Dr Ajibade Adeladan, one of the frontline Princes who wants to be the next Alaafin of Oyo has called for unity among traditional rulers in Yorubaland and Nigeria.
Adeladan who is a Us-based medical practitioner said there must be unity among the Obas to pave way for even and accelerated development of their domains.
He said this while speaking with journalists last week in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
His words: “It is a big thing I’ve been thinking about that actually I’ve been working on, if you look at Oyo now there are some other towns in Oyo like Awe, Fiditi, Ilora, Afijio all these towns, settlements or areas are part of Oyo. You remember that the Oyo Empire extended from the river Niger in the North to the Atlantic ocean in Lagos that was the extent. So, even Oyo as it is now, the surrounding areas that are purely modern Oyo people – Awe and all that – so there has to be interactions.
“Alaafin as the head needs to be meeting with the heads of those places, they need to meet, they need to sit down and talk about how culture can be promoted, how the whole place can be developed, before you know on when development starts the whole place will just be like one place, the land between Fiditi will be occupied, there will be factories and so you will not be able to tell is this Oyo or is this Fiditi.
“All of those things, with time, will all be one city, one city in terms of when development starts. There has to be unity and this is why I am talking about meeting with people – the heads of those places – letting people speak out their minds about what has been wrong and what has not been done well, what has been problematic in the past? And what has been preventing people from coming to develop the place? Who is standing against the development of those places?
“So we need to sit and talk about those things that are the unity part. There are some other facets that we will be looking at if we can be united in Oyo then the whole of Oyo state can be united then the whole of Yoruba land.”
Adeladan also said that mounting the throne of his forefathers will be a dream fulfilled adding that he is the most eminently qualified for the stool.
As one of the 65 candidates cleared for the throne, Dr Adeladan said the Alaafin throne should be occupied by a charismatic prince who has a good sense of history and a good reputation.
The prince, who is a psychiatrist, neurologist said his focus would be to elevate the status of the throne higher and transform the ancient town through medicare and agriculture.
