Never in the history of the circa one thousand years’ old Ijebu Kingdom did any king reign for up to sixty years. However, Awujale Sikiru Kayode Adetona, Ogbagba II, Paramount ruler of Ijebuland from the Anikinaiya Ruling House has broken every known record having ascended the throne on April 2, 1960 thus, incredibly clocking sixty years as the monarch of Ijebu nation- a no mean feat, and still marching on in the service of his people as the custodian of their culture and tradition.
There were fifty-seven Awujale (Awujale Ademolu Fesogbade ascended the throne twice!) before him starting from Awujale Olu-Iwa to his immediate predecessor on the throne, Awujale Daniel Adesanya, Gbelegbuwa II, who reigned from 1933 to 1959. He is no doubt the longest reigning first-class monarch in Nigeria and has been a major actor in the socio-cultural and developmental history of Nigeria since the country’s independence.
With his six decades on the throne, Oba Adetona has seen the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of the Nigerian polity. No wonder, he bestrides the traditional institution like a colossus. A sagacious, courageous, charismatic, dependable and reliable traditional ruler, a statesman and an incorruptible monarch, Awujale Adetona is known to always damn every demagogue. Indeed, he is providentially always on the side of history and has weathered many storms that would have consumed lesser mortals.
In his seminal book, The Ijebu of Yorubaland (1850-1950): Politics, Economy, and Society, the late Emeritus Professor Emmanuel Ayankanmi Ayandele (1992), an eminent professor of history, gave ‘a remarkable account of an equally remarkable and uniquely adaptable people’. In a generous but factual assertion, the author in the Preface, inter alia, stated that ‘in any computation of human excellence and ability to make the best of any situation, the Ijebu stand very high in Africa in general and in Nigeria in particular. … Internally, in the bewildering power politics of Yorubaland … held their own in a spectacular fashion, the Ijebu kingdom being the only survivor of the large-scale cataclysmic eruptions that shattered other Yoruba States in the nineteenth century’.
Ayandele further disclosed that perhaps the best ‘illustration of the genius of the Ijebu for survival and timely adaptability was their going the polar opposite by recognising and appropriating in the nick of time, the dynamics of social and economic process offered by westernism, their erstwhile bugbear which they had strenuously resisted to the point that the British maxims and seven pounders had to speak to them’. The Lagos Times of May 9, 1890 was right when it wrote that ‘Ijebu is about the only province now in what is commonly described as the Yoruba country that has not lost its original seat from the vicissitudes of inter-tribal warfare, which has sorely affected the land’.
Young Prince Sikiru Adetona who personifies the attributes of Ijebu that include fierce and sturdy independence, candour, objectivity, sincerity, entrepreneurial spirit, reliability, and resoluteness was born on Thursday, May 10, 1934. He variously attended Baptist School, Ereko, Ijebu Ode; Ogbere United Primary School; and Ansar-Ud-Deen School, Ijebu Ode between 1943 and 1950. For his secondary education, he was at Olu-Iwa (now Adeola Odutola) College, Ijebu Ode from 1951 to 1956. Between 1957 and 1958 he took up appointment with the then Audit Department of the Western Region, Ibadan. The charming prince resigned his appointment in 1958, to pursue further studies in Accountancy in the United Kingdom. He left Nigeria by sea from Port Harcourt in late December 1958.
By a letter, dated January 4, 1960 referenced CB. 4 1/333, the Permanent Secretary in the defunct Western Region Ministry of Local Government conveyed to the Local Government Adviser in Ijebu Ode, approval of the Western Region Governor-in-Council, the appointment of Prince Sikiru Kayode Adetona as the Awujale of Ijebuland with effect from that date (January 4, 1960). It was indeed, a new dawn in the annals of Ijebu people. The king-elect thereafter, proceeded to undergo the traditional seclusion at the Odo for three months.
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