FORMER Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) president Wole Olanipekun (SAN) has canvassed statutory role for monarchy in a democracy, saying it is vital to its survival.
Olanipekun, who is the National President of Ikere Development Forum (IDF), spoke in Lagos at the weekend during an IDF-organised Special Interactive Forum of Ikere-Ekiti people with the Ogoga of Ikere-Ekiti, Oba Samuel Adejimi Adu.
He argued for the celebration and preservation of the traditional kingship system, urging the Ogoga, who was installed last year, to brace to the task of leading a kingdom which has four SANs and over 70 professors, among others.
He said: “The SANs are myself, Dayo Akinlaja, Dapo Olanipekun, my son and Ola Olanipekun, my cousin.
“Before the colonial masters came, who were the people administering us? There was good governance. I salute the wisdom of our progenitors. The monarchy has a role to play in a Constitutional democracy such as ours. Take a monarch out of a town and you will have no one to chest out as its representative. In Ikere, for instance, the Ogoga is the representative of the people, the conscience of the town; whatever he says is binding.
“If the Ogoga has no role to play in governance, then, who has? Who does the governor or president meet when he comes to a town? The monarch. When we speak of governance at the grassroots level, let us not deceive ourselves, it is the monarchs that manage the grassroots for the government. That doesn’t mean that they must be involved in partisan politics, no.”
The event, which celebrated the Ogoga’s first anniversary as monarch, drew over 300 Ikere indigenes from all walks of life resident in Lagos, Ondo and the United States of America (USA).
“The IDF organised this forum because we want to celebrate this monarch, within a short period he has transformed our town. Ikere palace has been there for over 200 years, but when he got there, he realised it was in a state of total disrepair. On his own, he pulled it down and rebuilt it within eight months,” Olanipekun said.
He added that by his own conservative estimate, the king would so far have spent “not less than N200million” on rebuilding the palace gates, even though “he knows very well that the palace does not belong to him, but to the town”.
The monarch hailed the IDF for the first forum in Ikere, promising to dedicate his life to srve the town.
“I feel so proud, so honoured to be king over four SANs, medical doctors, professors, Generals, among other professionals,” he said.
He listed projects being planned for Ikere to include a radio station, for which money has been provided, a hotel to be commissioned this year, and urged the people to submit entries for an Ikere anthem as well as symbol.
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