The statement made by Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo has caused yet another controversy as the Palace of Oba of Benin has blasted him for degrading the position of the Benin monarch.
Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi
The Palace of the Oba of Benin has faulted a declaration made by the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo which had it that the Benin monarch was the third in the ranking of kings in the region.
The Esogban of Benin and Odionwere of the Kingdom (traditional head), Chief David Edebiri, while lambasting the Alake said the Yoruba monarch goofed when he said the Oba of Benin was third in the hierarchy of Obas.
According to him, the Ooni of Ife was a son of the Oba of Benin, that makes him lower than the Oba of Benin. He said the stool of the Oba of Benin could not be compared with that of any Yoruba King.
Esogban, third in command in the palace of the Oba of Benin, said: “We wanted to discard this report as something that was not necessary at all. We do not see how the Alake of Egbaland suddenly woke up to think that the Oba of Benin is also a Yoruba Oba.
“There is no basis for such classification; Oba of Benin has nothing to do with the Yoruba Obas. It is simply unnecessary, unless they simply want to stir up an unnecessary controversy.
“We are not in Yorubaland. To be frank, it is because many of them are not willing to come up with the truth, the word Oba is alien to Yoruba monarchy; it is not part of their title from time immemorial.
“For instance, the one they call the Oba of Lagos, these are recent adaptations. In the 50s, there was no Oba of Lagos, what we had was the Eleko of Eko. That is the title of the King there. In Ibadan, you have the Olu Ibadan. You come to Abeokuta, you have the Alake of Egba land. You come to Oyo, you have the Alaafin of Oyo. In Ilesha, you have the Owa-Obokun of IIesha. So no Yoruba monarch had as part of his titles the word Oba except the Oba of Benin.
“That word Oba is indigenous to Benin. It is only in recent times you find everybody bearing Oba. When the Western Regional conference of traditional rulers took place in Benin City in 1942, go and check the attendance, there was no other monarch in the whole of the Western Region then that bore the title of Oba, except the Oba of Benin.
“So it is an unnecessary excursion, an unnecessary attempt to turn history upside down by the Alake by classifying the Oba of Benin as third in the hierarchy of kings.
“Our own traditional history says that the Ooni of Ife was a Benin Prince who wandered from here to Ife, settled there and became the ruler there. That is the position, if they don’t know, they should send people here; we will teach them.
“We will show them landmarks. So this is unnecessary misrepresentation of history. Maybe the Alake wanted to mention a different place and not Benin.
“The monarchical rulership in this part of the world started from Benin during the era of the Ogisos. It was the son of the last Ogiso, Owodo, that wandered from here to Ife and he became a ruler there, carrying everything about the Benin monarchical system to that place. There is no basis for such classification.
“The Ooni of Ife by historical facts, is a son of the Oba of Benin, so they are not in the same class. The Oba of Benin is the only one that answers Oba, the rest don’t. But today, we hear Oba here and there, they are all recent adaptations. I am saying categorically that the word Oba is indigenous to Benin and not to Yoruba nation.”
It would be recalled that the Alake and paramount ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo on Sunday, declared that the
Ooni of Ife remained the highest in the ranking of Yoruba obas. He made the declaration while receiving the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi in his Ake, Abeokuta, Ogun State palace.
The Alake, who said there were five principal obas in Yorubaland, listed the other Obas below the Ooni to include the Alaafin of Oyo and the Oba of Benin in second and third positions, respectively, in the order of ranking. He listed his own title, the Alake of Egbaland as the fourth while the Awujale of Ijebuland occupies the fifth.