The Third Coming Of Rashidi Ladoja

REUBEN ABATI

On September 26, 2025, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, precisely a day after his 81st birthday was crowned the 44th Olubadan of Ibadanland to succeed Oba Owolabi Olakulehin, the 43rd Olubadan who passed in July 2025. This may well be described as Senator Ladoja’s third momentous coming on the stage of Nigerian politics, and some may even say fourth, but I prefer the word third, given the circumstances of the Ladoja story in the public arena. Very few persons have had the luck of any achievement at all, making it remarkable that anyone would enjoy the privilege of continuous self-reinvention as Senator Ladoja. His first foray into public consciousness as a politician was as a Senator representing Oyo South in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria between 1992 -1993 on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). This was Nigeria’s short-lived Third Republic, the kangaroo quasi-democratic arrangement put in place by the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida, who became a self-styled President while wearing the military toga. Nigeria’s Third Republic was an exercise in grand deception, bound to fail as it were, ending with the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election won by Bashorun MKO Abiola. Ladoja’s contemporaries in the Senate included Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu (from Lagos West, now Nigerian President), the colourful Senator Chuba Okadigbo from Anambra North, Ameh Ebute (Benue South), Iyorchia Ayu (Benue North West who served as Senate President), Ali Modu Sheriff (Borno Central)  Liyel Imoke (Cross River Central), Anthony Adefuye (Lagos East), Jubril Martins Kuye (Ogun East) , Wande Abimbola (Oyo Central) and Kofoworola Bucknor Akerele (Lagos Central) – notably the only female Senator in that Senate. The Third Republic was aborted on November 17, 1993. The highlight of that period was the June 12 crisis, the exit of General Babangida on August 23, 1993, the emergence of an Interim National Government led by Chief Ernest Shonekan, and the General Sani Abacha coup of November 1993. The newly coronated Olubadan was part of that story, now told in varying details by both historians and revisionists after the fact.

In May 2003, Senator Ladoja returned to the limelight as the elected Governor of Oyo State, now on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The high point of this return was how Ladoja eventually became the poster boy for the evil of Godfatherism in Nigerian politics. His Godfather was Chief Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu, the stormy petrel of Ibadan politics, the one and only exponent of “Amala politics” who insisted that he deserved to be given 15% of the funds meant for local councils on a monthly basis, he having installed Ladoja as Governor. Ladoja refused. He did not have the support of his party either at the state or national level. Adedibu was such a formidable political figure he had the eyes and ears of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who was President at the time. Obasanjo called him “the father of PDP”. He was also known as “the strongman of Ibadan politics”, and “Alaafin Molete.” On January 12, 2006, Ladoja was impeached by Oyo state legislators, and removed from office. This was the age of political Godfathers in Nigerian politics, and it is instructive that the Godfathers are still alive and kicking, even far more sophisticated today, as we have seen in the contemporary cases of Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Lagos. A year before Ladoja’s removal, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha had been removed as Governor of Bayelsa state in December 2005, and after him, Ayo Fayose received the same treatment in Ekiti state in October 2006, Peter Obi in Anambra in November 2006, Joshua Dariye in Plateau, November 2006. Ladoja tested the limits of the law on the issue of impeachment. He went to court all the way to the Supreme Court of Nigeria to seek justice. In November 2006, his impeachment was declared null and void, and he was reinstated as Governor of Oyo State on December 12, 2006.

Ladoja may have beaten the Godfather to his game, but he never occupied the centre in Ibadan politics thereafter. He lost his bid for PDP nomination ahead of the 2007 gubernatorial election and over the years, he moved from one political party to the other: Accord Party (2010 – 2017), African Democratic Congress (2018) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) (2018), with a brief flirtation with the Action Congress (AC) in-between. In the course of his political journey, he was once arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and remanded in prison.

On this third coming, Senator, Engineer Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja is the 44th Olubadan. He is a product of destiny and experience, and his latest achievement is probably what fate has brought to him, unlike the various battles he has had to fight in the past. The people of Ibadan run a Republican, structured system of ascension to the throne through hierarchy, seniority and promotion. It is a strict rotational, merit-based succession line on two tracks: the Balogun line and the Otun civil line, and any man can only become king after ascending the ladder of authority which is about 22 stages on the Otun line and 23 on the Balogun, military line. The state government tried to tamper with this with the Ibadanland Chieftaincy Declaration of 2017.  The most senior chief on either of the two lines ascends the throne when it becomes vacant, an orderly system that shuts out any controversy or legal tussles as seen in other communities where succession to the throne is usually a struggle among ruling houses. Kabiyesi Ladoja is from the Otun (Egbe Agba) line. His successor will come from the Balogun line. Long may he reign.

