The Elerinmo of Erinmoland, Osun State, Oba Michael Odunayo Ajayi, a widely travelled man before he ascended the throne about 10 years ago. The former expatriate Executive Vice President of US-owned Pharmaceutical manufacturing giant, Phyto Riker Pharmaceuticals, overseeing the export of high-quality generic pharmaceutical products to over 20 African countries among other high-flying jobs, spoke with GBENGA ADERANTI about the strange circumstances that heralded his ascendance of the Erinmo stool, the challenges that have attended his 10-year-reign and his thoughts on government’s handling of the traditional institution, among other issues.
In a couple of weeks from now, you will be celebrating your tenth anniversary on the throne of your forefathers. How has the journey been?
Long before I was born, there was a prophecy that I would be king, even long before my mother got married to my father. Incidentally, there was another prophecy at my mother’s place, which is a different community and different state from my father’s. I remember my mother telling me that she was a student at Mary Immaculate College, which was a Catholic School, and my great-grandmother was upset because she believed that attending the Catholic school meant she would not be getting married or having children. And she said you are the one that they said would bear us a king. That was going on.
Again, in my community, Erinmo, there was the vision of a king that would come in my own time, and my father was one of the first university graduates in the community and its environs at that time. When my mother got pregnant for my father, she came back to live with my grandmother. My grandmother told my mother that she should say that the baby she was carrying in her womb was a girl, but my mum said, “He is a boy.”
Eventually, she gave birth to me at Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesha, and it was a boy. My mother then told my grandmother, “Mama, didn’t I tell you it would be a boy?”
Apparently, she knew about the prophecy and she was hiding my identity, so they dressed me up like a girl and plaited my hair like a girl’s. I learnt that when it was time to give me a name, I was named at about 1 a.m. with all my names, which included Adeagbo, Adebowale, and so on. This continued, but I understand that after some months, some people came to greet my grandmother and they said “Why are you deceiving us? This child is a boy. Is he not the one we have been talking about?” They realised that the secret was out. They evacuated me from the town, and I never came back until many, many years later.
When the time came for us to occupy the throne, of course, it was the turn of Arowotawaya royal lineage. They had thought that my father would come and do it. Unfortunately, he died. They made up their minds that nobody else would take the throne unless his first son, which was me. That was how I ended up finding myself on the throne as ordained.
Did you face any challenges in the process of becoming the traditional ruler of the town?
Naturally. In Erinmo, there are other ruling houses. Some people had thought they would be able to take it over by one means or the other, but the general percentage of the community knew that it was the turn of Arowotawaya, and they knew who the king would be. Naturally, there were some challenges. Even in my own family and within the other ruling houses, there were litigations that all failed, because they realised that they were fighting a lost cause. Yes, there was. I don’t think there is anywhere in the whole of Nigeria these days that a king would just emerge without one opposition or the other. It is a normal procedure.
I remember my most important mentor, Ooni Sijuwade, said ote lo man mu oye dun, meaning that such challenges are part of kingship.
Considering the drama that is currently going on in Kano, what is your take on this policy of a local government chairman or a governor determining the fate of a traditional ruler?
It is unfortunate, very unfortunate. In an ideal situation, at least in our own situation, according to the Yoruba tradition, a king cannot emerge unless God has approved or ordained the king to emerge. And so in Yoruba tradition, a consultation had to have been made long ago to determine who is capable among those who are contesting. That is a normal procedure. But under the circumstances we have found ourselves, we now find that even after that choice had been made, with full consultations by the kingmakers in the presence of all other people including the local government authorities and so on, there is still a need for the governor to accent to the selection. More or less it is the governor that gives the final accent to say so and so person has been approved to be king. And this is the case in every part of Nigeria today.
However, because this is political authority and will supervise traditional authority, there is a problem. That problem is what is obviously happening in Kano, where a governor deposed an emir and appointed another emir, and another governor came to depose the emir and bring back the former emir. It is going to continue like this until the traditional institution gets its rightful place. And would it ever get its rightful place? They need to be part of the constitution. A constitutional role has to be given to traditional rulers in Nigeria. In other words, there are three arms of government, the fourth must be the traditional ruler, so that they can exist independently, have assigned roles, and work within that ambit.
