Ile Ife, the cradle of Yoruba civilisation, is a spiritual and political enclave of the Yoruba well guarded by all sons and daughters for its significance in their history and culture.
All Yoruba including those in the Diaspora regard it as their spiritual place of origin and many still pay homage to its importance and spirituality.
It is the same fervour the Yoruba hold the occupant of the throne regarded as the head of all thrones in the nation the Ooni throne.
Naturally, in Yorubaland both the wife and son of kings are referred not for their individual being but for the institution they represent.
As it is an abomination to count the number of children the king begets so it is for the Queen. And so for that matter -the Ooni, the spiritual head of the Yoruba to divorce or have any other living human being betrothed to them while the Oba is still alive! It remains an abomination.
The present Ooni Adeyeye Ogunwusi Ojaja II broke some rules both in his ascendance and the fact of his ascending the throne without a wife. This issue exposed the Ooni to immediate crisis, for in Yorubaland, Aponle ko si fun Oba ti ko ni olori, meaning no regard for any Oba who has no wife.
However, if one controversy has dogged Ooni, his throne, it is his prediction and u usually fate of difficulty as regards stable marital life.
However, much as the Ooni crave to balance his life with the demand of the throne, his first attempt at marriage after ascending the throne with a Benin Princess failed just as his first marriage to Mariam Anako, a Kogi Princess too.
Also, his marriage to Evangelist cum Prophetess ex -Queen, Naomi Silekunola also failed thereby deepening his travails with the cultural demands of the throne and struggling with modernity as a result of the women in his life.
The marriage to Ex-Queen Naomi was also a public show hardly heard in Yorubaland just as her open/public divorce of the Ooni is unheard of in royalty and Yoruba kingship.
Hence, the present travails of the Ex Queen has sort of become a crisis for the Ooni stool in whatever we look at it. After all, there is no honor for any Oba that has no wife.
Ooni Ogunwusi tried on this front but not particularly favored with marriage.
As the Yoruba would say, Silekunola by divorcing Ooni broke the rules, just as her now being involved in a project which saw to the death of 35 children also added to the burden of the flamboyant Ooni who has exceeded the Late Okunade Sijuade, immediate past Ooni, in flamboyance and display of aristocracy.
Silekunola in a way also defies culture by publicly renouncing marriage to an Oba, a first class monarch-an issue unheard of in Yoruba culture thereby making a ‘fame’ of herself and the institution she has unwittingly dragged into controversy.
More difficult still is the dilemma of Ooni having to distance his throne from the scandal and the fact of his having his Aremo from an estranged former Queen.
He can neither disown the ex- Queen nor abandon the future King in her bosom.
Thus, his public sympathy with the ex-Queen is both an effort to protect what is left of the sanctity of the throne and the Aremo whose future is inextricably tied to the life of her mother now facing trial for the inadvertent ‘murder’ of hapless children she wanted to put a smile on their face.
Another task faced by the Ooni is to show sympathy to the parents who lost their children while at the same time he has to perform all he could legally do, to prevent the mother of the Aremo from being jailed.
Should we say that the fate of the ex- Queen is tantamount to reaping what she sow or that her fate is the consequence of what she did by divorcing an Oba which is unheard of publicly in Yorubaland?
What a Queen, what a fate!
Is she paying for abandoning the exalted throne or for lack of adequate planning to mitigate the disaster her WINGs project caused?
As things stand today, her name, that of the innocent future King, and by extension the Ooni royal institution, are on trial.
The Ooni will definitely share in the consequences of her actions.
The Ooni would have to treat the ex-Queen as representing the institution as he could not drag the name of the institution in the mud since the case is in the official court and court of public opinion.
The Ooni in this regard have to adopt the Yoruba attitude that says, Obinrin to ba bi omo funni ti koja ale eni, meaning: Any woman that bore children for any man has surpassed the position of a concubine.
Hence, he cannot afford to portray the ex-Queen in a negative light.
By his public sympathy the Ooni appears to have taken this step but that for now is how far he can go since the case is likely to be in court very soon.
Maybe it is fate at play but the Ooni by his public divorce with his ex-wife is paying for the near desecration of the Ooni’s stool by the ex-Queen, who though an ‘Evangelist’ has not convinced any Christian believer where in the Holy book, divorce is approved by God.
Since she claimed to have listened to the voice of God before marriage to the Ooni who is the custodian of Yoruba culture and its demands, that same God who recognize the position of the Ooni stool would not have approved divorce as the last resort. GOD is not an author of confusion.
There is no doubt that whatever the outcome of the ongoing trial, it will impact and in a way affect the attitude of the Ooni on how he handles his six wives who he married following the divination of Ifa, the pantheon of and guidance of Yoruba culture and tradition and which in a way is responsible for the emergence of the Ooni on the throne of his father’s.
Interesting days lie ahead for the institution the Ooni represents and the modernity he has to confront.
