Why it is wrong for any prince to take a chosen oba to court —Ajalaye of Ipetu Ijesa

Oba Adeleke Agunbiade Oke, Agunbiade III, the new Ajalaye of Ipetu Ijesa, was recently presented with the staff of office by the Osun State government. He speaks with DAPO FALADE on the circumstances of his emergence as a traditional ruler and his development plans for his community, among other issues.

How was the journey towards becoming the traditional ruler of Ipetu Ijesa?

All glory is to God. I will like to quote from the Book of Jeremiah in the Bible which says, He knows you, even before you were formed in your mother’s womb. I believe sincerely that it is only God that appoints a king; no one can choose a king except God. What I experienced from the first day that I was contacted that His Royal Majesty, Oba Adekunle Baderin, Afinbiokin III, has rested with his forefathers to this moment, clearly showed that it is only God that chooses a king, but men can only be of help here and there. I will say all glory to God. For me, the journey started as a prince but today, I am the royal father and the Ajalaye of Ipetu Ijesa.

How did you emerge as the oba?      

I became the traditional ruler of my town by the special grace of God and with the overwhelming support of the people. I became the oba through the love my people have for me. They called me Ilufemiloye I. my people love; they choose and they supported me in all means. Everything that was supposed to be done was done. They made consultations in African way, through Christian and Islamic prayers and wherever they made consultation, everything pointed to me, Adeleke, as the chosen oba. So God choose me as the traditional ruler of this town.

Your late father was the traditional ruler before the era of the immediate past oba. What informed your choice as there are many royal houses and succession to throne is supposed to be rotational?

That is a very good question. Ipetu Ijesa is a historical town and our forefathers had laid down a very good principle that cannot be challenged. The people who founded the town were wise men and men of high integrity. It started with the first oba, Owa Olabidanre. We have two quarters that can produce the traditional rulers, as at today; I don’t want to take you back to 1178, so I will be brief about it. Only two quarters are entitled to the throne as at today and these are the Igando Quarter and the Oke Owa Quarter. The rotation you mentioned has always been between the two quarters, not within Igando or Oke Owa. My father, Oba John Bodunrinde Agunbiade Oke, Agunbiade II, was from Igando. After his demise, the throne went to Oke Owa which produced my immediate predecessor, Oba Adekunle Baderin and where we have four or five ruling houses and it has never been a rotational arrangement among them. Anytime it gets to the turn of Oke Owa, any eligible candidate can become an oba there and it has been like that from time immemorial. This also applies to Igando where any prince can become the oba when it gets to the turn of the quarter.

Let me be sincere with you: if you go through the record of Ipetu Ijesa, you will see that this is not the first time that it will happen, as it has happened times, that when the stool becomes vacant at gets to the turn of Oke Owa where the Ariyeloye Ruling House comes from, Ariyeloye became the oba, even after having produced one immediately before it gets to the turn of the Igando Quarters. This is not the first time. You see, the history of obaship in Ipetu Ijesa is not for today. As I am talking to you now, I am the real descendant of Oba Owa Olabidanre, the founder of Ipetu Ijesa.

On the issue of the rotational system that you mentioned, my father, from the Igando Quarter, was succeeded by another oba from the Oke Owa Quarter, the late Oba Adekunle Baderin, Afinbiokin III. After his demise, the throne came back to the Igando Quarter, based on the existing rotational system and I became the oba. It is still the same rotational system. The issue is that the rotation is not among the princes in Igando Quarter or the princes within Oke Owa Quarter. Rather, it has always been a rotation between Igando and Oke Owa quarters. Any eligible prince can become the oba when it is the turn of Igando and the same is applicable to Oke Owa. If, by the special grace of God, I spent 70 years on the throne and I leave and it is the turn of Oke Owa, the Afinbiokin family can still produce my successor.

The race to the throne threw up many competitors, some of whom are now in court over your selection as the oba. As the father of all now, how do you intend facilitating peace and cordial relationship between you and the aggrieved parties?

The word, aggrieved, I don’t see anybody being aggrieved. We will always go back to history. The foundation of Ipetu Ijesa was premised on a very strong and good set of rules and regulations. Let me put the record straight today: In the history of Ipetu Ijesa, never has anyone gone to court to challenge the selection of an oba. It was not as if there was no struggle or competition among our forebears; even during the reign of my late father, princes from the two quarters competed for the throne. But immediately an oba has been chosen, all the sons and daughters of Ipetu Ijesa would come together.

