A crown, it's glory, it's thorns
A monarch's many enemies, battles and victories
From Niyi Bello, Akure
The Deji of Akure has won back his throne, courtesy of the intervention of the state governor who declared the stool not vacant. But all the chiefs of the monarch who had drawn the first blood are still spoiling for a fight. How peaceful, united and governable the kingdom will be henceforth, remains a conjecture.
THE current crisis rocking the stool of the Deji of Akure, since last weekend when the town's Council of Kingmakers ordered the monarch to vacate the palace for alleged desecration of the throne, has once again brought to the arena of public discuss, the functions and limitations of traditional rulers, the process of their emergence and tenure, their continued relevance in modern society and the role of their subjects in all of these.
Indeed, one of the major challenges of the traditional institution in modern Nigeria has been how to merge the feudalism of the traditional monarchy and its idea of a superior blue blood with the tenets of a classless society where every citizen plays major roles in the emergence of leaders.
Although the traditional system of authority has not been fully integrated into the country's system of governance as it is largely regarded as a ceremonial institution with no clear constitutional roles, at least in the current presidential arrangement, the monarchs wield enormous influence among the local population in the midst of which they live in relative splendour and hold courts to settle minor disputes with ancestral clouts that draw respect from the tradition and customs of the people.
For the socialism-inclined members of the society, however, nothing but a systemic aberration could be achieved from an arrangement that promotes the superiority of a class over others as seen in the continued patronage of the monarchical principles in a republic that professes egalitarianism.
The existence of these diametrically-opposed principles in a country that lacks constitutionally institutionalized monarchies found in Europe and elsewhere, has therefore brought a conflict of cultures to the Nigerian space as seen in the Akure imbroglio where the state government and the traditional kingmakers have taken divergent positions on their individual roles in the appointment and deposition of the monarch.
Last weekend, the Akure Council of Chiefs, comprising all the 21 traditional title holders and the 17-member body of kingmakers, declared Oba Oluwadare Adepoju Adesina, Osupa III as "unfit, unworthy and improper to continue to occupy the cherished and exalted throne of the Deji of Akure" and ordered his immediate dethronement.
In a statement containing the resolution of the chiefs, which was signed by all the 38 high chiefs without exception, it was stated that the Oba, through his actions on the throne, "has brought disgrace, dishonour and impudence to the office of the Deji".
The Olisa of Akure, the non-succession second-in-command and traditional Prime Minister of the Kingdom, Chief Folorunso David, a retired Colonel of the Nigeria Army, who conveyed the resolution of the chiefs, said the decision reflected the desire of the majority of Akure indigenes at home and in Diaspora who are "fed up by the daily atrocities being committed by a man in custody of their traditional authority.
"Individually and collectively, members of the Akure Council of Chiefs have met with the Deji on various allegations of breach of tradition, custom, peace, order and good governance and administration of Akure, leveled against him but has on each occasion rebuffed the kingmakers to their disillusionment and embarrassment."
Specifically, Oba Adesina who has been on the throne for four years, was accused by the chiefs of behaving more like an area boy (street urchin) than a royal personality, keeping late hours, moving in company of crooks who have turned the palace into a den of criminals and extorting money from landowners who are sometimes physically assaulted by the monarch in the full glare of the public.
He was also accused of financial impropriety and for refusing to complete his installation rites through non-observance of the Igbarunje tradition.
The resolution of the chiefs has however set them on collision course with the state government which claimed that it is the only authority that has the power to appoint and remove a monarch raising questions on the functionality of the traditional mechanism of checks and balances.
To observers of the Akure traditional institution since the November 6, 2005 installation of Adesina as the Deji, the Sunday declaration was an anti-climax of a long-drawn bickering between the community and the monarch who was also accused of promoting actions that would benefit a few individuals rather than the generality of the people.
Perhaps, the first case that drew the ire of the entire community was when Oba Adesina ordered a cement merchant, David Oluwole Alasoniyi, who became popular among the people for selling a bag of the commodity for N1,600 instead of the between N1,800 and N2,000 that others were selling, to either join the Association of Akure Cement Dealers, whose members were alleged to have the habit of sharp practices, or leave the business.
