Ooni, Benin monarch superior to Alaafin, says late Oba Sijuwade

Late Ooni Sijuwade

The late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, had before now asserted that his stool was superior to that of the Alaafin of Oyo.

The late monarch also said that even the Oba of Benin is greater than the prominent Oyo monarch in a viral old video that reminisces about the superiority claim between him and the then Alaafin, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi.

In the clip that hit the internet on Thursday, the late Ife monarch was seen explaining to his subjects and visitors in his palace that even the then-Nigeria governor, Sir Hugh Clifford and the Federal Gazette of 1904 backed his claims.

In 1924, during the Prince of Wales, Edward VIII’s visit to Clifford, he noted that the governor faulted Reverend Samuel Johnson’s book on Yoruba history as fake because it contradicted reality.

The late monarch said, “The Oba of Benin is superior to Alaafin. I will provide you with all the necessary pictures as proof; you can take them away. You can hear him (late Oba Adeyemi) saying Oranyan, he was wrong. Oranmiyan is the correct pronunciation. He was tricky; there was nothing like that.

“On [Samuel] Johnson’s book that you said, the Nigeria governor in 1924, when the Prince of Wales was visiting, the governor said Johnson’s book is fake. He said Johnson was an Oyonman who wrote a book to boost the ego of his people. He said it is fake. Yes, it is in the archives. I will provide supporting documents. Alaafin is nowhere around Ooni at all.

“A Federal Government Gazette of February 28, 1903, revealed that when the the Govenor of Nigeria came to invite Ooni who was my grandfather to settle the rifts among the kings fighting for the crown in Lagos. He wanted Ooni to come because in the Nigeria Council of Yorubaland, Ooni was the owner of the crown and the only legal one to speak on it. Ooni told the governor that none of his predecessors had ever travelled out their palace.”

Oba Sijuwade further narrated how the governor had to please his grandfather to settle the rift in Lagos, stressing that his acceptance brought many kings out of their palaces to honour the revered then-Ooni.