NEW TELEGRAPH
Olota of Ota in Ogun State, HRM Oba (Prof.) Adeyemi Obalanlege, commemorated his 5th Anniversary on the throne in May. His reign has heralded significant developments in Ota, evident throughout the historic town. In an exclusive interview with the Saturday Telegraph team, led by the Deputy Editor, ADEKUNLE SALAMI and including OLADIPUPO AWOJOBI and ADEYINKA ADENIJI, the current Olota of Ota candidly addresses issues impacting the town. Excerpts:
How has it been in over five years that you ascended to the throne as The Olota of Ota?
In over five years, obviously there were ups and downs, but In terms of developing Ota, we’ve done so much. If you go to the town centre, you will see Ansar-Ud-Deen Comprehensive High School and St. Michael Primary School, and what we have done there. We have about four or five other schools, which we have repaired.
You’ll see a lot of turnaround there. We have some regenerations, and we have a mini stadium within the school complex. We have built new halls, basketball courts, handball courts and there have been a lot of renovations within the last two years that made St. Michael Primary school to come first in the whole of Nigeria as the best public primary school. The award was given last year in Abuja.
Apart from that, the Presidency also built a skill acquisition centre, a storey building built on two plots of land near Iganmode Club at the back of Ambassador School off Idiroko Road to train our young ones. The construction of a new town hall of 1,000 capacity is ongoing along Itele Road by the Federal government as well.
Within the last five years, the palace was also built and also as you come into the palace you would see a community hall that was built by the presidency. In terms of development we are on course and more are expected this year. The office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was also built and it’s functioning.
It is located near the revenue office in Ota. If you look around the town, you’ll see different businesses springing up here and there, though there is recession, there is no recession here in Ota. There’s another big shopping Mall being built near Winners’ Chapel. With all these coming up, I believe we’re doing well.
I think there’s enough social life and nightlife in Ota and I can confirm Ota is safe if you look at the security network: the Nigerian police, Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Army, the civil defense, the vigilante, and our local hunters you’ll find out that to a high extent, we’re doing fine in terms of security except for the Ijoko area where we are having issues with cultists but the Sango DPO is on top of it and so also, the Kabiyesi Oni- joko of Ijoko.
As a communication expert, what is your view on fake news and the way rumours are spreading in the country?
To me, the only media we can trust is traditional media which is the News- papers, normal TV stations and radio stations but now that the issue of citizen journalism has taken another dimension due to technology, it is not all that comes your way that you believe otherwise you just fall for it.
Fake news is not only within the communication industry. If you look at the banking industry, if you want to go into your account there could be a fake website that’ll come up just to take away your details; it has eaten deep into so many areas of our lives.
There has to be a selective kind response, you don’t respond to everything you see positively, you should be able to determine whether something is fake, especially when you see that something is too generous and if you see a particular news story that is too good to be true then you need to check. Again, it has taken citizens to an area where they have to check whatever they consume in terms of news items. That is what technology has led us into.
Is it right for traditional rulers to stand up in public as a sign of respect for a governor or the president based on what happened in Oyo State recently?
It is not in our constitution that an Oba should stand up for somebody. If you stand up, you stand up out of courtesy. For me, I am not daring anybody but if I don’t feel like standing up, I should not be compelled, if not, I will go to court to affirm my rights. It is not written anywhere that this should happen, and I am not in a primary school where somebody will come and say “up stand”.
It is barbaric for anybody to say an Oba should stand up for a government official. In fact, I can assure you that I will use my juju to curse whoever tries it with me. One thing you need to understand is that when you become a traditional ruler, you are to uphold the culture and to lead your people in the right direction. Even when you look at the prime minister of the United Kingdom, when he comes to an event, people don’t have to stand up for him.
READ THE FULL INTERVIEW IN NEW TELEGRAPH
