Ooni: Obasanjo warns against appointing mediocre as successor

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday warned kingmakers in Ifeland not to appoint a mediocre as successor to the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade. Obasanjo, who gave the warning when he paid a condolence visit to Ife chiefs and Sijuwade’s cabinet members at the palace, said the stool should be occupied by a competent person with an outstanding pedigree.

He said this was important because the late monarch shoes would be too big to size just ordinary person. According to him, the late monarch had taken the seat of Ooni beyond Africa and that is why kingmakers in the land should be careful in choosing who occupies the throne.

“What to guide against is not to choose a wrong person for the stool because Ifes cannot go backward and I appeal to the kingmakers to allow God’s wisdom choose a rightful person in replacement of Oba Sijuwade.” “Ife symbolises the head of Yoruba race both in Nigeria and the Diaspora and that is why the person who occupies the stool is important to all Yorubas.” He described the late Ooni as the rally point for all traditional rulers in Yoruba land and maintained that, he would be missed by all and sundry.

The former president who also remarked that he was an international figure with impeccable character before he joined his ancestors charged the kingmakers, to do their assignment well in the selection of a new Ooni who he said should possess all what it takes to administer the people of the town.

He argued that the government of the town should not be in the hands of a mediocre that would not be able to differentiate from the right to left. The former president who argued that whosoever that would occupy the seat must be of high class by all standard, described Ooni’s seat as a significant one to Yoruba race. Obasanjo however called on all Yorubas to live in unison and promote inexplicable harmonious relationship among themselves.

He said Yoruba culture and tradition were enviable and respectable ones among others in the universe and charged all Yoruba-speaking people to do their best in preserving the norms which he described as second to none. The former president was received by the second- in-command to the late Ooni of Ife, Obalufe of Iremo Oba Folorunso Omisakin and Lowa Adimula of Ife, Oloye Joseph ijaodola among other chiefs in Ife.