The apex Yoruba group, under the aegis of the Yoruba Council Worldwide, has stripped former President Olusegun Obasanjo of all the chieftaincy titles bestowed upon him in Yoruba land.
It is important to note that former President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered Yoruba monarchs to stand up for Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, during a ceremony in Ibadan.
This action did not sit well with the monarchs, who felt they were treated as ordinary “korofos” in khaki uniforms.
To express the anger of the Obas turned korofos, the apex body issued a statement, signed by Aare Oba Oladotun Hassan (the president) and Siyanbade Adekanmbi (the secretary) of the group, late on Wednesday, stripping former President Olusegun Obasanjo of all titles.
The statement reads as follows:
“The above subject matter refers.
The Yoruba Council Worldwide, as the apex Yoruba indigenous organization, has waited endlessly for your compliance with our earlier call for a sober apology press conference, as communicated through our widely circulated notice on September 16, 2023. In light of your brazen refusal to apologize, as well as your degrading and disparaging comments towards the Yoruba Obas on September 15, 2023, in Iseyin, Oyo State, we hereby declare that we no longer recognize any chieftaincy titles bestowed upon you by any monarchs in Yoruba Land, including the Balogun of Owu Kingdom. This is a total sacrilege.
“We have observed your disrespectful statements at the commissioning of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Iseyin campus, in which you commanded kings from Oyo State to stand up and accord you respect. This subsequent defense in Premium Times likened the arrays of first-class Royal Fathers and other leading Obas to toddlers or a village headmaster or an Army General talking profusely to his foot soldiers in a most depressing, disparaging, and disrespectful manner.
“We, as the leading vanguard voice for all Yoruba indigenous people globally, have an eternal duty to preserve the aesthetic distinct Omoluabi ethos, Royal stools, and ancestral customs and traditions of the Yoruba Obaship. This is why we demanded an immediate apology within three (3) days, which you deliberately ignored.
“We shall further commence strict legal action at a court of competent jurisdiction for defamation and scandalous libel accordingly.
“Furthermore, we shall mobilize all market women, youths, and leaders of thought for onward sanitization and compliance with our declaration forthwith. We have emphatically spoken!”
