Rotate Oyo obaship council chair, says Ibadan group
From Tunji Omofoye, Ibadan
THE apex socio-cultural, economic and political association in Ibadan, the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII), has called for a review of the current constitution of the Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs.
The proposed review is to make the council's chairmanship rotational among three first-class traditional rulers in the state.
The CCII faulted the idea of the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi (III), as the permanent chairman, suggesting instead that the office should be rotated among the Alaafin, the Olubadan of Ibadan and the Soun of Ogbomoso.
The development has reopened fresh controversy over supremacy among traditional rulers in Yorubaland as witnessed between the Alaafin and the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade in the old Oyo State.
Addressing reporters in Ibadan the National President of the CCII, Chief Bode Amao, said it was absurd and amounted to flagrant disregard of culture, traditional and historical antecedents for the Alaafin to occupy the chairmanship on a permanent basis.
According to him, the Alaafin is in no way superior to the Olubadan of Ibadan and that the people of Ibadan can no longer fold their arms and watch their Oba face the indignity of serving as vice chairman on rotational basis in council meetings.
His words: "It will be in the interest of peace, harmony, fair play and justice that the chairmanship of the Council of Obas and Chiefs in Oyo State be revisited.
"Government should restore the only acceptable principle of rotation of chairmanship among the Alaafin of Oyo, the Olubadan of Ibadan and the Soun of Ogbomoso, with specific tenure of two years each."
Amao, who led other prominent citizens of Ibadan, including the representatives of the Olubadan, traced the history of rotational chairmanship to the 1937 conference of Obas.
He said the arrangement "not only guaranteed harmony among the royal fathers but it totally removed any acrimony, suspicion and tension which a tag of seniority or supremacy could have conferred on any particular Oba.
"This was the position until the obviously controversial change came with the Oyo State Gazette No. 27, Vol. 26 of July 16, 2001, which carried the view of the military government of Col. Ike Nwosu on the 1995 White Paper on Chieftaincies and Powers of Prescribed Authorities. The paper approved that the Alaafin of Oyo be made the permanent chairman of the council...
"Our demand is that the government should revert to the rotational arrangement contained in Amendment Edict 6 of October 30, 1991 published in Oyo State extra-ordinary Gazette No. 45, Vol. 16 of 1991. Anything to the contrary is arbitrary, ill-advised, unfair, unjust and against all historical reality and values of the Yoruba race and therefore unacceptable to the generality of Ibadan people," he added.
The CCII national president, while disclosing that a petition on the matter had already been forwarded to Governor Rashidi Ladoja of Oyo State, recalled that when the then government wanted to appoint the Ooni of Ife as permanent chairman under the Old Oyo dispensation, the Alaafin, the Olubadan and the Soun of Ogbomoso went to court to challenge the action.
According to him, "while the legal battle was on, Osun State was created in 1991 and the legal tussle was discontinued because the object of litigation, the Ooni, was from Osun State while the plaintiffs remained in the new Oyo State."
Amao argued that it would be morally wrong for the Alaafin who had fought the Ooni on the issue of permanent chairmanship to now occupy the same office permanently, noting that the people of Ibadan would not accept the decision because "it is a misguided step which the history of the current Oyo State does not support."
