BY FESTUS ADEDAYO
In a viral video, Professor Wande Abimbola, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, and the Awise of Yorubaland – head of all Ifa oracle diviners – threw a bombshell. In it, he affirmed that the Oyo State government contacted him on the divination process leading to the nomination of a new Aláàfin of Oyo. Abimbola, who hails from Oyo town, would seem to have ignited a major earthquake which struck Yorubaland and its system of choosing kings. In its strike, the earthquake disemboweled dirt and stench and flung them in the face of the people. The shame hit a Yoruba people whose strength, from ancient times, had always been reference to the purity and incorruptibility of their traditional system.
Abimbola then claimed that the Oyo State governor put a call to him and asked him to preside over Ifa oracle’s choice of who would succeed Alaafin Lamidi Adeyemi, as it was done in ìgbà ìwásè – the ancient time. “I spent ten days seeking the face of Ifá oracle and Ifá made its choice,” he said. Asked who Ifá chose, the professor said it was Prince Owoade, the man announced by the Oyo State government on Friday. He claimed that upon the Ifá divinity’s choice, the kingmakers sought to persuade him to change his mind over it through many subterfuges, but he refused.
The announcement on Friday of Prince Akeem Owoade as the Alaafin of Oyo-designate by the Oyo State government was the trigger of the above. As celebrations and tempers hit the news, Abimbola also alleged that a fight ensued among the Oyo Mesi, the traditional kingmakers of Oyo, over sharing of the huge sums of money collected from candidates for the office. Though they had collectively agreed to choose the candidate who gave them the hugest bribe, two of the kingmakers were said to have quarreled over the amount of money collected by their head and the amount given them in turn. Oyo people were then said to have petitioned the government asking if it was aware of the deleterious influence and effect of bribery on the stool.
The Aláàfin, before the advent of the colonial lords, held powers that could only be curtailed and questioned by the 7-member Oyo Mesi, the council of kingmakers. The kings of Oyo were given cognomens which affirmed their mini-omnipotence like Ikú Bàbá Yèyé and Aláse èkejì òrìsà, both of which considered them as vice-regents of Yoruba gods of creation on earth. Except when the kingmakers institution intervened, the actions of the Aláàfin, either justified or otherwise, were unquestioned and unquestionable.
The role of the Oyo Mesi in the choice of Prince Owoade has become an issue lately. Immediately after the interment of Aláàfin Adeyemi in the traditional kings cemetery in Bara, the contest for succession to the throne of the foremost king in Yorubaland began. Made up of seven principal officers of the state, together, the kingmakers are the Electoral Council of the Oyo Kingdom, and also imbued with legislative powers. Their head is the Bashorun, who also doubles as the Prime Minister. Other members of the Electoral Council are the Àgbàakin, the Sàmù, the Alápinni, the Lágùnà, the Akínikú, and the Ashípa. When there is vacancy, the Basòrun is expected to consult the Ifa oracle for guidance and approval of who the next Aláàfin would be. In time past, it was believed that Oyo kings were chosen by the gods. However, the peremptory manner with which kings are chosen in Yorubaland and the fascination of kingmakers with money in the choices have given people a different opinion.
In October 2023, it was reported that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had quizzed the Oyo kingmakers over allegations that they took bribes from one of the candidates to the vacant stool. They were alleged to have received the sum of N15million each from that candidate. The state government was said to have doubted the fairness of the Oyo Mesi on account of this allegation. It thus appointed warrant kingmakers to join two dissenting Oyo Mesi chiefs in the persons of Àgbàakin and Sàmù of Oyo. This produced the Aláàfin-designate whose choice was made known on Friday
So many studies have been embarked upon on Yoruba ifá divination and its arts. The divination trays have also been subjected to sizeable studies. Professor Wande Abimbola, the most vociferous voice in defence of this inherited system of divination, has conducted so many studies on Ifá and its place in Yoruba religion and the position of divination in Yoruba pantheon. In this wise, Abimbola has variously propounded and pursued the desirability of the use of Ifá divination poetry and literature as sources of historical evidence, even in a modern age as ours. He theoretically and even practically focuses on Ifá prose, poetry, mythology and divination. Indeed, many studies on the Ifá corpus have submitted that with Ifá divination, there is not only a religious implication but it is a means of communication between man and god among the Yoruba people. In fact, studies have posited that Ifá divination has a cultural underpinning for the Yoruba people and is connected to Òrúnmìlà, a Yoruba deity whose teachings are used by kingmakers in the selection of kings in time past.
