Yoruba Obas supremacy: You are a liar – Awujale comes for Alake
– The Awujale has criticized the Alake for claiming he his a top monarch
– The traditional ruler said there was no official ranking of Yoruba Obas
Oba Sikiru Adetona, the Awujale of Ijebuland has lashed out at Oba Adedotun Gbadebo,, the Alake of Egbaland for categorising himself as a top monarch in Yorubaland.
The Alake caused a stir a month ago when he received Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife in his palace and said The Ooni occupied the first position in the ranking of kings in Yorubaland. He listed the Alaafin of Oyo, the Oba of Benin, himself and Awujale as second, third, fourth and fifth respectively.
The Punch reports that at a fundraiser for a professorial chair instituted in his honour by the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, in Lagos on March 10, the Awujale said the Alake was a junior monarch in Yorubaland and should not stake a claim to any position.
“The Alake, while receiving the Ooni in his palace, said Yoruba Obas (the ‘Big Five’ so to say) had been categorised with the Ooni in the first position followed by the Alaafin, the Oba of Benin, with the Alake coming fourth and the Awujale occupying the fifth spot in that order. He also went further to quote wrongly from a 1903 Gazette to support all the fallacies in his statement.”
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He said he contacted the Alake on the comment but he denied it.
“In a recent discussion between the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, and me, we also touched on the same issue and the Oba of Lagos told me that he too had asked Alake the same question, which he had again denied vehemently.
“Regrettably, however, when the said statement few days later was continuously credited to the Alake on the pages of newspapers, I expected him to deny it or issue a rebuttal, but he did not do so.
“Therefore, I consider it necessary to debunk the falsehood and misrepresentation of facts from the Ake palace so as to put the records straight.”
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“The first question to Alake is: who categorised the Yoruba Obas and when? I challenge him to produce the document of the said categorisation. It is a known fact that Alake was a junior traditional ruler under the Alaafin at Orile Egba before he fled to Ibadan for refuge as a result of the war then ravaging the Yorubaland.
“Following the defeat of Owu by the Ijebu Army in 1826, the Owus became refugees all over Yorubaland. Some of the Ijebu troops that fought the war proceeded to Ibadan, where they met the Alake and sacked him; consequently forcing him to seek refuge at Ake in Abeokuta in 1830, where, of course, he met the Osile, Olowu and Agura already settled at Oke-Ona, Owu and Gbagura sections of Abeokuta township respectively.
“Even then, the Olubara of Oyo origin had always argued that all the aforementioned four rulers met him in Abeokuta and therefore claimed to be their landlord.
“To even refer to the Alake as ‘the Alake of Abeokuta’, not to talk of Egbaland, is a misnomer, as his control since his arrival at Ake in 1830 and till today is restricted to the Ake section of Abeokuta. The official Government Gazette testifies to this fact.
“In short, the Alake, from history and all available records, is a very junior traditional ruler in Yorubaland. His peers in Ijebuland are the Dagburewe of Idowa; Ajalorun of Ijebu-Ife; Akija of Ikija-Ijebu; Olowu of Owu-Ijebu; Oloko of Ijebu-Imushin; Orimolusi of Ijebu-Igbo and Ebumawe of Ago Iwoye.”
Meanwhile, the palace of the Oba of Benin also reacted to the controversy over the supremacy of Obas in the southwest stating that it was untrue that the Benin king was third in the ranking of kings.
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