OLUWO OF IWO: I’m not in hurry to remarry

Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi is the traditional ruler of Iwo, Osun State. Regarded by many as controversial, the flamboyant monarch spoke with GBENGA ADERANTI on many issues including his estranged former queen, his war experience in Liberia and the need for monarchical revolution. Excerpts:

You seem to be bringing a kind of revolution to the monarchical institution by doing away with some traditional practices. How receptive are your people to this?

Change is something that is not easy. Everything in life is about sacrifice. Sacrifice means to make yourself uncomfortable for the benefit of others and to impact the future generation.  When you want to make a change, you are trying to take people away from oppression; you try to open peoples’ eyes. I don’t want to oppress my future. My future is the youths of today. What they were used to that make them to be in this situation today, should we continue doing things this way that is not working or should we toe another path? When we keep doing the same thing, you don’t expect different results

If some leaders of today even know that their generation failed these youths, are the youths of today going to follow the path of the failed generation or will we find our own paths by ourselves just like the slaves that we sold but found their own path to make a living? Some of them studied Law. Some of them went into the army, and when they came back, they became leaders. I will not oppress my future which is the youths of today. I would rather free them so that I will meet a free people; a people that have room to grow. Those are the things I want to meet in the future in 30, 40 years I’m on the throne. I want to look back and say yes, these people have been liberated and they are happy.

What is kingship?

It is not about Christian God or Muslim God; it is about one God, Olodumare, the creator of heaven and the earth. When it comes to God, it is not about race, it is not about colour.  We have a supreme being that is the creator; that is the king. He is the real king. The Yoruba are the only ones that call their king by the name of God, that is kabiyesi … ka bi o ko si (you are unquestionable). That is the way they greet their king. No other race in the world greets their king like that. Who is Kabiyesi Olodumare? That is the real kabiyesi.  So who are these earthly kings in Yorubaland? They are the representatives of the Almighty Olodumare. They are more than humans when they are elevated from humans and princes to a king.

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Olodumare is the one that appoints these kings; it is not by votes. He is the one that will make the king to get there. So when you are a king, you are representing God. Pastors, prophets, alfas, babalawos (priests) are all messengers. Is a messenger greater than the representative of God? No. So, we are working with our head in Yorubaland. Power must go back to the kings. I’m not telling the olorisa not to worship their orisa, but the kings have the authority of the land in their hands that rules the land. Olodumare told them to represent Him. God is the owner of the land.

The palace is the home of God on earth. So in the home of the Almighty on earth, should we have two kings there? There cannot be two kings in the palace. When there is a deity or idol in the palace, we have two kings. That is why I said kings can have idol worshippers as subjects, but a king must not bow to idol or idol worshippers. In Yorubaland, they call the king the deputy of the deities. Does a deputy have power? It means we are deputy to the deity and idols. Then it means that a king does not have power as long as the orisa is still there, which they want to use our throne to promote. As long as the orisa is still there, it means that kings will never be relevant. Our own father that brought the crown even fought Orisa Obatala. Obatala prostrated and he ruled over Obatala. How can the kings worship idols? The only enemy to the crown is the deities.

The palace had been in existence before Islam and Christianity. We are the representatives of God on earth and we are put under orisa. Show me any deity Oduduwa worshipped. If they can bring one, then I will remove myself as king.

 What have been the reactions of your people to this reform in the palace?

Some are falling in line. Many believe that I’m their voice to take kings out of slavery of these olorisa who are just few. They try to use stool to promote their own deities and many kings have now seen that we can get our powers back, if we do away with these deities. How can a king worship deities? Any king that worships deity in Yorubaland can keep on worshipping it. There is no hierarchy, any king that worships deity, I’m bigger than them. You are laughing? That is for real, because we will do it according to the dictate of the real king.

Our subjects say they are better and greater than deity. They don’t reckon with idol worshipping. So if you, a whole king, are a deputy to the deity, you are a slave to the deity. Which one would you prefer: to be a representative of God or a deputy to a deity? To be a representative of the Almighty will bring more respect. Do you know how the Yoruba greet their kings? They lie down and say, ‘Kabiyesi ooo.’ That is the name of God.

You are the most reported Yoruba traditional ruler. How do you feel about this?

It is the definition of monarchy in Yorubaland to be a servant, day and night, to your people. When you serve the people, you are planting a seed of service. The service will grow for you. When you see something wrong in the country and you don’t care whose ox is gored, you said I’m going to make things work; I’m not going to remain silent. Fools will multiply when wise men are silent. So, if you are a wise man and you don’t want fools to multiply in your land, which can even impact your child, you talk. I am a father; you can see my age. I’m a father to this race and I would always act as a father regardless of what you think. Most talk about, most social media friendly; yes the social media is the thing of the moment. Let them shut down instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp, you will see how your life would be. You call me a social king; that means I’m the king of the moment.

You have fought so many battles, but one way or the other, you have managed to survive. What is the secret?

