renounce the unrecognized crowns and return to the warm embrace of their father as the palace door is perpetually open.
“The high chiefs are hereby advised to emulate high chiefs in other places, who are not wearing crowns but still earn the respect of their people for peace and progress to reign supreme in the land.”
He urged the high chiefs not to exercise fears yet, as their seats would not be declared vacant in the absence of a court verdict in his favour.