President-Elect Bola Tinubu receiving his Certificate of Return
A group of traditional rulers in the South West and Yoruba-speaking parts of North Central geopolitical zones, under the aegis of the Yoruba Obas Forum, has demanded constitutional roles for royal fathers from the president-elect, Bola Tinubu.
The royal fathers made the demand in their congratulatory message to Tinubu on his victory at the last presidential election.
The message was co-signed by the administrator of the Forum, the Elerinmo of Erinmo, Oba Michael Ajayi, the Molokun of Atijere, Oba Samuel Adeoye, who is the president of the forum, and its general secretary, the Olukotun of Ikotun-Ile, Oba Abdulrasaq Abioye.
The monarchs also charged the president-elect to be magnanimous in victory by constituting a government of national unity, while calling on other presidential candidates who lost at the polls, to support Tinubu for the speedy development of the country.
The statement read in parts, “We call on those who lost in the elections to accept the outcome in good faith, put any differences aside and join hands with the winners for the overall benefit of the country.
“We commend President Buhari, the Chairman of INEC, (Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu) for their steadfastness in ensuring a fairly good election where many lost their strongholds. Democracy is a journey, not a destination.
“We Yoruba Obas also want to call on the president-elect to consider giving constitutional roles to traditional rulers in the country which we believe would go a long way to bring the dividends of democracy closer to the rural areas and also curb insecurity in the country as we are the Chief Security Officers of our various domains.”
