Oyo State Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde has said that there is no crisis in the Olubadan traditional stool ascension process following the demise of the late Olubadan of Ibadanland Oba Lekan Balogun just as he called on naysayers to desist from divisive statements.
Governor Makinde stated this when he received the Deputy Governor of the State, Barrister Adebayo Lawal and muslim dignitaries in the Omituntun 2.0 administration who came to pay him a visit in his residence after leaving the state muslim prayer ground.
The governor said there was greater tension before the ascension of the late Olubadan which was later resolved stressing that any issue emanating to the ascension to the Olubadan stool would be resolved without any rancor.
According to him, the Olubadan – in- council is yet to send an official letter to the state government on its decision on who is to ascend the throne saying that it is after the nomination by the council that he will approve or not approve who ascends the throne.
He assured that the government would make best decision in the interest of Ibadan land and Oyo state at large when the Ibadan in council finally made the nomination.
Governor Makinde who felicitated muslims in the state and across the world on the occasion of Eid-El-Fitr, called on muslim faithful in the state and beyond to maintain discipline as this is what the Ramadan is all about.
He said that the Ramadan period is a time to deny ones body of pleasure and worldly satisfaction in honor of Allah, adding that Muslim faithful have been able to successfully complete their fast due to discipline and enjoined them to uphold the virtue in all spheres of their lives.
Makinde said, “I use this opportunity to greet Muslim brothers and sisters and to wish all of us happy Eid-El-Fitr Celebration, one of the lessons of the Ramadan is discipline, because for that 30 days we disciplined our body, even though our body may be seeking for food but we say no we have to discipline the body.”
“So we have to imbibe the lessons of Ramadan in our daily life, we should use this experience in Ibadan at the heat today, those people hitherto maybe we had differences we are all together, we all united now, so it’s a new Oyo state that is evolving, so everybody is coming on board now, so for those that whose stock in trade is to look at things that divide us should look at something else to do.”
“Before I came in, they kept talking about Ibadan traditional system and all of that, and I said the Oba’s in council are yet to meet, to make their nomination and when they make it, it will come to me and I will either say yes or no, that hasn’t happened but our people focus on things that are dividing us, so I use this opportunity to say please let’s focus on things that will unite us.”
“And for the upcoming local government elections, our people should come out, it’s less than three weeks away and for those that will like to look at things that are negative, they did not conduct local government elections for seven years out of their eight years in office, we’ve done one and we’re doing another one, we are not allowing any gap, this thing was planned and we funded it because we want to assure that at that level of governance we take it as seriously as other levels.”
“Our people know the difference between the federal, state and local elections, they demonstrated it about a year ago, so I use this opportunity to wish you all happy Eid-El-Fitr.” Governor Makinde said.
Earlier in his speech the deputy Governor of Oyo state, Barrister Adebayo Lawal thanked the governor for the love he has been showing the Muslim community in the state since his ascension in 2019 stressing that the governor has done more for the Muslim community in the state, than any Muslim governor the state ever had.