Nigerians could care less about who took part in the final rights of passage forthe great Awujale Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona Ogbagba the Second in his glorious transition to Alukiyamo or Allujannah.
I can tell by faith he is resting there comfortably even though I am not a Muslim but I am confident he has got to be there from all I knew about him in his epic life journey.
What Nigerians should worry more about his transition into glory is how he had had lived his 65 precious years on the throne and how he had proved himself to be the most trustworthy Yoruba Royal Father as an Epidemy of integrity and loyalty to the moral values of the Yoruba People as a quintessential Omoluabi per excellence.
I do acknowledge and regret that there are some rotten or bad eggs among us in the Commonwealth of Nigeria of you factor in the perception and the reputation and the track record and notoriety of two or three distinguished Yoruba leaders of consequence who had so frequently betrayed their own people in the judgement and the perception of the Yoruba People .
The 3 leaders were Samuel Ladoke Akintola, President Matthew Olusegun Aremu OkikiOlu who was a hybrid of good and bad to be very fair to him
There was Nigerian Chief Justice Omo Oba Adetokunbo Ademola who had ganged up to betray and to send Pa Obafemi Awolowo to jail on trumped-up Crimes he did not commit.
I served briefly under the sage and I got close to him when he served as Chairman of the Special Task Force on Student Financing in Nigeria and
I was the Secretary in 1974.
I believed Papa’s own version of how he had ended up in jail as brilliantly documented and confirmed by Olayiwola Alaga of the Yoruba World Center of the University of Ibadan.
Their runner up in the Betrayal Saga of these 3 Yoruba leaders were Dr. Olikoye Majekodunmi. a one time Deputy Governor of Ondo State. Akin Omoboriowo who also betrayed Pa Adekunle Ajasin by rigging an election which had led to the August 16, 1983 carbon copy of the French Revolution type of Mayhem and open rebellion in Akure and in most of the urban centers of Ondo State when Ekiti State was still part and parcel of Ondo State.
Among the royal fathers who had joined in the gang up to betray Obafemi Awolowo and all of the Yoruba People were Olowo of Owo Olateru Olagbegi and few royal fathers who did not like Papa’s Politics and they conspired with the Hausa/ Fulani Oligarchy to destroy his progressive legacies in the old Western Region and to take him out.
History has again repeated itself one more time too many when the Oonirisa Sijuwaju Olubuse the Second, as brilliantly captured in the story told by the Awujale Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona in his well publicized memoir before his transition.
We would all have to go to Eldorado or Tipperary to find another Sikiru Adetona one of the most handsome young men just like my favorite Uncle the first Barrister Deji of Akure who had ascended the throne at 32 in 1957 but had joined his ancestors at only 48 after 16 years and 23 days on the throne, to be exact.
Many people use to go to the House of Chiefs at the Parliament Building in Ibadan just to watch the two handsome Obas make their appearance in the House of Chiefs impeccably dressed..
Sikiru Adetona
was actually dethroned by Governor Olabisi Onabanjo but his dethronement letter which never got delivered to him in London but was waiting to be delivered, was over taken by a Military Coup in Nigeria and that letter never saw the light of day and the Awujale was mysteriously saved by Providence and he had survived to tell the story.
Why? Because Awujale Sikiru Kayode Adetona was an Eegun Nla to nkehin Igbale and an Ajagunmole Oluwo Orun who would be long remembered as one of the greatest Awujales of all times in the epic History of the Ijebus when the new Ijebu State that he has assiduously fought to create is finally created by a President Tinubu who thinks a whole world of the Awujale both in life and in death if you can believe that.
I have a premonition that Ijebu State is going to be created in deference to him and his flawless integrity, his charisma and his qualitative leadership.
Forget those who are predicting and hallucinating that Oba Adetona is going to be denied the right of passage to his Maker because he was not buried according to “Isese” precepts but according to Islamic customs and tradition by Clerics who were not there when he fortified to become the Awujale
I say “Foul. over the Bar” like they say in Soccer Parlance.
The Awujale Sikiru Adetona was buried the way he had wanted to be buried in the custom and tradition of the faith he had passionately practiced and embraced to achieve his 65 years on the throne thereby becoming the longest-surviving Awujale in the History of Ijebu. If the Muslim faith had worked for him to be who he was, how for goodness sake can anybody challenged him on a faith and religion that had served him so well. I don’t get it. Do you?
