Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo is adamant despite backlash on him by the Yoruba Council Worldwide (YCW) and other groups to apologise for disrespecting the royal monarchs in Oyo State.
This is as the former president on Saturday described as fake, a purported video of him meeting with President Bola Tinubu and also seeking a job from the president during the 80th birthday reception of the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, in Abeokuta, on Thursday.
Recall that Obasanjo had on Friday at a public function in Iseyin, said “Please, please, all of you, the traditional rulers, I greet you. Thank you for your presence. But, let me say something. Anywhere there is a Governor or President, no traditional ruler, has to stand up and greet the governor or the President. Stand up, sit down.
Also read: Obasanjo orders Oyo monarchs to honour him by standing
“Please in the Yoruba land, we respect two things: age and position. The governor’s position is superior to that of any king in as much as he is a governor. When I was a president, I prostrated for kings openly. But indoors, the king would bow down for me. Let us respect our culture.”
The former president was the guest of Governor Makinde, to inaugurate the Iseyin Campus of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Renewable Natural Resources of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Iseyin.
But speaking Friday during a press conference held at the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Jabi, Abuja, the President of YCW, Oba Oladotun Hassan, called on the former president to apologise to the monarchs.
Hassan described Obasanjo’s directive that traditional rulers in Iseyin, Oyo State should stand up and greet him and Governor Seyi Makinde, as sacrilegious.
According to him, “The recent weeks have witnessed a barrage of monumental embarrassments, ridicules and brazen abuse of traditional royal Obas and most shocking to grasping with this well-intended orchestrated embarrassments by chief Olusegun Obasanjo who dropped the biggest bombshell taboo in the history of Yoruba land, perhaps most disturbing sacrilege in Iseyin, Oyo State when he addressed arrays of first-class royal fathers and other leading Obas like toddlers or a village headmaster or Army General talking profusely at his foot soldiers in a most depressing, disparaging and disrespectful manner.”
He urged Obasanjo to tender an immediate apology within the next three days or face untold traditional and legal reprisal consequences.
“Furthermore, we shall mobilise all market women, youths, and leaders of thoughts against the Baba Obasanjo for desecrating the Yoruba ancestral cultural heritage, norms, tradition, and values.
On this note, we wish to set the records straight that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is no longer the President of Nigeria, and he should stop parading himself deceitfully and impersonating or creating a scenario to command such ill-motivated authority.”
Meanwhile, the former president yesterday described as fake, a purported video of him meeting with President Bola Tinubu and also seeking a job from the president during the 80th birthday reception of the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, in Abeokuta, on Thursday.
In a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi, the former president condemned the fake video stating that the former President is now in South Africa for the burial of his friend and brother, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
The statement partly read: “One, I have not seen Bola Tinubu since he visited me in my house in Abeokuta when he was campaigning. Secondly, I was at the church and not the reception for Alake’s 80th birthday reception.”
“To put the content of the video in proper perspective, it happened that during Tinubu’s visit to his house last year, he met the former President playing his favorite traditional game (ayo) and he started the banter, jokingly telling the former President that, he was shocked to see him playing the ‘ayo’ game at that time of the day.”
Against this background, Taiwo, the wife of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo on Sunday asked for forgiveness from the Obas and Yoruba race over a recent action of her husband.
The development, however, has stirred reaction across the board with the likes of Yoruba Council Worldwide, the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrosheed Akanbi and others calling on Obasanjo to apologize within three days or face the consequences.
In a statement on Sunday, entitled “Oyo Kings: A plea for forgiveness”, Mrs Obasanjo who has two children – Olujonwo and Olubunmi – for the former president begged “for permanent and eternal forgiveness and pardon from all Yoruba sons and daughters worldwide, fathers and mothers, youths, teenagers and children, Christians, Muslims, traditional worshippers, all leaders in Yoruba land and the Council of Kings in Yoruba land.”
Noting that she was appealing with humility as a mother, she begged the aforementioned to not “avenge on any of us the misdeeds of Daddy Obasanjo.”
The statement reads, “This is my own personal stand on the manner Chief Olusegun Obasanjo addressed the Kings at Iseyin at the road commissioning by Governor Makinde of Oyo State on Friday 15th September 2023.
“As a legitimate member of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s family, l would like to state publicly worldwide and privately that the manner in which Daddy Obasanjo addressed the monarchs is not acceptable to God, to the Yoruba race and the throne of Kingship and it must not be repeated again by any leader in Yoruba land.
“Daddy Obasanjo should not have treated the kings with open contempt and humiliation in order to correct them and reveal their secret that they bow for him privately. It is not good at all. It is too humiliating.
“Protocols could have corrected them privately and respectfully, humbly with love and friendliness. The only person that is infallible is God. God Himself is known as the King of kings and mortals too speak up to God when there is a misunderstanding of His intent. An example was when God in annoyance wanted to destroy the Israelites in the wilderness, Moses had to speak up and beg God not to destroy them.
Another example was when Cain after killing his brother Abel, God pronounced terrible judgment on Cain but Cain pleaded with God that the punishment was too much and unbearable for him, that anyone who sees him will kill him. God listened to Cain’s appeal despite his horrible act of murdering his brother… etc
There are many examples in the Bible of men speaking up to God, but they spoke not in arrogance or self-justification but in humility and remorse. God Himself sent his priest to King David privately to correct him with respect for his error when he killed Bathsheba’s husband. God didn’t humiliate King David because of his error and because He is Almighty God, God still accorded respect and honour to a mortal king he created and crowned when he erred.
“Monarchy is an institution God Himself established before any political government came up to manage the affairs of men.
“I want to publicly state here that on behalf of the family, the children, the wives, the grandchildren and all members of the family of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, l am offering a big and genuine apology both spiritual and physical to all the kings of Oyo State, all the kings of Yoruba land and the entire Yoruba race both in Nigeria and Diaspora.
“Please, l beg for permanent and eternal forgiveness and pardon from all Yoruba sons and daughters worldwide, fathers and mothers, youths, teenagers and children, Christians, Muslims, traditional worshippers, all leaders in Yoruba land and the Council of Kings in Yoruba land. Please l humbly appeal with all humility don’t avenge on any of us the misdeeds of Daddy Obasanjo.
“I am a full Yoruba woman married to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for over 40 years and l have two children for him both male and female. I am a grandmother. I do not support the humiliating treatment of the kings of Oyo State by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
Let history bear my record that l came out to apologize to the Oyo kings and Yoruba land on behalf of the family of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo,” she appealed.
