His Royal Highness, Oba Adewunmi Adeniji, is the Onibudo of Aiyetoro-Budo, Itele, Ota, Ogun State. He is a graduate of Computer Science from the Lagos State University (LASU). In this interview with TIM OKOJIE Ave, he points out that what Nigeria needs most now, after the February 25 presidential election, is peace. He insists that peace is the bedrock of development. He also speaks on the hardship Nigerians are passing through, among other national issues. Excerpt:
How would you describe the presidential and National Assembly elections?
Basically, the election was free and fair. We are lucky that the polling units in my kingdom had just few issues such as INEC logistics problems. And there has not been crisis so far.
Would you say there have not been any challenges?
There were challenges from INEC – logistics. INEC officials came late and the voting that ought to have commenced 8:30am didn’t start until 11:30am. There were lots of logistics complaints from INEC ad-hoc staff – break down of vehicles conveying INEC materials and others. I had to send my private patrol van with security guys to help bring INEC officials and materials to my unit. Another issue is that INEC has taken our people from their known polling unit to an unknown destination, even as far as about 17 kilometers away. People who had been voting in this unit for so many years just discovered that their names and information were no longer here and were not transferred to polling units in this kingdom but to OTA. You have to enter three buses to where their names have been transferred. Those people have been disenfranchised and that is not good because it will affect the outcome of the elections. But the last election was peaceful in this part of the state and we do hope that that was how it was across the country.