OPINION: Grading and Re-Grading of Traditional Chiefs in Kwara State. By Cornelius Adebayo

Date: 2002-09-30

By Cornelius Adebayo

My heart rejoices with Governor Mohammed Alabi Lawal over the fact that he finally reviewed the grading of Obas and Chiefs in Kwara State-which exercise he announced deservedly ceremoniously last week. For some of us, the exercise was well overdue and needn't have been so long in view of the wealth of studies by distinguished panels and landmark judicial decisions over the matter in the distant and ore recent past.



Let me preface my comments with an obvious observation that our Governor deserves commendation for his courage. The exercise is a landmark revolutionary step towards finally resolving a sore issue among the peoples of Kwara State.


Our governor has politicized his timing, priming the exercise to coincide with the heightening of the inter-and intra-party political combats hoping to gain maximum mileage for his rancorously advertised second term in office campaign.


Alas, no exercise of this nature can but give rise to gains and losses. And even if all our traditional rulers are graded first class (how much are they paid anyway?) the welfare level of the people can hardly be positively affected. Until all the citizens of the state have the feeling of being first class citizens, and all the zones, constituencies and wards feel the positive impact of government, even "concord class" grading of chiefs will be of minimal advantage especially if the principal beneficiaries of upgrading come from the same disproportionately favoured areas of the state.



Then there is the issue of carrot-dangling as relates to the determination of new 3rd class chiefs in an exercise over which the Governor tellingly invoked and gloating proclaimed the powers conferred (solely) on him. What is he waiting for? Vote for me and be graded? Huge joke!


We must congratulate the upgraded traditional rulers of Ilorin who are beginning to have the injustices of the past corrected. We can't however but notice that the strongest fort in the quantification of history substantially employed to support the review is the victory of the Balogun Ajikobi in court over his grading rights. He should logically be the first or major beneficiary of the upward review of his grading. His first class status needn't be honourary!



Our Governor is playing in this case, the clever mad man who grabs a hoe and piles the mounds between his own legs. The Afonjas deserve their rights in Ilorin and we congratulate the incumbent beneficiaries if this their son's largess but insist that others be given their due.



As for staff of office and insignia, we can dispense with what some of our people call "Fulani status symbol" and look forward to their appropriate coronation in true Yoruba tradition, to be performed of course by the Alafin of Oyo putting an end to a fabled curse and sealing a bitter chapter of Yoruba history.



Kabiyesi Mogaji Are, Kabiyesi Balogun Gambari, Kabiyesi Baba Isale, Kabiyesi Balogun Ajikobi!!! We look forward to their new royal tittles (Oruko Oye).



We are amazed that the defensible break-up of traditional Councils in Kwara, enabling each local Government to have its traditional Council is not extended to Ilorin Emirate. It is a fact of history that there is nothing sacrosanct about the Emirate: its boundary has continued to shrink and must of necessity shrink until it reflects the name it bears. Why not an Ilorin Emirate council, Moro Traditional Council, Asa Traditional Council since other parts of Kwara were at one time or another also part of Ilorin Emirate? There will be nothing peculiar to Ilorin Emirate in this regard, reviews in other parts of the more traditional north has been the emergence of new Emirate and Traditional Councils side by side with the older ones.



Now that the rankings of the Oba of Jebba and Ohoro of Shao have been restored- for they were previously graded-other obas in Moro who are in any case recognized and respected by the Moro Local Government and by their people should have their grading approved. Nor should Asa remain "rulerless" since autonomous indigenous Yoruba communities at Asa have their Obas and Bales. Recognition is a formality.


In any case I foresee a future where each traditional ruler will hold the status conferred on him by his people. No one is second in his own domain!


Now that every recognized traditional ruler in Nupe land is first class, how come the Local Governments embracing the Ekiti of Kwara State have no first class ruler whereas the quantification of history, a yardstick applied in Ilorin and elsewhere shows that Obas like the Owalobbo among others ranked high among beaded crown-wearing Ekiti Obas? Why shouldn't the Oloro the paramount ruler in Oro whose complex of a dozen or so large cities each have its ruler be first class? Why shouldn't the Onigbin and other Isin Obasa be graded while the Olusin has first status? Why are the high chiefs of Offa not graded like those of Ilorin? Why should Etsu Tsaragi be first class and the Olupako of share 2nd class whereas they rule over a twin city occupied on one part by Nupes and the other-the bigger part- by the Yoruba?

