By Ade Adeloye, Ibadan
The official nomination of the new Olubadan of Ibadanland that was supposed to take place on Tuesday in the ancient City of Ibadan suffered a serious setback as the members of Olubadan in Council boycotted the meeting without giving reasons.
Out of the ten traditional rulers (now Obas ) outside the later Olubadan ,Oba Lekan Balogun and Olubadan designate ,Oba Iwolabi Olakulehin , 8 Obas boycotted yesterday’s meeting . The Otun Olubadan, High Chief Rasheed Adewolu Ladoja was the only attendee at the meeting.
Speaking to the Journalists at Mapo Hall, the venue of the meeting High Rasheed Ladoja , who is also the convener of the meeting by is position said that “other members of the Council said that the Olubadan -designate has not spoken to them, and that they are not able to ascertain his health condition whether he will be able to perform the roles of Olubadan or not. He is also supposed to be here. So, they want to make sure that he is ready and when he is ready, he will be able to talk to them. I will call the meeting anytime they are ready.”
It would be recalled that the former Olubadan, Oba Balogun died early this month, making the stool become vacant.
The Ibadan tradition stool is hierarchical, making the next High Chief in line between Otun and Balogun lines on rotational bases to automatically become the king.
By this arrangement, the Balogun of Ibadanland Oba Owolabi Olakulehin is the next king. Yesterday’s meeting was therefore called, just to ratify the nomination of Oba Olakulehin.
With this development, the installation of the next king may be a bit delayed, the council needs to nominate and ratify the next Olubadan and forward the resolution to the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde for prompt installation of the king.
