Kwara: Stakeholders Call For Constitutional Roles For Traditional Rulers

Stakeholders at a colloquium on the  27th anniversary of the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari on Thursday called for constitutional roles for traditional rulers in the country.

The stakeholders including academia, Jurists and technocrats at the event organized by the Kwara State council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in collaboration with the Ilorin Emirate Council, 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 bail the country out of its hydra-headed security problems.

The guest lecturer, Professor 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 acts 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 ad-hoc 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 average Ilorin indigenes attached to his historical turbaning event also admirably referred to as 11/11.

The NUJ chairman said that the emirate in the past 27 years had undergone different physical and non-physical phases of development.

However, he asked indigenes of the state capital to collectively proffer solutions to the problem of insecurity, unemployment, the rising cost of living and the usual threat to peaceful coexistence, “as we approach the 2023 general elections.”

Speakers at the event included Professor Ibrahim Jawondo, Engineer Yusuf Sagaya, a retired security chief, Alhaji Aliyu Otta-Othman, Justice Salihu Mohammed and Kwara NUJ chairman, Ahmed AbdulLateef.