Labour Party Condemns Planned Amendment of Oyo State Chieftaincy Law

The Oyo State governorship candidate of the Labour Party in the State elections, Tawfiq Akinwale, has condemned the plans by Governor Seyi Makinde to amend the Oyo State Chieftaincy Law.

Akinwale, who spoke through his Press Secretary, Samuel Abodunrin, in a statement, on Monday, described the move as an imposition and an inherent evil.

He said the amendment to section 28, sub-section 1 of the Oyo State Chieftaincy Law, which seeks to grant autonomy to the governor to single-handedly decide who wears beaded crown, taking out the role of the Council of Traditional Rulers in the state, came as a rude shock and a display of dictatorial government.

The statement reads in part: “Reports have it that the move has already been approved on Friday, May 5, 2023, by the Oyo State Executive Council as a draft amendment of an executive bill and set for reading for the first time at the plenary of the Oyo State House of Assembly. This further corroborates the rumors in town about the demonic move.

“To set the records straight, the decision to determine who wears a beaded crown in the state is a very sensitive one and has been the responsibility of the Council of Obas and Chiefs (traditional stakeholders) to enable proper checks and balances necessary for the protection and sustenance of our traditional heritage while promoting peace and tranquillity in the State.”

Akinwale noted that the government had given the inability of the Council of Obas and Chiefs to meet for some time, which had led to the delay of the coronation and presentation of beaded crowns to some applicants, as the excuse for the proposed amendment, asserting that the excuse did not hold water and not enough to warrant such a big move that could tell on the value, sanity, and survival of the traditional system in the state sooner or later.

He suggested that the Council of Obas and Chiefs, through the Deputy Chairman, could instead call for the council’s meeting to sort out applicants in the absence of the Council Chairman (the late Alaafin of Oyo) pending the installation of a new Alaafin and Soun of Ogbomoso, among others.

Akinwale said: “The move to strike out the primary custodians of our tradition from such a crucial role is tantamount to the vulnerability of our traditional heritage. It is a move that will render our traditional rulers almost useless and further relegate them to the mercy of the government of the day.

“The moment politicians become legally empowered to decide things of traditional sacredness and heritage, then trouble looms. The implication of this is that a governor can decide to crown anyone from anywhere at any time without recourse to the traditional arrangement and stakeholders. Since it is a legal move anyone who kicks against that decision becomes a criminal.”

He called on citizens of the state to reject and stop the action which he said could take away the peace of the state and subject traditional rulers to become political beggars and also to prevent a situation whereby a governor, in the nearest future, would appoint a stranger as a king or chief in the state because he had the absolute power to do so.

Arguing that the sensitive role is crucial to the survival and sustenance of the traditional heritage and culture of the state and must not be left in the hands of any politician, Akinwale said the perversion of justice, fairness, and equity should not be allowed to take over the traditional system that has given the state peace so far.

“Conclusively, Governor Seyi Makinde must remember that this is a situation of ‘absolute power corrupts’. The governor should immediately drop this plan and take another route instead of endangering our peace, traditional unity, and heritage as a state,” he concluded.

N.O