The man was crowned the Awujale at 26 and he had reigned for 65 years without a break pretty much like my grandfather Deji Afunbiowo Adesida who became the Deji of Akure at the ripe age of 64 but had went on to reign for 60 years from 1897 to 1957 thereby becoming the longest/reigning Deji of Akure and the pioneer architect of the first golden century of Akure History from 1897 to 1997 as documented in his Biography titled “ The Lion King and the Cubs” authored by me.
The book had chronicled the fact that grandpa was the only Deji in the History of Akure who would have reigned for 75 years from 1882 when he first ran for the office but was wrongly rigged out of his selection by the Kingmakers because his mother Adojolomo was the first daughter of Sashere Lagookun of Idanre and Akure and Idanre were engaged in a running battle on a land dispute and the Akure Kingmakers took out their prejudice on my grandfather
My grandfather had contested and lost again to his sibling in Deji Arosoye who had reigned from 1890 to 1897 when my grandfather finally got the unanimous approval of the Kingmakers.
The Awujale like Oba Adesida in Akure had recorded a lot of first in Ijebu History
Grandpa had become the first Deji in 1952 to be awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by King Edward the VIII before his abdication from the British throne for the love of an American divorcee Sarah Simpson he had gone ahead to marry
My grandfather again without ever seeing the four walls of a school or getting baptized had become the first to-face-to- face have a handshake with Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second at the Government House at Agodi Ibadan In 1956 during his first State visit to Nigeria following her coronation in 1952 as documented in his published Biography launched at the Federal University of Technology Akure on September 19, 2007 and relaunched again on September 13. 2008, at the
Queens Campus of the City University of New York, (CUNY)
I am making this little digression on my grandfather because I saw some striking similarities between the reign of my grandfather and Oba Sikiru Adetona.
My grandfather had held on to his faith and occupation as an Ifa devotee and Oracler.
My grandpa had never, for once knelt down before a Pastor or allow any Pastor or Bishop to ever lay their hands on him in prayer in the Church and yet he spearheaded the effort to bring Christianity to Akure and to have the Missionaries open the first primary School in St David and the first Roman Catholic Secondary School in St Thomas Aquinas College in Akure in 1951 and Oyemekun Grammar School in 1953.
The Awujale seas a Muslim but he was one off the closest friend and supporter of the Anglican Communion Diocese of Ijebu Ode and a bosom friend of my Uncle Bishop Joseph Akinyele Omoyajowo the retired Bishop of Ijebu Diocese as I recall.
Oba Awujale Adetona had lived long like Oba Adesida who had prayed for long life for Queen Elizabeth the Second by predicting that the Queen would live long like the proverbial “Ariro Funfun” the White Carmeleon.
God has answered that prayer with fire . Queen Elizabeth had
become the longest reigning Queen in the history of England by reigning for 70 years and besting the record of Queen Victoria who had reigned for 63 years.
Oba Sikiru Adetona was conferred with the highest honor of CFR and and a Honorary Doctorate of Letters as Chancellor of a Federal University.
Oba Awujale Adetona had become the richest and arguably the most accomplished Awujale in living memory who had elevated the “Ojude Oba” Annual Festivity into a World recognized Carnival that had become the envy of all of the Mega Cities of Nigeria from coast to coast and from Sea to shining Sea.
The Awujale Oba Alaiyeluwa Sikiru Kayode Adetona had singlehandedly led the campaign to have all Ogun State Obas buried in the religious faith they have espoused or canvassed in their life time.
The Bill was signed into law in his Palace by Governor Abiodun of Ogun State to specially honor the highly respected Kabiyesi
Oba Adetona was a transformer who came to the World not to follow or become an observer but to be a catalyst for change and modernity in his very civilized and affluent Domain
He was the only Royal Father to build and to own a 12 Story Highrise Skyscraper which has become the talk of the town in Victoria Island.
The property was built for him by a property Developer within 10 years of his ascendancy to the ancient throne of Ijubu Land
What difference does it make, if his lifeless body was not buried by the highly respected traditional Osugbos or the Lodge Members or the Foresters or the Masonry who had the greatest respect for him in his life time and who had cooperated with him to achieve all of his valuable accomplishments as the Awujale of Ijebu. .
They would easily forgive him like they did to highly respected Oba Adetayo Ikupakude the Orimolusi of Ijebu Igbo who had died in a plane crash.
Eternal rest grant the one and only Awujale of Ijebu Land Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona Ogbagba the Second of blessed memory.
The Peace of Allah be with him
“ Amin Kun Faya Kun”
Om’Oba Dr. Wumi Akintide.
