Baring any change of status-quo, Senator Lekan Balogun is; according to the custom and status, the man to succeed the departed Olubadan, Oba Saliu Adetunji.
Ascension into the post of Olubadan is the most unique and rancour – free in Yorubaland. Ibadan obaship is by succession. The Olubadan-in-council is structured in such a way that it follows hierarchical order.
Senator Lekan Balogun; who until the death of Oba Adetunji was the Otun Olubadan of Ibadan Land. By virtue of this, he is the most senior chief and automatically the heir apparent to the post.
Senator Lekan Balogun sits pretty on the Board of several companies with interests in Oil and Gas, Distributive Trade, Management Consulting, Mechanized Farming and Export of non-oil items as well as Travels and Tourism. He is the erstwhile Administrator, Industrial Relations, Recruitment and Scholarships, Planning and Development at Shell Petroleum Development Company. Senator Lekan Balogun was also a Research Fellow with the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; a Director with Triumph Newspaper, Kano; Editor of the monthly Magazine-“The Nigerian Pathfinder” as well as Management Consultant for Multinational Organizations such as Leyland, Exiat Battery and Nigerian Breweries. He is a renowned technocrat, author and philanthropist.
Senator Balogun holds a Doctorate, Master’s and Bachelor’s Degrees in Public Administration; Public and Social Administration and Economics from Columbus International University, Brunel University and Manchester University all in the United Kingdom.
A former Presidential Aspirant on the platform of SDP, Senator Balogun was also a Gubernatorial Candidate for the PDP in Oyo State in the present political dispensation and a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the Fourth Republic. While I the Senate, he was the chairman, Senate Committee on National Planning and was a member to many Senate Committees such as Appropriations, Security and Intelligence, Police Affairs and Defence (Army). Senator Balogun has written and published widely.
After his primary education, young Lekan was enrolled at CAC Modern School, Anlugbua. Then he was staying with one of his brothers, Late Hamzat Adewale Balogun, who was a civil servant but was studying privately for the General Certificate of Education, Ordinary Level ( GCE O’L). He was also subscribing to Rapid Result College in the UK to enhance his performance in the examination. But Lekan was secretly reading his brother’s correspondence which became very helpful to him when he wrote his qualifying test which was like ‘G4’ at the time. While in the second year of the three-year modern school programme, Lekan sat for the Qualifying Examination and passed. Therefore, he left school without completing the programme.
Armed with this certificate, he travelled to the UK where he studied for his “O and A” levels certificates while doing a part-time job to sustain himself- all under 18 years of age.
A highly cerebral student, gaining admission into the university was not a problem for him. In fact, he had the task of choosing from many offers after which he settled for Brunel University. He left the university in 1973 with a Masters degree in Administration and Economics. He has brief stint with the Lamberth Local Government Social Services Department where he worked for one and a half years after which his academic inclination took the better of him and he enrolled for his Phd. Lekan’s outstanding academic performance did not go unnoticed. For his undergraduate programme, he enjoyed university scholarship while his post graduate studies were sponsored by the Social Science Research Council. He returned to Nigeria and took up an appointment with Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.
In 1973, he resumed as a research fellow at ABU Centre for Social and Economic Research. He also had the option of working as a lecturer at the University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University but he chose ABU instead because of the desire to relate with other people away from his birth place and to know their cultures and traditions.
Young and energetic but not complacent, it did not take him long to tender his resignation letter at ABU having been employed as a research fellow to write papers for government and highlight how well it was doing instead of normative research whereby he would be engaged in writing what government ought to do. He felt the idea of “ praise- singing” government’s programmes negated his ideological principle which is of the progressive leaning. He later took up an appointment with Shell British Petroleum Company where he had a very flourishing career and got promoted almost every year until he became the Head of Recruitment.
The hierarchy.
1) Lekan Balogun: Otun Olubadan.
2) Owolabi Olakulehin: Balogun Olubadan
3) Rashidi Ladoja: Osi Olubadan.
4). Olufemi Olaifa: Otun Balogun.
5) Eddy Oyewole: Ashipa Olubadan.
6) Tajudeen Ajibola: Osi Balogun.
7) Amidu Ajibade: Ekaarun Olubadan.
8) Lateef Gbadamosi: Ashipa Balogun Olubadan.
9) Kola Adegbola: Ekarun Balogun.
10) Abiodun Kola-Daisi: Ekerin Olubadan.
Comrade Lekan Badmus is a Columnist with Oduduwa Online news.
For comments:
lekanbadmuscolumn@gmail.com
