Obasanjo and Aregbesola meet on Orile-Owu chieftaincy tussle

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday visited Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola on the selection of the Olowu of Orile-Owu in Ayedade Local Government Area.
Obasanjo arrived at the Governor’s Office in Osogbo, the state capital, around 3pm.
He was accompanied by about 20 Owu indigenes, including the Secretary of the Owu Development Foundation, Prof. Gbolagade Ayoola, and other officers of the group.
Obasanjo said he was “flabbergasted and ambushed” by the reception he received from the Aregbesola administration.
Orile-Owu is believed to be the ancestral home of all Owu people in the country and the diaspora, and Obasanjo is the Balogun of the Owu Kingdom, which expands to Kwara, Osun and Ogun states.
Obasanjo said he was in the state at the instance of the Owu Foundation to provide a lasting and amicable solution to the chieftaincy crisis rocking the ancient town.
He told the governor that he met “an alarming situation” among the people of Orile-Owu in their attempt to select the next Olowu, after the tragic demise of the former Olowu, Oba Moses Adejobi.
Adejobi and his wife, Funmilayo, died in an accident on the Gbongan-Ibadan expressway on March 15, last year.
The former president lost his sense of humour during the visit, as the indigenes publicly disagreed among themselves.
Obasanjo said he had done his best by persuading the warring parties to give peace a chance, adding that he had no plan of imposing a candidate on them.
He said: “What I met was disturbing. I had to set up a committee to look into the issues raised by the aggrieved members of the town on the obaship tussle. I told the committee to make wide consultations and came to know that many of the aggrieved people wanted recognition.
“Before we came here this afternoon, I tried to talk to all of them. Where it was necessary to cajole, beg and prostrate for some people, I did, but I must say the matter is unfinished. So, we are still trying to make those affected agree and later make a recommendation to the state government for consideration and approval.”
Obasanjo unveiled the statue of the late Afenifere Leader and former Governor of the Old Oyo State, Chief Bola Ige, which was erected at the entrance of the Governor’s Office.
The Governor’s Office was named after the late former Attorney-General of the Federation by former Governor Adebisi Akande.
The statue of the late Ige was built by the Aregbesola administration in recognition of his contributions to the growth of democracy in Osun and the country.
Aregbesola, who led his deputy, Otunba Titi Laoye-Tomori; Secretary to the State Government Moshood Adeoti; Chief of Staff Gboyega Oyetola and the Acting State Chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Elder Adebiyi Adelowo and others to receive Obasanjo, praised the former president for intervening in the chieftaincy issue.
He said: “As a government, we have tried as much as possible to remove ourselves from obaship matters. We allow the process to be transparent and leave it in the hands of the communities involved.”
The governor urged the people of Orile-Owu not to misunderstand Obasanjo’s intervention as an attempt to impose a candidate on them.
Presenting the state’s flag and audio compact disks of the state anthem to Obasanjo, Aregbesola said: “We are still part of Nigeria and we will remain part of Nigeria, but we have the right to have our own Coat of Arms and anthem as a federating state in the country.”
Culled: The Nation