Questions like these can be endless. Of course what this governor has done, future governors can and will review. The same powers conferred on him on his predecessor's will logically pass on to them (future governors). Power, except in the hands of the Almighty God, is transient.



I congratulate His Excellency, Governor Mohammed Alabi Lawal, on his daring revolutionary, epoch-making exploit. He has but a short time to complete the palaces under construction and to build new ones for those newly promoted. Some things can't wait!

 


Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Col. Adedipe     JUSUN     Tescom.kwarastate.gov.ng     Omoniyi     Olushola Saraki     Ministry Of Women Affairs And Social Development     Falokun-Oja     Ayinke Saka     Alimi Abdulrazaq     Umar Adelodun     Olateju Lukman     Ilesha Gwanara Road     Abdulbaqi Jimoh     IF-K     Valsolar Consortium     James Kolo     Dan Masanin     Mary Kemi Adeosun     Joshua Adeyemi Adimula     Olayinka Olaogun     Eghe Igbinehi     Oluwatoyin Lukman     Crystal Corner Shops     Muhammad Yahya     Okin Biscuit     AbdulGaniyu Kareem     Awodun     SARS     Babs Iwarere     PharmAccess Foundation     Aliyu Muyideen     Olatunde Olukoya     Bashir Badawi     Ilorin Muslim Community     Ayoade Akinnibosun     Kayode Alabi     Surajudeen Akanbi     MMWG     Sheikh Alimi     Sardauna     EFCC     Summit University     Veterinary Teaching Hospital     Afeyin-Olukuta     Timothy Akangbe     Alaiye     Biliaminu Aliu     Opobiyi     Moro     Countryside Emerging Leaders Fellowship     NULGE     Muhammadu Gobir     Olatunji Moronfoye     Azeez Bello     Ahmad Olayiwola Kamaldeen     Ile Arugbo     Ayeyemi Sulaiman     Afonja Descendants Union     Rihanat Ajia     Yakubu Mohammed Abdullahi     Towobola Abdulrahman Toyin     Abdulmumini Jawondo     Chief Imam Of Lafiagi     Rasaq Jimoh     Ezekiel Yissa Benjamin     Borgu     Amuda Bembe     Magaji Erubu     Yusuf Abdulraheem     Kola Shittu     Iponrin     Bashir Adigun     Oko-Erin     Voices Of Tomorrow     Moshood Kashimawo Abiola     Folorunsho Alao     Sunday Popo-Ola    

Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Igbaja     Saka Aleshinloye     Saidu Kawu     Ganiyu Taofiq     Wahab Egbewole     CCT     Ishola Balogun Fulani     Muritala Awodun     Ayeyemi Sulaiman     Busari Alabi Alausa     Ahmed Ayinla Jimoh     Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq     Kwara State Television     Modibo Kawu     Kuliyan Geri     Apaokagi     Olosi Of Osi     Michael Nzekwe     Dairo Kunle Paul     Kolo     Yunus Lawal     Eghe Igbinehin     Adesina Simon Sodiya     Ilorin East/South Federal Constituency     Yusuf A. Usman     Kwara State Pension Board     Victor Gbenga Yusuf     Owu Fall     Peter Amogbonjaye     Ghali Muhammed     CT Ayeni     Gobir Organization Foundation     Kolawole Bashirat     New Naira Notes     Tope Daramola     Yusuf Ali     Ilorin General Hospital     Galadiman Ngeri     Adaramaja     Aso Ofi     Garment Factory     Kamaldeen Gambari     Arinola Lawal     Aminat Ahmed     GGDSS Pakata     Jimoh Lambe Abdulkareem     Aisha Gobir     Majlis For Sadakah, Zakat And Waqf     Aliyu Salihu     Lanre Issa-Onilu     Yahya Mohammed     Ojuekun Sarumi     Olatunde Olukoya     Oba Sulaiman Asude     Kaosarah Adeyi     Abdullahi Samari     Yakubu Gobir     Naira Redesign     Alapado     Tsaragi/Share     Maigida     Lateef Fagbemi     Geri-Alimi Split Diamond Interchange     Tunde Mukaila Mustapha     Sardauna     Garba Ayodele Wahab     Aliyu Muhammad Saifudeen     Sulyman Abdulkareem     Bond     Javed Khan     TIC     Shagari     Mohammed Khadijat Kubura     Federal Road Maintenance Agency     Odolaye Aremu     Olatinwo     Gbadeyan Gbadura Yomi