When he was brought before the Deji by the Association on allegations of "spoiling business for others", Alasoniyi said he was persuaded by the fact that he had enough profit to keep his business going and that the commodity should not be placed beyond the reach of the ordinary citizens who desire to build a house.
In his ruling which came as a shock to the sizable crowd that had gathered at the palace to give moral support to Alasoniyi, Oba Adesina ordered the dealer, whom he chided for "trying to destroy the business of others", to abide by the Association's price regime.
The monarch also courted the anger of market women who are the pivot of the local economy when in his attempt to frustrate the relocation by the Hausa Community of the Iloro Tomato Market outside Akure due to what the northern suppliers claimed as unbridled extortions from hoodlums, he was said to have carried out raids on the market to destroy goods bought from the new location.
In one instance, Oba Adesina was said to have personally beaten up one Chief Alo, who interceded on behalf of a widow whose tomatoes were ordered destroyed by the monarch because she did her buy at the new market where the commodities were cheaper.
In the same manner, the monarch was alleged to have physically assaulted the duo of Joseph Isijola and one Pa Adeoye over a property at Irowo Street and Oke-Ijebu areas. While Isijola was said to have been inflicted with serious injuries, Adeoye was not that lucky as he was said to have died from the beatings he received in the encounter.
There was the case of a parcel of land at Adegbola junction, on which a Global System of mobile Communications (GSM) provider was erecting its mast. The Deji allegedly personally stopped the construction on the ground that before such things were done, the palace must be appeased. An undisclosed amount of money was said to have changed hands before the project could be completed.
Stories are told of how persons who brought land disputes to the palace for resolution ended up losing their property as the monarch is said to be in the habit of ordering his boys, now known as the "60 x 120 gang", a parlance taken from the size of a plot of land, to forcibly take possession of such lands by placing pieces of palm fronds on them to signify restriction.
A particular instance that was brought to the notice of The Guardian several months ago, involved a non-indigene who approached the palace with request to plead with his neighbour, another non-indigene to give him a narrow passage to reach his own non-accessible land at the back of the busy Hospital Road.
The owner of the front plot had refused to grant the request of his backyard neighbour leading to the matter being brought before the palace but instead of settling the matter amicably with the owners, the monarch was said to have requested for the documents of the two parcels of land after which he ordered the duo to hands-off the property because the crown had confiscated them for peace to reign.
All pleadings to the monarch that the matter had been resolved amicably by the parties after the recalcitrant owner yielded the required passage, fell on deaf ears as palm fronds had been placed on the two parcels of land.
Many abandoned buildings with the tell-tale symbols of dried palm-fronds hanging on them, showing that they have been seized by the palace now adorn major areas of the Akure metropolis with the owners either resigning to fate or playing ball by paying the required sums, which in the case of a property near the Central Market, was as high as N10 million.
Since the ascension of Oba Adesina to the throne, the growing band of land speculators, mainly youths in the garb of the Lagos omo-onile, a phenomenon hitherto unknown in the peaceful Akure property market, has been moving around especially in developing suburbs, forcibly demanding royalties before any building could be erected even when it is obvious that the boys had no link with the ownership of such lands.
The youths, many of them believed to be hardened criminals who fled Lagos when the state was no longer lucrative as a result of the policies of the Babatunde Fashola administration, now found a safe haven in Akure where they turned the adjacent streets to the Akure palace, into no-go areas for law-abiding citizens.
The Ondo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) once had cause to report the activities of the gang, who smoked marijuana openly around the palace, to the Nigeria Police, when one of its employees was robbed in broad daylight.
After the obviously helpless policemen pleaded with the hoodlums to return the money, they promised to pay back but that the NUJ had to wait until they caught another victim since they had already shared the loot. True to their promise, the money, taken from another hapless passer-by, was refunded later that day to the NUJ chairman, Dele Atunbi, although not in full.
In justifying the non-return of the full amount, one of them, a particularly fearful fellow with burnt teeth, told journalists that "it is not possible to retrieve all the beads when the strings holding them together snapped unexpectedly".
And since traditional rulers enjoy a life-long tenure, there seemed to be nothing anybody can do about the alleged excesses of Oba Adesina which have assumed legendary dimension as subjects of discussion among people on daily basis and sources of derisive jokes among resident non-indigenes.
