Oyo State former governor, Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, seemed to have relegated his political ambition to that of becoming the Olubadan of Ibadan land.
The former Governor who holds the title of Otun Olubadan of Ibadan land made his ambition known in an interview recently.
Hear him: “When I set out to join the race to become the Olubadan of Ibadanland on October 1, 1993, I started focusing on how to become the Olubadan of Ibadaland and that is the only crown I want to wear.”
“I am not interested in any other crown apart from that of the Olubadan. I did not expect there would be an issue of ade pali (inferior crown made of cardboard) on the way. If I wanted that, I would have become Baale of Laleye, which is our village.”
“Those of us who are High Chiefs are advisers to the Olubadan and in the process, we are also learning. We are promoted from one rank to another and we are sent on errands by the Olubadan to represent him in places.”
“As Ekarun Olubadan, I was the acting chairman of Lagelu Local Government Traditional Council. After that, I became the Ekerin and was posted to Oluyole Local Government Traditional Council in the same capacity.”
“When I became Asipa, I was at Ibadan North-West and when I became the Osi Olubadan, I went to Ibadan South-West where I also served as acting chairman of the traditional council there.”
“Now, I am in Ibadan, South-East. You can see that I have covered five councils out of 11. We are supposed to be assisting the Olubadan. Look at Lagos, everybody knows that the white cap chiefs are superior to some obas in Lagos. So, it is not unique to Ibadan.”
“All of us know that it is God who chooses the Olubadan. In recent history, within one week, the Balogun and Otun Olubadan died. Their deaths paved the way for the immediate past Olubadan, the late Oba Saliu Adetunji.”
“It is God who decided that those people would not become Olubadan. So, we can assume that it is only God who will determine who will be Olubadan. So, I don’t know why people want to short-circuit the process.”
“I asked one of the people who are agitating to become obas why they wanted to become obas. He told me they went for a reception at University of Ibadan International Conference Centre and that three of them were in the front, representing the Olubadan and that when one oba from an obscure place in the state was coming from the back, they were asked to give way for the oba.”
“They were furious because they in their own right were qualified to become obas. Either we are right or wrong, we say in Ibadan that a Mogaji from Ibadan is bigger in status than an oba in other places.”
“But it is not in our tradition that high chiefs are made to become obas when they are already in line to become Olubadan. When Ibadan people started their kingship system, they chose a collegiate system where the Olubadan is the head.”
“I told them that the answer to them not being properly recognised is for us to have a very strong protocol unit under the Olubadan. If the protocol people had gone to the reception to tell the organisers that Olubadan would not be coming, but three of the high chiefs would be representing him, they would have reserved their seats and nobody would have asked them to clear the way for any oba.”
“If it is for any other reason, maybe the idea would have been welcomed. But for the reason they gave, it is not going to fly.”
“As regards going to court on this matter… If my right is not violated and what they have done is right, why should I go to court? If at the end of the day, what they do is not right, then any bona fide Ibadan person can go to court because every Ibadan person is a potential Olubadan.”
“You people are just speculating. Where is the source of the original information? The information at my own disposal, which was from the Osi Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oyewole, sent me a message that by 7th of July, the governor has accepted that they should start using their crowns.”
“This means they fixed the date themselves and asked the governor to give them permission to be using their crowns. He did not say the governor would come and crown them.”
“They had crowns from the days of Abiola Ajimobi and it was not the governor who took away their crowns. They willingly left the crowns. I have not read anything from government circles from what I have been reading so far. It is all speculation.”
“I think somebody is trying to fly a kite here to see whether they can drag me into the thing. Ladoja is not interested in wearing any other crown apart from that of Olubadan. The issue at stake is not the issue of crown, but that of hierarchy.”
“I did not have a crown at that time. You journalists are supposed to be doing investigative journalism. Find out the source of the story.”