Tradition refers to customs or belief as a long established action or pattern of behaviour in a community or among a group of people, often one that has been handed down from generations.
It also presupposes body of customs, which is a body of long-established practices and beliefs viewed as a set of values by a culture.
Thus, traditional institutions are those social, economic or political organizations/bodies which derive their power, legitimacy, influence and authority from the traditions of a particular people.
Against this background, BODE DUROJAIYE takes a look at Oluwo of Iwo style of rulership, and how the sacred institution has allegedly been bastardised and desecrated to the bewilderment of angry indigenes, as well as concerned Yoruba sons and daughters across the globe.
An Oba in Yoruba political system is ordained by the community’s spiritual and natural authorities, acceptable to and by the community as a role model and unquestionable leader. That is why he is referred to as – ka bi e o si (nobody can question you).
An Oba is not only a mere head of a kingdom but he is ‘Awokose’, meaning a role model; Oba ba ni ile, Oba ba ni oko, meaning ‘father of all’; and the Igbakeji Orisa- ‘second only to the gods’.
He is generally seen, recognized and acknowledged as the custodian of the people’s history and culture.
A Yoruba Oba personifies the kingdom and represents the reincarnation of the past ancestors of the community.
The words of an Oba are orders and their actions are divine and sacred.
Until the modern period, they were hardly seen in public except during important traditional festivals and religious celebrations.
The Oba is assisted by a chain of traditional chiefs and loyalists who
also form important parts of the traditional institution of government
in Yorubaland.
As an institution with a very long history, the Obaship remains a
prominent feature of the Yoruba political organization.
The elaborate ritual processes and initiation involved in their
installation, obviously meant to confer the status of a deity on them
is pertinent, but it also explains their subjects’ perception about
the transformation that they were expected to undergo in the course of
their reigns (which would indeed make a deity out of them).
In underlining the sacrosanct position in which the traditional
rulers, the Yoruba Obas are sacred kings.
Beyond being a direct descendant of the original founder of his town,
the Oba is a man whom the myths describe usually as one of the sons of
Oduduwa, the progenitor of the Yoruba people.
Given his perception as the personification of the town, it is often
said that without the Oba, there could be no town.
Importantly, he is the ritual head of the town though not a priest.
It is, therefore, expected that at annual ceremonies, he received
blessings of royal ancestors and of the hill spirits guarding the town
and conveyed this blessings to his chiefs.
Accordingly, it is his duty to provide sacrifices to a host of lesser
deities and it is on the proper performance of such rituals that the
prosperity of the town is thought to rest.
There is no doubt that the personality of the individuals who lead an
institution goes a long way to affect the public perceptions of such
institutions.
However, findings revealed that unless those unethical actions and deeds of the Oluwo of Iwo in Osun State, Oba Rasheed Akanbi, are drastically curtailed by Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, there is imminence of bloodletting, as tension is mounting in the ancient town.
It is indeed absurd, agonising and absolutely unimaginable that Oba Akanbi does not have the basic knowledge of the history and politics of his kingdom, all in the name of Western civilization.
Apparently, he is not knowledgeable about the historical evolution of his town and the traditional socio-political system, let alone possess the ability to master, comprehend and relate the traditions of origin, early and contemporary history of his kingdom well as the workings and principles of the traditional socio-political systems of the people,
which is one of the most important and most valuable credentials of an Oba.
For some time now, the royal father has not only constituted himself as a strong antagonist of traditions in preference for orthodox religion, but bastardising and desecrating age-long cultural values, and the institution he is holding.
Oba Akanbi does not see himself as a demigod, who is expected to
richly and resplendently radiate everything Yoruba represents in
tradition, culture, language, dressing, rites, and such likes, since
one of the standout strengths that spines the Yoruba culture is its
sheer depth via its diversity and richness.
The handsome young Oba has been seen online going the swag way with his responsibility as a Yoruba Oba.
He is seen wearing supposedly non-Yoruba Oba attires with a crown, and at the same time holding on to his ritual Opa-Ase (staff of Office).
Unbelievably, it was reliably gathered that contrary to what the monarch made the people to believe that he is a practicing Muslim, Oluwo is an unrepentant pagan, with series of ritual practices in the palace, to the extent of taking palace staff to the tomb of late kings
within the palace to take oath of allegiance.
Oluwo defied Islamic doctrine and broke the rule by hijacking
Eid-prayer at praying ground.
This has now become a matter of serious discourse among many Islamic
clerics in Iwo, on how a pagan, pretending to be a Muslim could lead
prayer of that importance.
More so, the Chief Imam of the town saddled with the responsibility
and conferred with the right and authority to lead Eid-prayer,
described the Oluwo’s strange behavior ‘’as a total departure from
Islamic doctrine and protocol, even if he is a practicing Muslim’’.
The external odium Oluwo has caused the town globally, thus turning it
into a subject of ridicule on different social media platforms and
online media.
