Traditional rulers in Nigeria under the aegis, Yoruba Obas Forum has stressed the need for the incoming administration to grant constitutional role for monarchs in line with the 1969 constitution.
This as the group which consists of monarchs in the South-West and North-Central disclosed that nothing should stop the May 29 inauguration of the President and Vice President elects.
In a statement issued by the President of the traditional ruler’s forum, the Molokun of Atijere, Oba Samuel Adeoye and the General Secretary, the Olukotun of Ikotun-Ile, Oba. Dr. Abdulrasaq Abioye on Tuesday, the forum said the constitutional role of traditional rulers in the country would foster stability in the polity.
Traditional institution is a significant part of every society and royal fathers should be accorded due recognition constitutionally. We are the custodians of our customs and tradition and we sustain peace and stability in our domain which are some of the reasons the incoming government must accord us our due constitutional roles being the closest to the grassroots”.
We enjoined the incoming President of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his Vice, Kashim Shettima to consider giving constitutional roles to traditional rulers in the country which we believe would go a long way to bring the dividends of democracy closer to the rural areas, as well as to curb insecurity in the entire nation being the Chief Security Officers of our respective domains.
“We believe the constitutional role for traditional rulers in Nigeria is long overdue and it will ease the burden of governments by bringing adequate developments closer to the rural dwellers and bridge failure gaps. We, therefore, appeal to the incoming government to grant our request which we believe would lead to prosperity for the entire nation.
We have the following eight (8) agenda for the incoming administration as a template which includes, clear constitutional roles for traditional rulers as 4th tier of government or replace the existing local government authorities with local councils under traditional rulers. Governments to apportion at least 50% of the security votes to the traditional rulers to effectively oversee the security affairs of each domain in conjunction with traditional, native and other government security apparatus. Devolution of more powers to the local government areas under the supervision of traditional rulers. Government should support agriculture in rural areas for local consumption and export purposes.
