Soon it’ll be five years since the Onisabe of Igbobi Sabe in Yaba Lagos, Oba Owolabi Adeyemi Adeshina Adewale Adeniyi, Maforunyomi I ascended the throne as the second traditional ruler of the metropolitan town. The well-traveled and very urbane oba spoke with Gboyega Alaka on his ascension to the throne, the dilemma of his pastor background and the history of the town, he loves to refer to as ‘the College Town’.
I’VE years on the throne, how has the journey been?
It’s been fine. You know, when something is divine, it will be like child’s play. But it’s not my doing and I give all thanks to God. I didn’t have the plan to be an oba when I took the decision to come back to Nigeria in 2008, and that is the more reason I thank God for making it easier. He has been with me all the way, and you know that when you are with God, you are majority.
So becoming an oba was never part of your plan….
Yes, although our people used to call me Baba oloye (chief). Even in the US, those who knew my background addressed me as such. But I never gave it any thought, especially because of my subsequent vocation as a pastor in the Celestial Church. That is also why I see it as a divine calling.
You just said you were a pastor, that looks antithetic to oba-ship. Weren’t you a bit reluctant taking up the mantle?
Like I said, it wasn’t part of my plan. Luckily for me, I was given an appointment as a member of the board of Lagos State Wharf Landing Authority on my arrival. I started building my political life from that angle, because most of my friends were politicians.
Did you have to tussle for it?
Like Yoruba like to say, ‘Good thing is not for only one person.’ They also have a saying that it is only a bastard son in a royal family that will not tussle for the throne when it is vacant. I was just sitting in an uncle’s office in Alausa Secretariat, when a man came in to follow up on his retirement benefit and incidentally mentioned that he was preparing to tussle for the oba-ship of Igbobi Sabe. Of course, he didn’t know who I was, but I remember my uncle telling him not to use his retirement benefit to tussle for oba-ship. Looking back, I see that man as the angel that God sent to deliver the message to me.
When he left, I told my uncle that I had ancestral link with Igbobi Sabe that the man mentioned. I told him of how, when my father died in 1979, we went to do his final burial there. Even my second son was christened there in 1982. That is to tell you how strong the link was. Also as a child of around nine to 10 years, I used to travel there with my father a lot. We had two houses then, one in Ijaoye in Idi Omo and another in Sabe. So I told my uncle that I am a bonafide son of Igbobi Sabe but I hadn’t been to any of our homes there since that christening. Add that to the 20 years I spent abroad. I also could not tell if I was of a royal family, partly because my family were staunch Muslims, who didn’t show much interest in those things. They even had a mosque in the compound. So he advised that I go and do my findings, bearing in mind that it is not all indigenes of a town who are entitled to the throne.
Immediately, I called an elderly sister and asked “Aunty, do you know how we’re related to Igbobi Sabe? I heard they want to install a king there. But my sister said she didn’t know much. She also said she was not ready for any oba-ship tussle. I took that as a subtle discouragement. I called on one of my cousins well grounded in the place and we went there. The first thing I did was to go to our ancestral home, to see if it was still there or had been developed. I didn’t tell him about my ambition. we met an elderly man, who told us everything we needed to know. Armed with the vital information, I called my first son and intimated him of my ambition. I was thinking he would dissuade me, but to my surprise, he said go for it. I called my second son, he said the same thing. Next was to be my aged mother in Isale-Eko, but being her only child, I decided against it. I knew she would start crying. Predictably, when I visited her one Sunday to ask after the name of our house, her first response was ‘Don’t go there o.’ It was after I insisted that she told me ‘You are from Idi Omo.’
I take it that all was set at that stage.
Yeah. The first thing I did was to attend the Lagos Joint mainland Chieftaincy Committee meeting, comprising seven local governments. First, they threw me out because I was not invited, but later they called me in. I learnt I ought to have gone through the secretary, which I eventually did and put up a letter of intent indicating my interest in the Igbobi Sabe throne, as a candidate of the Idi Omo household. I was privy to have seen a document, which stated that ‘when the time comes, Idi omo would produce a candidate for the throne.’ That is what I precipitated my candidacy on.
We went back and forth for three years, and then we were called to a meeting at Alausa, to be chaired by the Honourable Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Demorin Kuye. Unfortunately, he had a more pressing appointment and his Permanent Secretary stood in for him. The works committee was to get a declaration for Igbobi Sabe; that document states how many ruling houses, the order of rotation, to be signed by chairman of the forum, the council manager of the kingdom, the governor in that order, and then it will be signed by the permanent secretary, who will register it, and then it becomes law. In my case, I had nobody contesting with me in Idi Omo. The eldest and surviving son of the Maforunyomi branch had also raised my hands. In fact, they were happy to have a formidable candidate.
When you finally became oba-elect, didn’t the conflict of your pastor background and reality of rituals you would have to go through hit you?
Yes, somehow. While the tussle went on, I didn’t see it; not until one Monday when I was summoned to report to Alausa Secretariat and I opened the door to the office of my uncle, Kunle Odufuwa, and everybody present, including Commissioner Kuye all prostrated and chorused ‘Kaabiesi oooo’. Immediately, I burst into tears. Of course people had started calling me Kabiesi since I made my intention known, but this was real and I couldn’t contain it.
