The Oluwo of Iwo, Oba AbdulRasheed Akanbi, recently clocked 50 years. In this interview by TUNDE BUSARI, he reflects on his journey through adolescent to the throne.
What are the major events that characterized your life in the last 50 years?
The number of rivers I have crossed in my life is enough to provide resource materials because my last 50 years were eventful. But to say the truth, all those experiences prepared me for whom I am today. I always give glory to God for sparing my life having traversed about 50 countries of the world. What I saw in life up till the process that led to my becoming the Oluwo is beyond human comprehension. Who am I? But when God has destined something to be, there is nobody, there is nothing that can stand in God’s way. I am happy that I passed through some unpleasant experiences all of which are now useful for me as the paramount ruler of Iwo Kingdom under which I have about 30 traditional rulers.
What lesson would you say your life has taught you?
My life didn’t teach me any lesson. Only God, my creator, taught me everything I needed to become whom I am today. As I just said, all the experiences I passed through in life were destined by God to make me the special one I am today. Am I not a special one? That is my description. It is not arrogance. It is not arrogating success to myself. It is gratitude to God who made it so. If you or anybody asks me the same question, I have same answer to it. There is nothing and nobody above God in my life.
How religious are you given your usual reference to Allah in your speech?
Let me tell you being religious is different from being godly. What you see and who you call religious people know that God is not a hypocrite. He is one who stands by us day and night. It is beyond sleeping in the church or spending hours in the mosque or wasting time at a shrine. It is God who serves all his creatures. If someone comes up and says he serves God, I smile and take a walk if the person is not somebody I should teach the right interpretation of the work of God. What I am saying in essence is that it is not a matter of being religious; it is rather a matter of being godly.
Is it the reason you are alleged to be condemning the worship of local deities?
Who says I condemn anybody or anything? I don’t and I won’t. What I do is to set the record straight to educate those who don’t know. I want anybody to tell me the deity or deities which Oduduwa worshiped during his reign. I don’t like people to make a claim they cannot substantiate with evidence. After all, Oduduwa is our progenitor. What deities did he worship in his life time? Where and when then did they come with the instruction that people must worship certain deities? I take an exception in that practice and that is my position.
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Don’t you see your thinking as being rebellious?
It is not rebellion because my position does not take anything away from Yoruba culture which places emphasis on our dresses, our greetings, our food, our mannerism and, in fact, the totality of our life, including celebrating, not worshiping any deity. I have no problem with celebrating some people who demonstrated special qualities during their era. Ogun became Ogun because of his technological skill which he used to make cutlass, a farming tool and weapon. Wasn’t there iron before Ogun? Who was the god of Iron before Ogun? There is nothing like being rebellious on this matter. It is about spreading knowledge so that those who did not know will know. Have you forgotten that I hosted in this palace the masquerade during their festival as tradition requires of me? I was here with other obas watching their performances. Would you now still call that rebellious act? What I am saying is that we should grow up from myopic life and follow the current trend so that we are not left behind. See what technology has turned the world to today. See wonders being done on daily basis. We should not continue to live in the past in the name of culture. I am still challenging those who claim they do money rituals to come forward and make everybody rich. I am ready to give them money to buy what is needed to do it. Work, hard work, is the only solution to poverty, not fooling the desperate and ignorant.
Which kind of a child were you when growing up?
I was not different from other kids around me. The only difference I noticed was that unlike other kids, I was adventurous. I did not like to be held in a spot. I liked to explore the environment around me and beyond. And as I have said earlier, all these experiences combined together to make me a man even when my mates, with due respect, were not.
I was adventurous; adventure is about catching fun even though the risk side of it is still there. You remind me of a year I travelled to Osogbo to see a movie at the then Rasco Cinema along Okefia road. After the movie, I had no transport fare back to Iwo. Guess what I did. I refused the temptation to swallow the pride in me and beg for money to take me back. I found my way to the railway near the film house and followed the track. I trekked on the track to Iwo.
Weren’t you scared of danger on that isolated terrain?
Did I care? Did I think of danger? Till date, I don’t put danger forward before I embark on anything. If danger wants to come, it must be later. That is the best way to conquer the so-called danger. As a young boy in 1981 or so, I was kidnapped but later released by the kidnapper. What else should I be scared of? Looking back to those years now, I keep on giving glory to God because without his protection, I would have gone.
Some say you look younger than your age. Do you agree and what is the secret if you do?
People say it to my face too and I agree and see it as a compliment. The question is: did I create myself? I didn’t. The secret lies with the one who created me. I am delighted hearing that I am younger than my age. I take life as it comes. Don’t forget I said that I don’t worry myself over anything. I accept every situation as it comes. With all I have passed through in life, I should look older but God is not man. His way is different from our way. This is how he wants me to look and this is me.
Your critics on social media say you are an attention-seeking traditional ruler with your visibility in the media and other places. How true are they?
What do you expect those you call my critics to say? Won’t you be surprised if they start hailing me? I think they need to be educated. They should go and read my vision for Iwo before I ascended the throne in 2015. I had vowed to do everything possible to elevate my town to global prominence. I want ‘Iwo’ mentioned in any part of the world and the audience nods their head in the affirmative that they know or they have heard about the place. And this is where we are today. There are two Iwos: the old Iwo and the new Iwo. The new Iwo is the best because we have migrated from obscurity to prominence. Whether anybody likes it or not, the name is everywhere now and big investments are coming to take us beyond where we are. Iwo is located between two state capitals: Ibadan and Osogbo. We are going to explore this opportunity in terms of development, hence my concern and effort on the long abandoned Ibadan-Iwo-Osogbo road.
and then