If you are a fan of Abiola Ajimobi, please tell him to stop desecrating the office of the Governor. His cry to President Muhammadu Buhari during his visit to Aso Rock recently, was wrong in every sense. Why he had to report a chieftaincy matter to the President in a supposed federal system is hard to fathom. If he is really conscious of his power to depose the Olubadan of Ibadan, and if indeed the monarch had crossed the red line for deposition, he should go ahead and depose him.
I don’t want to imagine that his visit to Aso Rock was to seek approval or assistance from the President to do the ‘needful’. Apart from not being an Ibadan man, who could be persuaded to prevail on the Olubadan to toe the governor’s line in the ongoing chieftaincy imbroglio, asking the President to intervene in matters like this is a sure way of frustrating the call for the entrenchment of true federalism in Nigeria.
Besides, the matter is already in court. If the governor is sure of doing the right thing by altering the Olubadan’s ascendancy structure, he should wait for the court to give its verdict and explore all available legal avenues to prove his point. Rather than go to Aso Rock to report ‘his uncle’, is it not better to involve some reliable and influential elders in the clan?
Ajimobi is an Ibadan man like the Olubadan. President Buhari is not. Ajimobi is the sitting governor with the exclusive constitutional power to oversee chieftaincy matters within the state. So, what else does he want the President to do? Does he want the python to orchestrate its dance or a smile of the crocodile in his state?
– Jide Jegede,
Oregun, Lagos
