‘Awujale’s leadership style worthy of emulation’

The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado-Bayero, has said the leadership style of the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, should be studied and emulated.

Alhaji Ado-Bayero, who visited the awujale yesterday, described the monarch as his ‘father’.

Ado-Bayero, who arrived the GRA residence of the Awujale about 11:50am, also described the visit as ‘important, remarkable and a huge blessing’ to him. He was accompanied by eight officials of the Kano Emirate.

According to the monarch, the visit would strengthen the existing cordial relationship that had existed for years, even between the Awujale and his late father, Alhaji Ado-Bayero. He added that it would also open a new vista of business and trade relations between Kano and Ijebu, stressing that apart from the shared ‘business acumen’, the two ancient cities also have many other areas of shared similarities.

He said: “Awujale is an enigma, a ruler with a difference, a leader that we need to know and copy from. I’m happy in my lifetime, my reign, I am here and the experience I tapped from him today is an experience that will live forever in me.

“The Awujale is someone who has been at par with my forefathers for 64 years, and I am privileged to still have people like him around at 90. He is a real gem who is a close associate of my late father, and that is why I call him my father as well.

“Coming here and get his blessings is something I will appreciate till the end of time. It is a good experience for me. When you look at the traditional institution before the colonial era and after the colonial era, it is an institution that has remained constant; the changes are there but the values and traditions are kept that whoever comes in will just tune in and it is perfect for us.”

Oba Adetona, who recalled his journey to the throne at 25 years old, said his father favoured him with the revered traditional office, thereby bypassing his elder brothers to position him for the throne of his forebears.

One of his achievements in office, according to him, is the new Ogun State Obaship and Chieftaincy law which provides that traditional rulers be given burial rites according to their faiths. According to him, this is to ensure that responsible people of means, credibility and integrity will be interested in becoming kings without fear of what might happen to their remains when they join their ancestors.

Until the new law came into existence, deceased monarchs, especially in Ijebuland, were buried by traditionalists.

Other monarchs who welcomed the Emir were the Ebumawe of Ago-Iwoye, Oba AbdulRazaq Adenugba and the Orimolusi of Ijebu-Igbo, Oba Lawrence Ogunbanjo.