While the controversy continues on the process of picking the Aláàfin, abandoning the corpus of the seven traditional kingmakers to take a decision on the Aláàfin stool could be said not to be novel. It began during the reign of Oba Adeniran Adeyemi, father of the immediate past Aláàfin. A journey into history will seem to explain this. As it is today with the announcement of Prince Owoade as the Aláàfin-designate, immediately Prince Adeyemi was announced as successor to Aláàfin Gbadegesin Ladigbolu 11 in 1970, Oyo town and Western State of Nigeria quaked. The choice generated brickbats among the contending Princes and their ruling houses. Upon the passing of Oba Ladigbolu, the Western State government had notified the Oyo Mesi to begin the selection of a new Oba.
The Oyo Mesi in turn contacted Baba Oranlola, also known as Baba Iwo, of the Alowolodu ruling house, to become the king. Oranlola then convoked a meeting of the ruling house wherein he informed them that he was nominating his son, Prince Sanda Ladepo Oranlola as Gbadegesin’s successor. Though Baba Iwo got the buy-in of all members of the house for the nomination of his son, a key member of the house, Baba Salami Dudu voiced his dissent to the choice. He instead nominated Prince Adeyemi, whose father, Alaafin Adeyemi Adeniran 11, Gbadegesin’s successor, died in exile upon his deposition by the Western Region government. The contention for the throne was so fierce that it threw other princes who were of other ruling houses, into the ring. Some of them included Prince Olanite Ajagba, Prince Afonja Ilaka, Aremo Sanni Gbadegesin and of course, Prince Oranlola. From whichever prism it may be looked at, Prince Adeyemi, the 31-year old insurance magnate son of Oba Adeniran, was not going to be the successor to Oba Gbadegesin.
Many scholars also held that the reason for Oba Adeniran’s fall from grace to grass was his highly conservative disposition and his overly uncompromising attitude, in spite of his illiteracy. Five years after his coronation, specifically between September 13 and October 13, 1950, the king went ahead in the demonstration of his religious piety by embarking on pilgrimage to Mecca, even without the colonial authority’s support. It was at a time when the District Officer, on August 5, 1950 described such pilgrimage as a “haywire adventure”. Oba Adeniran was also held to have distrust for Western region’s educated elite, most of whom were Christians. Being a Muslim, he seemed to have been marooned by Christian administrators. The councilors of Oyo Province, which included Chief Bode Thomas, Mr. T. Akerele, Rev Gesinde and Rev Taiwo, were all Christians. Unlike other Obas of the Region, Oba Adeniran was neither a member of the Action Group nor of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) like his colleagues. The Ooni of Ife, Odemo of Ishara and the Oba of Benin openly flaunted their membership of politial parties. Oba Adeyemi however donated the sume of £50 to the AG party fund. To rally round Oba Adeyemi, Muslims in Oyo formed the Oyo Parapo (Oyo Peoples Front) as protective shield for him against the councilors. The symbol of their group was a lion and the crown.
So when Council Chair Bode Thomas cut Aláàfin Adeniran’s allowance by £600 in 1952, the history of schism among Oyo Mesi, the kingmakers council, would seem to have begun. Thomas also removed the salary of Adeniran’s heir apparent called the Aremo from the Council’s expenditure and at the same time stopping the salaries of senior officials of the Ààfin who performed judicial functions in the palace. So when Thomas visited the Aremo’s compound on April 21, 1953, he met a stiff resistance and a little skirmish. It was the beginning of the division among the Oyo Mesi, though theirs was not about filthy lucre, which culminated in what we see today on who becomes the 22nd Aláàfin of Oyo.
The Oyo Mesi’s division came during the period of the 1953 to 1958 crisis, first on the basis of religion. The Basorun, Chairman of the Oyo Mesi and the Baba Iyaji, the latter who originally was not a member of the Oyo Mesi but both being Christians, were the first to disconnect from Oba Adeniran. However, by March 1954, Oba Adeniran had got all members of Oyo Mesi back to his fold, excluding the Basòrun and Ashípa. Government then responded by appointing Baba Iyaji and other chiefs to constitute the Oyo Mesi, just as the Oyo State government did in the nomination of Prince Owoade. A procession of 3000 Oyo sons and daughters, led by Balogun Aleelo, was immediately organized which stormed the Resident’s house. On September 5, 1954, Oyo Parapo members’ protest stormed the homes of prominent ruling party chiefs in a riot which left seven people dead. The Lloyd Commission was then set up in 1955, which though exonerated Aláàfin Adeniran of complicity in the crisis, could not stop Oba Adeniran from being deposed and banished to Ilesa. He died in 1958.
