Prof. Taiye Rufus Akinyele of the Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, says the claim by the Olugbo of Ugbo Kingdom, Oba Fredrick Akinruntan, that he is the leader of all Yoruba Obas, including the Ooni of Ife, is devoid of logic.

Akinruntan, while defending his position, had, during a function in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, said: “I am the leader of all Obas in Yorubaland. I speak with thunder in my mouth and I make bold to say so. No one is above me in Yorubaland inasmuch as it has been accepted that we are from Ife. I am the one that Oduduwa met at Ife. We are the husband of Moremi Ajasoro.

Anyone who wants real Yorubaland blessing should approach me. I am the one bestowed with that power”. The Secretary General, Council of Yoruba Obas, Oba Aderemi Adedapo, faulted the Olugbo’s claim, asking him to retract it within seven days.

In this interview, Akinyele explains that Akinruntan’s claim has no logic because the Ugbo people are not Yoruba.

*Akinyele

By Wale Akinola and Yinka Ajayi

How do you view the   claim by the Olugbo of Igbo claiming to be the leader of all Yoruba Obas and that he is even superior to the Ooni of Ife? Three factors seem to come to play: The factor of history, the factor of politics and the factor of logic. In terms of antecedents, you can be the first to get to a place and yet be overpowered by your  neighbour.  In  Ekiti,  for instance, the Olukere was said to have been the monarch in Ikere before Ogoga and his people relocated to the town, but today the Ogoga is the more recognised monarch of the town. The only way to resolve this, is to ask a fundamental question, are the Ugbo people, Yoruba? If they are Yoruba and the Yoruba people believe they are the descendants of Oduduwa, then there is no way a child can be higher than his progenitor. If they are Yoruba people, they are also  the descendants of Oduduwa and if the Ooni of Ife is Oduduwa, then logically you can say the Ooni is higher. We are also aware that Oduduwa met some some people in Ife when he descended. So it was not a virgin land, they fought wars; and that is why the Ugbo people attacked Ife repeatedly and Moremi married one of them to discover their secret. The Olugbo of Ugbo Kingdom may  say he was the first paramount ruler of Ife Kingdom but  the claim to be the descendant of Oduduwa may not be logical. The way Yoruba people are becoming a  nation is also a recent phenomenon. The Egba were simply Egba while the Ijebu were Ijebu. So maybe the Ugbo Kingdom existed before the Ife Kingdom. The question then arises, were the Ugbo displaced by the Oduduwa party? Or did they migrate to another place because of the attack?  If they were displaced by the Oduduwa party, on that note they lost the supremacy to Ife. Because if we are talking of supremacy, Ibadan was a recent creation coming after the Yoruba civil war. We also found out that Ibadan came as a refugee camp and later acquired power in  Oyo Kingdom. So, it is not just a matter of how old  you are you or who is supreme or whatever because, if you are talking of supremacy, you are talking of power index; so if they were displaced by the Oduduwa party, it means they have lost their supremacy to Oduduwa descendants. Secondly, if they claim to be descendants of Oduduwa, then there is no way the Olugbo can claim to be superior to the Ooni of Ife. Invariably, each of these kingdoms existed independently. There are so many that also claim to come from Ife with the exception of the Ijebu people who claim to come from elsewhere.

Do you mean to say the Olugbo can be right and wrong at the same time?

Yes. But, first, how do you define the Yoruba people? The Olugbo did not claim to be  Yoruba. We have to put all these into perspective and one part is that he could have been a paramount ruler at a particular time before he was conquered by the Oduduwa party; at that point, he lost that supremacy

How do you describe the twist to the whole thing with a group of Yoruba Obas giving the Olugbo an ultimate to withdraw the statement?

It’s unnecessary politics and it’s not the only place we have power tussle among Yoruba Obas. Even the Owa Obokun of Ijesha  also claims to be more of the heir of Oduduwa than the Ooni of Ife. Because history can be read forward or backward or literally and can be interpreted symbolically, as far as the Owa Obokun is concerned, he should be the Arole Oduduwa. And  there was a point in time when the Alafin of Oyo had a problem with the Ooni  when he looked at history politically and said  he is first among equals. From the point of view, the Ooni is more like the spiritual leader of the Yoruba while the Alafin sees himself as the political leader. Now, if the Olugbo did not withdraw his statement within the next seven days that he has been given, what will happen to him? What is it that they share among Yoruba Obas that they would deny him of? To start with, there is nothing they share among themselves that they can deny him of. In any case, you can distinguish between him as a person and his community.

There was a time the Alake of Egbaland and the Awujale of Ijebuland fought over this supremacy issue. What is the true situation of history concerning the rating of Obas in Yorubaland?

There are so many factors that could define the tussle for supremacy. If you look at the Ijebu people, they have been there for a long period  Abeokuta laid its foundation  in  1830 because,  just like Ibadan, it was founded by refugee Egba people  and  only became united  after they settled in Abeokuta because they have five sections  under  different local rulers before  the Alake  became the paramount ruler. That  is why you always have  issues between the Alake, the Olowu, the Osile, the Agura and the Onibara. So from that perspective, the Awujale had been a paramount Oba of the Ijebu people before Abeokuta came into being. Secondly, the way these Obas were rated during the colonial period also matters. For instance, there were some obas that were subordinate but were promoted above their superiors  during the colonial rule maybe because the administrative headquarters happened to be there or for one reason or the other. It happened to some rulers. Some were promoted while some were demoted . So supremacy has to do with from one point to another point. During the colonial period, a  whole lot of things happened.

Firstly, population of towns was used to rate some obas, and if you also have your people at the helm of affairs, you could become superior to obas who used to be subordinate to you.  Like you talk about the leader of Ekiti people, in the past, before you spoke about Ado-Ekiti, you spoke about Otun. But when Otun was partitioned to the North, Ado-Ekiti stepped in as number one and at a point in time when some towns  fought for the headquarters of local government, Otun came under Ido-Ekiti. How can Otun now be brought under Ido Ekiti? Until they had to create a new local government with Otun as headquarters, there was no peace and no love was lost between Otun and Ido.  So, supremacy depends on the dynamics of politics at a particular point in time. But I think the problem is that some of these issues are needless and we should move beyond them to better the lives of our people because the issues are very complicated.  It’s like the issue of the Yoruba and Benin. What we were taught before state creation was that Oba of Benin was one of the descendants of Oduduwa but when the whole issue of state creation came, they decided to rewrite Oranmiyan to say he is no longer a prince of Ife because they knew he founded the dynasty of Benin; we are now told that he was not originally an Ife prince but a Benin prince who for one reason or the other migrated to Ife and came back to Benin. That was the reason I said history can be read forward and backward.