As he marks his 80th birthday celebration, Oba Mohood Olalekan Ishola Balogun Alli, the 42nd Olubadan of Ibadanland in this interview with SOJI AJIBOLA, speaks on why all governorship candidates in Oyo State, irrespective of their political affiliations are his sons, expectations, the new central palace and other issues. Excerpts:
How do you feel attaining the age of 80 years?
I feel like 18. I feel good. I am thankful to God that it is so. I feel on top of the world.
What would you say has kept you till this time?
I have been very close to the elderly, even when I was not one of them. I competed against Chief Bola Ige in 1983 for the old Oyo State governorship poll. We became respecters of each other. I fell in love with him. We were supposed to be opponents. But we got on very well. He was much older than me. By 1986, I became the Mogaji of Ali-Iwo. So, it has been continuous but a gradual process since then, until I became the Olubadan in March this year. I have every reason to be grateful to God. I am also thankful to the media. We have remained very close since 1983. You know that before anybody becomes Olubadan, he would have clocked 90 years, or close to it. So, there is no any magic, except the grace of God.
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When you became the Mogaji of Ali-Iwo, you must have had a vision of what your palace will look like. During your coronation on March 11, 2022, it was said that you would be the first monarch to use the central palace which started many years ago, what is delaying its completion?
I am so happy and excited at the Olubadan palace efforts. The people that started it did not think about me. I did not know. But God is a wonderful God. He chooses what He does to all of us as human beings. So, I didn’t think about Olubadan palace. I didn’t think I would be Olubadan. I didn’t think I would be Mogaji Ali-Iwo. I was a young man, who was all over the place. When they said I should become the Mogaji of Ali-Iwo, I refused. I didn’t want it. A man who had children older than me was the first son of my father. It was he who was supposed to be the Mogaji of Ali-Iwo. He said he didn’t want it and that it was my turn. But I insisted that I didn’t want it. We were very close. I was like a son to him. I loved him very intensively and I know he loved me very intensively too.
I was politically very active around the time I became Mogaji in 1986. If there was anything that I had in mind, it was political and not traditional. So, when you talk about this new palace, I am grateful to God that it is happening in my time. I am thankful to journalists also because there is no way I can remove the hand of your profession from what has happened to me. It is your work. It is what you did. The media built me, you made me. Did you ever see me 10 years ago becoming Olubadan? Then, I didn’t see myself becoming Olubadan. Then, I was distant from the throne. I was thinking about governorship and presidency. God just came behind me and threw me up to be Olubadan. So, I remain relevant in public life and for other purposes too. God is a wonderful father.
On the completion of the Olubadan new palace, that is a question you should be asking the President-General of the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII) and people like that in public life. Recently, I went there to just look at the place. I was amazed with what I saw. It is as good as completed. I was not excited. I was just surprised that such things have been happening before our very nose. I know nothing about it and I would like to be the first occupant of it.
The lesson you can derive from my life and utterances is that we should leave everything to God. He is a wonderful father. Incidentally, I came to Ibadan in 1983 or so, when my father had competed for Ali-Iwo Mogajiship. He didn’t get it. The rule was that those who had done it should leave it for those who have not done it. My great grandfather was Mogaji and he rose to Abese Balogun in the very early 1940s. He died as Abese Balogun, which is four levels to the Olubadanship.
So, my father had his eyes on the Mogaji of Ali-Iwo so that he could be like his father. He didn’t get there. I did not know what it meant when my father competed for the Mogaji of Ali-Iwo. I was born at Railway Station in the Lalupon and Erunmu axis, my father failed to become Mogaji, though he was one of the most influential and richest among all the Ali-Iwo children. So, it is not wealth. It is just because my grandfather had done it before, and the other side had not done it. The other side presented a candidate, who was younger than my father, though they were age mates. I knew him as my uncle, and he and my father were very close. The other side won and reigned for about 40 years or so. Then, he died. He never became Olubadan. One person had also become Mogaji before me. In the controversy, my father’s first son ran against that other person. I was on my brother’s side naturally and sincerely.
When the man that got it then was to be removed alive, the whole of Ali-Iwo approached us and said we should produce a candidate. I suggested my father’s first son. But he said no and that he was too old. He said I should be the candidate. I said I didn’t want it. I never thought about it. He told me to shut up and that I would be the next Mogaji of Ali-Iwo. He loved me and I loved him. He was like my father.
However, I became Mogaji and the gradual Ibadan process began. I did not know it would happen, until I got to the level that people started recognising me as Olubadan chief. It was like a joke, and that was how I became Olubadan.
Do you have a near death experience and how did you get out of it?
If not for God, the devil did not mean well for me. In 1986, I drove a Peugeot 505 Evolution car towards Challenge in Ibadan. I was at a filling station and suddenly there was an armed robbery attack. The robbers shot at me directly. I felt that how would these robbers attempt my life like that. I tried to attack back. In the process, the guys ran away. As they were running, one of their guns dropped. I picked the gun to hit at them. But the gun did not respond. Something had happened to it when it fell down. Then, blood started gushing out. So, it was from that place that I was rushed to a particular hospital in Oke-Ado. Then, the doctors in the hospital phoned University College Hospital (UCH) that they had a very important personality that needed an emergency attention. I was taken to UCH, where I was admitted and the bullets were extracted. I was treated. I was in bed for two weeks or thereabouts then. But for God, the story would have been different.
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The majority of the 2023 governorship candidates in Oyo State hail from Ibadan and they are your sons. So, how have you been playing your fatherly role among all of them?
I was close to these my sons that you mentioned. I know all of them and I have always known all of them. I read social sciences. So, it was easy to foresee all of them as my brothers and sisters. It didn’t matter at all, what party you are, the town or city you hail from, not even if you are a non-Ibadan native. I was very close to Chief Bola Ige. He was an Ijesha man. I was also close to his deputy, S.M. Afolabi. We were opponents, though in the same party. At the appropriate time, the candidates will come together via a forum and I will tell them that the peace of Ibadanland and the peace of Oyo State is paramount. On no account should there be any form of altercation among them.
What legacy will you like to leave behind as Olubadan?
Unity, peace and progress for Ibadan town and its environs; the process began immediately I ascended the throne. One of the major problems that we have around this place is the issue of land grabbing. I put up a committee, comprising Mogajis and some influential people in the town that meet regularly to ensure that issues of land grabbing and all these things are settled traditionally to avoid the usual crisis being occasioned by land grabbing. So, I want to ensure the legacy of peace in Ibadan during my time and beyond.
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What is the relationship between you and Governor Seyi Makinde and then the palace and the government?
The governor was my candidate when he was running for the race. He was almost always in my house. I advised people in politics to work with him. So, I got on very well with him. He is like a son to me. I discovered that Femi, my first son, was his senior in school. He used to come here to play when they were in school. Femi reminded me of all those things, and he also didn’t hide it. So, he is my adopted son. I love him and I am sure he loves me for the part that I have played in his life. I have no reason not to love him. We don’t see often anymore. So, my definition of politics has to do with ideas, not enmity. Then, I get on well with the government. I don’t violate the laws of the land. I respect the laws of the land. Law is law, no matter who did it and who is enforcing it. I am a respecter of the laws of the land.
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