I have read and listened to groundswell of dissent or opinion on the age long controversy over supremacy between Ooni and Alaafin which recently became a topical issue when the newly installed Alaafin Owoade refused to be on his feet while exchanging pleasantries with Ooni Ogunwusi in an event but the fact remains both traditional rulers are not on the same pedestal judging by the historical antecedents and antiquity of the throne they occupy.
If the contention of Alaafin and Oyo people is predicated on the status of Alaafin during the colonial era, definitely, Alaafin must be wrong to assert supremacy over Ooni because traditional institutions in Yoruba Land predated British colonialism and the only parameter to employ in grading and classifying traditional rulers in Yoruba land can only be on the basis of their historical antecedents and the antiquity of their thrones. There’s no gainsaying, the British colonists came for economic and political reasons and governed our people through our traditional rulers who administered their various communities and collected taxes on behalf of the colonial government without the ample knowledge of our history and the status of those traditional rulers.
One of the factors guiding classification and grading of traditional rulers then, was generation of taxes and siting of administrative headquarters in the domains of those traditional rulers. Take for instance Ife district was administered as part of Oyo province while Ilaje under the suzerainty of Olugbo before the advent of the colonial era, was administered as part of Okitipupa Division and Ondo Province respectively during the colonial era. The poser is: will it be correct to say Alaafin is superior to Ooni just because Ife District was administered as Oyo Province or Osamawe of Ondo, Abodi of Ikale Land, who was the Native Authority of Ikale District, or Jegun Idepe-Okitpupa, who is currently the King of Okitipupa, the former administrative headquarters of Okitipupa Division which Ilaje, Ikale, Arogbo and Apoi were part of is superior to Olugbo because of this fact?
I must be sincere with myself and posterity that Alaafin is not anyway near Ooni of Ife in the echelon of status of traditional rulers in Yoruba Land. There’s no denying Ife predated Oyo, even Benin was in existence before Oyo and history made us know more than 34 Ogiso have reigned before the advent of Obaship title which started during the reign of Eweka, the son of Oranmiyan who founded Oyo town definitely, the stool of Oba of Benin predated Alaafin’s stool. If not because the colonial masters relegated Olugbo during the colonial era, the controversy over supremacy should be between Olugbo and Ooni due to the antiquity of Olugbo’s throne and dynastic struggle between Olugbo and Oduduwa who is adjudged to be the progenitor of both Ooni and Alaafin which led to Moremi espionage.
The argument being canvassed by the Oyo folks, that Oyo was an empire and the political headquarters of Yoruba Land is not tenable in this regard and it is totally devoid of logicality in the sense that authority of Alaafin did not extend to the entire Yoruba Land like Ilaje, Ikale, Ekiti, Ife, Ijebu and many other places except some places like Egba, Ibadan and Dahomey which became subjects of Alaafin through conquest; so Alaafin being an Emperor can only assert supremacy over his subjects not the entire Yoruba Land and moreover, there’s nothing like Yoruba. Yoruba is a recent nomenclature christened to the people of Southwest in the 19th century and for the fact that Oyo dialect is the most widely accepted and spoken dialect among the Yoruba people does not make Alaafin superior to Ooni.
The reason Ooni is widely accepted and acknowledged as the paramount ruler of Yoruba is based on the fact that Ife is the cradle of Yoruba civilization and, if Ife is adjudged to be the origin of Yoruba race and nobody is contesting the fact that Oduduwa met the progenitors of Olugbo in Ife it is apt to conclude the supremacy should be between Olugbo and Ooni not Alaafin, the son of Oranmiyan whose grandfather, Oduduwa met Olugbo and his people in Ife before Oduduwa dislodged them.
If grading and classification during the colonial era should be the basis of determining the status traditional rulers in the post colonial era definitely some prominent traditional rulers in Yoruba Land wouldn’t have written books to acknowledge the supremacy of Olugbo. As you can see from the document, Alaafin Oyo and Alake of Egba earned more salary than Ooni and they were also rated above him because they generated more taxes in their domains. Does this give Alake the temerity to compare himself to Ooni or Olugbo who is adjudged to be occupant of the oldest kingship stool in Yoruba Land when the first Alake of Egba Land was installed in 1854? Are u saying the history of Yoruba started in 1854?
As a matter of fact, the first Alake was installed in 1854 while Olubadan was elevated from Baaleship to Obaship status in 1937 while the 18th Olugbo died in the year 1850 but they were graded and classified over some traditional rulers like Olugbo who existed before them since antiquity, so grading and classification of traditional rulers during the colonial era cannot be yardstick or parameters to determine the status of traditional rulers in Yoruba land because, our traditional institutions predated Colonial Government and it is deeply rooted in history and traditions. It is also evidently clear that Oba of Benin and Olu of Warri who acknowledged the supremacy of Olugbo were one of the first class Monarchs in the southern part of Nigeria while Olugbo was just graded first class in the post colonial era.
Barr. Lade Ebiwanno writes from Ilaje, Ondo State.
