The recent administrative query allegedly issued by the Ekiti State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy affairs to the sixteen principals' obas in Ekiti on why they have not been attending Obas meeting and some of the state functions has caused mixed feelings.
For many, they see the governor's action as a way to depose the obas. Recalled that recently the Kano State governor deposed the Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi of Kano State. So, it is believed that Dr. Fayemi might be towing the same part.
In a bid to put an end to crisis brewed between the governor and 11members of the sixteen principal Obas, one of the paramount rulers of Yoruba nation, His imperial Majesty, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, the Alaafin of Oyo, wrote a letter to cautioned His Excellency, Dr. Kayode Fayemi as regards the way he is handling the traditional rulers in his state.
One of the culture and norms that distinguished Yoruba from other tribes is to give honour to who honour is due for. A real Yoruba son or daughter knows that he or she must prostrate or kneel to greet an elder. Out of all Yoruba states, Ekiti State is one of the best that respect elderly ones.
In Yorubaland, the traits of Omoluabi are always in our blood especially those that were born and brought up in a good family. In Yorubaland, we hold our traditional rulers in high esteem thus, we dare not rude or insult them, that not to say a traditional ruler cannot be remove from the throne or disrespect if such Oba cross his boundary.
The Ekiti people are one of the largest historical subgroups of the larger Yoruba people of West Africa, located in Nigeria. They are classified as a Central Yoruba group, alongside the Ijesha, Igbomina, Yagba and Ifes. Ekiti State is populated exclusively by Ekiti people; however, it is but a segment of the historic territorial domain of Ekiti-speaking groups, which historically included towns in Ondo State such as Akure (the current capital and largest city of Ondo State), Ilara-Mokin, Ijare, and Igbara-oke. Irun, Ogbagi, Ese and Eriti in the Akoko region, as well as some towns in Kwara State, are also culturally Ekiti, although belong in other states today.
The name Ekiti is a derivation of an earlier term, Okiti, which means "Hilly" in Yoruba, as characterized by the generally hilly terrain of the areas which the Ekiti inhabit.
Ekiti State was created on 1st October 1996 alongside five other states by the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha, GCON in a nation-wide broadcast to mark the 36th Independence anniversary of Nigeria. The State, carved out of Ondo State, covers the former twelve local government areas that made up the Ekiti Zone of old Ondo State. Ekiti as a nation within the Yoruba ethnicity has her progenitor in Oduduwa, as do most of the other major sub-ethnic divisions in Yorubaland. However, unlike the more centralized kingdoms and city-states to the West, the Ekitis traditionally lived in smaller, less politically centralized kingdoms that were largely independent of one another, although they traded amongst themselves and their ruling families often contracted dynastic marriages.
Ekiti used to exist as sixteen principal kingdoms. Each had a senior Oba superintending over its territory. There was never a centralized single political unit among the Ekiti people. Even though the Oore of Otun Ekiti - a town to the north of the Ekiti cultural area - was considered the most senior of the Ekiti kings from the advent of the British occupation of Ekitiland to the later end of Nigeria's colonial rule, the senior Ekiti Obas of Akure (Deji), Ado (Ewi) and Ikere (Ogoga) presided over the largest towns, and Akure was the Ekiti town with the closest links to Benin.
The view of a section of Ekiti historians (such as Atolagbe) is that the pre-eminence of the Oore as the most senior Yoruba and Ekiti Oba was linked to the fact that the Oore signed the 1886 peace treaty which the British coordinated with the Alaafin of Oyo and the Owa Obokun of Ijeshaland, among others. The Oba of Benin was also made to enter into a treaty with the Alaafin of Oyo. Under this treaty, Ekiti, Ondo and Edo were considered part of his traditional areas of influence and would be free of Oyo territorial incursions, while the Alaafin of Oyo would have the Western and Northern Yoruba territories, including parts of the non-Yoruba speaking neighbours like the Nupe, Ibariba and Aja in Dahomey (now the Republic of Benin). Samuel Rowe, the Governor of the Gold Coast Colony, documented some useful hints concerning the pre-eminence of the Oore of Otun on May 29, 1883, when he wrote:
"Ekiti Parapo is a name given to the confederation of "Efon tribes". There are said to be 132 kings among them. The principal of these kings is one Oray (Oore)".
Due to a controversy between the Northern Government and the administration of Major Reeves Tucker, the territories of Otun, Obo, Ishan, Aiyede and Ikole were carved out of the South and then merged with the territories of Northern Nigeria. Subsequently, and following the readjustment of the boundary between the Ekiti (Southern) and Kabba (Northern) divisions in 1909, Ishan, Aiyede and Ikole returned to the Ekiti division while Otun, Obo and others remained in the North, under Ilorin division. In the period of the Oore's absence in Ekitiland, the idea of an Ekiti council of Obas died away. There was no meeting of the council held throughout the period due to a lack of acceptable leadership among all the Obas. Leadership naturally fell to the Ewi of Ado, who in fact represented the Ekiti Obas at the conference of Yoruba Obas held at Ibadan in 1939. Following the return of Otun town to the Ekiti Division in 1936, the council of Ekiti Obas was re-introduced in the form of the Pelupelu (whose name was derived from "Pe Olu" i.e. "The calling of Lords") and the Oore was again made the president. In the biography of H.R.H. Oba Aladesanmi, an Ewi of Ado Ekiti, the Oba said:
"I am in the third position in the Ekiti Division Council of Traditional Rulers which has the Ajero of Ijero Ekiti as the second. The senior one, Oore of Otun, had his district transferred to Ilorin Emirate Council. It was later returned to Ekiti division of Ondo province after much agitation from the people to the government".
Since then, the sixteen principal Obas popularly called Pelupelu have been controlling other Obas in their kingdom. When Ekiti State was created in 1996, there have been rotations of Ekiti State Chairman council of Obas among each of these Pelupelu Obas.
The Obas were also regarded as “Oba Alademerindinlogun”. One would question, why Dr. Fayemi Kayode had decided to make Alawe of Ilawe-Ekiti as the Chairman Ekiti State council of Obas as against the laid down culture that only the sixteen principal Obas are eligible to occupied the seat.
Dr. Fayemi is a governor with executive power, that not to say culture and traditions must not be respected. Perhaps, the governor would have sought the consent of the Pelupelus before he took the grave step.
Whatever the reason may be, the governor has shown a sense of humility and respect to our traditional fathers. Many thanks to Ooni of Ife and the Co-Chairman of Nigeria Traditional Leaders, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi for his fatherly role. Oonirisa, took his time to visited the state and had a meeting with Obas together with the governor in attendance.
Dr. Fayemi is a gentle man, a respecter of culture and norm; I believe he will not dance against the music of our fathers. May I religiously and humbly appeal as well to our fathers to equally reason with Dr. Fayemi on whatever stand, our common goal should be how to move the state forward.
Once again, Dr. Fayemi, thank you for making us proud by not allowing position to becloud your sense of reasoning thereby disrespects our father, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi.
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