That was when the reality of everything dawned on. I thought of the day of coronation. Is it the Aladuras that would come with me or the traditionalists? Back in my childhood in Isale-Eko, I had been steeped in traditional cults before I became a born-again. Courtesy of my mother’s background of Suenu and Ashogbon households, I had entered several places she couldn’t on account of her being a woman. I was now like, so I will go back to these people? Having come thus far, I also could no longer back out. So I shook off the whole fear and said to myself that if God didn’t want me to be king, he would not make it possible. It was then that I remembered a dream I had in 1989, where two women told me, “Shina, it is you we are looking for; they said you should come and become king.” I narrated the dream to elders of my church in Brooklyn and they simply interpreted is as the Lord planning to take me to a higher pedestal in the church. Within seven years, I became a full pastor, so I assumed that was the fulfillment of the dream, until I came back to Nigeria and the real meaning unfolded.
Which areas make up present day Igbobi Sabe? And what are the geographical boundaries?
First and foremost, this used to be part of the old Western Nigeria. Once you cross Mashalashi to this side, towards Mushin, you are in Western Region. So Igbobi Sabe was borderline and part of Ebute-Meta was part of Igbobi Sabe. But because this place was a remote area in those days, the Federal government was just acquiring the land for different purposes; and that is why we have so many military installations on our land. We also have the WAEC office, Federal Science and Technical College between Igbobi Sabe and Abule-jesha, Yabatech, Igbobi College, Igbobi Orthopaedic Hospital. So basically, Igbobi Sabe or Yaba as a whole is a metropolitan city. If we want to trace the history of Igbobi Sabe, it should date back to around the 17th century. If you go to my ancestral home in Sabe, you will see through the structure that the house is about a hundred years old.
Some people have said Igbobi broken down is Igbo Obi (forest of kolanuts or kolanuts farm; how true?
I’d rather say Igbo Odu. Onisabe was the last born of their father, according to history. He, with his siblings, originated from I’VE years on the throne, how has the journey been?
It’s been fine. You know, when something is divine, it will be like child’s play. But it’s not my doing and I give all thanks to God. I didn’t have the plan to be an oba when I took the decision to come back to Nigeria in 2008, and that is the more reason I thank God for making it easier. He has been with me all the way, and you know that when you are with God, you are majority.
So becoming an oba was never part of your plan….
Yes, although our people used to call me Baba oloye (chief). Even in the US, those who knew my background addressed me as such. But I never gave it any thought, especially because of my subsequent vocation as a pastor in the Celestial Church. That is also why I see it as a divine calling.
You just said you were a pastor, that looks antithetic to oba-ship. Weren’t you a bit reluctant taking up the mantle?
Like I said, it wasn’t part of my plan. Luckily for me, I was given an appointment as a member of the board of Lagos State Wharf Landing Authority on my arrival. I started building my political life from that angle, because most of my friends were politicians.
Did you have to tussle for it?
Like Yoruba like to say, ‘Good thing is not for only one person.’ They also have a saying that it is only a bastard son in a royal family that will not tussle for the throne when it is vacant. I was just sitting in an uncle’s office in Alausa Secretariat, when a man came in to follow up on his retirement benefit and incidentally mentioned that he was preparing to tussle for the oba-ship of Igbobi Sabe. Of course, he didn’t know who I was, but I remember my uncle telling him not to use his retirement benefit to tussle for oba-ship. Looking back, I see that man as the angel that God sent to deliver the message to me. I’VE years on the throne, how has the journey been?
It’s been fine. You know, when something is divine, it will be like child’s play. But it’s not my doing and I give all thanks to God. I didn’t have the plan to be an oba when I took the decision to come back to Nigeria in 2008, and that is the more reason I thank God for making it easier. He has been with me all the way, and you know that when you are with God, you are majority.
So becoming an oba was never part of your plan….
Yes, although our people used to call me Baba oloye (chief). Even in the US, those who knew my background addressed me as such. But I never gave it any thought, especially because of my subsequent vocation as a pastor in the Celestial Church. That is also why I see it as a divine calling. I’VE years on the throne, how has the journey been?
It’s been fine. You know, when something is divine, it will be like child’s play. But it’s not my doing and I give all thanks to God. I didn’t have the plan to be an oba when I took the decision to come back to Nigeria in 2008, and that is the more reason I thank God for making it easier. He has been with me all the way, and you know that when you are with God, you are majority.
So becoming an oba was never part of your plan….
Yes, although our people used to call me Baba oloye (chief). Even in the US, those who knew my background addressed me as such. But I never gave it any thought, especially because of my subsequent vocation as a pastor in the Celestial Church. That is also why I see it as a divine calling.
You just said you were a pastor, that looks antithetic to oba-ship. Weren’t you a bit reluctant taking up the mantle?
Like I said, it wasn’t part of my plan. Luckily for me, I was given an appointment as a member of the board of Lagos State Wharf Landing Authority on my arrival. I started building my political life from that angle, because most of my friends were politicians.
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