South-West governors deny shunning Awolowo lecture

In response to newspaper reports that South-West governors shunned the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo lecture, governors of Oyo and Ekiti states have denied shunning the lecture, saying they were absent because they were attending important state assignments.

The six governors of the South-West states were conspicuously absent at the 2012 Obafemi Awolowo Memorial Lecture which held in Lagos recently.

The event, which was organised by the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation, was attended by traditional rulers and politicians from different parts of the country.

According to the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Olayinka Oyebode, Governor Kayode Fayemi could not attend the lecture because he had an important state function.

Oyebode said, “The governor had a crucial state function in Ado-Ekiti, as a result he could not travel out of the state for the lecture. But I’m sure he got across to the organisers of the event. His primary responsibility is to govern Ekiti State. If he is invited to an event, be it a lecture, a book launch and something else, he would attend only if there is no pressing state assignment.”

Similarly, the Special Adviser (Media) to Oyo State Governor, Dr. Festus Adedayo, said state assignments kept Governor Abiola Ajimobi from attending the lecture.

“Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was recently referred to by Governor Abiola Ajimobi at a South-West reintegration summit, as a recent Yoruba ancestor, is almost a god to the government and people of Oyo State. His image looms even larger to the governor of Oyo. And more so, because Ajimobi sits inside the same hallowed environment where Awo sat as Premier to administer the Western region. But the exigencies of day to day office work make the governor to give a round-the-clock attention to governance, and as such his absence at that forum,” he said.

It would be recalled that October last year, the governors of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, and Osun were also absent from the pan-Yoruba summit which was convened by the Ooni of Ife and Mama H.I.D. Awolowo at Awolowo’s residence in Ikenne, Ogun State.