Let me start by clarifying that traditional rulers are not the king. God almighty is the ultimate king. He is the one and the only one that crowns traditional rulers. In other words, whoever is not destined by God to be king cannot mount the throne. It is not by might. It is even beyond wealth. I am not saying that the aforementioned are not key elements in the selection process.
I am saying that final selection is done by God, the creator of heaven and earth and all that live in all continents of the world. Because God crowns kings as I have just said, traditional rulers are representatives of God on earth. We are here to do his wish and preserve his authority with his fear in our heart. We are not God and we must not behave as one. In another sense, one can conveniently say that we are the instrument of God used to guide and guard his creatures.
Is the role of traditional rulers exhaustible? This question is a subject of debate and indeed an intellectual discourse. But for the purpose of this lecture, I will not want to open such debate here, considering time constraint.
It is my candid view that before 21st Century problem is tackled there is a need to look back and identify the causes of the problem. I observe that our people don’t like to go back to the source. The Israelites, the Chinese always connect their present with past, and we can see what they have achieved today. We can all see how far they have gone, in terms of development and relevance to human race. Are Chinese products not ruling the world now?
Unfortunately, here, we don’t like to reflect on our past. That is why History is no more studied in our schools. If we are serious with our past history and use those events as our guide, we should not be where we are today struggling for almost everything. I am using this opportunity to implore traditional rulers to encourage research into our past to help us navigate the present and connect it with the future.
The danger of not doing this now is that our history would be too vulnerable and reduced to a victim of distortion. It is regrettable that everybody wants to distort history. There is no way anybody can say Oduduwa (May God bless him) is not the first recognized king of Yoruba race.
This cannot be argued. What made him to wear the crown should be a question we should often ask ourselves Animism does a lot of problem to humanity, in terms of achieving developmental goals for people. It increases poverty of the mind as being witnessed in our communities where rituals must be performed at a” time and every activity is explained from the perspectives of the gods. Oduduwa did not worship paganism. All these things came after he had gone.
Paganism is not the way. This is not the modern way of meeting contemporary challenges. For instance, our tourism potentials are enormous but they are not yielding result because they are tied to pagan practices. Instead of Muslims and Christians to visit those sites, they would rather go to stadium to watch football.
I am happy with what our Governor Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola recently said on innovating the system. The governor is reputed for his depth and engaging mind. He said innovation should be our key word in moving our people forward. We cannot continue to do things same way and expect different result.
We are backward simply became we give priority to what we should not. Therefore, it is the responsibilities of traditional rulers to educate their subjects right on this agent of retrogression. We ought to have gone beyond where we are today. But we still have enough time to show more commitment in this regard.
Besides, I must say that position of traditional rulers is about service. It is about total service to humanity. Kingship is about giving, giving and giving. When you start a business, you invest before you start making profit.
When you serve the people wholeheartedly, they will serve you better in return and respect you. That is the secret of God. Man is not serving God. It is the other way round. Does God sleep? He is awake looking after all of us.
Kingship is not about lording over the helpless people. It is not about oppressing them. It is also not about what you get from the people.
It is about what you give to the people. You must not be eating the people but feeding them. Service must be your utmost priority. Unfortunately, seniority among traditional rulers is now measured on how rich you are. Let us all imbibe the spirit of serving the people. You should not restrict your service to your domain. Rather you should go beyond your border and improve the life of the underprivileged.
You should devote more time for the poor because the poor will one day become rich. A king should visit the prison, for instance, and raise the hope of the inmates because out there in prison yards across the country reside leaders of tomorrow. We have some relevant examples in Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, late Nelson Mandela both of whom came out of prison and became president of Nigeria and South Africa respectively.
That is, there is life after their terms in the prison. That is, there is hope for them to live a better life. It is unfortunate that our prison system in Nigeria is not really working on full rehabilitation of the inmates unlike what obtains in developed countries. Even at that, I believe many of them are determined to live a life different from what led them into the prison.
It is high time traditional rulers realized the need to come together and do things right with a view to reclaiming the authority God has bestowed on us. How do we achieve this? Traditional rulers should not subject themselves to the people under them in the name of seeking protection. We have to know and understand the fact that protection resides in God.
CONCLUSION
We should not be pocketed. We should not equate any other thing with God who sent us to represent him on earth. I am not saying we should revolt. No! We are also educated and exposed enough to know how to go about it without causing any problem.
Our people, especially the elite should also ‘join the traditional rulers in their effort to bring back their lost glory. Yoruba culture gives high priority to respect of elders. We should not allow this all important aspect of the culture to disappear with the so-called civilization.
Our future is bright if we rediscover ourselves, take the bull by the horn and show exemplary leadership to our people. Thank you and \God bless.
This lecture titled the role of Traditional rulers in the 21st Century, A paper delivered by His Imperial Majesty. Oba (Dr.) Abdul Rasheed Adewale Akanbi (Telu 1) The Oluwo of Iwoland, at the first City People Culture Lecture series held today September 27, 2016 at Chris Alabi lecture Theatre, Bowen University, Iwo.
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