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Dotun Oyeniyi
 Author, Economist and Practicing Attorney
London, England

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By that solidarity visit, the Alaafin has taken a dangerous leap into a political river, the depth of which he either didn’t know or has underestimated.  In the very plausible event that the Appeal courts overturn Alao-Akala’s victory, the tide of this river will surge fiercely against the Alaafin and his solidarity group. How far the Alaafin and his other brother Obas can manage to swim against the tide will be interesting to many but a very scary possibility for those of us who care for the sanctity of our monarchy.

 

ALAO-AKALA, THE TRIBUNAL VERDICT AND THE ‘ALAAFIN OF OYO STATE’
 by Dotun Oyeniyi
 

At last, the election tribunal has given its verdict in Oyo State. For good or for bad; with a 3 to 1 majority, the tribunal has reaffirmed INEC’s position by saying that Alao-Akala was duly elected as Governor in the last elections and therefore should continue to govern over the pacesetter state.  With that judgment, the people will, at least for now, revel or loathe at the sight of a tone-skinned governor, with jewelleries dangling from the neck and bangles rattling on the wrist until the Appeal courts decide what to do with his mandate. 

The judgment was not as topical as some of the events that followed it.  Hardly had the last paragraph of that judgment been read when Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, the Alaafin led his brother Obas, about 23 of them, on a solidarity visit to Alao-Akala, not so much as the Alaafin of Oyo but more as the ‘Alaafin of Oyo State’. Had the judgment gone against Alao-Akala, opined Oba Adeyemi, the monarchs would have gone down with him.  What that meant and how it would have happened remained unexplained by the Alaafin. 

The solidarity visit - hurried, elaborate, seemingly predetermined, unambiguously political and obviously bereft of any vestiges of caution and diplomacy, was very unbecoming and unexpected of a much revered monarch of Alaafin’s calibre and experience.  

At over seven decades on earth and close to four decades on one of the most important thrones in Yorubaland, Oba Adeyemi has certainly come of age.  With the exception of Oba Sikiru Adetona, the Awujale who is now forty-eight years on the throne, the Alaafin should be more experienced than all other leading monarchs in Yorubaland today.  ‘Wisdom is with the aged and understanding in the length of days’ – says Job 12:12.  With such a robust combination of age and experience, it is expected that Oba Adeyemi should know how to maintain a precarious balance between his throne and politics.   

Age and length of time on the throne apart, Oba Adeyemi’s particular antecedent should confer on him some esoteric understanding of the ripples that could be generated if monarchs became partisan politically. His father, the Late Alaafin Adeyemi II was a victim of political intrigues of the western region in the fifties.  Following the freezing of relationship between Alaafin Adeyemi II and Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group Party and the suspicious manner of Bode Thomas’ death, the former was deposed and exiled in Lagos where he hibernated until his death. 

I sincerely couldn’t find any justifiable reason why the Alaafin particularly, and his brother Obas, would so openly and unabashedly support one party to a litigation like that.  Ex-governor Rasheed Ladoja has advanced a reason which is that the Alaafin wants to continue to enjoy government patronage in order to remain the permanent chairman of the state’s council of Obas. 

But does the Alaafin need government patronage to remain the permanent chairman of Oyo State Council of Obas?  I strongly and justifiably believe that he doesn’t.  In spite of the propensity by our politicians to put the cart before the horse for political reasons, any Governor that attempts to make any arrangement in which the Alaafin will be equal or second to any other Oba in the present Oyo state is either an ignoramus in the fields of history, culture and tradition or being blindfolded to reality by political tomfoolery.  

I think Nigerians should begin to do things in the proper and cosmic orders whatever our religious beliefs, political affiliations and sentimental idiosyncrasies are.   Our politicians should leave our monarchs out of politics; let them be in peace; allow their positions to remain sacrosanct and give them their deserved reverence.  In return, our monarchs, especially in Yoruba-land, should stay out of the muddy terrain of politics, remain fathers to all and shun needless rivalry among themselves.  The earlier we begin to do this, the better for our society and the certain it is that we will bestow a well ordered society on the coming generations. 

Though largely unwritten until the early part of the seventeenth century, yet the Yorubas seem to have coherent and congruent oral historical accounts, with some tiny flashes of differences, possibly due to variation in styles of the narrators, those differences did not in anyway derail the overall historical chronology.  It is therefore both amusing and amazing why some of our Obas are in these needless contests for seniority against well known historical hierarchy. 

The Alaafin was, prior to the arrival of British colonial power, the most powerful monarch in the whole of Yoruba-land.  The then Alaafins ruled over an expansive territory from the present boundary of Egbaland in the present Ogun State  to the Borgu border in the present Kwara State and which encompassed Ibadan, Ogbomosho, Iseyin, Kishi and Shaki.   

But powerful as the Alaafin was in those gone ages, he appeared to have conceded the territory of the Ooni to him as the spiritual head of the Yorubas.  That I believe was the reason why his warlike and feisty military commanders did not carry out their expansionist raid towards Ile Ife.  He also seemed to have some measure of reverence for the Orangun of Ila and Oba of Benin who were his senior brothers of the same Oduduwa parentage. 

Among the Egbas, the Alake is supreme and any attempt to undermine his leadership by any other Oba in Egbaland is a baseless and useless attempt to rewrite history.  So are the Awujale among the Ijebus and the Owa among the Ijeshas.   

Given this historical evidence, the Alaafin clearly does not need any solidarity visit to Alao-Akala to establish the former’s position as a permanent chairman of Oyo Obas.  So, when the Soun of Ogbomosho, with all due respect to His Royal Majesty, began to seek rotating the chairmanship with the Alaafin, it is both ludicrous and ridiculous.  I will also like to assume that the Olubadan had been quoted out of context when the press reported His Majesty as saying that Lamidi Adeyemi was a mere clerk before he was made the Alaafin through his assistance. Oba Samuel Odulana is such a urbane, assertive, assured and highly educated monarch that has brought some invigorating approach to the Olubadan dynasty.  I adore him enormously, but that comment, if truly it was made, is less than charitable and just an unnecessary diversion from the real issue.  It matters not whether the Alaafin was a roadside mechanic or even a cobbler prior to ascending the throne, it is the throne that matters not the occupant.  

As human beings and given that we are all political animals, Obas can not be completely apolitical but their involvement must be hidden beneath their palace roofs.  It would have been more appropriate for the Alaafin and his brother Obas to have called Alao-Akala and congratulate him over the phone.  This would have prevented the needless furore generated by this solidarity visit. 

In the United Kingdom, government goes, government comes, be it Conservative, Labour or even the Liberal Democrats, but Her Majesty the Queen remains the symbolic custodian of authority.  Politicians dare not and would never trample upon her authority and territory and she doesn’t get involved in partisan politics, at least openly.

By that solidarity visit, the Alaafin has taken a dangerous leap into a political river, the depth of which he either didn’t know or has underestimated.  In the very plausible event that the Appeal courts overturn Alao-Akala’s victory, the tide of this river will surge fiercely against the Alaafin and his solidarity group. How far the Alaafin and his other brother Obas can manage to swim against the tide will be interesting to many but a very scary possibility for those of us who care for the sanctity of our monarchy.

 

 

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