… As Ibadan monarch promotes senior chiefs
The crisis trailing the 2017 Ibadan chieftaincy reform by former Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State may have been finally settled as some Ibadan chiefs accepted their elevation to the next ranks on Friday.
The Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Saliu Adetunji, promoted the five high chiefs at a ceremony held at his Popoyemoja palace in Ibadan.
The high chiefs, who attended the ceremony with their wives and extended family members, were received amid jokes and backslapping.
At the event, High Chief Tajudeen Ajibola was elevated from Osi Balogun to Otun Balogun; High Chief Lateef Gbadamosi Adebimpe moved from Asipa Balogun to Osi Balogun; High Chief Kolawole Adegbola from the rank of Ekerin Balogun to Asipa Balogun; Senior Chief John Isioye Dada was elevated from Abese Balogun to Ekerin Balogun, while Senior Chief Abiodun Agagagugu was promoted from Maye Balogun to Ekerin Balogun of Ibadanland.
A statement made available to journalists by Adeola Oloko, Director of Media and Publicity to the Olubadan on Sunday, said the two and half years deadlock over the chieftaincy promotion into the Olubadan-in-Council had been broken.
It said, “The decision to elevate the High Chiefs came on the heels of their recommendation by the Olubadan, the consenting and prescribed authority on all chieftaincy matters in Ibadanland, to Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, who approved the elevation via a letter dated December 12, 2019 and sent to Olubadan.
“At the impressive ceremony held at the palace were all but one high chief who was unavoidably absent, having sent an apology through his wife. In the Balogun line, only the Balogun of Ibadanland, High Chief Owolabi Olakulehin, was present at the meeting as those affected by the elevation fall into Balogun line.”
The statement noted that with this development, peace, which was elusive in the city since 2017 when the controversial chieftaincy reform was implemented, had returned to the Olubadan-in-Council.
It added, “All the vacant stools in the council have been filled. An elated Olubadan commended the Oyo State government, saying the high chiefs would soon be served their posting instructions into different local government traditional councils, where they would be representing the Olubadan.”
Earlier in an address during the ceremony on Friday, the Olubadan urged the people of Ibadan to respect the tradition of orderliness that distinguished the Ibadan chieftaincy system.
It stated that the court judgment that nullified the gazette of the promotion of the Ibadan high chiefs to obas was to set the record straight.
He charged the newly promoted chiefs not to relent in their commitment to the cause of Ibadan.
Speaking on behalf of others, the new Ekerin Balogun, Chief Isioye Dada, disclosed that the promotion came two years after the positions were vacant.
He said, “God makes everything beautiful at his own time. But for the crisis that rocked the Ibadan traditional system, the exercise would have long been held.”
He said the crisis could not be described as either good or bad because any of the conclusions would be subjective.
In keeping with the advice by the Olubadan, he said the chiefs would do everything within their capacity to advance the cause of the downtrodden in Ibadanland.
He stated, “It is a clarion call on people of means to think deeply on how to lift the underprivileged out of extreme poverty. It is by so doing that everyone can enjoy peace.
The inability of a hungry person makes him vulnerable to all forms of vices and precarious situation.”
The high chiefs in attendance on the occasion were the Otun Olubadan, Lekan Balogun; the Balogun of Ibadanland, Chief Owolabi Olakulehin; Osi-Olubadan, Sen. Rashidi Ladoja; Ashipa Olubadan, Eddy Oyewole; Ekerin Olubadan, Biodun Kola-Daisi, and Ekarun Olubadan, Hamidu Ajbade.
