“The good Obas in Yorubaland, who are forthright, firm and stand by the truth are not up to five, they are just three. Oba Awujale, Oba Akiolu and another. May you live long in good health and abundant God blessing.”   – Bola Tinubu

Just a week after Asiwaju Bola Tinubu said he knew only three traditional rulers with integrity in the whole Yoruba land, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade has said that the two Obas mentioned (The Awujale of Ijebu, Oba Sikiru Adetona and Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu) were best friends of the late dictator, General Sani Abacha.

While addressing the audience at a two-day conference of foremost traditional rulers in Osun State on the overall development of the state, in Osogbo, on Thursday, Oba Sijuwade said he had to react to the statement credited to Tinubu on behalf of the majority of Yoruba rulers.

According to Oba Sijuwade, Tinubu had forgotten that “when our country was upside down, it was the traditional rulers in this country that saved the situation. If we left the country as politicians did, there would have been no state for the leader of APC to rule when he came back.

“Two among the three obas mentioned by him were the best friends of the late military head of state, General Sani Abacha and among them, one was on the paylist of the late General and one lifted crude oil allocated to him by General Abacha. You can ask them, Abacha gave me money on more than one occasion, but I refused.

“And if you want to talk of the annulment of late Chief M.K.O. Abiola’s election, these two/three traditional rulers should be properly investigated, because they were neither here nor there,” the traditional ruler said.

He rounded up his reaction with a warning to political leaders to always caution themselves against making unguarded and unfounded statements.

“If any of our leaders wants to make a categorical statement on an important issue like the Oba in Yorubaland, he should please try to check records to know exactly what each one of them has done, because there is so much blackmailing and, fortunately, the late Abacha’s Chief Security Officer (CSO) is alive and he is in a position to tell the world the obas who were close associates of his late boss,” Oba Sijuwade added.