The Oyo Forum, Abuja, has strongly opposed a proposed amendment to the Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs Law, warning that a clause introducing rotational chairmanship threatens the historical and cultural significance of the Alaafin stool.
In a statement jointly signed by its Chairman, Engineer Segun Owolabi, and Chairman of Media/Publicity, Ambassador Tunde Mustapha, the group called on Governor Seyi Makinde to withhold assent to the bill, which is currently before him following its passage by the Oyo State House of Assembly.
The Forum argued that the Alaafin institution transcends the boundaries of Oyo State, holding symbolic and ancestral relevance for the entire Yoruba race. “To reduce it to a rotating political office is to desecrate a legacy that predates Nigeria’s modern history,” the statement read.
The bill, co-sponsored by Speaker Rt. Hon. Adebo Ogundoyin and four other lawmakers, seeks to amend provisions of the Council of Obas Law (Cap. 37) by, among other changes, rotating the council’s leadership among traditional rulers in the state.
While the Forum acknowledged the merit in the proposed elevation of some monarchs to beaded crown status, it insisted that the move to rotate the chairmanship “turns history upside down” and risks inflaming tensions in cities, towns, and villages across Oyo State.
“The proposed amendment is already causing avoidable strife and division,” the Forum warned. “We fear it may result in a prolonged crisis that could damage the social fabric of the state.”
Appealing to Governor Makinde, the group urged him to protect the revered Alaafin institution through modern governance tools, likening it to how Western democracies preserve their cultural heritage.
“Without the yesterday of the Oyo Empire, today’s Oyo State would not exist,” the statement concluded. “Let us not be remembered as the generation that allowed political expedience to erode centuries of heritage.”