Criticisms on the internet were unprecedented ever in any part of the
world, a biggest embarrassment for the glorious land of Iwo and its
respected indigenes globally.
People around the world, especially people of African descent and
origin lampooned the royal father for putting on hearings and lacing
his body with tattoo.
Also, criticisms had continued to trail Oba Akanbi on the internet for
wearing a suit on the throne.
A mockery of the exalted stool of Iwo, and the royal institution in
Yoruba land?.
“An Oba who should be a custodian of tradition and culture, but
refused to uphold that culture and norm of his people, the entire
Yoruba race, and Black Africa in general, by sitting on the throne in
clothes other than his royal robes. This is a terrible trend in Yoruba
land. You can’t believe it but it was true that our Kabiyesi crowned
his Jamaican born wife with Royal crown.’’, some aggrieved indigenes
stated.
Aside his embarrassing posture and attitudes that are unbecoming of a
royal father anywhere in the world by several comic dances on tapes
and YouTube which is dangerously taking Yoruba land to the era of
internal imbroglio of the 19th century, the monarch’s inflammatory
comments and delicate manner in which he distorts history, and by
implication fanning embers of discord among different ancient towns of
Yoruba land urgently need to be curtailed.
For instance, a national daily, The Punch had reported how Oluwo after
visiting his acclaimed ancestral lineage in Ile-ife, went ahead rather
garrulously and pronounced that Iwo indigenes have right to become the
Ooni of Ife.
The statement caused internal wranglings among the two towns, Ife and
Iwo. But for the maturity of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, and
his swift intervention, the two towns would have been conflagrated.
As if that is not enough, Oluwo also granted an interview to a Punch
Correspondent on January 1, 2017, where he exploded and said Olubadan
was formerly appointed from Iwo, claiming superiority over the stool
of Olubadan and by this elicited wide condemnation and bashing from
many prominent Ibadan indigenes, who utterly called for his head.
Oba Akanbi further displayed paucity of knowledge and understanding of
the country’s laws with his outbursts against the judiciary which
curiously left many questions unanswered on the soundness of his mind,
and as one of the first class royal fathers in Yoruba land, as well as
his capacity to sustain his role as the custodian of decent tradition
and culture of the region.
It will be recalled that the Oluwo Oke, Oba Kadiri Adeoye initiated an
action against Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi in the law court, and as what
is already in the public domain, accused the Oluwo of internet fraud
and other array of criminal acts in Canada.
Oba Adeoye argued that such a character is not fit to sit on any
throne in Yoruba land, and Iwo town in particular.
The court in its wisdom summoned Oba Akanbi to appear before it, in
line with the stipulation of the law of the land, which makes fair
hearing a mandatory ethos, and practice.
To the chagrin of many right-thinking individuals, Oba Akanbi called
the bluff of the law court and refused to show up, the action that
infuriated the Magistrate, and was compelled to issue a warrant of
arrest against him.
The situation, bewildered residents and indigenes referred to as “another terrible and disgraceful experience in the hands of our supposedly royal father’’.
Oluwo, in his usual and unrepentant character, strangely ignored the court process and the instrument of Nigerian extant law.
A popular online medium, Pulse.ng on December 26, 2016 quoted Oluwo as
saying that he is “bigger than any court in Nigeria”.
In the same vein, a leading Television Station in the country,
Channels TV, in its report of December 23, 2016 came up with a damming
headline: “Oba claims supremacy over court order, threatened to arrest
magistrate”
Also, an exclusive report of a leading online Newspaper in Nigeria,
Premium Times on the same day reported the obscene statement of Oba
Abdulrasheed Akanbi in this form: “Iwo monarch fights back, threatens
magistrate with traditional Warrant of Arrest”.
Consequently, on January 5, 2017, some electronics and print media,
including virtually all the online media in the country, reported the resolve of Magistrates in Osun State to embark on strike over Oluwo’s comment, and the refusal of the Commissioner of Police to order his arrest.
‘’To put the record straight, this development remained bizarre in any
sane community of the world. It was indeed a darkest period for Iwo
town and its indigenes to say the least. Coming home, and strictly
speaking, the royal lineages of Iwo land have become fragmented and
disarrayed by the strange and undefined attitudes of our undignified
ruler, the development that seriously threatens the age-long cohesion
in the domain of traditional power and authority’’, some legal
practitioners who pleaded anonymity for security reason told our
correspondent.
Our correspondent was also reliably informed that On March 21, 2017,
all the ruling families in Iwo land wrote a protest letter to Oba
Akanbi, alerting him of his digression from the steps and norms of
their forebears, and cautioned him to thread softly.
In the said letter, they questioned the rationale behind the
introduction of Sooko Chieftancy title in Iwo land, which has never
been mentioned in the sequence of chieftaincy nomenclature of Iwo
land.
Oba Akanbi was accused of extorting money from many individuals that
jostle for chieftaincy titles with impunity.
