Following the spate of insecurity in the Southwestern states, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, and the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III will convene a meeting of Yoruba leaders of Thought to deliberate on the way forward.
The meeting, billed for Thursday, June 27, 2019, will hold at the International Conference Centre in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The event is being coordinated by daughter of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and Nigeria’s former Ambassador to the Netherlands, Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosumu.
According to Awolowo-Dosumu, the meeting will “deliberate on the appropriate response to the current menace of killer herders, kidnappers and sundry criminals currently ravaging Yorubaland.”
Also, a statement by publisher of a leading Yoruba tabloid, Alaroye newspaper, Chief Alao Adedayo, disclosed: “The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi will co-chair the event.
“The meeting is a two-prong event that would bring together Southwest governors, eminent traditional rulers, eminent scholars and other leaders of thought, to discuss the security situation in the region and plan a strategy that would assist the governments and the people of the area.
“Secondly, there will be the presentation of Yoruba language version of the book, AWO (the autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.)
“We need to meet again; we just need to talk. The situation in Yoruba land now calls for the unity among our leaders because we cannot win this war against insurgents except we form a common front.
“That is why we are invoking the name of the past leader of the Yoruba people, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, to bring all of us together, irrespective of our political affiliations.
“Our major problem here is that our leaders are not united. They disagree and fight virtually on everything. And it is all about politics.
“Unfortunately, this is causing us a lot of damage. And when we remember that most of these politicians claim to be Awo’s political sons and daughters, there couldn’t have been a better name to invoke to bring all of us to the round table”, the statement concluded.
