A Socio-cultural group, Oyo Development Initiative (ODI), has urged the Olubadan of Ibadan to caution his media aide for allegedly using abusive, derogatory and denigrating words in reaction to issues, especially to elders.
ODI likened words to eggs, saying when broken, they have no remedial value.
In a statement at the weekend by its Coordinator, Dr Adesola Okanlawon, the group said verbal aggression and words deployed by the Olubadan’s media aide in the wake of the Oyo State government’s 1959 Olubadan Chieftaincy Declaration review and subsequent elevation of some traditional rulers and chiefs were inflammatory and inciting.
It noted that such disrespect for elders was unknown to the Yoruba culture and that they was at a variance with the noble role of the palace in the preservation of the people’s culture.
ODI said such disrespectful and abusive use of language would end up heating up the polity.
The group recalled that the statement credited to Mr. Adeola Oloko, the former Chief Press Secretary to Governor Rashidi Ladoja and now Media Assistant to the Olubadan, in which he said members of the Ibadan Elders’ Forum were serial liars and opportunists, was one taken too far.
It said such a statement was unbecoming of a Yoruba man to his elders, adding that his utterances towards the elders on behalf of the palace fell short of moral and cultural standards of the Yoruba concept of “Omoluabi”, the thoroughbred.
ODI said: “The abusive statements credited to Mr. Oloko against Ibadan elders, traditional chiefs, among others, have not helped in any way to douse the tension but rather escalated the disagreements. We all know that Ibadan people know how to resolve their differences. However, seeds of discord sown through verbal and abusive words, especially against elders, might be irreparable.”
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