You lived in the city before you became the traditional ruler of Erinmo. Is there anything you are missing in the village?
After 10 years, I have gotten accustomed to my position. The position of a king is a lifetime one. It is not like a political position that you are there for about four or eight years, after which you have to leave the position. Because it is a position that makes me in constant contact with my people, it means that I recognise the fact that I see this as an assignment. The king is like a servant. The job of a king is to look after the welfare of his people and to develop his community. It is not about the symbolic grandeur of glamour. No, it is not about that. The whole focus essentially is on the welfare of your people, because whatever it is being done will have an effect on generations to come.
I live in Lagos. I have lived outside Nigeria. So, moving down to a rural area was a total change of lifestyle. I have accepted my situation because this is what I was ordained to do even before I was born. You know in our case we have to go through a period of isolation called ipebi. In that period, it is like sending your phone or computer to an engineer to wipe off old memory and reset and download other things. Right now, my thinking, my behaviour, essentially aligned with the traditional expectations of my position as against when I was a prince on my own to operate the way I wanted to.
You just mentioned ipebi (isolation). Many would-be kings are shunning it or would not follow or perform the rite because they believe it is evil. What is your take on this?
The question you should ask is what do they know about ipebi? People who are talking about ipebi are probably talking about what they watch on the African movies. How is it possible to wear a uniform as a policeman or soldier without going to police college or the Nigerian Defence Academy?
Ipebi is a period where you are isolated, seeking discipline, knowledge, training, and preparations ahead of the time of ruling over your people. You cannot just jump from your private life and wear a crown. Wearing a crown does not make you a king; it is the knowledge, attitude, and behavior that make one a king, not just wearing the crown. There is nothing evil about ipebi; it is a period of discipline, a period where you get to learn about your culture, customs, dos and don’ts from physical human beings and the God Almighty who is the one that has put you on the throne.
I think those who talk about ipebi have never been there or do not know what operates there and just assume. You know it is common for people to make such assumptions when they don’t really have an understanding of what really goes on there. If the people are having a meeting, they just assume something evil is going on there. That is not true at all. Jesus excused himself and went to the mountain. And when he was going, he asked his disciples to wait. There is always that period of seclusion.
Even in normal life, people would say they want to reminisce, to think about what to do, and then excuse or isolate themselves. You can’t jump from private life and become a king without knowing what it is all about. Why I said it is both physical and spiritual is that as much as people teach you, the chiefs teach you various aspects of your culture, the expectations, what you should do, and what you shouldn’t do. God still needs to pass some lessons to you. Remember, there is no succession plan in kingship. In other words, one king has to die before another king takes over. It is unlike leaving an office and handing over; you are coming into the office on your own. That is why we say Oba mewa, igba mewa. It is a different ball game.
There have been cases where some Yoruba Oba had to do away with the traditional religion, culture, and tradition. How have you been able to manage these?
I think it is a wrong perception to say this or what everybody has been saying, everybody who becomes king must have religion or whatever they were practicing. People were born Christian, Muslim or born into traditional religion. But the moment you accept to be a king, you are a king over the people. You call me a traditional ruler. I’m not a Christian ruler or a Muslim ruler. That does not becloud the fact that there is only one God Almighty. This God Almighty is neither a Christian God nor a Muslim God; we are only adopting different ways to reach out to him.
There is only one God Almighty. What is evil is known to us. It is known to Christians and known to every other religion. We all know when we are doing good. We also know when we are doing evil.
I am a traditional ruler, yes. It does not stop me from being a Christian. But I have to understand the fact that I cannot accept to be a soldier and refuse to wear khaki. That would mean that I’m in the wrong profession. Those traditional rulers who say they want to abandon tradition are doing so because of a lack of understanding of their role. You cannot say you are a traditional ruler and say no to tradition. Nobody made you a king with anointing oil, neither was anybody made a king with tesbiy or something.
