How Makinde beat odds to install Senator Balogun as 42 Olubadan
11 March 2022 |
3:00 am
With the inauguration of Senator Lekan Balogun as the 42 Olubadan of Ibadan land today, Friday March 11, 2022, political observers across Oyo State believe that Governor Seyi Makinde,...
Oba Lekan Balogun
With the inauguration of Senator Lekan Balogun as the 42 Olubadan of Ibadan land today, Friday March 11, 2022, political observers across Oyo State believe that Governor Seyi Makinde, has successfully taken another step closer to achieving a second term in office, come 2023.
There is some assurance that if at all Makinde will confront any opposition, it is definitely not going to come from the traditional institution of Ibadan land.
Immediately the 41 Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Saliu Adetunji, died on January 2 2022, there was apprehension that the appointment of Adetuji’s successor might create serious problems for Makinde, considering the crisis that the elevation of Ibadan High Chiefs to the position of beaded crown-wearing king by former Governor Abiola Ajimobi, generated.
Observers believed that the repercussions of Ajimobi’s decision in tampering with the traditional institutional arrangements of Ibadan was part of the factors that caused the erstwhile ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Oyo State in the 2019 governorship election.
There was therefore the fear that Makinde, who was a benefactor of Ajimobi’s miscalculations will now face his own hard time to determine the next Olubadan.
Just immediately after Adetunji died, Balogun, who as at then the next in line of succession was relaxed among well wishes, who assumed that the stool was automatically his (Balogun).
Every other high chief in Ibadan, who benefited in Ajimobi’s kingship elevation aligned with Balogun, who was also a beneficiary, except former Governor Alhaji Rasheed Ladoja, who rejected Ajimobi’s beaded-crown.
While Balogun and other high chiefs (now crowned kings) and many citizens were looking up to another seamless succession of another Olubadan, expectedly in favour the former lawmaker, Chief Micheal Lana, an Ibadan based lawyer cautioned Makinde not to be in a hurry to install Senator Balogun as the new Olubadan of Ibadanland as replacement for Adetunji.
According to the rigidly followed chieftaincy hierarchy of Ibadanland, the 80-year-old Lekan Balogun is in line to succeed Oba Adetunji.
In a letter, Chief Lana said his advice was in view of the existence of a suit involving Sen. Balogun and the state government.
Lana, in a letter addressed to the governor; Prof. Oyelowo Oyewo (SAN), the state Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General and the state Ministry of Justice noted that the suit is still pending.
According to Lana, Balogun, expected to be the new Olubadan, went to court to upturn the consent judgment that set aside the gazettes, which recognised High Chiefs and Baales as Obas in Ibadanland.
The lawyer noted that the administration of the late Chief Abiola Ajimobi in 2017 conferred the title of Obaship on some High Chiefs and Baales, “thereby disrupting the smooth chieftaincy elevation of Ibadanland”.
Lana recalled that the right given to the chiefs to wear beaded crowns and coronets was challenged by High Chief Rashidi Ladoja, upon which the court nullified the said conferment.
He further explained that since the Olubadan Chieftaincy Declaration of 1957 was not amended, it, therefore, remained extant. Under the declaration, he said that no Oba could ascend to the throne of Olubadan.
“In other words, as long as the High Chiefs were still clinging to the title of Oba, they could not ascend to the throne.
“Any installation of any of them during the pendency of that suit is illegal, null and void,” he said.
Makinde’s opponents were therefore patiently waiting to see how the governor would overcome the challenge, more importantly, when it was considered that he would need the support of Ladoja, Balogun and the High Chiefs, in the next governorship election, which is close by.
The governor in his usual manner remained calm and calculative. The Guardian learnt that while the hullabaloo was ongoing, Makinde was consulting and negotiating underground with necessary stakeholders; but his political foes in the opposition and those within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were anxiously waiting to see how he will overcome the challenges.
After much furore, the Ibadan kingmakers on February 3, 2022, almost a month after Oba Adetunji’s death unanimously did a fresh nomination of Balogun, as next Olubadan of Ibadan land, following the withdrawal of suit challenging the consent judgment that nullified their elevation to beaded crown-wearing monarchs.
One of the salient interventions of Makinde was his admonition that the kingmakers to be united in their nomination as well as that the suit challenging the consent judgment should be withdrawn.
The governor also successfully engaged Chief Ladoja, who was perceived as a one-man-gang, which the High Chiefs were finding difficult to overcome.
And in what signified a unified front, Ladoja who was initially perceived as a clog to Balogun’s kingship realisation later moved the motion for the nomination of the erstwhile Senator as next Olubadan, which was supported by the Balogun of Ibadan land, High Chief Owolabi Olakulehin. Thanks to the deft moves by the governor, who used wisdom to navigate among the elders to achieve consensus, the installation is taking place today.
On February 14, 2022, Governor Makinde approved the appointment of Balogun as the 42nd Olubadan of Ibadanland. The approval followed a recommendation by the Olubadan-in-Council.
Balogun, a renowned technocrat, politician, and author started his primary education at CAC Modern School, Anlugbua, and lived with one of his brothers, late Hamzat Balogun, who was a civil servant but was studying privately for the General Certificate of Education, Ordinary Level (GCE O’L).
While he was also subscribing to Rapid Result College in the UK to enhance his performance in the examination, Lekan was secretly reading his brother’s correspondence tutorials, which became very helpful to him when he wrote his qualifying tests which was like ‘G4’ at the time.
While in the second year of the three-year modern school programme, he sat for the qualifying examination and passed. Therefore, he left school without completing the programme.
Armed with this certificate, he travelled to the United Kingdom where he studied for his O and A levels certificates while doing a part-time job to sustain himself- all under 18 years of age.
He left the university in 1973 with a Masters degree in Administration and Economics and had a brief stint with the Lamberth Local Government Social Services Department where he worked for one and a half years after which his academic inclination took the better of him and he enrolled for his PhD.
In 1973, he resumed as a research fellow at ABU Centre for Social and Economic Research and also had the option of working as a lecturer at the University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University but he chose ABU instead because of the desire to relate with other people away from his birthplace and to know their cultures and traditions.
It was during his sojourn in the UK that Lekan developed the white-black consciousness, which crystallised into activism and the struggle for human rights. To give vent to his passion, he joined the leftist Marxist movement.
He joined politics in 1978 and his charisma, and gallantry saw him climbing the political ladder with ease and grace that eventually accorded him the respect and recognition of the political overlords of Oyo State.
The new Olubadan has said his vision is to make Ibadan land a greater African city, promising to give his best to the city towards making the ancient city a metropolis everybody would be proud of.
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