DAILY POST
Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja is a former governor of Oyo State. He hosted journalists at his Ibadan Ondo street residence where he remarked that most of the issues President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is acting upon now had been discussed with his predecessor, Muhamadu Buhari but he (Buhari) turned a deaf ear. DAILY POST correspondent in Oyo state, Musliudeen Adebayo was at Ladoja’s residence when the Otun Olubadan of Ibadan land remarked that his ambition is to become Olubadan of Ibadan land. Excerpts.
Sallah celebration this year was held amid very bad economic situations in the country. What do you see about this?
Just as our Imam said at the Eid prayer ground, one year there was famine and another year there was abundance. With the new government in place in Nigeria, abundance will start coming. It may look difficult initially. But we all know difficult decisions have to be taken before we can expect succour at the end of it. So, to those of us who are still alive, please do not lose hope.
It means you are in support of some of the tough decisions taken so far by President Bola Tinubu, such as the removal of petrol subsidy and so on…
Yes, I am in support of the decisions made so far. All of us know there is the need for us to adjust and rejig Nigeria. It is even not a question of palliatives now. It is a question of how do we re-distribute wealth. So, it is not about giving five million people N5,000 each. The President promised to give a living wage to workers. This means he knows the workers are not earning a living wage. I am sure he knows what he is doing and by the grace of God, we will get there.
Most of what we blamed Buhari for was that he just turned a deaf ear to our complaints. Most of the complaints Tinubu is acting on now had already been raised with Buhari. The issue of [Abdulrasheed] Bawa, former EFCC chairman and [Godwin] Emefiele, suspended CBN governor was raised with Buhari. So, we can assume that Tinubu knows what he is doing. If we can take away a lot of corruption, there will be speedy progress. Tinubu does not need to police people. They will police themselves.
Now, for instance, we don’t need to police the borders on account of people taking subsidised petrol out of the country, as long as Nigeria is getting all the money that is due to it and there is no subsidy. It is for the Benin Republic to collect taxes from people who are bringing it into its country. Governance will be easy when you don’t need to police anything. Everything will become liberal and there will be competition that will force the price to come down.
Look at GSM when they started, the SIM was about N30,000. But now, they are even ready to give people free of charge. Once there is competition, things will get better and I am sure the president knows that, having come from the private sector.
There was a news item recently that you and 10 others are going to be promoted to crown-wearing obas from your current positions as High Chiefs…
I read the report and I don’t know why they made the report about me. They said 11 people were going to become obas; they should have led with the head of the 11 high chiefs which today is the Balogun of Ibadanland. Why did they say Ladoja and 10 others? Why didn’t they say Olakulehin and 10 others? I think there is some sort of mischief there. I want to say it again. Nothing has changed [from his position before out-of-court settlement in 2019]. People say you don’t mend what is not broken. I don’t think it is fair and right to have those of us who are High Chiefs become obas. Why? Who are we competing with?
When I set out to join the race to become the Olubadan of Ibadanland on October 1, 1993, I started focusing on how to become the Olubadan of Ibadaland and that is the only crown I want to wear. I am not interested in any other crown apart from that of the Olubadan. I did not expect there would be an issue of ade pali [inferior crown made of cardboard] on the way. If I wanted that, I would have become Baale of Laleye, which is our village.
Those of us who are High Chiefs are advisers to the Olubadan and in the process, we are also learning. We are promoted from one rank to another and we are sent on errands by the Olubadan to represent him in places. As Ekarun Olubadan, I was the acting chairman of Lagelu Local Government Traditional Council. After that, I became the Ekerin and was posted to Oluyole Local Government Traditional Council in the same capacity. When I became Asipa, I was at Ibadan North-West and when I became the Osi Olubadan, I went to Ibadan South-West where I also served as acting chairman of the traditional council there.
Now, I am in Ibadan, South-East. You can see that I have covered five councils out of 11. We are supposed to be assisting the Olubadan. Look at Lagos, everybody knows that the white cap chiefs are superior to some obas in Lagos. So, it is not unique to Ibadan.
All of us know that it is God who chooses the Olubadan. In recent history, within one week, the Balogun and Otun Olubadan died. Their deaths paved the way for the immediate past Olubadan, the late Oba Saliu Adetunji. It is God who decided that those people would not become Olubadan. So, we can assume that it is only God who will determine who will be Olubadan. So, I don’t know why people want to short-circuit the process.
