Oba Soliu Oyemonla is the Shabiganna of Iganna Kingdom. In this interview by MONICA TAIWO, he talks about what makes Iganna a kingdom, crisis among Yoruba Obas, the need to reconcile history and sundry issues. Excerpts:
What makes Iganna a kingdom?
It is a kingdom because this town is an ancient and historical town; we migrated from Republic of Benin. Our ancestral home is still at Republic of Benin till now, we still have Iganna Kingdom there and our ancestral home bearing Iganna is there, so this is an extension of Iganna in Nigeria. That’s what makes it a kingdom. And our ancestral dynasty is spread across Republic of Benin, we have various settlements there and we still have Oniganna there as the head, that one is Oniganna and he is my brother
Do you relate and what is your relationship with the Ketu people?
We are related. Oniganna came to Nigeria from Republic of Benin four years ago and he was received by the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters. We are related because we are all grandsons of Oduduwa. Alaketu of Ketu, Onisabe of Sabe and Oniganna, the three of them are related.
You are an executive member of the Yoruba Obas conflict resolution committee, what have you been able to achieve?
So far so good, we thank God we have achieved a lot considering that the committee has been silent as it were. Prior to the inauguration of the committee, most especially during the era of the Ooni that passed on, we are all aware of the press war on the pages of newspaper between the Alaafin and the Ooni, a supremacy battle. I think this led our chairman…
Who is the chairman?
Our Chairman is His Imperial Majesty, Oba Dr Frederick Eniolorunda Obateru Akinruntan, the Olugbo of Igbo land and paramount ruler of Ilaje Obas. He is a man that has resources and a man that really loves this nation. So, he really wants the Yoruba to come together, that there should be a departure between the past and the present because this had been a clog in the wheel of the progress of the Yoruba people; this crisis between the Obas because two prominent Obas in Yoruba land were at logger heads. So this is how he started that we cannot fold our hands. If we Obas are the representatives of the God on earth and are sent to be arbitrators and settle disputes for our subjects, will God come down to settle dispute between the Obas? God will not come down; it is an indictment on us for the Obas to be having crisis, to be having problems with themselves, Obas are supposed to maintain peace and order on earth. So that’s our guiding principle and why we thought it wise and the committee has gone so far as to make sure they visited all the parties for the Yoruba race to move forward. We have to sheathe our sword and we should not wash our dirty linens in public. God sent us to come and maintain peace and order on earth and be role models. We should forget our ego and face what we are sent to do. We went to Alaafin, we went to Ooni and to all stakeholders and we told them that for the Yoruba race to move forward, we don’t need to turn the race to a subject of ridicule, though we have differences, we should know how to settle this among ourselves and they all agreed. So, we had our meetings and held press conferences, appealing to them and since then, you will see there is no more press war.
Very recently, the Oluwo issue became headlines in the media. What do you think of this?
It is very unfortunate. I wasn’t happy at all when I read it in the paper. But the problem I have about it is that traditional rulers or traditional institution is an institution on its own that has its own ethics and regulations. So people that understand that will understand how I feel, it is very unfortunate. Personally, I don’t like a situation where the Oluwo of Iwo and the other one, two of them are brothers, they will now drag an issue to the extent that they will take themselves to court. It is very very wrong; in fact, it is unroyal and is even abominable as far as the traditional institution is concerned. So, I think that we as Yoruba Obas and this committee will have to intervene and call them to order and resolve the matter. It is very unfortunate and one thing I have also observed in our traditional institution is that, I am very sorry to say this but most of us that found ourselves in this position, most of us really don’t know why we are here, if we understand why we are here, that we are not politicians; we are natural rulers and we have to be God like in our relations and in our acts as leaders. Anybody that is an Oba of a particular town or village no matter the size of that village has been given a divine call, so we must all know that whatsoever we are doing on earth, we are going to give account to our creator so we should not take it to that level. So, it is very unfortunate that an Oba and his kinsmen or brother will settle their dispute in court, it should not be. An Oba is supposed to be an arbitrator, we are court ourselves and before the advent of democracy, Obas were the legislatures, we were the judiciary, we were the executive, so we delegate this power to our sons to oversee. We are there as custodians and we should be able to support them, they should carry us along and everything, not that they should now be using the institution of government against us. It is very unfortunate, though we have not really studied what really happened except what we read on the pages of newspapers but it is just a dispute between two brothers which they are supposed to settle amicably
Earlier when talking of disputes you have settled as a committee, you spoke of the one between late Ooni and the Alaafin, what other one have you mediated in?
That of the Ooni and the Alaafin was the major thing; it was the major problem we identified. It constituted a hindrance and a clog to the progress and unity of purpose in Yoruba land and once there is no unity among the Obas, this will also reflect in our unity and policies in the southwest. That is why if you are able to address that of the Ooni and Alaafin, the tide of things will change and that has changed. That was why when the new Ooni came in, he visited the Alaafin on like two occasions for which we commended him on the pages of the newspaper and if you watch it, for some period now, there is calm. Since then, we have also talked to the Alaafin and he has seen that there is no need for crisis in the interest of progress and the unity of the Yoruba as a race and that they need to be united., and like in the last meeting that we held in Akure, we also deliberated on some issues concerning some Obas that had disagreements with them in that area and a committee was set up to look into this. So we are working
Now back to the issue of Ooni again. Recently there is another altercation
That is another dimension. You know crisis or problems are like plants, they have roots. So if you want to solve a crisis, you need to look at the remote and immediate causes of that crisis. So, I think there is no crisis per say between the Olugbo of Igbo land and the present Ooni, it is just a question or matter of putting records straight because we discovered that in parts of our research about the crisis in Yoruba land, we discovered that the seed of this discord was planted by the first republic politicians. For some reasons, let me say for selfish reasons, I don’t want to mention names and what really happened is that the original Yoruba history has been tampered with; it has been mutilated and if the Yoruba are to move forward, that is why recently, I charged all the Yoruba professors of history like our chairman had been doing, to put the record straight. If you are able to have an authentic history of a race, that will resolve the crisis on its own. So that is what the Olugbo is trying to do, that part of our history had been distorted and if you put the record straight, in a way, it will resolve the crisis because most of our traditional rulers, we are custodians of history
Can you be specific about the parts of our history tampered with?
Those areas include what the Olugbo is trying to say is that, he pre dated Oduduwa, which is a fact. History has it that we have aborigines, yes, Oduduwa migrated from somewhere from Mecca, he’s our progenitor, it is part of history but he met some people there. These people were there with their own culture and cultural value. So when Oduduwa came, because he was destined to be a king and rule, he went through war and conquered many and dominated the people, there was assimilation of culture, that was what the Olugbo is trying to put in place that if you want to talk of the original owners of Ife, it is the people that habited Ife before the coming of Oduduwa. So it is a reconciliation of history, it is not a crisis.
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