On Tuesday, 7 April, 2026, Olubadan Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, Arusa 1, formally inaugurated the Ibadan Community Guard at the Palace of the Olubadan in Oke Aremo, Ibadan. The move is a strategic grassroots security initiative designed to collaborate with relevant security agencies in strengthening surveillance and ensuring effective policing across the eleven local government areas of Ibadanland.
The historic event marked a significant step toward enhancing community-based security architecture in response to prevailing challenges in parts of the ancient city.
Speaking at the ceremony, the revered monarch emphasised the importance of collective responsibility in safeguarding lives and property. He noted that the Community Guard will be strategically deployed across all eleven Local Government Areas to complement the efforts of conventional security agencies.
The event also featured the official unveiling of “Gaari Ibadan”, an economic and food security initiative driven by the Ibadan Economic Investment and Business Development Desk in collaboration with the Ibadan Food Security Initiative. The programme is aimed at promoting local production, boosting economic growth, and ensuring food sustainability within the metropolis.
The ceremony attracted notable dignitaries, including members of the Olubadan-in-Council; Mama Onikepo Akande, CON, two-time Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Prof. Dapo Afolabi, OFR, former Head of Service of the Federation; President-General of the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII), Barrister Chief Ajeniyi Ajewole; and other distinguished guests.
The inauguration underscores Olubadan Ladoja’s commitment to peace, security and sustainable development across Ibadanland. This event is what The Progressive Forum, Ibadan (TPFI) stands for. We support Kabiyesi in every way. We said two messages left the Palace on Tuesday: Ibadan will not outsource its safety and Ibadan intends to feed itself. The Community Guard puts eyes and feet in every local government; “Gaari Ibadan” puts hoes and capital in the soil and the market. Security without livelihood is brittle. Livelihood without security is impossible. What Olubadan Ladoja meant is this. You can post guards on every street, but if people are hungry and jobless, that “peace” cracks fast. Hunger makes people desperate. Joblessness breeds informants, thieves and unrest.
The Community Guard can patrol, but if the youth in Beere, Ojoo, or Molete have no work, no food, and no hope, your security will snap under pressure. It may appear strong, but it is actually fragile and brittle! Flip it. You can offer farmers loans, tractors, and the Gaari Ibadan brand.
However, if bandits raid the farms or rob traders on the Iwo Road corridor, the economy collapses. Nobody invests where they can’t protect their harvest or their shop. Markets close early. Investors flee. Livelihood needs safety the way crops need rain. No security, no business. Impossible!
That’s why Olubadan Ladoja launched both in one day. The Community Guard and Gaari Ibadan aren’t two separate projects. They’re two legs of the same body. One leg protects. The other feeds. Lose either leg and Ibadan can’t walk.
A trader in Bodija Market needs soldiers off her neck and customers with money in their pockets. A graduate needs a job and a safe bus ride home at 9.00pm. If you fix one issue without addressing the other, then nothing has been resolved. That’s the logic. Security and livelihood must move together, or they’ll both collapse.
The durability of both initiatives, Ibadan Community Guard and Gaari Ibadan, will hinge on three non-negotiable conditions. First, there must be a clearly defined chain of command between the Community Guard and conventional agencies such as the Nigeria Police and the Directorate of State Security (DSS). Without it, coordination becomes a conflict and the streets suffer. Second, Gaari Ibadan requires transparent, publicly verifiable metrics. Farmers need to see where their cassava goes; off-takers need to trust the supply; citizens need to measure whether food sovereignty is more than a slogan. Third, both projects demand sustained, structured funding, such as committed pledges from Ibadan’s accomplished sons and daughters, which are converted into audited streams that outlive political cycles. The Palace, under Olubadan Ladoja, has provided the spark at Oke Aremo. The burden and the honour of sustaining the flame now rest with the city itself, that is all of us, the Ibadan people and residents. Ibadanland can guard itself! Ibadanland can feed itself!
Tunji Oladejo, mnipr, JP, MANUPA, writes from the University of Ibadan, is the Chairman of The Progressive Forum, Ibadan (TPFI) and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Bayo and Bimpe Oyero Foundation (BBOF) via oladejo65@gmail.com. 08077284442
