BY AYO ESAN
FORMER Minister of Communications, Gen. Tajudeen Olanrewaju (retd), has described the recent step towards the review of the Lagos Obas & Chiefs Law (2015) as needless, saying it is apparently designed and engendered to achieve a secret agenda.
Olanrewaju, in a statement he issued on Tuesday, said this was a review too many.
He said, “These are really interesting times in Lagos today. Aberrations are springing up everywhere. All traditional norms are being broken. Nothing sacred again. A fringe, unknown character can spring up and be made a Baale or kinglet who has no ancestral connection with the land.
“This review of Obas & Chiefs Law touches our daily existence. It is one review too many. It is needless, unnecessary, repetitive, apparently designed, engendered to achieve a secret agenda.
“Our traditional institutions are the very pivot of our existence. They define our beginnings and our continuity. They characterise who we are.
“Our native laws and customs are facing stretching points and values and they may fade away gradually if we are not vigilant.”
Olanrewaju said there had been several review commissions in the past which had established clearly the norms, the dictates and practices of ancestral beginning.
He therefore asked, “Now, who is afraid of all these norms? And what’s more, what is the hurry? Why is this so important now?”
He said there were so many challenges confronting Lagos State, adding, “We are presently challenged with issues of insecurity, poverty, Covid, and sundry demands. The review of Obas and Chiefs Laws is hardly a necessity now.
“This untidy, unjust, puerile attempt to muddy up our Lagosian identity should be discarded forthwith. It is a no brainer. I urge all the Royal and the Ruling Houses to speak up and denounce this despicable attempt to rob them of their heritage. Enough is enough.”
