Barrister Sulaimon Ajeniyii Ajewole was last Friday reelected as the President General of the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII), the umbrella body of all socio-cultural societies/clubs of Ibadan extraction. In this interview with YINKA OLADOYINBO, he speaks about the election and his vision for Ibadanland in the next two years.
Despite the issues that preceded the election, how did you feel winning again?
I thank God for His mercy. I give praise to almighty God for taking control of the election. Before the 4th of April everybody was apprehensive about the type of election that the CCII would conduct, especially because of attacks from many of the supporters of contestants on various platforms of the affiliated clubs, but I thank God that the election came and there was no violence, there was no fight of any type, it went on so peaceful. The election was so credible and transparent. It had the qualities of a well-conducted election. I made it clear before the election that the essence of being President General is to serve Ibadanland, during my first term, I did my best, especially to achieve many things that people thought were not possible, particularly with the completion of the Olubadan Palace. When I was campaigning in 2023, I put that in the front burner that the palace that has been abandoned for about seven years would be completed and I am grateful that God that saw my mind, saw my intention and made it to become a reality. However, I must also thank the person that God used in making my intention a reality and that is the governor of Oyo state, Engr Seyi Makinde, who believed in my leadership of the CCII and was able to mobilise money for me so I didn’t have problem at all, it was a matter of “this is the money but use it judiciously, use it is such a way that Ibadan people will be happy” and I thank God that our palace now remains one of the best in the whole of Africa. So, winning the second term, I know Ibadan people are not ingrates and that is why they overwhelmingly supported me and returned me as the President General of CCII for another term
How do you intend to manage the post-election crisis taking into consideration the events that preceded the election?
Let me make it clear, there is no crisis in CCII and there is nothing to manage as post-election crisis, only one person went to court and that is Mr Adeola Oloko. He went to court to challenge his disqualification as a candidate and the fact are before the court, without trying to cause what lawyers will call subjudice, I will say that Oloko went to court, so whether he was rightly or wrongly disqualified I know the court will make a decision on that so I leave that to the court. But apart from him nothing happened, we contested for 13 posts and the election went peacefully. On the eve of the election, Oloko went to secure an interim injunction , but we thank God that we have a judiciary that is not only independent, but also conscious of their duties. We have qualified judges and these are people you cannot buy, they know the law on their finger tips, they are judges that one can be proud of anytime and that was why the Court that granted him audience was the same court that set it aside the following day having realised that it was misled by the claimant. However, all contestants are Ibadan indigenes and what is important for us is to move CCII from its present status. Don’t forget that CCII was formed in 1980 by people like Baba Amole, O.O. Bello when they gathered three clubs, that is Ibadan Progressive Union, Lagelu 16 and IU/Polytechnic IDU because they believed that Ibadan should be lifted up, but now the CCII has over 200 affiliated clubs and in the last two years, the CCII has gained more momentum because people realise that it has become the voice of Ibadanland to the extent that our fathers, the Obas listened to us because the council has become the voice of their subjects.
Looking back at the last two years, what are those things that you can point to as achievements?
The last two years have been wonderful God has been so kind to me to the extent that the achievements of my administration were beyond even my own expectations, if anybody had told me that I will achieve so much, I wouldn’t have believed. The major one was the completion of the Olubadan Palace, we completed it and it became a pride to every son and daughter of Ibadan, it was a benchmark achievement. We also have the Kola Daisi Entrepreneurship Centre where we will be training Ibadan sons and daughters in many vocations like hairdressing, fashion designing, catering, carpentry, barbing, brick laying and so on, we planned for nine vocations. This one of my campaigns in the first term but when we got to office, we met a meagre N340, 000 in the account of the council, we had to borrow money to pay the salary of our staff in the first month. So in the course of my looking for how we will establish the vocational centre, I learnt that our Baba, the Bashorun of Ibadanland, Chief Kola Daisi wanted to celebrate his 91st birthday on September 14, 2023 and i led the executive of CCII to visit him. He was so happy with us and at the end of the day, he gave us N10 million. So I decided that we won’t use the money for buying of petrol, diesel or eating in general assembly so we kept it somewhere, after about three months I saw Oba Kola-Daisi, who happens to be son of baba and I told him that we haven’t spent the money that baba gave us. He asked why and I told him of our plans, a week later he told me he has spoken with baba who asked him to encourage us and that was how we started the vocational centre. At the end of the day we did the structural design which was done free of charge by two of Ibadan indigenes and we later had a Bill of Quantity of N70 million. We started work even members of my executive were wondering how we would get the balance. The following year, September 14, 2024, we visited baba for his 92nd birthday and we told him how we were spending the money he gave us, he was so happy and he gave us the balance of N60 million. To me, that is about leadership. Once they believe in you and you make it clear that you really want to lead and not to misappropriate money, people will be ready to assist. We did not only achieve that, on the issue of securing employment for our sons and daughters, we were able to achieve a lot. For example, when TESCOM and SUBEB were employing, I met the chairmen of both bodies and they assured me that any of our people that made the cut off mark of 50 would be employed and at the end of the day, we were able to get jobs for 146 sons and daughters of Ibadan. We did not stop at that, even federal agencies came to us and we were able to meet their demands, NECO came that they needed land to build office, the Correctional Centre also came to us for assistance and we were able to help. The Aare of Ibadan, De-Damark donated a vehicle for us, we also got an illustrious Ibadan, Mogaji Fajimi, to donate a Solar fan that cost N300 million in the palace, so we have light permanently at the palace. We organised a befitting Ibadan festival of 2024 that remains one of the best. We were also able to resolve issues, crises, particularly the ones that involved our fathers, when our late Olubadan, Oba Lekan Balogun died, the issue of succession wanted to cause problem and we intervened and it was resolved.
Looking forward, what are your visions for Ibadanland?
The one that is in the front burner now is the creation of Ibadan state. I have started working seriously on it. In May 2024 we were able to submit a Memorandum to the House of Representatives for the creation of Ibadan state. This year, the house asked all those that submitted memorandum to present another one and we have done that, I am assuring Ibadan people that if it is only one state that would be created in Nigeria, it will be Ibadan state by the grace of God, unless none is created. We have everything that it takes to have a state, Ibadan has been the capital of one of the three regional governments that we have after the amalgamation of Nigeria, the other two were Enugu and Kaduna and these two are already states, I know the federal government will do the needful and give us Ibadan state. That is my priority and God that made that of the palace possible will make that of Ibadan state possible. Another thing I am working on is to make the burial ground of Lagelu, the founder of Ibadan to become a tourist centre.
As a matter of fact, we have designed the Lagelu groove, we have discussed with one of our Obas who is very passionate about it and that is Oba Rashidi Ladojal and he has given his assurances. Apart from that, we will continue to show accountability and transparency, we will also continue to appreciate our heroes and give them the recognition they deserve, we will continue to promote the institution of Olubadan so that the respect and glamour of Olubadan will be recognised beyond Nigeria.
But talking about creation of Ibadan state, the House of Representatives said none of the Memoranda submitted met the requirement, what are you doing to this?
Yes, that was why they asked us to submit another one, what happened was that when we submitted in 2023, we only captured the elected officials that are within the proposed Ibadan state not knowing that we should capture two third of the elected officials in the present state where we want to carve out Ibadan state, but we have corrected that and that is why we submitted another one about two weeks ago. We were able to get two-third of the 33 local government chairmen. It is the same thing in the House of Assembly and in the National Assembly, so we are steadily moving on the ground that Ibadan state will be created. Although, Section 8 of the Constitution is so cumbersome but if there is the political, it will be created.
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