Apologise to Yoruba obas, Public Affairs Analysts ask Obasanjo

The National Association of Public Affairs Analysts (NAPAA) has called on former President Olusegun Obasanjo to tender an unreserved public apology to the traditional rulers, particularly those in Yorubaland, to ameliorate the consequences of the desecration of the race’s core values that his reported ridiculing of over a dozen monarchs last Friday in Iseyin, Oyo State, amounted to.

It would be recalled that ex-President Obasanjo, who was a guest of Governor Seyi Makinde at the ceremony to commission the College of Agriculture and Renewable Energy of Ladoke Akintola University (LAUTECH), located at Iseyin, Oke-Ogun area of the state, ordered the Obas, whom he observed did not stand up to honour himself and the Governor when they came into the venue, to do so and sit down in a manner that can be likened to a headmaster commanding primary school pupils or an Army general commanding his troop.

NAPAA made the call on Sunday in a statement by its president, Prince Seun Adelore, and General Secretary, Mr. Jare Ajayi, respectively, as it took exception to the way Obasanjo dressed down the monarchs.

The association submitted that desecration of the nation’s core values and traditions had contributed and was still contributing in no small measure to the under-development that the country had been experiencing even after it gained its independence, adding that most countries that had made it in the world were those that did not jettison their cultural values.

According to NAPAA, India, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Israel were among those countries, noting that though “some of these countries too were colonised at one time or another, espousing their traditional culture has been helping them tremendously, not only in sustenance but also uplifting their countries into the league of the advanced and respected nations.”

“In our own case, our political leaders and elites have derided our languages, our religion, our culture, and our traditional institutions.

The result has been the desecration of our values and the collapse of most of the fabrics that used to keep society on a sound moral ground where injustice and corruption were at a minimal level,” the group said.

NAPAA further noted that former President Obasanjo, who always liked to flaunt his espousal of culture by prostrating himself before some monarchs, wearing native dresses, and even speaking Egba dialect, allowed his ego to take the better part of him last Friday, wondering how a person who was known to have a lot of chieftaincy titles, including a high-ranking traditional title in Ibogun, Ogun State, could be so disdainful of Obas in Yorubaland.

“Otherwise, how can a person who is known to have a lot of chieftaincy titles, including a high-ranking traditional title in Ibogun, Ogun State, be so disdainful of Obas in Yorubaland?” the analysts queried.

“Going by how providence has been benevolent to the former president, including the knowledge he has acquired, Obasanjo ought to act and speak more honourably,” they counselled.

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