Kehinde Fajobi
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, has revealed that he was once chased out of the palace of the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, during a visit. The Ooni made this known in a video that went viral on TikTok on Sunday.
Speaking in the video, the Ooni said, “When I visited Oluwo, he chased me out like a child. Since that incident, I have always maintained myself going close to him. Now that you people (attendees) are imploring that I visit him again, what if he does what he likes to me? But I have to contain his excesses as an elder, although I am a young person sitting on the throne of the elders. Oluwo, I greet you.”
Although the Ooni did not speak about any specific feud between them, both monarchs are prominent rulers in Osun State. However, it is believed that Oluwo has not been happy with the Ooni’s involvement in traditional practices, which he refers to as “idol worship.”
In a separate video, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, also known as Telu 1, warned his people against engaging in traditional practices. He stated that anyone who wished to do so should practice it in their own homes.
“My work as a monarch is to stand for God and preach about Him alone while challenging those worshipping things other than Him. I don’t do Ogun or any idol festival. Although I have previously celebrated the Egungun festival with the worshippers, I will never do that again. Except that they don’t call it idol worshipping. I don’t support their activities; that’s why their dealings don’t thrive here,” Oluwo said.
He continued, “You cannot even perform sacrifices in Iwo. Anyone who does that will eat it. Better still, litter your house with the sacrifices. Environmental sanitation has been exercised here to curb things like that. What anyone would need to be successful is to challenge the idols and their worshippers. That alone would make you a soldier of God.”
In a Facebook post on Monday, the Oluwo clarified that Iwo had a history of traditional leadership but had become predominantly Islamic since Oba Memudu Ayinla Lamuye’s reign in the late 1800s.
He wrote, “Oba Ibirinade Abioye Adekanbi (Alawusa) brought Islam in 1600. He evacuated idols and converted a place of worshipping deities to the Oluwo Central Mosque. Precisely, he birthed the first mosque in South Western Nigeria in 1600. Later in the late 1800s, another Oluwo, Oba Memudu Ayinla Lamuye, spread Islam and converted the whole Iwo people to Islam.”
Tensions between the two monarchs date back to 2018 when the Oluwo accused the Ooni of ordering his bodyguard to push him aside at a traditional rulers’ meeting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Oluwo said, “The bodyguard of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, in what seemed to be an errand message, pushed Oluwo at the public gathering of first-class paramount rulers held at the Presidential Hotel, Port Harcourt.”
The Ooni of Ife, however, denied the accusation. In a statement by his Director of Public Affairs, Moses Olafare, the Ooni said, “There was no altercation between Oluwo and anybody at that venue at all.”