Olawunmi will be crowned on Friday, May 13, 2022.
A former Deputy Director of Defence Administration, Dr Kunle Olawunmi is to assume the Generalissimo (warlord) title in Yewaland, Ogun State.
Olawunmi will be crowned on Friday, May 13, 2022.
Dr Olawunmi, a retired Naval Commodore with 35 years of military service, is expected to use his experience to enhance the security of his people.
He is to be conferred with the traditional chieftaincy title of Akogun of Ilaro, Yewaland by Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, the Olu of Ilaro and Paramount Ruler of Yewaland.
The event is expected to be held at the private palace of Oba Olugbenle who is also conferring traditional honours on other Nigerians, including Senator Solomon Adeola, also known as Yayi.
Olawunmi hails from Imasayi, a town located within the Yewa vicinity. He graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, earning a BSc in Economics.
He also earned a master’s degree from the Schiller International University in Paris, France and currently works as a lecturer at Chrisland University, Abeokuta, where he is the Head of the Department of Criminology and Security Studies.
Olawunmi also obtained a second master’s degree in Strategic Studies and Diplomacy from the University of Ibadan, after which he earned a PhD in International Relations and Diplomacy at the CEDS Paris in France in 2013.
A career diplomat, Olawunmi served as the Nigerian Embassy's Deputy Defence Attache and France Defence Adviser to Nigeria with concurrent accreditation to eight other countries in Europe.
He is an Associate Professor of Global Counter-Terrorism.
Olawunmi had been in the news after his comments on the Boko Haram insurgency during a recent interview with Channels Television.
Speaking during Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme in August 2021, Olawunmi had alleged that the Nigerian government knew those behind the Boko Haram insurgency in the country.
“They [government] know. Of course, it is in the news,” Olawunmi had said.
“In April this year, the government said they had arrested 400 Bureau De Change (BDCs)-related people that were sponsoring Boko Haram. They told us.”
The government had arrested some people with links to terrorism in the country but had refused to disclose their identities.
Speaking on it, Olawunmi had noted, “Try them, we know them. Why can’t this government, if not that they are partisan, bring those people out for trial?”
“I can’t come on air and start mentioning names of people that are presently in government that the boys we arrested mentioned,” he said, referring to his time as a member of the military intelligence team in 2017.
“Some of them are governors now. Some of them are in the Senate. Some of them are in Aso Rock.”
After the interview, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) had invited Olawunmi for questioning, saying it was a friendly chat.