People were made king over their people. That does not mean that the moment you become king, you have become evil and you are now working with the devil. There is only one God, and it is that same God that has made us kings. That is why even in the Christian world, we say God is king of Kings. It doesn’t change anything about who I am, and I believe in God Almighty. I have no doubt about the fact that I’m here doing His assignment as king over His own people.
When you hear things like I don’t want to be associated with tradition, Yoruba gods are small gods, and things like that, how does it make you feel?
As I said, everything will answer to its situation when the time comes. I’m not in a position to query anybody’s behavior. Everybody cannot be the same, and there is nothing like the Yoruba god. God is one God Almighty. The mistake people make is to assume that certain things, certain people are being referred to as God. No, there is no competition for God. There is only one God, and people have only devised different means of reaching out to God. People put the image of Jesus Christ on the cross, and Muslims put inscriptions that represent Islam. People do different things. The Hindus have their own.
Everybody knows God is Almighty. Muslims say Allah Akbar, that is God is Almighty. When you say Jesus Christ is Lord, we know God is Almighty. I think it is a wrong perception to have to think that the moment you say you are king, you are worshipping something. Nobody can worship anything other than God Almighty. However, the manner and the mode of worship differ. Before Christianity came, before Islam came to the world, we were reaching out to God, we were talking to God, and He was answering our prayers. It is the same God we have now, even though Christianity and Islam are with us, remember that these two are imported religions.
It is a wrong perception when people say it is Yoruba God. There is nothing like Yoruba God. God is God Almighty. Things we refer to as gods are people with different supernatural powers that we Yorubas call akanda, eni ti ori sa da. That is what the Yoruba call orisa. Even a king is an orisa, because God has differentiated kings from every other person whereby people who are older than his father will prostrate and kneel for him. That is why a king is like an orisa. Eni ori sa o da, somebody who is able to perform more than an ordinary person. That person is subjected to the God Almighty.
When I became king in 2014, I realised that the essential purpose of my kingship stool is to bring development to my people and cater for their welfare. Over time, Erinmo has been known to be a spiritual town because of the potency of various spiritual mountains that we have. And people troop there for pilgrimage and they get answers to their prayers. At a time too, Erinmo was producing rice. Our rice was one of the best in the area available. Along the line, people stopped producing rice, saying that witches were turning into birds and eating their things. We are in the process of revitalising that, because I had to convince them that everywhere there is fruit, birds will always go there to eat, and this has nothing to do with witches and wizards. They have accepted that.
Erinmo land is fertile for so many things like cocoa and so on. We built a cocoa house where our farmers can produce and send forth, and then we can move on to the next stage of finding an export market or making useful use of them. Of course, we have arable land for farming and so on. We first of all have to provide the infrastructure needed. The electricity was there fading but we had to renew the transformer or whatever and focus on education to people who just thought they just go to school partially, but now everybody understands that education is the key. So I had to introduce various scholarship schemes for students to do more so that they can do well in their exams.
We have plans for youth development. We have one for women’s empowerment, we have one for the adult. So, every time we have an activity, we cater for welfare. We provide food for those who are in need. We cater for the youth by helping them to support their businesses, and we cater for farmers and women by providing the tools they need as farm implements.
We are moving on to stage three now. We are looking to having a full-fledged higher institution in Erinmo and, of course, we want to have real estate where people can own houses in a special part of Erinmo. Thank God, Erinmo is in the eye of everywhere. We are the border town to Ekiti. If you are going to Abuja, there is a federal road that goes through Erinmo. We share the express road coming from Lagos, Ibadan, Ilesha to Akure. We are on that road. This is the whole concept.
Talking about praying mountains in Erinmo, I read somewhere that your people had a problem with one of the owners of the prayer mountains. How did you resolve this?
We didn’t have any problem with them. Erinmo is the owner of Orioke (Prayer Mountain). There are different ‘Baba Aladuras’ on the ‘ori oke’. The last one was the one from Efon Alaye, and the issue was simply the fact that there was an attempt upon his death to convert the ‘ori oke’ to another town by calling it Ori Oke Erinmo via Efon Alaye, which was not correct.
