SOME call it a mystery town, while others refer to the town as a place blessed with huge mineral resources. But the king’s palace which is worth visiting has been the cynosure of all eyes despite the high level of education of the townsmen, for they still use stones to count the number of their past monarchs.
Not only this , the town , Ijero, is the only town in Yoruba land that has the masquerade called Aje ( witch/wizard) which comes out annually .
On how Aje came to be , the monarch said: “In the days of old when children were falling sick and some were dying, our forefathers brought Aje out to come and rescue the town, and since it cured people and released them from their bondage, it was turned into a god being worshipped. Whoever is ill is healed, while progress comes to the town and it wades off calamity from the land.That is why we have been celebrating and worshipping Aje. we also called it Ako Egungun (husband of all the Egungun).
The arrival and mere seeing Aje charges everywhere as there are cries of happiness immediately he is sighted on its arrival from ‘heaven,’ while many run to it to be whipped with its cane. Many beg it to cane them. A young man , Yemi Olutayo, said he offered himself to be caned to receive its blessing.
“I am glad for having the opportunity to be caned. It is a physical and spiritual blessing .I know it has answered my prayers and my life cannot be the same again as things will improve for me next year”.
Joshua Oyewande Olukolade ,an educationist, boasted that the palace would soon be a tourist centre where people would come from different places to visit in the nearest future.
He argued that despite their high level of education, their system or method of keeping of dates and numbers cannot be erased as one could see how they keep number of the monarchs that had passed on.
With the palace’s fantastic architectural design, it can boast of having a museum as the monarch and some eminent persons in the town are pleading to the state and federal government to come and see what their forefathers had done.
OSIRIGBONGBO
At the centre of the town is a giant statue of one of the founding fathers of the town, holding a small gourd and a sword in his pouch which is strapped on his side .
The statue of OSIRIGBONGBO who was a warrior is highly respected and honoured , though it is at the centre of the town where some people offer sacrifices. Some use it as a meeting point and, of course, where town criers make necessary announcements.
One thing is still certain. The statue is revered and in terms of problems, the man is offered sacrifice. It is at this place that social activities take place. An educationist and one of the community leaders, Joshua Oyewande Olukolade, described how Osirigbongbo looked like.
He said: “The man , Osirigbongbo, according to our forefathers, was a giant with intimidating stature. Being a warrior , Osirigbongbo was always ready to rescue the town from being plundered and taken into captivity”.
The town’s monarch, the Ajero of Ijero, Oba Joseph Adebayo Adewole, said: ” The story of this man is mysterious , as legend has it that he was the giant warlord that no one had the effrontery to look at his face. No man ever has the measurement of his height as he was the tallest man in the community, as no one could reach his shoulder. He was said to be so powerful that his men used pestle to wake him up”, the monarch stated with authority.
The monarch continued: “On his war exploits, Osirigbongbo would go to war without war tools .When he gets to the hottest war zone, he would go for the leader of his enemies and use his bare hands to tear him apart and would use his victim’s torn legs to be fighting in the war”.
On the mysterious man’s feeding , the monarch said: ” We were informed by our forefathers that the Osirigbongbo used to eat a morsel with the head of a cow. He was said to have a giant muzzle. He never prepared any weapons like arrow, cutlass, knife whatsoever, but depended on his magical power .Legend says when he goes to any war he would go straight to the leader (enemy) , seize his ammunition and would tear the man’s body which he would use as his tool to fight .He ate a morsel of pounded yam with the head of a cow. They use pestle to wake him up .Many strange stories were said about him.
Mysterious Stones
Outside Alajero’s palace is a sacred place where tourists go to and it is kept sacred , while it is kept neat always .According to the monarch, each stone represents a king that had passed away , he said ,counting the number of stones there.
“If you start counting the stones one, two, three, you would miss it and will never be able to finish counting them as you would get confused. And if you go back and start counting again, you will get confused no matter how smart or brilliant you are.
“No man knows the number of the stones deposited here. But it is only the olori ( wives of the king) and the monarch that know the number.The place is a sacred place and one must not go there, or throw things or rubbish into the place, and whoever does that would see its repercussion. No one ever tries it”, he said .
Still on the stones , the king said: “The sacred place where we keep stones started long time ago when our forefathers were not educated. Whenever a king dies, the community would place a stone there .So if you want to know how many kings that had passed away, you will have to count the number of stones. Despite our civilization , education and modern world, we refused to jettison the idea .When I pass away too, a stone would be placed there.”.
Tree
A big tree has been there for more than 800 years. It is called ISAGUN. According to the monarch, “it is a special place where princes and princess go to for initiation when they are being welcomed into the royal family .They must go round the tree seven times, wearing white apparels and this is an initiation into the royal house .Its like a church where they observe baptism and confirmation .Anybody that does not do that is not considered to be from a royal house and cannot publicly claim this”.
Eyekun-Aafin
A statue at the shrine shows the sculptor of a woman with beads on her neck and holding a cloth. According to Yewande , Ijero will never forget the woman in a hurry because of her contribution to the town . According to the monarch, she was the woman who started using stones to list the number of monarchs that passed on. She was a great woman warrior. ”
17th shrine
The monarch claimed that the town has 16 shrines, but when he came to the throne in 1991 he added another one to make it the 17th one. He said: “ We have about 16 shrines here, but it has become 17 and that is the church I go”.
According to him, the town has shrines for the Ogun, Masquerade, Esu and so on, while we all belong to the supreme deity .But when I was enthroned, I built another shrine , and that is a church where I worship God who is the Supreme Being ”
Asked how he manages to practise the three religions , he said since he is the head of the community ,he then belongs to all the three major religions , and when it is time to offer sacrifices, he would supply all the needs and give them to the chief priest of the town .
“I supply their needs for sacrifice .Since I am the community head. I am a Christian, but I observe all the religions, including the African tradition religion. It is part of our culture and we cannot stop it”.
Joshua Oyewande Olukolade said if the federal and state governments could invest in tourism in the town, many would be employed.
He said: ” China , Kenya and some countries make a lot money from tourism. We should emulate these countries. Nigeria is blessed with all these. I believe we would still get there. It is only a matter of time”.