The Ibadans run a transparent and accountable system: every Mogaji (that is family head) stays on the queue, every Ibadan son who becomes a family head is a potential Olubadan, and can only be eliminated by death. Thus, in the Ibadan system, the order and line of succession is predictable, to the extent that future Olubadans know themselves, if they are lucky to be preserved by destiny.  Ibadan, originally “Eba Odan” was a community founded in the 18th century as a war camp, which grew to become a strategic political and military power in the Yoruba civil wars of the 19th century as reported elaborately in War and Peace in Yorubaland 1793 -1893 by Adeagbo Akinjogbin (ed.).  The Ibadan army fought prominently in the Osogbo War (1840), in fact they are credited with having stopped the Fulani Jihad army seeking to dip the Koran in the Atlantic Ocean, thus saving Yorubaland. They were also on duty in the Ibadan-Ijaye War (1862), the Kiriji/Ekitiparapo war (1877- 1893), the Jalumi War (1878). The children of Lagelu, the acclaimed founder of Ibadan, descendants of Oluyole, were also strong military mercenaries who fought on the side of other communities that called on them for help. Ibadan indeed became a major political centre after the fall of the Oyo Empire.  But the same Ibadan army would later become oppressive, expansive and territorial under Aare Latoosa and his agents called Ajeles and Baba Kekeres, leading to the 15-year Ekitiparapo revolt, but that is another story about how other Yoruba communities, forming a confederate army, saved themselves from Ibadan tyranny.

The people of Ibadan are still in a celebratory mood with the emergence of their 44th traditional ruler. It would be in bad taste to seize the occasion to remind them of the sordid aspects of their past history, as they look to the future, with the emergence of Senator Rashidi Ladoja as their king. He follows in the line of most modern kings that the Ibadans have had in recent times. Indeed, in general, even with a non-hereditary system in place, the preference in Ibadan as is the case elsewhere has been for educated traditional rulers who are prepared for the challenges of a modern dispensation.  The late Oba Owolabi Olakulehin, the 43rd Olubadan was a graduate of the Yaba College of Technology. He retired as a Major in the Nigerian Army.  He was also a politician – member of the House of Representatives (Ibadan South East) in 1992 and an entrepreneur. Before him, the 42ndOlubadan, Senator Lekan Balogun was a Ph.D holder, Senator of the Federal Republic (1999 – 2003), a former university teacher, author and educationist. The latest Olubadan is just as distinguished. He has a degree in Engineering. He is a polyglot. He has been in the private sector, politics, entrepreneurship and he has a strong network that will benefit his Ibadan people. He was honoured last week by a broad spectrum of Nigerians, not out of a sense of duty, but in recognition of his personal accomplishments, and in celebration of the junction that he has reached. Mr. Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra and Labour Party Presidential candidate, referred to him as “my dear elder brother”. Some people are losing sleep over that. I do not see their point. Obi and Ladoja were Governors about the same period, they are brothers in that sense.  Besides, referring to an 81-year-old as a brother is not a crime, in some other circumstances, this writer would call a 100-year-old man a brother and it would be considered acceptable. Brothers are most worthy persons. It is a term of endearment, respect and honour. The brotherhood of man is about the highest level of engagement.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was at Mapo Hall to honour and celebrate King Ladoja. He was there as a friend, brother and as Nigerian President. Ladoja and Tinubu used to sit in Nigeria’s Senate at the same time. One is President today, the other is now “kinging” to borrow a Nigerian phrase.  Beyond the niceties, Tinubu told the Ibadan crowd that “the economy has turned a corner… The economy has returned to a moment of growth and prosperity.”  He can say that to the World Bank and the IMF, those hit-men groups, who seem to lap up everything Nigeria’s obedient government says or tells them. The reality is that the growth and prosperity that the President speaks about exists only in the imaginations of Aso Villa and the funny scripts of Nigeria’s economic managers. Nigerians are in pains. They are overburdened. The only people that are enjoying prosperity are the state Governors and the men in power who chase us off the roads with their siren-blaring convoys and their uniformed men who terrorise citizens, shooting and killing at will, while armed robbers, insurgents and terrorists run amok, killing the innocent, abbreviating dreams. Armed robbers just killed an innocent Arise News anchor in Katampe, Abuja. Very sad. PENGASSAN, the Union of Oil and Gas workers, is determined to sabotage the economy. They are shutting down energy supply to every Nigerian simply because they disagree with Dangote Refinery. President Tinubu cannot boast at this time about growth and prosperity. He must stand up and chest out and address the various ills that afflict us.

In Ibadan. Oba Ladoja says that he will be the king of everybody be they Muslims or Christians, king of all religions. He does not quite have an option in the matter. The rotational structure of Ibadanland’s monarchy simply means that at one time or the other, a Christian or a Muslim can become the Olubadan.  “We are all governing Ibadan”, Ladoja said. “I’m just the co-ordinator. You people are the small Olubadan; I’m the big Olubadan… I’m Olubadan for all.” These are very humble, reassuring words. But the Olubadan should remember the words of his old adversary, President Olusegun Obasanjo who congratulated and advised him to separate tradition and politics. He should heed that advice.

The emergence on the throne across the country of an emerging generation of experienced, skillful, well-exposed traditional rulers should return us to the old debate about a role for traditional rulers in Nigeria’s constitutional arrangement. Nigeria’s modern traditional rulers are better educated, influential and experienced. Many of them are very young people who take to the throne because they want to secure family traditions. They represent a reserve army at the grassroots level that can be deployed more meaningfully. They are a store of valuable grassroots energy. In the First Republic, Nigeria had a House of Chiefs, a non-elective legislative chamber in the regions, analogous to the British House of Lords.  The problem is that some of the traditional rulers got too involved in politics with serious, historical consequences – the Olowo of Owo, Olateru-Olagbegi, the Odemo of Isara, Samuel Akinsanya and the Ooni of Ife, Sir Adesoji Tadeniawo Aderemi. Notwithstanding, it is an idea that can be tried again to connect the local levels with the regions and the centres.