The Ogoga of Ikere Ekiti and Chairman, Ekiti State Council of Traditional rulers, Oba Adejimi Adu-Alagbado, in this interview with ABIODUN NEJO, speaks on 30 years of Ekiti State and the role that universities should play to tackle poverty. Excerpts:
You were a Master Mariner before you ascended the throne. Transitioning to become an Oba, how do you describe your early weeks on the throne?
I believe the journey of my life has been arranged by God. I was a captain at sea. When I left sea, I worked for ExxonMobil, and became the marine manager, that is, the manager for all the affiliates in Nigeria. To be a manager in ExxonMobil, you must know how to identify potentials of different groups and you must be a team player. So, knowing the weaknesses and the strengths of individuals and harnessing them to achieve company’s objective is very key. Also, integrity, because we believe in the mantra: ‘the means to an objective is as good as the objective itself’. So, looking back, I believe God actually took me through all these to train me. I am using the little experience and above all, the wisdom of God, to do what I do here.
Apart from being the Ogoga, you are chairman of the state traditional council, what changes have your tenure brought to Ikere Ekiti and Ekiti State?
I consider the issue of security is paramount. I am a team player. Before I became the chairman of council of obas, I was the chairman of its adhoc committee on security. It was our committee that conceived the idea that transformed into Amotekun. We did not call it Amotekun. We conceived the idea of having our own security outfit to keep the state safe and we advised the governor then that we didn’t want a situation where the criminals would hide in contiguous states. We advised that he should get in touch with other governors so that generally, Yorubaland would be safe. I guess that must have been what gave birth to the meeting in Ibadan, that year, where the six governors of Yorubaland met and later, they christened it Amotekun. As chairman, we have a standing committee for security. We have worked a lot, designing how we want things to be. I want to appreciate Ekiti State Governor Biodun Oyebanji. Without mincing words, he is a governor who listens and does what he says he will do. We advised the governor on the inadequacy as far as recruitment into Amotekun was concerned. He came to discuss with us in the Obas’ Chambers, and that gave birth to the Agro Marshal outfit, whereby majority of those recruited were nominated by the Obas who know their communities. We work with the governor, he listens to us and he acts. But for the incident that happened at Eda Oniyo, Ekiti State has been identified as the safest state in the country. We divide the 16 local governments into sectors, each sector contains clusters of towns that can be easily managed, that we can reach and respond to emergencies. The council also has a committee that attends to complains and grievances. Oftentimes, the government refers matters that border on community issues to us and we have a committee which I chair as the current chairman. We have resolved no fewer than four of such.
What is your stance on the demand that traditional rulers should have constitutional roles?
It is very unfortunate that, during the colonial period, foreigners came here, subjugated the existing system. They had queens and kings, yet they decided to call the Obas here chiefs. Obas are different from chiefs. Our politicians have capitalised on that. The situation is appalling. You call kings -the Obas- your father, but when you look at the position they put obas, it is very demeaning. In reality, in any community, it is the Oba that the people trust because of the tradition, the history and how the Oba came to be. They trust him, they know the Oba will not betray them, he is there for his own people. For instance on vaccine uptake, some individuals were reluctant, but when we intervened, told them the benefits, they easily complied. Obas are doing a lot, but not really recognized in the sense that the law gave traditional rulers no role. Everything should be backed by law. The best thing is for roles to be assigned to Obas in the constitution, afterall, we are already performing critical roles including Alternative Dispute Resolution. We have palace courts that cost nothing for people and people are happy. The people believe that the Oba will be fair to everybody because of the oath that he had taken in becoming an Oba. It is important President Bola Tinubu should look into that just as he had looked into autonomy of local governments and state police. Obas should not just be for decoration. Look at the calibre of people becoming kings these days – medical doctors, lawyers, retired judges, generals, professors etc. So, you have a reservoir of knowledge that you can tap into that will help society. I am hoping that President Tinubu and the National Assembly will look into it and do something that will give Obas roles constitutionally to be able to contribute more to the country’s progress.
How do you think the federal and state governments can tackle poverty in the country?
There is no country where there is no poverty. Here, basically, we are farmers, so let us invent. For the people who believe that technology will be transferred, there is no country that will transfer technology, you invent it yourself. There cannot be poverty if we work just like the Federal Government is doing to promote farming and encourage farmers. In the past, we were exporting our raw food, raw products without any addition, but necessity is the mother of invention. The people who invented planes were not given money by government for research. There can be research in our universities. The universities should be tasked – why is it that yams cannot last for long after harvesting? Can’t we prolong the lives of harvested yam or corns? These are part of ways to reduce poverty. There is the issue of the evil people terrorising the farms and scaring away people, but we can see that their activities are going down. As the security agencies are arresting them and the courts are sentencing them, let the authorities get to the root of their sponsors. Once that is done and our people go to farm, have new and modern tools to improve their yields, then we must challenge our universities on research. The Federal Government should give the universities of technology assignments to work on what yams or corns can become. These are ways to kill poverty. There is solution, all we need is to sit down, put heads together and plan. When we plan, we execute. Let us set target so that we can know where we are going. In Nigeria, we have everything that we need.
Ekiti State clocked 30 years on October 1, how has the state fared?
First of all, let me give kudos and appreciation to those individuals including, in particular, our Obas who fought, struggled and sacrificed for the creation of the state. After the creation, we have had administrators and governors. Honestly, each of them has done what he can based on their capacity and capabilities. We can see that we have made progress, for example, he network of roads in Ekiti. Again let me give kudos to the present government. The governor has touched roads in all local governments. This is not to say those before him did not do anything, of course, they did. Each of them had contributed based on their knowledge, experience and capacity. We have moved forward. Now, there is an airport in Ekiti and the number of tertiary institutions has increased. Ekiti is building human capacity. Ekiti is holding dear education to which it is renowned. In the past, we only trained teachers, we were the teachers all over the country, but now, we have engineers, doctors, lawyers, more importantly, technologists because the future belongs to those people who are vast in ICT. I commend each of the governors who had served in Ekiti. The current governor, Oyebanji, has raised the bar. He brings people together, no matter party differences, and it is easy for him to get advice and wisdom. That is a legacy that whoever is coming after the next four years must not forget, because it is in togetherness that we can make progress.
What are your task to youths of your domain, Ikere Ekiti, and the state?
There is a saying in Yoruba that we should not let the pursuit of money or wealth make us forget humanity. I am pleading with parents – good upbringing for children is key. You will spend your own time and leave, what are you going to leave behind, is it YahooYahoo son, 419 (advance free fraud) son? In reality, if a person brings sorrow to anybody for his own joy, the person can be sure that sorrow, with dividends, will come back to him. I am appealing to parents, look after your children, know what they are doing, do not encourage them to cheat or engage in any untoward activity. It does not pay, it is very costly. We are noted for education in Ekiti State. How can you want to stay in a room and become rich without working? God did not create it that way. I am happy and I want to thank the Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, for bringing EFCC office to the state and the operatives are working already. From what I hear, such crime is going down. I keep talking to our people, look at your family, your children, your wards, your relations and try to discourage them from doing evil because it will affect everybody.