Former President Goodluck Jonathan has described that the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi and the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar as two prominent traditional rulers vital to the unity of the country.
The former President stated this while hosting the Ooni at his country home in Otuoke, Bayelsa State at the weekend.
A statement issued by the Ooni’s spokesperson, Moses Olafare on Sunday said the federal government usually calls the attention of the two traditional rulers in some critical situation in the country.
According to the former President, the African foremost monarchs are a great gift to Africa. Whenever the federal government wants to do something in the country, the two most prominent monarchs they call are the Sultan of Sokoto and the Ooni of Ife. The two are great kings in the country.
“Your Majesty, I used to tell you that I’m from Osun state, I did my NYSC in the town of Iresi in Osun state, maybe that was why I was very close to Osun state while I was the President.
“You Osun people may not know the importance of the Ooni because he’s your traditional ruler. When I was there as the President, I met a committee of National Traditional Rulers of Nigeria, Sultan and Ooni were the permanent Co-chairmen of all the Nigeria’s traditional rulers, Sultan for the North and the Ooni for the entire South. That tells you the pedigree of the Ooni of Ife when it comes to kingship in Nigeria”. President Jonathan was quoted to have said.
The Ooni who was on a state visit to Bayelsa also met with the Governor, Senator Duoye Diri and members of Balyesa State Council of Traditional Rulers in Yenagoa.
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Addressing the traditional rulers, Oba Ogunwusi said, “we have no other country except Nigeria. What Nigeria needs to progress is peace and there can not be peace without unity of purpose, this is where the government needs our support. Let us all lead our subjects alright as traditional rulers of this country for Nigeria to have peace so that various developmental policies of government’s Renewed Hope Agenda can positively manifest in the lives of all our subjects across the country. To do this, we must encourage cross cultural communication and visits like this.”
Speaking during his visit to the Ooni, Senator Diri described the monarch as a symbol of unity for the country, saying the state would love to have his presence again.
“Your Majesty, government and the good people of Balyesa love you so passionately and we see this your coming as our opportunity to invite you to be our Special Royal Father Of The Day later this year during 29 years anniversary of our state creation. You are a leader we all love and respect. You have so far comported yourself with royal dignity of majestic simplicity, your humility is second to none and I am so happy with the high esteem in which our traditional rulers here hold you.”. governor Diri said.