- The former Aviation Minister said the action of the former president was beyond jokes
- He noted that Obasanjo’s action amounted to desecration of the highly revered traditional institution of the Yoruba people.
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Femi Fani-Kayode has voiced his dissatisfaction with former President, Olusegun Obasanjo treatment of monarchs in Oyo State.
Last week, a now viral video surfaced on social media in which Obasanjo was seen publicly chastising a clutch of traditional rulers at a function in Iseyin area of the State, on Friday.
He chided the mornachs for not acknowledging his presence by standing up for him, he subsequently ordered the monarchs to stand and told them to sit again in deference to him.
The incident has sparked reactions from Yoruba stakeholders, who described Obasanjo’s action as disrespect to the traditional rulers.
Reacting, Fani-Kayode in a statement issued on his official X handle, said he was “deeply saddened and utterly mortified”, by Obasanjo’s action.
The former Aviation Minister said the action of the former president was beyond jokes, noting that Obasanjo’s action amounted to desecration of the highly revered traditional institution of the Yoruba people.
Part of the statement reads, “I am deeply saddened and utterly mortified by the way in which former President Olusegun Obasanjo lambasted our revered traditional rulers in Oyo state and ‘ordered’ them to ‘stand up’ and ‘sit down’ as if they were children.
“This is the same OBJ that, once upon a time, displayed his respect, humility and I daresay greatness by bowing, kneeling and prostrating before our monarchs, even when he was President, yet today he talks to them as if they are his garbage collectors and orders them to jump up and down like a molue driver talking to his beleaguered passengers and a motor park tout talking to a bunch of jobless and worthless underlings.
“Many think that the whole thing is some kind of joke but I do not. We must not take it lightly and the truth is that by doing what he did he has spat on all our faces.”