Eleruwa : Governor Makinde will eat his words just as he did when he illegally dissolved democratically elected councils

By Sola Abegunde

“A good liar must have a good memory.”

Unfortunately, these days, those who have made lying a hobby do not bloody care about having a retentive memory.

Most especially, when they are privileged to find themselves in some  positions of authority.

I have carefully perused the statement made by Governor Makinde when he staged a tragic comedy, which he titled “the presentation of staff of office to one Adebayo Adegbola as  Eleruwa of Eruwa” on Thursday, the 6th of March, 2025.

I will start my analysis from the diction employed by Governor Makinde to explain his decision to stage the show of shame which took place at the Exco Chamber of Oyo state on Thursday, 6th of March, 2025.

The Governor said and I quote: ” Kabiyesi was NOMINATED ( emphasis mine) by the Kingmakers and all we have done is to endorse the nomination”.

From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaketh.

The above statement by the Governor actually exposed how the charade called ” reinstatement” of Adegbola was illegally perfected.

The 1957 Eruwa Chieftaincy Declaration Laws does not confer the power to nominate an Eleruwa on the Kingmakers as Governor Makinde erroneously told the public.

By that statement, Governor Makinde actually shot himself in the legs.

The 1957 Eruwa Chieftaincy Declaration Laws specifically states that a candidate for the stool of Eleruwa shall be nominated by the Ruling House he belongs to and the nomination shall be conveyed to the Kingmakers, in writing, by the eldest person in the Ruling House.

The only function assigned to the Kingmakers is to select a successful Eleruwa designate from amongst the candidates nominated and forwarded to them by the Ruling House, whose turn it is, to produce the Eleruwa.

I shall come back to this later.

It is interesting to see that Governor Makinde is trying to deceive the world and claiming ignorance about the reason Eruwa was without a King since 2019.

I will address this issue alongside the statement by Prince Dotun Oyelade where he claimed that the Olaribikusi Ruling House failed to produce a candidate within a particular period.

If you do not have the facts and ingredients to decipher the truth from the deliberate lies of the Makinde Administration, you would think that the Olaribikusi Ruling House comprised of some negligent elements who deliberately wasted time in doing the needful.

That is a lie from the pit of hell.

Thankfully, the Governor once again shot himself, this time on the head, when he said and I quote: ” this Administration came in May 2019 and we met the dispute surrounding the throne. We tried to appeal to everyone because Kabiyesi was Eleruwa for 21 years before November when we had that Supreme Court judgment and we had to obey the court order”

” I took it upon myself to find out what the truth was and I learnt that the first judgment was delivered by the former Chief Judge, Mukthar Abimbola.”

” I called him and we sat down and I asked him to explain to me the cause of this matter. I asked, was it that Kabiyesi did not qualify or he did not come from the royal family? But he said Kabiyesi came from the royal family.”

” He said the issue they were having was wether he came from the female side but was supposed to come from another side. So, I concluded that we should keep looking for ways to solve the problem”.

” From that November 2019 up until this moment, I asked myself if Eruwa town had been better off and the answer is no. A town that does not have a governing head, things are always very difficult, because somebody must stand up and talk to the authorities “.

I have taken the pain to reproduce Governor Makinde’s rhetorics because we must expose him and tie him with his utterances.

According to Governor Makinde, the judgment of the Supreme Court was delivered on November 2019. About six years from now.

Sadly and curiously, he kept wondering whether Eruwa was better off without a King since November 2019 and he just stopped wondering a couple of days ago!

Let me ask him, doesn’t he have better things to do that he would take six years on a matter he has a simple task to perform?

What is the task? So simple. Obey the judgment of the Supreme Court which is written in simple plain English.

That is all. That would have saved Governor Makinde from wondering on a matter for almost six years.

I also want to ask Governor Makinde to tell the public why he appointed an Attorney general and Commissioner for justice if he would jettison the office of the Attorney general to seek for Legal advice elsewhere.

I think the Attorney general should be the one to advise the Governor on how to enforce the judgment of the Supreme Court.

I am disappointed and if it is true that Governor Seyi Makinde sought the advice of the former Chief Judge of Oyo state and chose to make such a discuss public, the former Chief Judge must be regretting discussing such a matter with Governor Makinde by now.

A Governor, seeking the advice of a Chief Judge over a matter he himself presided over and the Governor, making such a private and unofficial discussion public years later, when he is disobeying the judgment delivered by the same Chief Judge?!

Why didn’t Governor Makinde proceed to seek the advice of the present Chief Justice of the Federation, who himself ( that is the language of the Bench), sat in the panel that delivered the judgment at the Apex Court?

Why didn’t he seek the advice of the current president of the Court of Appeal, who headed the panel of the Court of Appeal and indeed read the lead judgment in the Eleruwa case?

As at November 2019 when the Supreme Court delivered its judgment, whatever controversies that was surrounding the Eleruwa stool was finally laid to rest.

At that point, Governor Seyi Makinde was bound to banish Samuel Adebayo Adegbola from Eruwa and immediately instruct the Kingmakers, through the Ibarapa East Local Government, to select between Prince Rasheed Oyedepo Ajao, Prince Lamidi Okunlola  and Prince Abiodun Ojelade but Governor Makinde would not have an Eleruwa who is not Samuel Adebayo Adegbola.

That is why, despite the fact that the Governor of Oyo state was a party to the suit and despite repeated letters written to him by the victorious party, he kept seeking for ways to rubbish the judgment of the Supreme Court.

It was good for him to come round and make false allegations that the Olaribikusi Ruling House did not submit candidates within an imaginary stipulated time.