The secret is Olodumare, the creator of everything. I hold Him high. It is a king that exalts a king; a king does not exalt orisa. When you start raising God, God will raise you in truth. Not that you say you are praising God and when something happens you are scared. You see a little storm and you shiver. Faith comes from being confident and bold. Confidence and being bold is equal to faith. When you have that absolute faith in the unseen God, the almighty will never forsake you. It doesn’t matter what you do.

You preside over a community, a town where they believe so much in Islam. In one vein, you said you were not against tradition. But you are against worshipping of idols and idolatry…

I’m against what is bastardising our culture.

Where do you draw the line? Some of the traditional practices are against Islam…

Tell me what is against Islam and Christianity in our tradition?

Are you talking about culture or are you talking about manners?

Way of life…

When you are talking about the way of life of some people, that is what they prefer. Some people prefer that their women should be covered. They don’t want people to see the shape of the body of their wife. I actually like it. I like it when women are covered. They don’t see the shape of my wife. Everybody looks, even if a man is passing, people look. If a woman is passing, people look, not to talk of a woman showing her shape. There are many women who can be a side show, but when you are a wife at home, I think that one should be for your husband. That is my belief. As a way of life, it is good for a married woman to be covered. And if any other person decides not to cover up, that is their own way of life; that is the freedom to dress the way you want. When it comes to my own wife, I think I will like her to cover.

There is nothing against our culture that is against anyone. The only one I see against our culture and tradition is Olorisa who never made our people wear adire, ofi. They want everybody to wear white. Orisa is against the culture and tradition of the Yoruba people. Orisa promotes their own. If they had their way, they would make everybody wear white in Nigeria. You will never see an olorisa that wears ofi, sanyan, alari coloured dresses. They will tell you to wear white. They themselves don’t understand what they are doing.

Even Ifa tell you to wear white, but it is not telling you to be wearing this white clothes; it is telling you that your inside should be clean and your outside should be clean. Your ways should be clean to man. Deity worshipping is a religion. It is not our culture, and it is not our tradition.

Should I then assume that you appear colorful always because you don’t want to associate with the orisa?

I’m so colourful because it is our identity. I’m so colorful because I’m odidere (a colorful kind of bird) personified. Iwo is odidere and I talk because odidere speaks the truth. I represent the full odidere. Odidere is the only creation of God that speaks apart from humans, nothing else. Odidere is the only one that speaks the truth. And I get the inspiration of the true Yoruba history from Olodumare. When you are a king and you are close to Olodumare, everything will be given to you. You will see things. You will hear from God and you will see what God wants you to see. You don’t need any oloris. You don’t need any babalawo (herbalist). The authority is in you, you only need to say let this land be great and it will be great. You tell your children who are sick to be healed. The God that blesses is the God that takes.  The God that gives good health is the God that takes good health. You can even say the bad health that is in you should come and take the king, because I’m not the king, God is the king. I do that with testimonies. You can ask the people that work with me.

An Oba should bring alleviation of poverty. He should serve his people and make the land grow and develop. A king should be a servant and treat his subject like a king. You should be the best servant to be the best king. I want to be the best king, that is why I want to be the best servant ever.

 Sometimes you get criticised in the media. When you read such reports, how do they make you feel?

When I’m doing the right thing, I see this as ignorance. There was a time, I don’t know, I would criticise people. But since I became a king, God has given me a lot of wisdom to know the right from wrong. When I see those things I ask what about when I didn’t know, I would like to make them known. Common sense is not common, not to talk about special sense. You let them know, you have to let people see what common sense is, you teach them.

When I see that, I don’t pay attention to that as long as I’m doing the right thing.

What has been your greatest challenge as a traditional ruler?

My greatest challenge is that I know the work God has given me to do is a lot but I have signed. I want to serve my people. I left Canada. Imagine me leaving Canada as a Canadian holding a Canadian passport, to come and sit in Iwo to come and serve my people.  I want to build Iwo just like the fathers of other nations that built their nation. I will stay in Iwo to build Iwo to modern day. I will suffer for it. I will strive for it. I will serve my people. I will make Iwo great by the grace of God, and God is doing it. I’m going to be six years on the throne in November. In six years, there have been tremendous achievements in the history of that land.

How much pressure are you getting from your community to marry another wife?

No pressure, because I’m serving them. That is my personal life. Kingship is different now; you have to be able to serve your people. Getting a wife is a personal thing. I know that they don’t want another wife that will poison me again. A wife that because she is not getting enough money, she wants to poison you, she wants to sell you out to people that contested the stool with you; a wife that wants to take ransom since she came into the palace on contract basis with her handlers.

I didn’t know her from Canada; I knew her from Nigeria. She had handlers who set her up for the palace. Guess what they told her to do? Many things. Since the day she got in, she had been recording. Why would a woman be recording for four years?

When I got her and I said this is what you have been doing and she started asking for ransom, threatening that she would release the video to the public, I said go and put it out.

If God is the one that put me on this throne, nobody can remove me. Olodumare, God vindicated me.

How soon are we expecting another queen?

I will take my time. I’m not in a rush. Let everybody go and take it easy. I’m not in a rush. I will take my time; I will have a great wife.