Fracas, Tumoil As Alaafin of Oyo Tackles Ooni of Ife

Ooni Ogunwusi, left, and Alaafin Adeyemi

By Ademola Adegbamigbe

When Oba Okunade Sijuwade was alive and reigning as the Ooni of Ife, he and Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, the Alaafin of Oyo, were behaving like two recalcitrant cocks thrown into a pit or two male lions defending their own territories in the jungle against intruders who might want to claim their “wives”. The superiority contest between the two monarchs concerned who, between a political leader of Yorubaland or Oyo Empire (which spread up to Togo) and spiritual leader was superior.

While the Alaafin saw himself as the political leader, the Ooni, the scion of Oduduwa, the progenitor of the Yoruba, regarded himself as the spiritual head. It was a war between the terrestrial and the celestial.

Consequently, the Yoruba nation was not able to benefit from the two Obas in the areas of trouble shooting and interventions at critical moments. Everyone threw his hands up in utter helplessness as the two old men carried on as enemies.

That situation changed, however, when Sijuwade joined his ancestors and Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi emerged as the new Ooni of Ife. He showed all who cared to observe that the status quo had changed and there must be a paradigm shift. Without anyone’s prompting, he made a beeline from Ife to the Alaafin’s palace in Oyo for a courtesy visit. To everyone’s relief, Oba Adeyemi received him with conviviality. Not long after this, Ogunwusi dashed off to Ilesha to visit Oba Adekunle Aromolaran. There was no love lost among the triumvirate. That changed…

Just as all Yoruba were settling down to enjoy the peace among these top Yoruba natural rulers, another issue has cropped up that disinterred primordial animosities between the Ooni and Alaafin.

Trouble started when Oba Ogunwusi spoke at his Ile-Oodua palace in Ile-Ife while receiving the Lagos State president of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Solomon Ogbonna, who had, as a member accompanied the delegation of African Farmers And Cultural Organisation on a courtesy visit to the palace.

That day, Oba Ogunwusi enthusiastically told his guests: “This is your root. I said it recently, some of our Yoruba kinsmen with ignorance of our history came out with nugatory beratement of my position on the family ties between Yoruba and Igbo people. We have to say the truth and the truth must set us all free, we are blood brothers. We should be inseparable. Please feel at home in Yorubaland and respect your Yoruba brothers and sisters too.”

However, the Alaafin, in a letter or response published on a the Nigerian Tribune, debunked the linkages between the two ethnic groups and narrated the Yoruba and Igbo’s path in history.

Oba Adeyemi reasoned that the Igbo with a record of highly respected origin will feel comfortable after tracing their origin to ancient Israel with lineage to Eri, the fifth son of Gad who was the seventh son of Jacob, who was the youngest son of Isaac, son of Abraham.

Alaafin repeated the history of Igbo origin: “Eri, the son of Gad was said to have entered the present Egypt, journeying down Africa, crossing the Nile to Ethiopia (present day Sudan) and finally into the present day Enugwu Aguleri (for more details about this see: THE BOOK NIGERIA 2.O. CARAPACE PUBLISHERS NIGERIA LIMITED. Pg 46 ORIGIN OF THE IGBO: OBU GAD (HOUSE OF GAD) ANAMBRA STATE. Khartoum Street, Wuse, Zone 5, Abuja Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria or www.dayoadedayo.com). Certainly, the Igbo people who are proud of their origin will not feel comfortable with any pseudo history that will make them superior to Israel.