The last straw that seemed to have broken the Camel's back was an alleged attempt by the monarch to take possession of a piece of land located at Idi-Agba Titun that was said to belong to the Police.
Oba Adesina, who went to the land in company of some palace boys, was alleged to have thrown caution and royalty to the winds and in a manner described by his chiefs as "demeaning for his status", engaged in physical combat with one Josy Abegunde who was unfortunate enough to have offered information that the land in question belonged to the Police.
When contacted, the Commissioner of Police, Donald Iroham, who subsequently deployed a detachment of armed policemen to secure the property, claimed that the land actually belongs to police authorities, to which it had been ceded by the state government and that he had documents, including a survey plan, to back his claim.
The altercation with the Police and the public physical combat of the Deji with Abegunde was said to have piqued the Council of Chiefs, which on Monday November 2, went to the palace to demand explanation from Oba Adesina.
But the monarch was said to be so incensed about the effrontery of the chiefs "for daring the Deji", that he walked out on the gathering after using "uncomplimentary and insulting language", an action that the chiefs said "is a taboo not only in Akure but the entire Yorubaland".
The embattled monarch has however defended himself against all the allegations leveled against him by his chiefs in a statement addressed to "the good people of Akureland" where he stated that "it is pertinent to state the facts to the citizens, residents and well-wishers."
Oba Adesina who accused the Council of Chiefs of demanding N7.5 million as part of initiation rites, an amount he said he could not afford considering his meagre salary, described as unsubstantiated and malicious, the allegation that he was brutal and oppressive, "considering the high level of love I have shown to the people in the past".
He also wondered how anybody could allege that he was always intruding into the market "when the palace is actually surrounded by markets. Besides, the Erekesan Market is called Oja-Oba meaning King's Market, how can anybody therefore accuse an Oba of going into his own market?"
The monarch also reacted to the allegation that he has turned the palace into a den of criminals saying although a king, he is not above the law and that "the Police, SSS (State Security Service) and other security agencies in Akure are alive and up to the task of dealing with anyone who breaches the peace of the land".
He however appealed to the chiefs "to rescind their earlier decision" as he was willing and prepared to resolving all the issues saying: "We must embrace due process to enable us address all grievances before taking hasty decisions."
Sources close to the palace however disclosed to The Guardian that Oba Adesina had problems because unlike the monarchs before him, who sat in royal confinement, his moving about to "see things for himself" has denied the chiefs of "their penchants to collect illegal dues on public lands", an allegation that the chiefs vehemently denied.
He is also said to be a victim of an attempt by the Adesida Dynasty, which century-long reign was halted by the emergence of Adesina on November 6, 2005 as the Deji after the demise of Oba Adebobajo Adesida.
The Adesida lineage of Akure royalty had capitalized on the omo-ori-ite tradition which stipulates that only a prince born of a reigning monarch could ascend the throne, to perpetuate its grip on the kingdom because at the end of the 60-year reign of Oba Afunbiowo Adesida I who ruled from 1896 to 1954, there was no prince so qualified in the other royal branches.
A popular agitation in 1991 by the other branches that the tradition had effectively shut them out of ascending the throne led to its abrogation by the state government after the government was persuade to allow Oba Adebobajo, the fourth Adesida in succession, to be the last from the lineage.
Although the 1991 Akure Chieftaincy Declaration stated specifically that after the reign of Adebobajo, the pendulum should swing to the Osupa Ruling House, the Adesida lineage, which has now become synonymous with the Akure stool, did not let go without a fight when the monarch passed on in 1999.
A six-year interregnum during which the entire community was mobilized against the candidacy of Prince Adegbola Adelabu, an Osupa nominee that was selected by the kingmakers on March 12, 2000, on the ground that he was a Shylock money-lender who by his own admission, owned more than 150 buildings within the metropolis, all of which were seized from loan defaulters, ensued during which period the Adesidas still occupied the throne through the regency of Princess Adeyinka, a United States-based employee of an American oil firm.
