Opinions

Why Tinubu should restore traditional rulers’ pre-colonial honour

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2 years ago

By this time tomorrow, Monday, 29th May, 2023, Nigeria’s president-elect, Senator Bola Tinubu, God-willing, will be sworn-in as president and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We wish him and his team success in the task of moving the country forward.

Before its Independence on 1st October, 1960, from colonial rule by Britain, Nigeria, among others, suffered the subjugation of our tradition and culture by the imperialist Britain.

The most insultive was the order that our traditional rulers must obtain the permission of the colonial administrators for mundane duties such as visiting their neighbours.

History will never forget the undeserved insults suffered by the Alaafin Oyo Adeniran Adeyemi 11, King Jaja of Opobo, Emir Sanusi 1 of Sokoto, Oba Overanme of Benin, Odemo of Ishara etc, even after the British had left our shores!

Some of Nigerian leaders, politicians and military behaved rudely to and treated our paramount leaders worse than their predecessors.

But, with the in-coming Tinubu presidency, we pray all the due privileges, respect and honours will be returned to our traditional institutions. God Himself described traditional rulers as His representatives on earth. Little wonder Yoruba call them Igbakeji Orisa.

I am referring to God-ordained paramount rulers and not those forced on their subjects by fiat or political manipulations/financial inducements.

While I was serving the second of the four governors(one civilian and three military) of the old Oyo State (present-day Oyo and Osun states) as Press Secretary(1983 to 1989), I was lucky to attend the “Conference on the Role of Traditional Rulers in the Governance Of Nigeria” at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan from 11th to 14th September, 1984, much as I was equally privileged to represent, 30 years later, Kabiyesi Olubadan Samuel Odulana 1, at the annual National Conference of Nigerian Traditional Rulers, at Abuja in 2014. I was then a member of the Ibadan North Local Government Traditional Council. But, today I belong to the Ibadan South East Local Government Traditional Council.

At the Abuja 2014 meet, I enjoined that a clause be inserted in the constitution whereby traditional rulers will, as in the past, be members of Federal and State Executive Councils. This will enable them to be part of policy-making processes from inception to conception and finally implementation.

Rather than what obtains now, when traditional rulers are routinely visited by politicians and government officials, when elections draw near or for “support” on census, immunisation campaigns and so on.

In the almanac below, readers will get better insights into my postulations above viz the press release of the 31st August, 1984 signed by the then Military Governor of the state, then Lieutenant-Colonel Oladayo Popoola, whereby the then Ooni of Ife, the late Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse 11 was confined to Ile Ife for six months, as his friend and counterpart in Kano, the late Emir Ado Bayero was. Their offence?

Both traditional rulers had, without informing the Military Governors of their respective states, visited the state of Israel. Several times, the late Alaafin Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi 111, had praised God on behalf of my “Ori”(Creator)) that I wasn’t the signatory to that confinement press release.

Britain, as the world saw last month, during the coronation of King Charles 111, continues to uplift the reverence of her Queen/King, while many of her former colonies, Nigeria inclusive, still indulge in the subjugation of their paramount rulers and traditions, many times worse off than the former overlords.

God save our Obas, Obis, Ayamanabos, Attahs, Sultans, Sheus, Ezes, Emirs. Amen. A word for our paramount rulers though, please stay away from partisan politics and religious bigotry. As fathers, you are expected to be fair to all.