The question that remains to be answered now is, did the framers of the unwritten constitution of Oyo Kingdom, especially its kingship electoral system, envisage that a day like this would come when the otherwise revered council, would be enmeshed in sordid allegation of colossal bribery to pick an Aláàfin? Is there fairness in the choice of an Aláàfin candidate whose nomination was ostensibly prompted by graft and bribery? Which of the nominations would be seen to be equitable, the one made via bribery or the one made through the Ifa oracle and government-nominated chiefs?
A new Aláàfin must strive to imbibe many of the qualities of the late Oba Lamidi Adeyemi. In contemporary Nigeria, though the powers of the throne may seem to have dwindled, the Aláàfin still symbolizes the social and political will of his people. He is regarded as the supreme head of kings and princes in the Yoruba nation. This is why if a king who carries excessive personal foibles becomes the Aláàfin, his baggage will tell tremendously, not only on his immediate Oyo people, but on the Yoruba people as a whole. The immediate past occupier of that stool reified the myth and powers of the palace in the most regal manner.
Without compromise, Oba Adeyemi fought the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade to the hilt over the ascendancy and supremacy of his stool. The next Aláàfin must be sure of himself like Oba Adeyemi was. Except in very exceptional cases, Oba Adeyemi continued the myth of Aláàfin of yore who only came out three times in a year. Though he ran an open administration, anyone who attempted to cross the line, he didn’t suffer their fools gladly. I know of a lawyer friend who, ostensibly exploiting his access to the palace who, Oba Adeyemi told me, he kept waiting for almost a whole day, and who had to leave exasperated. “Mo fi Aláàfin hàn án niì” (I showed him the colour of the palace), he told me on the symbolic implication of what he did.
Oba Adeyemi also saw Yorubaland as his constituency. In the build-up to the 2015 general elections, Kabiyesi Adeyemi had complained severally to me on how the then governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, was not requiting the sacrifices he made in backing him to be governor in 2011. It was common knowledge that Aláàfin and his side-partner, Alhaji Azeez Arisekola, fought then incumbent governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, to a standstill and were the major sponsors of Ajimobi to the governorship. So, in 2015, Kabiyesi was dilly-dallying on which of the pendulum he should swing. Goodluck Jonathan had made a foray into the palace and the Muhammadu Buhari phenomenon was catching up like a pestilence. So Kabiyesi rang me up. “We need to decide where we are going,” he said urgently.
And the second day, I was in the palace. Due to the horde of backbiters and evil-permutators who surround power like ants do candy, I had to inform Governor Ajimobi about my movement. And he gave his consent.
On the said day, Kabiyesi and I sat all alone. Anyone who called, he either ignored or told he needed the next one hour off. One of his daughters, a commissioner in the Ajimobi government, came in and he told her how engaged he was. Aláàfin then gave what sounded like a welcome speech which encapsulated the meat of the meeting. Where is the Yoruba going to queue in the impending movement: Jonathan or Buhari? he asked. Should he support Ajimobi for another term? So, I began a very long treatise about the place of the Aláàfin in present Yoruba socio-political equation. The palace had to move with the tide of opinions in Yorubaland or the palace risked being swept off by the typhoon. If he doubted me, he should commission an opinion survey on where the mood of Yorubaland swung, I said. I also gave my opinion about Ajimobi’s disposition to him. “Kabiyesi, not once, not twice, Governor Ajimobi tells whoever wanted to listen that ‘Aláàfin taá tán fún wa ni…’ – Aláàfin bit the bullet for me,” (in 2011) I told Oba Adeyemi.
He thanked me profusely after that discussion. A few days after, Kabiyesi called to appreciate the candidness of my opinion and how where I suggested was where he would swing. In the 2019 election as well, Kabiyesi called to seek my opinion on where he would swing on the gubernatorial election in his state, though he later abandoned our agreed choice and chose his own path. He didn’t seek my opinion on the presidency because he knew we were diametrically opposed on where to go.
A new Aláàfin has been chosen. May his reign be long. But, no matter how long the reign is, what will matter ultimately is how well the fortunes of his people increased during his time. May the new Oba not be antagonistic to his Orí inú (his inner head).
*First published by the Sunday Tribune, January 12, 2025