Although a princess who must have participated in the traditional rites of installation with her father, the regent who should be seen wearing male garments and accorded masculine attributes, could be converted to a full-fledged Oba if allowed to stay on the throne for seven years, according to the history of the kingdom.
It was therefore at a time of looking for any acceptable candidate from the Osupa House to avert the alleged perpetuation plan of the Adesidas that 45-year old Oluwadare Adesina Adepoju, a man of modest educational attainments, was brought in from Europe where he had been sojourning for years.
There was also the desperation of the Olusegun Agagu administration, which inherited an avalanche of chieftaincy and communal crises that cut across the entire state from the bloody Ijaw/Ilaje feud, the war in Owo to the carnage in Ikare-Akoko, to quickly resolve the Deji imbroglio over which some lives had been lost.
In the event that the current dethronement scaled through, the obvious beneficiaries would certainly be the Adesidas who are socially and economically placed to take back the crown even as the Ondo State Chieftaincy Laws state clearly that in event of removal of an Oba, the ticket automatically moves away from his lineage because it would be deemed to have served its time.
But a source within the Adesida House described the allegations that the current travails of Adesina were caused by the family, saying: "They are only looking for excuses to justify the misdemeanor of an Oba that should not be on the throne in the first instance. Do you see any Adesida with him when he goes about fighting on the streets?"
The embattled Deji however said that the crisis "is only a mere disagreement between members of the same family, which would soon be resolved amicably. In every endeavour of life, be it family, communal or political, there could be instances of not only love and unity but occasional disagreement."
As at Tuesday, senior members of the "Akure family", led by Afenifere leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti and comprising eminent indigenes like the National Chairman of the Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA), Chief Olu Falae who doubles as a lesser monarch of Ilu-Abo, an Akure vassal community and the Chairman of Guinness Nigeria Limited, Chief Ralph Alabi, and other members of the Akure Elite Club, have intervened on the matter.
According to Fasoranti, "we have held meetings with the chiefs on the one hand and the Deji on the other. We hope to reach a truce. Although we see reasons with the chiefs, driving an Oba from the palace does not augur well for the community. It will cause violence and breakdown of law and order."
Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Oye Alademehin, had earlier hinted of government's desire to co-opt senior and respected citizens of the town into the settlement of the crisis.
But the chiefs insisted on the finality of their action. According to the Elemo of Akure, Chief Bolanle Adedipe who has the traditional task of speaking for the community, "that boy (Oba Adesina) has breached our custom. He is supposed to be an embodiment and not a breaker of the tradition. We have nothing to do with him any longer. We have reached a point of no return."
A violent showdown is however imminent between the chiefs and the palace which has been surrounded by a band of wild-looking hoodlums in protection of the monarch. They also prevented the chiefs from cutting down the trees at the market square, an action that traditionally announces the existence of a vacancy on the throne.
Meanwhile, Governor Olusegun Mimiko has waded into the crisis through meetings and consultations with all the concerned parties where he appealed to them to follow due process and avoid a breakdown of law and order.
Ondo Commissioner for Information, Ranti Akerele who disclosed government's efforts to douse the tension expressed optimism that a middle ground that could be explored for the attainment of peace by the two factions in the imbroglio has been found.
According to him, "government's concern is that the peace of the state should not be disturbed. The governor made it clear to all concerned that whatever they are going to do must have the backing of the law. Arbitrariness leads to violence."
The Akure palace crisis could have however opened a floodgate of dethronement in the state as a similar scenario was enacted three days later in Ipele, a town located in Owo Local Council where the ruler, Oba Abel Olaleye Alade, was told by his chiefs to leave the palace.
But the state government, in what Akerele said was aimed at stemming the tide of increasing revolt against traditional leadership, has directed that the Olupele, should go back to his palace.
A statement by the Secretary of Ipele Kingmakers, Pa Gabriel Ayo Olagokun, stated that the monarch's removal "follows his high-handedness, defrauding the community of funds raised by the people and the use of thugs to harass law-abiding citizens of the town".
Perhaps, these developments could engender the emergence of a system that will fathom a workable relationship between the traditional monarchy and its internal components on one hand and the entire community on the other with a view to creating an avenue where the subjects could have inputs in how they are ruled and check royal excesses.