There is no aggrieved party. The only mistake here now is that people carry rumour around, but I want to tell you with all sense of reality that I don’t believe that a true son of Ipetu Ijesa will go to court to challenge the selection process. This is because if you are a true son of this town, you would have known or heard that it has always been like this: that people will strive, doing their best to become the oba. But if God chooses one among the several competitors, all of them will come together and work for the progress of the town.

But, maybe either by error or by mistake, if is true that somebody went ahead to challenge my choice as the oba, I don’t want to believe that it was one of the princes that did that; it can never one of them because there is no right child that will go outside and start throwing stones to his father’s house. If you take a chosen oba to court and you are a prince, you are pointing fingers at the seat of your forefathers. That is why it is necessary that before you do anything, you must go back to history and the records. Do you think that during the reign of the immediate past oba, the people that were aggrieved then did not know how to go to the court? They knew, but because it is never done in this land, you don’t stand outside and start throwing stones to the seat of your forefathers simply because you were not picked as the oba. What if your son own becomes the oba tomorrow? You see, we are writing history every day. I still want to believe that if it is true that some people are in court over my selection as the oba, it is not any of the princes from this land that will do such because he knows the consequence.

How do you seek to promote peace in order to ensure the growth and development of your domain?

Naturally, I am a peaceful person. As I am talking to you, I don’t see anyone, either living in the town or outside as enemy. Even among us the contestants, we are all brothers. Let me tell you, 75 per cent of those who contest the throne with me are my blood relations; you cannot even be a prince without being my relation, one way or the other. So, many of them, we are related through my mother because all my fore-parents, from both sides, were from Ipetu Ijesa. Now, as the father of all, will I be holding grudges against my own son or daughter? It is impossible. All Ipetu Ijesa indigenes both at home and abroad, are now my sons and daughters: whatever that happens to the town now, I will take the absolute full responsibility for it. Therefore, there will be no sense in it for me to begrudge anybody.  Rather, it is my duty to broker peace and bring everybody to the table. We will sit together and do things like our forefathers did. That is my intention and I will get it done; I will bring everybody together because they are my brothers, sisters and friends and they are now all my children. Peace has always reigned in Ipetu Ijesa and peace will continue to reign in the town.

We are in a modern society but people still believe that some fetish things are still associated with the traditional institution. Did you go through any fetish ritual process in the course of becoming the oba?

Denotatively, I want to believe that the word, fetish, can be misunderstood because when look into the records of our forefathers, the truth is that they were never fetish. People do say “ki o to j’oba, wa je eniyan”, but the truth is that there is nothing like that. All the things that were done in the ‘ipebi’ (sacred room} were purely prayers. I will once again refer to the Bible. When Elijah, the Prophet, was departing, Elisha, his servant, succeeded in getting his mantle. After Elisha had the mantle, he was about crossing River Jordan and he said, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” Why can’t he say where is the Lord God of Elijah? Elisha revered his master and immediately, Heaven responded and the sea parted for him to cross.

So, when we are giving reverence to our forefathers, it is not about being fetish. In my own case, I am a born again Christian. In fact, I am an ordained pastor and I am a Bible student. All I have done in the ipebi cannot be classified as being fetish. There is nothing I ate in Ipebi that I have not been eating for the past 50 years. All the herbs and herbal mixtures that we have been taking, are they fetish objects? They are simple medication known to our forefathers. In my selection process, there was nowhere they killed any human being for ritual. All we did was praying. But where necessary, references were being made to our forefathers because they were the founders of this town.

How do you see yourself combining the role of an ordained pastor with your responsibility as a traditional ruler who, at times, does engage in some rituals to appease the gods?

I will again refer you to the Bible. In the Book of Colosians 1:15, it is clearly written there that God created both the visible and the invisible, throne, powers and principalities by Himself and for Himself. In this land, Ipetu Aro-Odo, there is no ritual, we don’t do rituals here. That is why I said our forefathers were people of integrity. It may be the case in some other places, but the founders of this town knew God. There is no ritual that can affect my deep belief in God.