The Attah of Aiyede Kingdom, in Ekiti State, Oba Abdul-Mumini Adebayo Orisagbemi paid a courtesy visit to the corporate head office of Vanguard Media Limited, penultimate Monday, where he revealed his latest campaign for unity of Ekiti with main goal of getting prominent sons and daughters of the state together regardless of political differences. Orisagbemi, who is one of 16 paramount rulers of Ekiti State. He  also hinted of  his community’s capacity to boost the Nigerian economy but expressed dismay that despite the large deposit of mineral resources in Ekiti particularly Aiyede,  no investor wants to come to the state. Excerpts:

By Bashir Adefaka

Your Majesty, how is your kingdom, Aiyede, in Ekiti State?

To start with, I want to thank your company for being a very good friend to our community since the time of my predecessor, late Oba Adeleye Orisagbemi. I appreciate you so much  particularly, for your role in ensuring positive growth and development of our nation, Nigeria.

Aiyede was formed by an Ibadan “Army General,” Esubiyi, who happened to be my great grang father.

He was sent from Ibadan to station his troops at the place that is today known as Aiyede so as to stop the Fulani warriors of Ilorin from entering Yorubaland through Ekiti. After the war which he won, he decided not to go back to Ibadan.

Attah of Aiyede Kingdom, in Ekiti State, Oba Abdul-Mumini Adebayo Orisagbemi

Although he was a native of Iye Mero, an Ekiti community now under the control of Aiyede, but he was brought up and trained as a member of Ibadan “Army” rising to the position of “General”. After the war, he decided to stay behind that in case the Balogun Alli-led warriors of Ilorin would launch a fresh attack, he would then have him to contend with.

Aiyede is a community formed by over 142 communities: Hausa, Tapa, Igbo and so on and so forth. When he was now looking around to see where to settle, he got to that point (he spoke Ibadan dialect) and said, “Ihin niun tedo si. ‘Aiye’ wa ‘de’ wayii.” (Meaning: This is where I will settle. The world has come to settle here now). That was how Aiyede came to be.

Esubiyi was an administrator and a great warrior who had never been defeated at any war. Ibadan sent him to Igala for a fight during which he drew with the Attah of Igala and both therefore became good friends.

He saw Attah of Igala as a very courageous warrior like he was who perhaps had also never been defeated at any war and so they became good friends. Esubiyi was not of any royal family. He became a king by virtue of his almost extraordinary powers as a great warrior, which would make one to call him Ajagungbade (attaining royalty through war victory).

Royal title

And when he wanted to start his own community he decided to take after the royal title of his friend, the Attah of Igala, who gladly consented. That was how Attah became the title of the ruler of Aiyede Ekiti till today. Esubiyi only added Olu Odo to his own Attah to distinguish it from that of Igala. Ours therefore is Attah Olu Odo of Aiyede Ekiti.

After some times, that time Akure and Ijesha were still Ekiti and the wave of his war victories was raging widely so much that the Deji of Akure and the rest Obas said, “Look, this man is up to something.

Let us call him to be sitting with us in the council of Obas.” That came as a result of fear that Esubiyi, with the way he was so powerful and waging wars undefeated by anyone, might overrun their kingdoms one day and put a stop therefore to their own rules. We, like I said, were never from any royal family. We became an Oba and paramount ruler by our noticeable victories at all wars. All my great, great grand father acquired was ‘Agbaragbemi,’ meaning that being a powerful person paid off. Then they made him one of the highest members in the hierarchy of Obaship and that was how Attah of Aiyede Ekiti became a paramount ruler till today.

I am the eighth Attah of Aiyede Ekiti, a community that was formed in 1845 and for that type of Oba to be a paramount ruler within a short period of time meant that he was so powerful. That is what is called … power and people feared him because they knew he could wake up one day and say that he wanted to fight the whole Ekiti.

And because they didn’t want that to happen, they quickly thought ahead and made him a paramount ruler. They call us Pelupelu in Ekiti that is First Class, ‘A’ and we are 16 in number. Ekiti State Obaship ranks have First Class, ‘A’, First Class, Grade B and Grade C.

And Aiyede Ekiti is blessed with a lot of mineral resources. I don’t know why investors are not looking into that area.

How do you think development could get to Aiyede Ekiti?

I need your help because one thing we lack in Ekiti is publicity. Ekiti state is one of the most endowed  in Nigeria. We’ve got quite a lot of potentials and a lot of mineral resources there but we are not being publicised to let  industrialists  know what is happening there and what we are capable of offering.

The largest deposit of ethanol in West Africa is at Aiyede Ekiti. We have rocks that could be used to make cement and granites. We are even told that there is gold in our land but we have to prospect first.

In Ekiti we don’t have rich men. What we have are academics and once you are not an academic, if you want to be anything, they plot to strike you down. That is the problem we are facing in Ekiti State and that is what is happening precisely to Ayodele Fayose. They believe that because Fayose is not an academic, so he has no right to rule.   But people voted for him.

I don’t benefit anything personally from Fayose but I look at him away from what is put on the pages of the newspapers about him because, his opponents have the power of media.  And that is why I love your papers so well because it is only in your newspaper so far that I have seen that no effort has been made to paint Fayose in bad light. I give that to Vanguard because talking of balance in reportage, you do it well. I used to be a politician but now that I am a royal father, I have to be fair to everybody.   Kayode Fayemi made me what I am today.

Otunba Niyi Adebayo is my personal friend, who spent his money and invested energy just for the love he has for me to get to this position.   I am not so close to Segun Oni but he too is a very vital figure in the business of Ekiti development and Fayose is my cousin.   All of them are good sons in the Ekiti project.   Therefore, I will love you press people to use your influence to tell all of these people to be united for good.

Let those who are academics appreciate other people who are not academics.   This idea of calling somebody, considered to be non-academic, all sorts of names is unhealthy for our growth because, if you are not one of them they see you as nonexistent.