Did the judgment of the supreme court say that fresh candidates should be nominated?

The Court of Appeal per MB Dongban-Mensem JCA as he then was, listed the names of:

Prince Rasheed Oyedepo Ajao.

Prince Lamidi Olaoye Okunlola and

Prince Abiodun Ojelade as the validly nominated candidates from the Olaribikusi Ruling House and the Supreme Court agreed with the Court of Appeal in to to.

The three Princes from the Olaribikusi Ruling House are very well and alive till today.

The Court also directed that the Kingmakers should select from one of the three Princes from the Olaribikusi Ruling House.

I challenge Governor Makinde to deny this ascertions.

The question is, what is Governor Makinde looking for? Where did he get confused?

I think the Governor got himself confused when the Courts ruled against his preferred choice.

How on earth could someone who got the CTC of the judgment of the Supreme Court since 2019 and since then chose to be wondering, wasting time and seeking for help where there is none, turn around in 2025, to accuse the Olaribikusi Ruling House of time wasting?

There is something very unique about the Adegbola issue.

A former Chief Judge of Oyo state, the current  president of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal and the current Chief Judge of the Federation sat on the matter at different stages and at all the stages, they all agreed that one, Adegbola’s nomination as Eleruwa from the Olaribikusi Ruling House was invalid.

Secondly, that it is the turn of the Olaribikusi Ruling House to present the Eleruwa.

Thirdly, that Princes Rasheed Oyedepo Ajao, Lamidi Okunlola and Abiodun Ojelade are validly nominated candidates from the Olaribikusi Ruling House.

Fourthly, that the Kingmakers should proceed to choose an Eleruwa from amongst the trio.

Lastly, that Governor Makinde dismissed the judgments of the Oyo state High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Nigeria which were consistent about the fact that the Olaribikusi Ruling House is the next in line to produce the next Eleruwa as a result of what Ademola Ojo, his Commissioner for Local Governments and Chieftaincy matters termed ” the Governor’s esteemed discretion”!

What is so esteemed about a discretion that deliberately violates and disobeys the judgment of the Supreme Court?

That statement, credited to Ademola Ojo, is a testament of hypocrisy and mediocrity taken too far and Prince Dotun Oyelade was very clever when he deliberately quoted him in his Press statement.

You don’t need to be a Lawyer to know that no one in Nigeria, possesses the power to exercise descretions over the judgement of Courts under our Constitution.

You have to subject your descretions to the authority of the judgments of Courts.

It is an impeachable offence for Governor Makinde to exercise illegal descretions that misrepresented the judgment of the Supreme Court by appointing Adegbola from the Akalako Ruling House of Eruwa, whether he is entitled to the stool from that Ruling House or not and there is nothing esteemed about such illegal and condemnable descretions.

At this point, may I drop a piece of advice for Governor Seyi Makinde.

It is very uncharitable of him and mostly unethical, to say the least, to be dropping the name of the retired former Chief Judge of Oyo state in this episode.

Most especially, when it involved a discussion that has no official value.

The Governor of Oyo state is only enjoined to officially seek legal advice from his Attorney general and Commissioner for justice not the Chief Judge of the state as Governor Makinde posited.

Is Governor Makinde insinuating that he was advised on his present course of action by the now retired Chief Judge?

How logical does that sound? That the retired Chief Judge would advise him to disobey a judgement given by himself and other superior Courts?!

Haba! Governor Makinde!!!?

The retired Chief Judge has served Oyo state and Nigeria to the best of his abilities and I think that Governor Makinde should allow him to enjoy his retirement and stop dropping his name in the needless controversies he has been stoking in Eruwa.

When I read the empty chest beating of Governor Makinde that anyone who goes to Court to challenge the illegality in Eruwa would be wasting their efforts, I just laughed.

No be Governor Makinde? Such reckless statement is not only laughable, it is also delusional as well.

I don’t know that Governor Makinde has also arrogate to himself, the role of the Grand Chief Judge of Nigeria who have the sole authority to determine which litigants are wasting their efforts and which would be victorious at the Courts.

Our Governor have become a clown.

What didn’t he say after he illegally dissolved the Local Governments in 2019?

Did he not eat his words thereafter?

We are used to such costly jokes.

The Ajele he sent to Eruwa would be disgraced yet again and Governor Makinde would be helpless when it happens.

At that time, we will ask him, didn’t we say so? In Ibarapa dialect, ( Nso pe mo so bee).

When I read the part of the speech where Governor Makinde said that Eruwa lacks developments because the town doesn’t have a king for a long time, I was marveled at the rate of the Governor’s insincererity.

So, it was the absence of a king that prevented him from completing the rehabilitation of the 48 klm Ido-Eruwa Road?

It is for the same reason that the roads from the Eruwa New garage/Poly/ Oke-Ola  and the Alayande junction/Isaba junction were abandoned by the junior brother to the Oyo state Speaker after same were awarded about five years ago?

Someone gotta be kidding me.

I do not think the Governor do pause at times to at least chew his words before spewing them.

By his admitted nature, I also do not think that he listens to the experts he hired to be his Advisers.

The statements credited to him on the day he spat on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the judgements of all the hierarchies of our Courts are seriously unbecoming of the Chief Executive of a state and those who love him should be seriously concerned.

Like I have said it several times, Eruwa is clearly different and Governor Makinde would realize in due course.

You can not build something on nothing and expect it to stand.

The days of his Ajele are numbered and justice shall be served and when it is done, Governor Makinde, Adegbola and their co travelers would realize, rather too late, that they are actually the ones wasting their efforts and compromising their dignities.

Sola Abegunde writes from Eruwa