The Council also stated that it will not recognised any other chieftaincy titles bestowed on the former president in any part of Yorùbáland.
The decision was stated in a letter to Obasanjo, titled “Declaration/Non-recognition As The Balogun of Owu Kingdom And Any Other Chieftaincy Titles In Yorùbáland”.
The letter, dated 18 September, 2023, was jointly signed by the Council’s President and Secretary General, Aare Oba Oladotun Hassan Esq, and Akowe Oodua Siyanbade Adekanmbi, respectively.
A copy of the letter was sent to the Olowu of Owu Kingdom, Oba Professor Saka Matemilola, and was acknowledged by the Palace on 19 September, 2023.
The Council’s decision is a fallout of the incident that happened at the commissioning of the Iseyin Campus of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), last Friday.
Obasanjo had, at the event, publicly chastised traditional rulers like school children, saying they disrespected the Oyo State governor, Engineer ‘Seyi Makinde, by not standing up for him when he walked in, in line with protocols.
A visibly angry Obasanjo humiliated the traditional rulers by ordering them, like primary school pupils, to stand up and sit down, an order to which the obas meekly complied.
The Yoruba Council Worldwide subsequently wrote to the former president, demanding that he should apologised to the humiliated obas.
However, Obasanjo was adamant as he has maintained since after the incident that he does not owe the humiliated traditional rulers any apology.
This was as the Yoruba Council Worldwide also insisted that the action of the former president was an assault on Yoruba culture and tradition.
The Council stated in the letter that its decision to cease recognising Obasanjo as the Balogun of Owu Kingdom was because he failed to tender an apology to the humiliated traditional rulers.
The Yoruba Council Worldwide stated that, being the apex Yoruba indigenous organisation, it took the decision following the failure of Obasanjo to heed its advice, given three days earlier, on 16 September.
“We hereby declared and seize (sic) to recognise your chieftaincy titles conferred on you by any monarchs in Yorùbáland, including the Balogun of Owu Kingdom.
“[This is] consequent upon your brazen refusal to apologise [for your] degradation (sic) and disparaging comments to the Yoruba obas on 15th September, 2023 at Iseyin, Oyo State,” it was stated in the letter.
The Council described the Obasanjo outburst as a total sacrilege, adding that his statement was disrespectful to the traditional institution.
It stated that the former president talked to the arrays of first-class royal fathers and other leading obas like toddlers.
“Like a village headmaster or an Army General talking profusely at his foot soldiers in a most depressing, disparaging and disrespectful manner.
“We reiterate, as the leading vanguard voice for all Yoruba indigenous people globally, that we have eternal duty to preserve the aesthetic and distinct Omoluabi ethos, royal stools and ancestral customs and traditions of the Yoruba Obaship.
“[This] precipitated our earlier demand for immediate apologies within three (3) days which you deliberately ignored blatantly.
The Council also threatened to take a legal action against the former president for alleged defamation and ‘scandalous libel’.
“We shall further commence strict legal action at a court of competent jurisdiction for defamation and scandalous libel accordingly.
“Furthermore, we shall mobilise all market women, youths and leaders of thoughts for onward sanitisation and compliance to our declaration forthwith.
“We have emphatically spoken!,” the Yoruba Council Worldwide declared in the letter to the former president.
