The Olowu of Kuta in the Aiyedire Local Government area of Osun, Oba Hameed Adekunle Oyelude has disclosed that the country’s military is being overstretched with the kind of assignments it is handling.
This was as the monarch noted that the quest for foreign culture and loss of tradition is making traditional rulers in Yoruba land lose their relevance.
Oba Oyelude who noted that the country needed to reduce the load on its military, added that they were doing some jobs that were not constitutionally theirs.
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He urged the federal government to focus on how best to equip Nigeria Police to tackle internal crises and improve security.
The monarch who made the call on Friday, while addressing newsmen in his Palace, said the police, saddled with the responsibility of maintaining internal security, lack proper funding and manpower.
He said there is a need to train and re-train police personnel with modern equipment to lessen the burden placed on the military.
He said, “Nigeria needs to reduce focus on the military for solution. The military is doing the job that is not their constitutional role. We should rather call on the federal government to equip the police more for them to perform their statutory responsibility.
“The Constitutional mandate for our military is the protection of our territorial borders but they are now being overstretched.
“Meanwhile, the police that is saddled with the responsibility of maintaining internal security lack proper funding, manpower required equipment
“We are not in short of intelligence in the country but those who will turn the intelligence into actions. Many intelligence without action will just be wasted when there is no manpower to get there or there is no logistics to pursue the intelligence supply.”
Speaking on Yoruba monarchs losing their relevance, Oba Oyelude said most traditional rulers in the region have abandoned their major duty which is preserving traditions and culture.
The monarch who bemoaned the reduction in the days of seclusion for new traditional rulers, cautioned kingmakers and traditionalists in the region to as a matter of urgency, revert to the tradition which stipulates a period of seclusion for any Oba-elect to between three months to four months.
According to him, the long period of seclusion allowed a monarch to go through proper training both physical and spiritual on being custodian of tradition in his kingdom, as well as being fortified against any kind of evil within and outside his domain.
“Many traditional rulers in Yorubaland are misbehaving because they did not go through the proper traditional seclusion properly. I spent three months and then days in seclusion and each day has its significance. And because traditional rulers are adopting foreign traditions and culture, they are losing relevance on a daily basis.
“No one is made a traditional ruler in Yorubaland to become a religious leader, but a custodian of culture and traditions which reflect in the ways one is selected and prepared for the task chosen to perform.
“Our kingmakers and stakeholders must see to it that we revert to tradition as it was originally. Today some traditional rulers go into seclusion for just three or seven days, what did they learn in those number of days and how will they impact their communities positively? It is better we revert to our core tradition before we start paying others to teach us how to preserve our ways of living,” he added.