There was an attempt to bury the corpse on the mountain, which was not allowed. Essentially, the matter was taken up. It has been resolved. The Orioke is open and it is being used now. We are expanding the construction of the road to make it comfortable for people to sleep over. We are planning to expand the road to make it easier for people to get to the mountain, because it a powerful mountain and we only needed to assert our authority as the owners of Orioke. The Orioke belongs to Erinmo as a town, not to any individual.
Ijeshaland has been attractive to rampaging herders and Erinmo is not an exception. What are you doing to prevent them from attacking the town?
Erinmo is not different. Every part of Yorubaland is attractive because of the arable land and so on. What we have done in the past was to engage their leaders to explain to them the need to avoid open grazing in and around Erinmo, and when crops are destroyed over time, people have arranged compensation for the farmers. That has been the case. But it requires legislation to make it easier.
Of course, we work hand in hand with security agencies including the police, Amotekun, and so on, to ensure that when a situation is beyond our control, they take charge. But regular engagement is the best way of handling some of these problems.
Culturally, Yoruba monarchs are expected to have many wives. What is your take on polygamy?
Polygamy isn’t about Yoruba monarchs; it is about Africa as a whole. I was at the coronation of the king of Zulu. He is polygamous. Even people who are not kings are polygamous. It is an African thing. It is unfortunate that the white people came and told us that it has to be one man, and one wife. These are the same people engaging in other forms of it. I don’t think that is an issue.
I don’t think God has any issue against polygamy, because reading the Bible, all the people who could talk to God, people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David, who God called a king after my own heart,’ Solomon and co, it is not about polygamy; it is more about the ability to achieve the assignment God has given you. It is not about the number of wives. There is nothing wrong with being polygamous; it is a personal choice about whatever you think you can handle it. If you can handle more than one wife, fine. If you can take care of two or three and they are happy with one another or you can maintain them, fine. I don’t think it is a real issue.
It was because of the monarchs in the olden days, even now, kings get women. Women are given out to kings either from a fellow kingdom or from a kingdom that they had war with, and use that to settle their differences. A king can just say I’m giving you my daughter to marry because we want to have a relationship. It is like forming a bond or an alliance. I don’t think there is anything wrong with it. They can’t give you a wife and you say you don’t want a wife. I don’t think it is an issue. I don’t think polygamy is an issue people should bother themselves about. It is not about kingship. People who are not kings are polygamous.
How would you rate the performance of the Amotekun corps in Osun?
Generally speaking, Amotekun has done very well. I think Amotekun needs to be supported financially. There is a need to get more funding for the scheme. The concept itself is very okay, and we can expand it to all our hunters who are suitable. They don’t have to wear uniforms. We need to train them because they are always in the forest, they see more than other people see.
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Within the limits of the funds available to them, they have done very well. All the governors have done very well with Amotekun. But there is a need for more interfaces with the traditional rulers. There should be a security committee that should involve traditional rulers. There should be security funds available to the traditional rulers because most of the problems are handled at that level even before they are transferred to the government level.
You will be celebrating your 10th anniversary in August. What are the things you have done in the last 10 years and what are your future plans for the town?
I give God Almighty the glory for the opportunity to ascend the throne and for keeping me up to this time because one year in the life of a king is like 10 years. So my 10th coronation anniversary is like being on the throne for 100 years. It is a lot of work; very tasking. And I am glad that in the last 10 years, I’ve not left my people the way they had been. I have improved their lifestyle. We managed several crises including COVID-19, which ravaged everywhere but somehow it never got to Erinmo because people were taken care of. And when they could not go to work, we made arrangements for palliatives for them constantly and they were very well taken care of.
We have improved the electricity situation in Erinmo. It is much better than it was before. Education has been given priority. We have rebuilt schools because we got so many grants from the World Bank to build one of our schools. We have increased the number of primary schools and new schools are opened up in the town. There is a tertiary institution that will be opening very shortly. That has expanded the scope of education in Erinmo to a large extent.
We have supported the farmers too with a lot of implements over some time; almost an annual thing. We have looked after the welfare of our people through medical outreaches.
