You must have been close to your dad, the late Oba Okunade Sijuwade, while alive, especially being the eldest child. How would you describe him as king and a family man?
I would first like to describe him as a prince, before talking about him as an oba, then a family man. As a prince, he was hard-working. He always wanted to do the best that he could to improve the lots of the masses. He’s also one that cherished relationships. I remember that at a time he had to move from Ikoyi to Ikeja simply because all his bosom friends lived in the mainland. He always told his children to be humble and respect elders and anybody around them.
When he was still a prince, whenever we had family parties he would bring in all his brothers, nieces and nephews and other relations. He was not just a father to us alone he was a father to every member of the family. So when he became the Ooni, he became a father to all. Later we began to see the importance of his being an Ooni. For instance, we no longer called him daddy, but kabiyesi, except one of us, Kemi who still maintains the word daddy till date.
He was also a strong family man. The first and only time I saw him grieve was in 1986, six years into his reign, when he was told that my mum was going to pass away. It was then that I knew that he had a heart of a husband, a father and a family man. Another unique style he used in bringing us up was that he never beat us. But the tone with which he cautioned or rebuked us whenever we did anything wrong would make it look as if you had been beaten. He always wanted you to do the right thing. He would treat his children exactly the way he would treat everybody else. No favouritism. If you were wrong, he would tell you. If you were right, he would tell you. That later became a huge lesson for me.
So as a father, I miss him very dearly and I will continue to miss him because we learnt what is bad and what is good from him. And equally as a father, he had a way of positioning us to enable us learn. For instance, he would always take some of us along everywhere he went, and that gave us the opportunity of meeting different people. He wanted the children to understand how things were done. He’s also a bridge-builder. He built bridges with the North, the East and the South South. He was race-blind. He looked at everybody, irrespective of where they came from, as equals.
We would miss him. And it’s a shame that people are only remembered for their good works after they must have passed away.
Besides having its benefits, what are some of those demands that go with being the son of a highly revered traditional ruler?
A lot, but the beautiful thing is that my closeness to him when he was a prince, and eventually an oba, taught me how some of those things can be managed. For instance, we never knew how many people he was taking care of until he passed on. All baba used to say when he became 60 was ‘my children, I’ve retired o’. You know he was 50 when he became the Ooni, so the substantial part of the money he made before he retired was the one he was using to maintain himself, take care of the demands of his office and also attend to the needy. Even the money that the government used to give him, he was sending it to the local government council. And, he would always warn us against borrowing. So he had a way of taking care of the pressure without borrowing. When he passed, we, his children, tried to do it the way he would do it. For instance, we ensured that everyone that spent so many years working for him was adequately compensated financially, since they were no longer working for him. We even had some that had been there since 1974.
The demands of office, businesses and others combined to make the late traditional ruler a very busy man with little or no time to spare. How did you, his children, get his attention?
He was quite busy. He slept four hours a day, plus his one hour siesta, in the evening, making five hours. But the best time to see him was in the morning and at night. He was always outside seeing to community and national issues. For us, we realised that with the new role as the Ooni, he was no longer the father to only his children.
In the morning we would see him, talk and get things done and at night too we could see him. And it’s interesting that not all of us are here in Nigeria. I think it was a sort of relief for him in a way. The only time all the children were always around was Christmas and New Year, and we would all pray together. But the good thing in all these was that the Oloris were always available for the children. So whatever baba would not be able to deal with at that particular moment, the oloris would help him out. And that really helped us to bridge that gap.
You must have read or heard a lot of things about your dad, since his demise. What are those things about him that you believe still remain untold?
Well, one thing with him is that he read all the nation’s newspapers every morning wherever he was. Even when technology was not like this, they would use the fax machine or the courier to send everything to him. So every morning he had all the newspapers from Nigeria, with him. Interestingly, Nigerian Tribune was always the first newspaper that he would read.
How do the children see the shoes left behind by the late traditional ruler?
I even think all the children’s feet cannot even fit into those shoes because they are large. It wasn’t easy when he passed on because he left such large shoes. But we’ve been able to strategise among ourselves on how to maintain what was left behind especially through the excellent relationship that we have.
What would you want him remembered for?
A lot of things.That is why we are revising some of the books written on him when he was alive and some of his achievements. We are including some of those pieces of information about some of those achievements that could not be released at the time the books were first written. This is to let people know what he was able to achieve during his time as the Ooni, and even before he became Ooni. We pray that this time next year there won’t be a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic so that we can have a foundation in place and launch some initiative in his honour at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife or Oduduwa University, or both. We are not doing anything this year but we’ve decided to package boxes of food to distribute to people in Ife. Our concern for now is not to endanger people’s safety, in any way, in the midst of the pandemic.
Many see the Ife-Modakeke crisis as one that hindered him from realising his dreams for the community. How true is this?
They are quite right. You know there was a time he was even talking of Oduduwa state, and he was proposing that Ile Ife would be the capital. But one of those things he was able to achieve following the crisis was to upgrade the obas, and create additional obas, in Osun to give peace a chance. Those obas are further closer to the people, and that brought peace. It’s a shame that a lot of things that he wanted to achieve he couldn’t do due to the crisis. Even seeing what happened to Sijuwade Estate was enough to scare a lot of people and prospective investors. But we thank God that peace actually returned to the area during his lifetime. The desire of his family is still to pursue some of the dreams he had for the community and realise and achieve them during our own lifetime.
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