The Oyo State government appointed a committee to oversee the coronation of Oba Owolabi Olakulehin, the 43rd Olubadan of Ibadan land, but the Association of Mogajis in Ibadan, Baales, and the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII) have all strongly opposed its composition.
The groups voiced their displeasure, asserting that the committee mostly consists of public officials and politicians, with very little representation from the royal family and traditional institutions. Leadership reportedly voiced reservations about the committee members' potential conflicts of interest.
Mogaji Asimiyu Ariori, General Secretary of the association, Mogaji Tunji Odugade, President of the association, and Mogaji Nurudeen Akinade, Coordinator of the Ibadan Compound Peace Initiative (ICPI), issued a statement casting doubt on the selection process that led to the committee's current membership.
The Olubadan, they stressed, is a political relic and should be returned to the people of Ibadan. To include representatives from the more conventional institution, they demanded that the state government alter the committee's make-up. "In the committee, CCII was not represented, Association of Mogajis of Ibadan land was not represented, the Baales are also not represented," said the group.
We rejected the committee, and sincerely hope His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde, will do the needful by ensuring that we have an all-inclusive committee befitting of His Imperial Majesty." An organized coronation, according to the groups, must begin with a committee that really reflects the will of the people of Ibadan.
Olubadan deserves a well-organised coronation, and this starts from a committee befitting the people of Ibadan land," according to them. Rather than being headed by the government, the Olubadan coronation committee has traditionally been headed by locals and the traditional institution.
They used Chief Theophilus Akinyele as an example; he oversaw the coronation of Oba Yunusa Bankole Ogundipe, a former Olubadan. "The state government was only invited to be a member of the committee, not that the state government will be championing committee for the coronation of an Olubadan," according to them.