ITS PURE MADNESS TO INSTALL 75 TRADITIONAL RULERS IN ONE SWOOP, SAYS EGBA KINGMAKER, ALANI BANKOLE

It is recalled that, immediate past Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun at the tail end of his administration approved installation of seventy-five traditional rulers which cut across some sections of the State.

Penpushing further reports that, Bankole who is a traditional kingmaker in Egbaland, lamented that even in a community where the residents were less than 200, Amosun, allegedly, appointed an Oba there.

The father of former Speaker Dimeji Bankole, pointed out that as a Kingmaker, he has a duty to promote, protect and defend the sanctity and sacredness of the culture and traditions of Egba people, adding that the traditional precept is that if a community begins to experience growth in population, the Baale in such community is usually recommended for upgrading to an Oba by the Alake  to further drive development and enhance maintenance of peace

‘Can you imagine somebody upgrading and installing 75 Obas, Is that not madness? For instance, there is an Oba in my local government called the Oluga of Oluga, the population of that place is less than 200 and he installed an Oba there and we are talking about development’.

“What we agreed in Egbaland was that , whenever we have a town developing and the Baale can no more effectively control them, then we would recommend that such Baale be upgraded to an Oba’, he said. 

“But the question again is that, were many of these Oba-elect Baales before they were installed as Obas? In fact so many of them do not live in the town, all they are interested in is to sell the lands in the communities to foreigners and farmers from other parts of the country. That is one of the abnormalities the politicians brought to the system,” Bankole said.

The Seriki Jagunmolu of Egbaland, noted that in the present circumstance, some of the people appointed as coronet Obas, were never Baales(local chiefs),citing the recent experience of the State as a reason he would not support any call for restructuring that could confer enormous power to the States and Local Governments in the country

The Oluwo of Iporo Ake declared that should that happened, nobody would be able to tame or hold State Governors and Local Government Chairmen accountable, lamenting that in the last four or more years, the immediate past administration of Governor Amosun spent the State’s resources only on two  Local Governments at the expense of  18 others.