As the curtain draws on this year’s Oranyan festival, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi on Friday played host to the Timi of Ede, Oba Muniru Adesola Lawal at his palace.
Fielding questions from journalists after hosting the monarch and his entourage, Oba Adeyemi described President Muhammadu Buhari as a beacon of hope for Africa.
He urged Nigerians not to be unnecessarily apprehensive about the present administration, saying the era of oligarchy and corruption-ridden governance has gone for good.
Alaafin said the good governance and accountability being witnessed presently in Nigeria is serving as a beacon of hope for the rest of West Africa in particular and Africa as a whole.
‘’Until recently, lack of transparency, probity, and accountability in Nigeria translates into a pandemic across the sub-region and the continent as a vacuum is created by the absence of effective Nigerian leadership. President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in 2015 was that of hope and transformation will translate into the beginning of a new renaissance in the sub-region and the whole of the African continent for a new democracy in which wanton corruption, abuse of power, lack of transparency in governance, deceit of the citizenry, ineptitude, ethnicity and impunity were orders of the day,’’ he said.
The monarch asserted that changing a government under whose the “mass of ordinary people were unnecessarily and needlessly burdened by pervasive corruption, deliberate oligarchic mismanagement of abundant natural resources,” was a feat worthy of emulation by other African countries.
‘’The track record of the President and his unassailable commitment to democratic processes since constitutional governance in Nigeria in1999 gives hope that under his leadership, Nigeria will once more instill the values of good and accountable governance not only in Nigeria but also in West African and the continent at large,” the Alaafin added.
