AWUJALE
The Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, yesterday attacked the Alake of Egbaland for his classification of Yoruba obas.
He spoke in Lagos at the inaugural lecture to launch the Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona Professorial Chair in Governance at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye.
According to him, the Alake was wrong in his classification of Yoruba obas when he received the Ooni of Ife at his palace last month.
The Alake had said: “Ooni is one of the five principal obas in Yorubaland. The others are in order of the way they are classified on a supremacy basis. After the Ooni is the Alaafin of Oyo; after the Alaafin is the Oba of Benin; after the Oba of Benin, it comes to the Alake of Egbaland and the fifth and by no means the last or the least, is the Awujale of Ijebuland.”
But Oba Adetona, who gave the closing address, lashed out at the Egba monarch.
He said: “The first question to Alake is: who categorised the Yoruba obas and when? I challenge him to produce the document of the said categorisation.
“My advice to Alake is that he should contact Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for proper education so as to save himself and his people from further embarrassment.
“I hereby strongly admonish Alake to refrain from making such unsavoury, unguarded and
unfounded statements, which if not checked, may seriously jeopardise the unity of Yoruba obas and their people.”
unfounded statements, which if not checked, may seriously jeopardise the unity of Yoruba obas and their people.”
Speaking as a discussant, the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, said the woes of Nigeria’s impending social and economic recession are due to lack of “strong men with good character”, rather than lack of strong institutions.
The Kano Emir held that institutions can only be upheld by individuals who are strong in character and possess good moral upbringing.
He said: “No matter how strong an institution is if you put it in the hands of a wrong man, will he not destroy it? Are we spending as much time building human beings and character, screening them, as we are building these institutions?
“And we are placing very strong institutions in the hands of individuals whose actions can haunt and destroy the country.
“ What we are complaining about is- is it really the failure of the institutions or the failure of the character of the individuals and I am not just speaking of the leaders.
“ If the leaders ask you to do something immoral or illegal, are there not enough men to say ‘sorry sir, this is wrong’?”
The former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor faulted the existence of numerous public offices for which 80 per cent of government revenue is spent.
“With such structure, you are doomed to spend 80-90 per cent of all you earn maintaining public offices, leaving 20 per cent for the remaining 160 million Nigerians,” he said.
Prof Akin Mabogunje, who delivered the inaugural lecture, called for the kind of governance that would project the qualities of both a presidential and parliamentary system of government.
He said the parliamentary system where the individual performs before being noticed by society which in turn selects him to govern, coupled with grassroots democracy where town hall meetings are held in every town should be practiced in Nigeria to achieve desired results.
The Awujale, who donated N50 million, said the professorial chair intends to raise N500 million out of its initial target of N1 billion.
More than N400 million was raised at the launch.
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