By Abdullahi Muhammed, Abuja
President Mohammadu Buhari has received the Ooni of Ife, Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi Ojaja II at his official residence in the State House, Abuja.
The meeting which held between 8:00 and 9:00pm Tuesday night, was not listed on the President’s official itinerary.
In an interview after the meeting, the Ooni of Ife called on political parties in the country not to politicise the security situation in the the country.
Speaking on the purpose of his visit, the monarch said: “Well, to the glory of God, I am here particularly because of all the issues of security threats here and there and to get the blessing of Mr. President.
“Hopefully, it won’t turn out to be very political because political parties might probably want to hijack it and to the glory of God as the co-chairman of National Council of Traditional Rulers, it is our responsibility and our duty to make sure that everything is right, all and sundry is in good shape.”
The monarch also hailed the president for giving the assurance that the security situation would not be politicised. “The President has assured that it is not going to be a political thing because we all know the problem all over the country, we have a lot of bad eggs that mix across the entire country and we have that issue again in the South West.
“So I am here as the co-chairman of National Council of Traditional Rulers to get the assurance of Mr. President that either of the parties won’t turn into a political fanfair for us to just risk the lives of our people, our innocent citizens not only in the South West but the entire country.
“I am happy he has told me that I should assure other traditional rulers that we must work with them now. It is very important for us to work very closely with the government so that we can separate the good, the bad and the ugly. It is very important for us to separate the corn from the chaff because, a lot of them are actually using the porous border that we have but to the glory of God they are doing what is called e-border now in Nigeria and it is very efficient and we all need to work with them.
“Even our governors and other political leaders in different states, Mr. President has said that they must work with the traditional rulers so that we can actually separate the good from the bad and get the society in proper perspective.
“So, here the objective is politics shouldn’t be mixed with the safety and the security concerns of our people. Politics should be completely taken out of it and Mr. President said he is fully on board with us as traditional rulers,” he said.
On the appointment of new service chiefs, the the Ooni of Ife, said: “It’s good and refreshing, there is a new blood, a new intake, fresh ideas will come on board and we have actually given very positive encouragement to Mr. President that he should keep it up.
“It is a very couragous move for fresh minds. At least, there has been a lot of hue and cry of security issues in Nigeria now, we are not all safe but with what Mr. President has done and providentially I am experiencing it at the seat of power, it is a welcome development”, the Ooni said.
Buhari Wednesday had a separate meeting with Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and his Ondo state counterpart, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, over the growing insecurity in the country.
Addressing State House correspondents after his meeting with the president, Governor Seyi Makinde said he briefed the president on the insecurity situation in the state in view of torrent of fake news flying about. The governor said he also asked the president for more Mobile Police Squadrons because the two existing ones were not enough for the state.
“There has been a lot of fake news all around and I wanted to be sure that Mr. President clearly has first hand information from me, which I did. We also exchanged ideas on what we need to do better, some of the programmes we have put in place to ensure that this security issue is tackled. So, that’s basically why I came here.
“Well, one of the issues I discussed with Mr. President is that Oyo State land mass is quite big, Oyo State is close to 29,000 square kilometers. If you take all the states in the south east geo-political zone of Nigeria, they are still not as big as Oyo State. And the state right now only has two Mobile Police Squadrons. So, I requested for more Mobile Police Squadrons to be deployed to Oyo State and also asked for support for the joint security outfit because, the underlying issue here also has to do with limited opportunities.
“The tension will definitely go down if a lot of our youths are gainfully employed. So, I briefed the president on what we are doing in that regard,” he said.
When asked about his disagreement with the activist, Sunday Igboho, on the ultimatum for Fulanis to leave Oyo State, the governor said: “Well, we have a history of living together peacefully amongst all the ethnic groups that are present in Oyo State. For instance, what triggered all of this was that Dr. Aborede was brutally murdered, that is criminal, but on the other hand, Seriki, Alhaji Kabir has been staying in that same place for 40 years. So, quite frankly, the people we are after are criminals. They are the bandits, hoodlums, armed robbers, kidnappers. Those are the true enemies of the state and those are the people we will go after.
“The Constitution of Nigeria guarantees that you can live in any part of Nigeria, you just have to be law abiding, obey the local laws in such areas. That is what we are pushing and will continue to push as a government.”Governor Akeredolu, however, declined to speak to the media on his mission to the presidential villa when approached.”