I believe 10 years is a milestone and, it is an opportunity for me to give God Almighty the glory, thank Him for the opportunity, for being with me, and to rejoice with my people. The programme starts on 6th of August and closes on 11th. Of course, we will celebrate one of our major festivals which is Agidanyin Festival, that is erinmo Founder’s Day, Agidanyin, is the first king in Erinmo, the son of Obalufon Alayemore, who was twice the Ooni of Ife, and the founder of Erinmo. We will celebrate his festival. We will go to the mosque, we will go to the church. We will have a carnival for the youth. We will have something for educational purposes for the school children where they will have a debate and inter-school challenges.
We will award scholarships for various categories of people. We will have a day for praise and worship where we will invite people, notable songstress and ministers to minister to the people. It is a way of giving thanks to the Almighty. And then we have the grand royal reception on the 10th of August where several dignitaries have been invited. We will use the opportunity to felicitate with one another. So many things to do.
You must have had your challenges. How did you surmount them?
The first challenge for me was how to acclimatize to living in Erinmo, considering that I had never lived there before. Everytime I woke up, I wondered if I was really here or I was daydreaming. But I came to the realization that there was no point complaining because it is a point of no return. So I had to organise myself to be free.
The second issue I had was the fact that I was now in the midst of illiterates and semi-literate people yet I have to communicate with them and they have to communicate with me. I quickly had to get used to that, be able to speak their own language, come down to their level, and be able to relate with them.
Thirdly, you are planning something big, but you need to know what your people want. I think this is also important for the government to know. You assume that once you give everybody money, they will be fine. No, there will be other important things they need.
When we started, we empowered a lot of people, and we realised that most of the men were getting married to more wives, getting drunk, getting home late, increasing domestic violence, and so on because they had excess money. The moment we shifted focus to women we realised that no matter how irresponsible a woman may want to be, she will look after the family.
We had issues with certain people or areas who were at war with one another. We were able to reach some kind of reconciliation and that has brought peace to the community.
I have gone through a lot in the sense that as a king, I’m serving my people and I’m serving them 24 hours. There is no time for myself. The door of the palace is open to visitors. Sometimes you find it difficult to get into the entrance of the palace quarter to six in the morning. And on Sundays, they are there with me till 8pm. There is no time. It is not like civil service where you work Monday to Friday 8am-5pm. No, you are always at service.
Even when you are not in town for one reason, my phone has to be on, because I need to be available to receive calls and be able to give directives as to what to do. We have a fortnight community ‘ajo’, which is a community town hall. We meet with chiefs, and when there are cases, such as disputes on lands, we bring them up.
You know in the olden days, the king was the judge, the king was the Inspector General of Police, he was the president, he was the governor, he was everything. We still enact this because we have had several instances where people take cases to court but have to return home to resolve the issue because the truth of the matter is that when it comes to land issues, you can’t resolve them in law courts
We in the town or the palace know the truth because there must be somebody who can give us the testimony and whereas people go to court swear with Bible or Quran and still tell lies, nobody will dare do that inside the palace. So, there is a need again to work out some kind of jurisprudence that allows the king to reach judgment, document this judgment, so that if there is any other case they can pick the sample and take the judgment to court. They need to register and accept the magistrate or customary court as a part of the judicial system legally and formally .
Considering what you go through every day, do you sometimes regret taking this kingship role?
Initially, I felt like that, but God Almighty made me realise that this is an exalted position. You see, God has a plan for everybody. If you were meant to be a tailor and you found yourself as a carpenter, you won’t succeed. But if you go into tailoring, somehow the door is going to open. I’m no longer regretting it. How can I regret being a king? I see the stress; there are lot of stress. There is a lot of white hair on my body which I never had before. I have had to attend to people’s problems more than my own. Sometimes my family suffers because I’m unable to give them as much attention as they would desire. But I try to make it up to them.
Yes, there are instances when I feel I’m overwhelmed. But that is why a king is different. A king is supposed to be superhuman. A king is supposed to be twice wise enough to people who are more than his age, and it is only God who can put you in that position. Yes, I have times that I feel challenged, but I have learnt not to query God.