Another instance was one of the members of the legal team that
defended his criminal case, Barister Bashiru Adewale Quadri, who Oluwo
invited to come and take the chieftaincy title of ‘’Aipate
Oluwo-Ode’’, after collecting over a million naira from him.
The monarch was said to have eventually gave the title to another
person, and accused Quadri of being rude to him,as the issue has
continued to generate bad blood within the ruling houses in Iwo.
In the same vein, the ruling houses protested against Oluwo’s misrule and disdain through a letter dated March 26, 2017 and titled: “Misuse of Office and Lack of Respect for Princes, Royal Families, and Ruling Houses; A call for Immediate Change”.
All the ruling houses in the above mentioned letter complained and condemned the uncultured and undignified disposition of Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi towards the royal sons and daughters in Iwo, where they bitterly frowned at the way the monarch has made rubbish of their
tradition and custom by crowning his wife.
According to them “Crowning your wife is against the custom of Yoruba
nation anywhere, and no one has ever done that in our history. Your
wife, Olori is always regarded as ours and we have no grudge against
her, but it needs be said that we want her to always appear in
befitting headgears and not crown”.
Instead of listening to words of wisdom from his family and royal
descendants of Iwo, Oluwo went ahead to humiliate the royal men and
women with arrest by the police and DSS, which led to their
interrogation by the security agencies.
Several efforts have been made by prominent Nigerians, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, to settle the rift between him and
Oluwo-oke, in which Oluwo remained recalcitrant and unbending.
As a matter of fact, after Oluwo-oke admission to peaceful settlement,
which resulted to withdrawal of case he instituted from the court, all
the royal families of Iwo also made frantic efforts to bring about a
peaceful end to the feud, in which Oluwo failed to attend the peace
meeting.
Oba Akanbi leaves palace to welcome a Hip-Hop artiste, Davido…
The most disgraceful and shameless display of Oluwo in the recent time
was when he left his royal abode and massacred his dignity by going to
wait for an Hip-hop Artiste, Davido, at Odo-Oba, an outskirt of Iwo
town.
To add more odium to it and as if he was awaiting the arrival of the
President, Oluwo stood on top of the vehicle with the Artiste,
shouting Davidooo, Davidoooo in a motorcade round the town and ended
up in the palace.
What is more, the personality clash between elder statesman and former
National Publicity Secretary of the defunct National Party of Nigeria
(NPN), High Chief Abiola Ogundokun, and the Oluwo is getting messier
as the monarch not only took maturity and decency to the dogs, but
wears toga of notoriety by storming the market, shortly after the
installation of a new chief to replace Chief Ogundokun.
The nonarch who arrived with hoodlums were chanting abusive songs with
threatened utterances to the dismay of angry residents and indigenes.
Uncultured attitudes of the Oluwo is endless, as those unmasked are a
tip of the iceberg compared to many atrocities perpetrated by him,
which make the people averred that Oba Rasheed Akanbi is ‘’absolutely
unfit and not worthy of that exalted position, and in which his
continuity as a monarch of Iwo town remains a time bomb waiting to
explode in the State of the virtues.
According to some members of the royal families who pleaded
anonymity, ‘’to say that Oluwo has lost every royal respect and
dignity in parts of Iwo land, State of Osun, and Nigeria at large is
an understatement, as he has become a serious danger to the
continuity and survival of Iwo town and its environs. There is urgent
need to act fast and save the ugly trend before degenerating beyond
control and constitutes a threat to sustaining peace in the state’’.
‘’To the best of our knowledge, an Oba must follow contemporary
developments to be able to explain evolving policies complementary to
his knowledge of the history, customs, traditions and politics of his
kingdom. An Oba must also be well-informed and equipped about the
current political and socio-economics issues in the community and
larger society so that right positions are championed and informed
policies are made for the benefit of the people’’.
‘’In other words, an Oba must be educated, literate, enlightened,
civilized, dynamic, current, lively and open to new ideas and
suggestions. He must not be too rigid, conservative, myopic and
parochial if he must be a successful Oba of the 21st Century. Our Oba,
the Oluwo of Iwo does not possess any of these credentials.’’
In his comment, a retired senior civil servant, Pa Adewale Amole, wondered how an Oba like the Oluwo settle disputes involving two or more clans or lineages within the town or respond intelligently to questions relating to the early history and politics of their
kingdoms?
“I am of the strong conviction that for the institution of Obaship to regain its lost glory and play its expected role in modern governance with dignity and respect, there are certain relevant credentials which must be possessed by the modern Oba. You can imagine how this Oluwo is desecrating our culture and traditions. What a shame and disgrace to
us’’.
Amole further postulated, ‘’beyond generating healthy competition
among communities, evolving relevant criteria which must be possessed
by an Oba is also meant to throw up able and capable rulers equipped
with the intelligence and resources needed to attract development to
their respective communities’’.
According to him, ’’for the traditional rulers particularly the Yoruba
Obas to be repositioned for greater and more appreciable roles in
sustaining liberal democracy and development, certain necessary
credentials must be possessed by the royal fathers’’.
