Like him. Hate him. The late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi was not unaware of armies of his enemies who would, under no circumstance, wish him a longer life on the throne. That is why it would be an herculean task for anyone to impress him with slavish prostration and garnished words, even though he loved to be cuddled and praised, especially when he asked you about a speech he just delivered at a public function or a published interview he granted a newspaper or magazine.
A day after his extemporaneous delivery at the grand finale of the Tribune @70 held at the International Conference Centre of the University of Ibadan in November 2019, where he was the royal father of the day, we reviewed his performance, and his head swelled when I told him the remarks made by my colleagues, especially that by the dutiful Sunday Tribune Editor, Mr Sina Oladehinde.
The editor told me that Alaafin captivated him more at that occasion with his lavish brilliance and hardly controvertible authority on socio-political issues he raised in the presence of few actors in the issues he spoke about. Oladehinde said he was watching Alaafin’s lips where he was standing as though he was hearing him for the first time.
That was Oba Adeyemi for you in his element; if it was a gathering of the gowns, he would dazzle them with some scholarly quotations from respected authors with whom only researchers would be familiar. That was Oba Adeyemi who would admit that he was stubborn and very proud when he wanted to be stubborn and very proud. In other words, each circumstance he found himself guided his actions and reactions to issues on his table. Unpredictable, you may say and win a prize.
In his moment of pride, one day in 2021, he told me that the next Alaafin would have a mountain to climb after his departure. In a sobre tone suggestive he probably was communing with spirits of his predecessors, an euphemism of winding down, he said he was afraid of how his successor would sustain the tempo and maintain the height at which he had taken Oyo since January 14, 1971 when the then Western State Governor Lieutenant Colonel Adeyinka Adebayo handed him his Staff of Office amidst a deafening chorus of K-a-b-i-y-e-s-i ooo by jubilant indigenes and non-indigenes of the ancient town.
I snatched that opportunity to finally seek a clarification on the events which led to his ascension to the throne; I had heard a few versions of tales, all of which established two things. One, he was announced the Alaafin in November 1970. Two, his official coronation was in January 1971. However, majority of the stories claimed he wasn’t the choice; that he entered the palace through the back door.
With that question, I knew I had served him his favourite dinner because the time of our talk was well past eight in the evening. He adjusted himself on his seat and tutored me in an image of a devoted teacher and his attentive pupil in an evening class. He asked me: “Were the people of Oyo or the government that imposed me according to what you said you had heard?” I answered that the people of Oyo couldn’t have done that in face of the bullets. I said it was the military government of Lt Colonel Adebayo.
His second question: he asked me if I was aware of the position of the government on his selection which was first made by the Oyo Mesi in March 1968 because it was the government that unjustly sacked his father, Oba Adeniran Adeyemi from the palace on September 8, 1954 and banished him first to Ilesa on September 27 and later to Lagos where he passed away in 1963. His narration of how his father hurriedly left Ilesa in the dusk touched me and further underscored the might of government over traditional institution.
He gave me a detailed account of the process, particularly the intrigue fueled by the government against him, including setting up of the Obileye Commission of Inquiry intended to knock him out of the race for the government’s anointed son, Prince Ladepo Sanda, a fellow candidate solely nominated by his father, Prince Bello Oranlola. He told me how the government summoned the resistant Oyo Mesi to Ibadan and threatened them to play ball and how the Oyo Messi stood their ground and said they were prepared for death but urged the government to release their corpses to their families.
He told me role played by his Leading Counsel, Chief Rotimi Williams. He also told me how that military government was heavily populated by members of the Action Group, the party that performed the deposition rite for his father over a sin he claimed his father never committed and of which he was left off the hook by the Lloyd Commission of Inquiry set up by Governor of Nigeria, Sir John Macpherson to investigate the matter that led to the humiliation of his father.
He went further and revealed the historic role played by Dr Victor Omololu Olunloyo, the new Commissioner of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, who, defiantly but intelligently broke the wall and finally resolved the impasse through his meticulous and transparent approach, which could have exposed and embarrassed the government if the government had pressed harder for his anointed candidate.
Oyo suffered a vacuum from February 1968 when Oba Bello Gbadegesin Ladigbolu II transited to November 1970, a space of two years and 10 months. That history repeated itself until last Friday, January 10, when the Alaafin-elect, Prince Abimbola Akeem Owoade emerged after two years and eight months of contest. Oba Owoade and his predecessor share the same history of being popular choices of God, gods and man.
Oba Adeyemi would have been frustrated out of the race but God, gods and man, in Olunloyo rose in his defence. Oba Owoade would also have lost out save for God, gods and man in Governor Seyi Makinde who insisted in use of the thumbprint of Ifa Oracle supervised by the incorruptible Awise Agbaye, Professor Wande Abimbola. Congratulations, Oba Owoade, who must, in the past three days, have felt the heat awaiting him in that palace, which is different from other palaces he may have visited.
The Alaafin’s Palace is an institution on its own where culture, tradition and knowledge reside side by side. One of the jokers Oba Adeyemi played at the final selection interview was his extensive chanting of his predecessors’ panegyrics to the amazement of the panelists who admitted that none of his co-contestants attempted such an act.
What makes an Alaafin is beyond an embroidered agbada and horsetail; Alaafin is three souls in one person. He is Iku. He is Baba. He is Yeye. He is Ikubabayeye. Though Oba Owoade is seven years older than Oba Adeyemi at coronation, he looks prepared relying on his engineering energy and global exposure to beat the fear of Oba Adeyemi that he would have a mountain to climb to maintain the height at which he had taken Oyo in the mind of the world.
January 13, 2025
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