THE Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade
is dead. He was 85 years old.
The revered Oba died in St. Mary’s
Hospital, Paddington, London at about 7.30 p.m. last night.
Both palace sources and close
associates of the leading Yoruba Oba said he was rushed to London on
Friday before he passed on last night.
Oba Sijuwade ascended the throne in
1980 at the age of 50.
Sijuwade was born on January 1, 1930
in Ile-Ife to the Ogboru ruling house, grandson of the Ooni Sijuwade
Adelekan Olubuse I.
He studied at Abeokuta Grammar School
and Oduduwa College in Ile-Ife and worked for three years in
his father’s business, then for two years with the Nigerian
Tribune, before attending Northampton College in the
United Kingdom to study business management.
By the age of 30 he was a manager in
Leventis, a Greek-Nigerian conglomerate. In 1963 he became Sales
Director of the state-owned National Motor in Lagos. After spotting a
business opportunity during a 1964 visit to the Soviet Union, he
formed a company to distribute Soviet-built vehicles and equipment in
Nigeria, which became the nucleus of a widespread business empire.
He also invested in real estate in his
home town of Ile-Ife. By the time Sijuwade was crowned Ooni in 1980
he had become a wealthy man.
Sijuwade is a Christian. In November
2009 he attended the annual general meeting of the Foursquare
Gospel Church in Nigeria accompanied by 17 other traditional
rulers. He declared that he a was full member of the church, and said
all the monarchs, who accompanied him would now become members.
At his birthday celebration two months later, the Primate of the
Anglican Communion described Sijuwade as “a humble monarch, who has
the fear of God at heart.”
When Sijuwade became Ooni of Ife in
December 1980 he inherited an ongoing dispute over supremacy between
the obas of Yorubaland. In 1967 a crisis had been
resolved when Chief Obafemi Awolowo was chosen as the
leader of the Yoruba. In 1976 the Governor of Oyo State,
General David Jemibewon, had decreed that the Ooni of Ife would
be the permanent chairman of the State Council of Obas and Chiefs.
Other Obas led by the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi
said the position should rotate. The dispute calmed down when
Osun State was carved out of Oyo State in August 1991.
In January 2009 Sijuwade was quoted as
saying that Oba Adeyemi was ruling a dead empire (the Oyo
Empire, which collapsed in 1793).[7] Adeyemi responded by
citing “absurdities” in Sijuwade’s statements and saying the
Ooni “is not in tune with his own history”.[8] Adeyemi,
Permanent Chairman of the Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs, was
conspicuously absent from a meeting of Yoruba leaders in April
2010.[6]
Towards the end of 2009 a more local
dispute between the Ooni, the Awujale of Ijebuland and the Alake of
Egbaland was finally resolved. Sijuwade traced the dispute back to a
falling out between Obafemi Awolowoand Ladoke Akintola
during the Nigerian First Republic, which had led to a division
between the traditional rulers. He noted that the traditional rulers
were an important unifying force in the country during the illness of
President Umaru Yar’Adua.[9]
In February 2009, Sijuwade helped
mediate in a dispute over land ownership between the communities of
Ife and Modakeke, resolved in part through the elevation
of the
Ogunsua of Modakeke as an Oba.[10] The new Oba, Francis
Adedoyin, would be under the headship of Sijuwade.[11] Oba
Okunade Sijuwade died on July 28th, 2015, after a brief illness at
the ripe age of 85 years
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