Ogiame Atuwatse III, CFR the Olu of Warri Kingdom, one of the most magnificent, most powerful, most influential and richest kingdoms known to man, celebrated his 4th year, his 4th anniversary, on the throne throughout last week – from Monday, 18 to Sunday, August 24, 2025.

Warri Kingdom, one of the Kingdoms of Kingdoms to grace the Nigerian geopolitical space will be narratably narrated and talked about throughout timeless time mainly – as I see it – on the solid account of the very originally thoughtful modern monarch whose organicism and his ideology of it have placed, put, that is, Warri Kingdom in a new and splendidly favourable light since Ogiame Atuwatse III mounted the throne of his, our, fore-fathers four years ago.

Those who are not unfamiliar with what they perceive as my radical bent and sensibility will be surprised about my posture now, but they know – or ought to know – too well that I do not at all hesitate to conjure up – when occasions demand it – the sensibility of one, the artist, who is delighted to label a spade a spade.

Atuwatse III is a frontline modern monarch who is a thorough advocate for cultural and diplomatic economics. This is one of the full reasons that immaculately patriotic historians, humanists and literary persons and fellows of letters will respond to him dynamically as a monarch, a modern monarch, of intense patriotic vision. He will always inspire chroniclers and recorders of his activities to do to his narrative and to the actants in it what I may call here the poetry of the real of the ever-enduring.

Throughout last week I read everything, all the things, in the forms of tributes and advertorials in our dailies that celebrated his Majesty’s four years, his 4th year anniversary as the powerful monarch of Warri Kingdom. Of the great tributes this gleaner and glimpser read the one that caught his fancifully patriotic imagination is the masterpiece from his Queen Consort, Olori Atuwatse III.

The masterpiece published in The Guardian Weekend of August 24, 2025 (two masterfully embroidered pages 20 and 21) emitted the message of Royal love (and its role as the source of forward-looking “revolutionarilly” undiluted patriotic love of a devoted consort who shall not displace herself from his royally worthy side and journey towards a revolutionarilly progressive kingdom). 

Now I feel the feel the need to quote her “five-stanza” uniquely passionate poem about her nature-endowed kingdom and homeland of splendorous splendor of beautiful beauty and refined humanity no induced ruins upon ruins in monstrous heaps can ever extinguish:

“Today marks a significant milestone in your reign, and I am honoured to stand by your side as your partner, confidant, and wife. Over the past four years, I have witnessed your unwavering commitment to the welfare and development of the Warri Kingdom. Your leadership has been marked by wisdom, compassion and a deep understanding of the needs of our people.

“Your Majesty’s dedication to preserving the rich cultural heritage of our kingdom while embracing modernity has been truly inspiring. Your efforts to promote peace, unity and progress among our people have borne fruit, and I am proud to see the impact of your reign on the lives of our subjects.

“As wife, I have had the privilege of supporting you in your endeavours. I have seen your tireless efforts to ensure the well-being of our people, and I am constantly amazed by your selflessness and dedication to duty. On this anniversary, I pray that the Almighty God continues to bless and guide you as you lead our kingdom.

“May your reign be long and prosperous, and may your legacy be remembered for generations to come. I join the entire Warri Kingdom in celebrating your achievements and commending your visionary leadership. I am honoured to be your partner in this journey, and I look forward to continuing to support you in your endeavours.

Long live your Majesty and long live the Warri Kingdom!
With love and devotion,Olori Atuwatse III(Queen Consort of Warri Kingdom).’’
This is a deliberately written simple poetic prose or prose poem whose powerful rhetoric captures Warri Kingdom’s Queen Consort’s ideology of modernism with respect to Ale Iwere as Itsekiris call their homeland of Warri Kingdom. It is a piece of creative writing, like a daydream and nightdream at the same time, of prayer of the Queen Consort for her husband-king or king-husband and Ale Iwere. Its form of immediate experience that is expressed in the spoken, prayerful words of the Queen Consort cannot but stir readers because they summon up a holy voice firmer and stronger than the readers’.

The Queen Consort speaks and prays with countless voices. She enthralls and overpowers us and all negative voices with religious and patriotic vision that conjures up the holy, ever-enduring feeling that conquers, expels and banishes from her husband-king, His Majesty, and from Warri Kingdom every evil and all negative forces that want to impede the unity and progress of the homeland.

The greatness of “Happy 4th Year of Your Accession to the Throne My Dear Husband, Ogiame Atuwatse III, Olu of Warri” is encapsulated in its semiotics. The efficacy and reality of his wife’s prayer are underscored in Ogiame Atuwatse III’s erect posture, eyes fully closed, in meditation, in emblematic colours of reddish brown and brownish red in a seemingly dark-brownish purple background that shows the production of meaning at work.

Of course, there are other crucial semiotic indicators at work that denote what the Queen Consort wants them to denote, but the gleaner and glimpser will not go the whole hog here to say what is more than necessary. After all, I did not set out to dissect Olori Atuwatse III’s picture of Ogiame Atuwatse III for the purpose of literary interpretation. I have read her here for the productivity of her rhetorical effect which I value.

Its truth of life in modern Warri Kingdom and the accuracy of the Queen Consort’s vision mirror the social – or, better stated, the royal positionality of our monarch, our modern monarch, our avant-garde monarch and his equally avant-garde Queen, the seemingly only one in our country whose voice to him and us is the established voice of truth. The reader of this column might do well to borrow a piercingly semiotic eye to examine the flaming advertorial in question.

If he does so the passionate picture of the monarch of wealthy waves, dense mangroves of rich memories and forests of joyful progress of ceaseless progress, will be forever etched in his consciousness – as the Queen Consort drives her message to her king, our king and the Itsekiri people and their loyal brothers, cousins and friends.
Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.