How not to endorse politicians -Awujale

The Awujale and paramount ruler of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, on Thursday, stated that it is not proper in Yorubaland for an Oba to canvass for votes for any candidate seeking elective posts.

The monarch said this when President Goodluck Jonathan paid a private visit to him in his palace in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.

He said rather, monarchs in Yorubaland only encourage their subjects to make their informed choices.

It would be recalled that Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, had endorsed Akinwumi Ambode, then a governorship aspirant on the platform of the APC as a suitable successor to Governor Babatunde Fashola, and even went ahead to tell other aspirant and Lagosians to support Ambode.

Akiolu spoke at the launch of a book on the biography of Ambode.

But Oba Adetona said any Oba canvassing for votes for any political party’s candidate would be courting trouble. He said rather than engaging monarchs for campaign, each candidate must go out and sell his manifesto to the electorate.

He said what a traditional ruler should do is “give them the opportunity to present their programmes so that people can make up their minds on what to do.”

Oba Adetona noted that it was when the candidate would have presented the manifesto that the voters would decide whether or not to vote for him or her.

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