Tunde Sanni
30 August 2008
Ibadan — National Executive Council of Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) yesterday slammed a no-press-interview order on all monarchs in Yorubaland to enable the elders resolve the feud which has continued to threaten the unity and cohesion of the South-west people.
In a chat with newsmen after its monthly meeting in Ibadan, YCE Kwara State Chapter Chairman, Senator Suleiman Salawu, said the warning was essential in the interest of peace and stability in the land.
The warning might have aimed at the leading monarchs in Yorubaland, Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, and Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade who might have clashed recently over the title of Iyalode of Yorubaland, a title which was to be conferred on Chief (Mrs.) Alaba Lawson by Oyo monarch.
Media advertorials expressing a strong opposition to Oyo traditional ruler conferring the title on the businesswoman had forced Alaafin to withdraw from conferring the title last week in his Oyo kingdom.
However, YCE explained that it would be wrong for traditional rulers to wash their dirty linen in public and maintained that the differences among them would soon be a forgotten one, as efforts are being made by the YCE, the Afenifere and other groups to see that all of them are united.
The YCE also pointed out that the Federal Government had marginalised the Yorubas in the scheme of things in the federal civil service, calling on President Umaru Yar'Adua to correct all the anomalies.
The elders, who called on the government of Kwara State to immediately recognise the Mogaji Are of Ilorin as Oba Mogaji of the town, said that nobody is querying the obaship title of Emir of Ilorin.
Speaking on the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) being outlawed by the government, the group described OPC as a credible and disciplined entity, saying nobody has the right to scrap it, as the people formed it as an exercise of their fundamental human rights.
The YCE chief described the leaders of the OPC, Dr. Fredrick Fasheun and Comrade Gani Adams, as men of integrity and advised the group to be more organised and flush out the bad eggs among them.
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