Group cautions Ife elders against interfering in Ooni’s selection process

THE controversy surrounding the selection process of a new Ooni of Ife took a fresh dimension yesterday as a group, Ife Concerned Citizens (ICC), has faulted the call by Ife Elders Forum urging the Ife kingmakers to suspend further action on the selection process to fill the vacant stool.

The group noted that stoppage of the selection process as suggested by Ife elders was uncalled for, saying that it would amount to turning back the wheel of progress and undue elongation of the emergence of a new Ooni.

The Ife Elders Forum had in a resolution after its meeting asked the kingmakers to put on hold the selection process in view of the death of a prominent kingmaker of the town, the Obalufe of Ife, Oba Solomon Folorunso Omisakin and pending court cases on the stool expected to be settled out-of-court.

But addressing a press conference yesterday in Ile-Ife, spokesperson of the ICC, Mr. Leke Ijiyode, said the position of the Ife elders was tantamount to unnecessary interference in the traditional function of the kingmakers whose duty is to pick a suitable monarch for the town.

The group claimed the suspension of the process after the kingmakers had covered so much ground in their assignment was at variance with the expectation of majority of Ife indigenes and also amount to undue arrogation of traditional power to themselves by the elders.

The group, which urged the kingmakers to shun the advice by the elders and ensure due process and strict compliance with the 1980 Ife Chieftaincy Declaration in selection a new Ooni of Ife, alleged those who are disenchanted with the current Ife
Chieftaincy Declaration were behind the suspension idea, stressing that Ife tradition and custom did not confer any right on elders and Sookos on selection process of Ooni.

The group said: “The kingmakers following custom and tradition have asked the rightful ruling house to submit names of candidates in conformity with the zoning arrangement and the 1980 Ife Chieftaincy Declaration.”

“We have never heard in the history of this town where Council of Sookos sit and try to dictate to kingmakers how to select an Oba. Is it a convention or a norm for Council of Sookos to ascribe and arrogate to themselves powers they don’t have? Prosperity shall judge the actions of people who are trying to stand history on its head. It is time for Ifes and all stakeholders to question the motive of these traditional council of Sookos because it is not in tandem with hopes, aspirations and yearnings of Ifes.”

“We are patriotic stakeholders and we would exercise our rights as indigenes of Ile-Ife to defend and protect the sanctity of our traditional institutions, including the right of the traditional
kingmakers to choose whoever they have been directed by the deities to choose .The sacred duty of selecting an Ooni rests with the kingmakers and Isoros and on that point we stand.”

The group said the recent death of the Obalufe of Ife should not be used as an excuse to cause delay in selecting a new Ooni, pointing out that “from tradition and history that we have gathered, it is the Ooni that selects the new Obalufe and before the demise of Obalufe, we believe he was on the same page with all the kingmakers.”