The traditional ruler of Iwoland, Oba Abdul-Rasheed Adewale Akanbi, Telu I, spoke with reporters in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, on the performance of Governor Gboyega Oyetola who was sworn in six months ago as the state’s fifth civilian governor, ADESOJI ADENIYI reports.
What is your assessment of the performance of Governor Oyetola in the last six months?
Since Oyetola came on the saddle, he has left no one in doubt about his commitment to good governance and passion for development. No one can mistake his disposition to good intention, except if you are watching him closely and observe his every step. Though he is not giving to too much talk, but his actions cannot be mistaken for someone who does not know what next to do or someone groping in the dark to find a way out of a logjam. With him as governor, I believe the future is very bright for Osun State. Since he assumed power, he has been trying to solidify the foundation laid by his predecessor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. In the area of infrastructure, the first thing he did was rehabilitation and maintenance of roads. Look at Iwo/Osogbo road, he has done some remedial work on it, pending the time full work will commence. The governor works with traditional rulers; he consults to know the needs and problems of the people. When he asked me about our own problem, I told him Iwo/Osogbo road is very important to us, because of its economic impact on our people and the state. You know what? He worked very hard in his first weeks in office to ensure he starts the process of fulfilling his campaign promises to the people. During this period, he went straight to Abuja and told the Federal Government that Iwo/Osogbo road needs to be fixed up. Being a federal road, he let them know the state does not have money to do it. His effort had paid off as the road is now approved. Today, the background work on the Iwo/Osogbo road is going on. They are doing the surface, the design and other things have also started.
But, there are allegations that he is slow…
That he doesn’t talk too much does not mean he does not have action. I admire his kind of leadership and I believe his administration is doing fine and the future is going to be great for Osun. You will soon start to see more positive signs, if you watch him closely. Oyetola is an upright leader, who matches his words with action. He is vibrant and diligent. I believe he is going to do well and better than his predecessor because that is our prayer that tomorrow should be better than today.
Osun has been bedeviled in recent times by security challenges, like kidnappings. What is your assessment of his performance in that regard?
The security challenge is not peculiar to Osun. It is even global. But, what we must begin to talk more about is finding solution to these challenges facing us as a people. Moreover, man is created to solve problems and make a change. Let me tell you, the capacity of any responsible leader is to demonstrate capacity to stand up to challenges and find solution to them. This is what Oyetola has exhibited substantially since he became the governor. First, he convened a security meeting with stakeholders, especially the monarch to have a first-hand information about security in their domain and also together find lasting solution to the problem. He has been able to identify the flash points and trouble spots in all parts of the state and he is working with security agencies to curtail this menace.
In the face of security challenges, how much collaboration does the government have with the traditional rulers?
Traditional rulers have a lot to do, because we are closer to the grassroots more than any other person as you observed. We know our communities we know who is coming in, we know who is going out. We have chiefs we and minor kings we call Baales. They are under us and they are in all these communities and they know what is going on. They brief us regularly about what is going on in the communities. This is a great structure to fight crimes. Oyetola is doing his best to relate well with us but I would want him to make more use of the natural structure provided by the traditional rulers to fight crimes. He has been very close to the grassroots and he is somebody that listens. He also demonstrates a good sense of judgment. After listening to you, he exercises his independence to analyze and come to the right conclusion on issues.
Are you not being partisan as a royal father, instead of being neutral as expected of your status?
It’s a lie that traditional rulers cannot be involved in politics. Traditional rulers must be involved. It has been like that from the time immemorial. May be people don’t know the history. From time immemorial when you see a government that is doing great, that’s doing good any government is in power must be supported by traditional rulers to make life better for their people. Monarchs should work with the government and no matter what. But if a traditional ruler is with the government the people will think oh, he is on that side of the government. No. A resourceful, a vibrant traditional ruler that sees a good governor, vibrant and visionary governor, a governor that is doing great you must be part of that government. Traditional rulers have been part of government since time immemorial during the time of the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Adesoji Aderemi. May God bless his soul! He was governor and Chief Ladoke Akintola was the premier of the Western region. The Oluwo was part of the government at that time as a minister without portfolio. So, I believe traditional ruler should be offered advisory roles or commissioners without portfolio which I believe they should be doing now.
Many see you as a controversial monarch. In less than four years on throne you have been involved in many issues within and outside Iwo and Osun State…
Like I’m just telling you now, that I work with government for what? I do so, for development, advancement and for a greater Iwo Kingdom. If I want good life for my people I have to work with the government. And I’m saying the truth. If you call me controversial, because am being truthful, so be it. I am being honest with myself and my people which it doesn’t actually happen in Africa. In Africa anybody that’s doing bad that is what they like. They like that follow-follow syndrome. They would want to say oh no! this is not how our father were doing it. Believe me, we are in a civilised age and that’s why we need change. Do you know why we are all born? We are all born to make a change while you’re on this earth. So when we bring change they see you as controversial. Today Iwo has been on the map and when Iwo is on the map the people are taking about Iwo. And that means there is advancement, there is significance. We have brought to Iwo today people know Iwo and when people know Iwo, they know where it is in Osun. Osun is going higher, Iwo is going higher and I keep saying it anybody that doesn’t want development are called anti-progrogress. There are many people who are anti development you may not be able to help those people because that is the way are.
With what happened in the Oluwo’s mosque recently, can let us know the status of the Oluwo on issues of spirituality and administration?
One thing is that ‘Bayi lanse ni ile, wa ewo i bomi ni’. People should know their own history, the history of your domain is different my domain. The history of my domain is that Oluwo is the spiritual leader, back to time immemorial, you will see that even political leaders, spiritual leader, monarchy leadership, traditional leadership everything, even chief security officer. All these duties are in hand of the traditional ruler because they will assess the performance of the King on the basis of how thing go right or wrong. The people would say oh, his time was not good or his time was good. Let me tell you the majority of Iwo people know that my time is great, my time is good. I got back the lost glory of Iwo. In our own Iwo, Islam everybody in Iwo, Iwo is 100 percent Muslims. There is no house that you will tell me that there is no Muslims there. If you see anybody that is a Christian now in Iwo that person only got converted. If that person is from Iwo proper that person converted, everybody has Muslims name in Iwo and the king is the one that brought Islam to Iwo over 400 years ago. The king was the first to build Mosque, the Mosque the is even part of the palace.
Kabiyesi, people say you fighting too many battles in many fronts…
I want to ask you something. Can some people come to your house right now and say they want to get in without your consent? Do you have the right to tell them to go back? And if there are many doors in your house you have the right to go and lock those doors and if anybody comes there you have the right call the police. Should you say because people want to fight you should leave your house for them?
In your view, what are the strong points of the Buhari administration, in the face of all the challenges facing Nigeria?
Let me tell you when you want to build a new house or a new nation in 21st Century, what do you do? In the 21st Century, if you were giving a responsibility to renovate an old house and along the line you discovered the foundation is weak and also found out some serious defects what do you do? You have to be painstaking, plan very well and get into your re-construction work with caution, because as you make amends somewhere there is every likelihood that there will be some cracks here and there. Nigeria is a project that must not fail, therefore, all of us need to support our leaders with prayers. Also, we have duties to perform as patriotic citizens, who have expectations from the government. That is why I organize prayers for our leaders. I did for Buhari, while he was sick. I did for Osinbajo. I have also organized prayer for Oyetola to succeed in his new assignment. Yes, the nation is facing serious challenges, particularly in the area of security but this is not something we can not surmount if we can work with government and lag our own roles too.