There are many stories of how monarchs ascended the thrones of their forebears. What is the story behind yours?
I became the Aragbiji of Iragbiji in Boripe Local Government Area of Osun State on May 22, 2008 under normal circumstances. My selection followed the normal traditional and official processes. There was contest as it is obtainable in all Yoruba land. Contest to the throne by the princes preserves the respect and dignity of the throne. Every prince is entitled to the throne but only one eventually makes it. I have a strong conviction that the town and my people knew what they wanted and to God be the glory. Former governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola gave me the staff of office and the coronation ceremony attracted eminent personalities to the town.
In the next 10 months, you will be 10 years on the throne, how do you intend to celebrate your 10th anniversary?
Isn’t it funny that you are already planning for my tenth anniversary? But I need to say it that everything is in the hands of God. The way I live my life does not put so much pressure on future activities because only God determines what happens tomorrow. I am not foreclosing the celebration of an anniversary as you pointed out but I cannot just start to roll out my plan for that now. Don’t forget the fact that the town belongs to the people. I am only here by the grace of God to steer the ship. Let us leave that matter for now.
Because of your religious inclination as a Muslim, one would expect you to stay away from Orioke festival which is a prominent celebration in your town. Why are you promoting it?
I know that many who know my position in Islam, my faith, will be wondering why I am in support of the festival. I must make it clear that the concept of Orioke is synonymous with the founding of Iragbiji about six centuries ago. It used to be the single unifying festival before the advent of Islam and Christianity. What am I saying? Orioke festival is all about the history of Iragbiji and as the custodian of history and tradition of the town, I must identify with it.
So, the Aragbiji and the festival are inseparable?
It is true because it is about the origin of Iragbiji itself. But I am happy to tell you that today, the game has changed. I have redirected the minds of our people away from the religiosity to culture. We have now modified it to incorporate other recreational activities such as local games to attract the young ones and it has been a success. We still do the normal procession to Orioke but I have barred people from requesting anything from any other source but God, the owner of the hill and everything including us all. We supplicate to Him only and discourage anyone from attributing the sublime powers of Allah to any of His great works. Let us all support our reinvention. Come up with great ideas and don’t just sit somewhere criticising us. We must all join hands to make Iragbiji great. Orioke festival and our Egungun festival are our cultural heritage which we must preserve because they are tourism products if well developed. Please, stop speaking English language to your children and wards. It is saddening seeing our children not being comfortable with Yoruba language even at home, talk less of our children in diaspora.
Given the plural nature of this country, especially in the area of religion, how best do you think different faiths can operate without creating tension?
It is unfortunate that religion is used to perpetrate evil. It is unfortunate that some would hide under religion to do what religion does not preach. I don’t want to be too specific but I assume you understand what I mean. No religion preaches that you must go out and kill your fellow human beings. Islam, which I practice till date, despite my position, does not encourage anyone to kill his fellow, regardless of the fellow’s religion. And something I always emphasise whenever opportunity presents itself is that we should understand each other; Muslims should endeavor to understand Christians while Christians should also show understanding to African traditional religion. If this is done, there won’t be any tension anywhere. I don’t subscribe to the usual saying that we should tolerate one another. We should rather accommodate one another based on the understanding of ourselves. This will even cement a good relationship. There was an Islamic gathering around this time last year where I told the audience this. It was a post-Ramadan lecture of the Guild of Muslim Professionals in Osun State. I said it pointblank that the era of preaching religious tolerance is gone; that it is now understanding and accommodation. I am happy to tell you that that is also the position of the Sultan of Sokoto, who is the head of Muslims in Nigeria. Tolerance is when one reluctantly accepts what he should ordinarily reject. Understanding is accepting the other person and his strength and weakness
As the father of all Iragbiji indigenes, what can you say is the strongpoint that stands your town out among other towns in Osun State and Yoruba land as a whole?
I think I must even start from myself as an example of who an Iragbiji indigene is from time immemorial. I think I should even rather tell you to go and find out who I was while I was in the civil service before I became a traditional ruler in 2008.
You can describe those years.
I was brought up to appreciate hard work as the only means to success. We don’t believe in taking a shortcut to the top because success through shortcut is always short-lived. Such success does not and cannot stand the test of time. I am happy to tell you that I took the time needed to pay my due and I am better off. By the time my predecessor passed on, my antecedence in my office and in the town worked together during the contest and to God be the glory at the end of the day.
Are you saying you were the best among the contestants?
How would I say that? Don’t forget the question you asked that led me to this story. The question is about the strongpoint of the Iragbiji people. I can tell you that it is not a matter of being the best among them. We are blessed with a group of hardworking people who have done and are still doing well in their various areas of specialisation. This quality can be seen in the way we rise to community projects. We are driven by a communal spirit which makes things a bit easy for us, in terms of basic amenities. My years in service taught me that government cannot do everything. Any town that wants development must show commitment first after which government would now come in. That is our philosophy in this town, which is working well for us. We have the Iragbiji Development Council. This council has worked out areas of our development and has lived to its name. For instance, it has donated medical equipment to the Comprehensive Health Centre. The ceremony was done right here in the palace before everybody. This is one of our self-help projects I talked about. But this is not saying government should forget us. We still have areas to cover in terms of amenities. We are not unmindful of the state of the economy as regards what state governments receive from the federal government.
Iragbiji people were once noted for farming. Are they still involved in farming?
Yes. I told you hard work is our hallmark. Farming has always been our occupation. Many parents whose children are today in high places funded their education from the proceeds from farming. In fact, the present economic recession makes it important for my people to go into large scale farming now. Massive food production for the town and the state at large is my business now because food solves more than half of human problems. I want my people to cultivate maize, rice, cassava, pepper, tomatoes, cucumber and vegetables in large quantities because this will make us revert to our local foods other than rice which we have consistently seen as a substitute. This will also contribute to the Banish Hunger Policy of the Osun State government.
and then