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Speakers at a colloquium organised to mark the 27th year on the throne by the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari on Thursday called for a constitutional role for traditional rulers in the country.
At the event organised by the Kwara State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in collaboration with the Ilorin Emirate Council, the speakers including academia, jurists and technocrats, also said the roles of the monarch in maintaining security in their domains should be further enhanced.
They harped on the need for government to fashion out constitutional roles for traditional rulers to enable them to bail the country out of its hydra-headed security problems.
Speakers at the event included Prof Ibrahim Jawondo, Engr. Yusuf Sagaya, a retired security chief, Alh Aliyu Otta-Othman, Justice Salihu Mohammed and Kwara NUJ chairman,Ahmed AbdulLateef.
The Emir was represented at the event by the most senior high chief in Ilorin Emirate, the Balogun Gambari of Ilorin, Alh Aliyu Adebayo.
The guest lecturer, Prof Ibrahim Jawondo of the University of Ilorin said that traditional rulers should be meaningfully involved in the act of governance.
“Experiences have shown that involvement of traditional rulers in act of governance will go a long way in solving some teething problems in Nigeria. Thus, it will be better if constitutional roles are fashioned out for traditional rulers rather than the fire-fighting and adhoc engagements given to them,” Jawondo said.
The university don also said that honorary titleholders should seek the deeper meaning of the responsibilities of the titles conferred on them and act most appropriately, adding that the step would help the traditional rulers more in administrating their domains.
“The hereditary rulers need to do more in their supervisory roles at their territories to curb social vices which continue to be on the increase on daily basis. Greed resulting into injustice should be shunned to regain their lost glories. Kudus to the Emir who ruled that they must stay at their various posts”, he said.
The state chairman of NUJ, Abdullateef Ahmed, said that people could not but celebrate the emir of Ilorin because of the importance and average Ilorin indigenes attach to his historical turning event also admirably referred to as 11/11.
The NUJ chairman said that the emirate in the past 27 years had undergone different phases of development physical and non-physical.
However, he asked indigenes of the state capital to collectively proffer solutions to the teething problem of insecurity, unemployment, the rising cost of living and the usual threat to peaceful coexistence, “as we approach the 2023 general elections.”
The chairman of the occasion and Zannan of Ilorin, Engr. Yusuf Sagaya who was represented by Alh Ibrahim Salman, advised the organisers noted that Ilorin Emirate has witnessed peace and unprecedented growth in the past 27 years.
In his remarks, the chairman of Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU), Alh Aliyu Otta- Othman described the Emir as a kindhearted leader who always feels and shares in the pains of his subjects.
A former Grand Khadi of the state, Justice Salihu Mohammed, corroborated Otta-Othman, acknowledging the positive role the Emir played in his career as a judicial officer.
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