The paramount Traditional ruler of the Ife kingdom Ooni of Ife,
Oba Okunade Sijuwade, (Iku Baba yeye) (Arole Oodua) was reportedly died on Tuesday night at a London Hospital where he was receiving treatment.
Ashiwaju.org gathered that the Oshun state government is yet to make an official statement regarding his death and some highly placed cabinet members/Chief in his kingdom are yet to make a formal remark regarding the demise of the octogenarian traditional ruler.
Our correespondent spoke to a leader traditional ruler in Oshun to confirm the ugly incident but decline comment after much persuation decided to speak under annonimous to affirm the fact that the traditional ruler passed on at the eary hour of Tuesday at a popular United Kingdm hospital where the traditional reluer used for his routen mediacal check up.
He said, “The
Ooni is dead. It is true. He died about two hours ago in the UK. His two oloris
(wives) – Olori Moni and Olori Odun – were with him in the UK.
“He travelled out
for treatment anytime he fell ill but he couldn’t make it this time. It is sad
but I believe it is God’s time. There was nothing anyone could do to stop it.
“Tokunbo, his
eldest child, will probably leave for the UK this evening. There is nothing we
can do but we take solace in the fact that he lived well. The proper
announcement will be done later,”
The traditional
ruler’s account was corroborated by another monarch, who explained that the
Ooni was indeed flown out of the country five days ago in an air ambulance
after he slumped.
A call to the
line of the monarch was not answered.
There had been
fears over the health of the first class monarch since 2013 when he was taken
out of the country for medical attention for over a month.
Oba Sijuwade
ascended the throne in December 1980.
Born on January
1, 1930, Sijuwade became the fiftieth ruler of the ancient kingdom of Ife,
popularly referred to as the cradle and source of the Yoruba, in 1980.
Though he took
the name Alayeluwa Olubuse II upon his installation, he dropped “Alayeluwa”
from his name a few years back, saying that only God is fit to be called
“Alayeluwa.”
Alayeluwa means
omniscience.
A former commissioner
and indigene of Ife, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “It is true. I
was with him on Wednesday. Last Thursday when we held the political summit in
Ife, he supported us and sent an emissary to the summit. He slumped on Thursday
and was rushed to Ibadan airport from where he was flown to Lagos in an air
ambulance en route to England for treatment. He became stable by Saturday. It
is sad that he relapsed and passed on.”
The flamboyant
traditional ruler was crowned king on December 6, 1980 in a colourful ceremony
attended by prominent traditional rulers the Emir of Kano, Oba of Benin,
Amayanabo of Opobo and the Olu of Warri as well as the representatives of the
Queen of England.
It was gathered
that the Ife traditional council and the Osun State traditional council would
meet on Wednesday.
A competent
source disclosed that emissaries from the two councils would visit the Governor
of Osun, Rauf Aregbesola, to officially break the news to the governor.
Sijuwade was born
to the Ogboru ruling house. The handsome king was a grandson of the Ooni
Sijuwade Adelekan Olubuse I. He studied at the Abeokuta Grammar School and
Oduduwa College in Ile-Ife.
He worked for
three years in his father’s business and later did a two-year stint with the
Nigerian Tribune, before attending the Northampton College in the United
Kingdom to study Business Management.
At the young age
of 30, he became a manager in Leventis, a Greek-Nigerian conglomerate. In 1963,
he became the Sales Director of the state-owned National Motors in Lagos. After
spotting a business opportunity during a 1964 visit to the Soviet Union, he
formed a company to distribute Soviet-built vehicles and equipment in Nigeria.
This later became the nucleus of his widespread business empire. He also invested
in real estate in his home town of Ile-Ife. By the time Sijuwade was crowned
Ooni in 1980 he had become a wealthy man, whose fame and connection was global.
When Sijuwade
became the Ooni, he inherited an ongoing dispute over supremacy between the
obas of Yorubaland. In 1967 the crisis had been resolved when the late Yoruba
sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was chosen as the leader of the Yoruba. In 1976,
the Governor of Oyo State, General David Jemibewon, had decreed that the Ooni
of Ife would be the permanent chairman of the State Council of Obas and Chiefs.
Other Obas led by the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, said the position
should rotate. The dispute calmed down when Osun State was carved out of Oyo
State in August 1991, but still persisted. In January 2009, Sijuwade was quoted
as saying that Oba Adeyemi was ruling a dead empire (the Oyo Empire, which
collapsed in 1793). Adeyemi responded by citing “absurdities” in Sijuwade’s
statements and saying the Ooni “is not in tune with his own history”.
It will be
recalled that Oba Adeyemi, the Permanent Chairman of the Oyo State Council of
Obas and Chiefs, was conspicuously absent from a meeting of Yoruba leaders in
April 2010.
In February 2009,
Sijuwade helped mediate in a dispute over land ownership between the
communities of Ife and Modakeke, resolved in part through the elevation of the
Ogunsua of Modakeke as an Oba.
In August 2010 he
mediated in the ownership dispute between Oyo and Osun states concerning Ladoke
Akintola University, calling a meeting attended by Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola,
governor of Osun State, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, governor of Oyo State and
the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education which resulted in
an action plan.