My comment on Ajimobi’s ‘third term’ a joke, Olubadan declares

The Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji, has clarified that his comment asking Governor Abiola Ajimobi to contest for a third term was a joke.He made the clarification at the weekend when some Ibadan indigenes paid him homage at his Popoyemoja Palace.

The monarch had said at a meeting with the governor recently, that if he could amend the constitution, he would have recommended Ajimobi for a third term.According to him, what appears simple and straightforward could sometimes be pregnant with meanings.He added that only the discerning minds could understand the complexity in simplicity.

The Olubadan, in a statement by the Palace spokesperson, Adeola Oloko, however appealed to all aggrieved indigenes not to take the matter to their heart, but read more about the use of language, idioms and sarcasm.He said: “As a monarch, I have no power over the election and re-election of anybody, not to talk of tenure extension, which is unconstitutional.

“Besides, when I was exchanging banters with the governor, I was only cracking a joke with him as a son and subject. “Even if Ajimobi offended us, it would be indecorous on my part to address him harshly. Besides, there is a subsisting judgment over the controversial chieftaincy review, which awaits compliance.He explained that there were about four or five suits relating to the matter that have not been withdrawn from the courts.”

He denied ever receiving any gratification from Ajimobi or his proxies for cracking the third term joke, as being insinuated in some quarters.He stressed that if anybody has demonstrable evidence, he or she should feel free to produce it.

The first Vice President-General of the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes, (CCII), Dr. Lasisi Balogun, who represented the President-General, Yemi Soladoye, congratulated the monarch on his second coronation anniversary. He disclosed that the CCII was making remarkable progress in the protection of the ancient city’s boundaries, adding that work on the new Olubadan’s palace was expected to be complete as soon as more funds were available. He also solicited the creation of Ibadan State.