For the author of The Slaves In The Palace, Foluke Sijuwola Falayi, character and discipline are basic qualities of transformational leaders.

To her, any leader who lacks these traits will be oppressive, tyrannical and high-handed.

Iwosa, a kingdom in the play, has many slaves acting as kings, but at the end, showed who they truly are.

Slaves are, however, used in the play, metaphorically, to mean rulers who lack strong leadership qualities.

But the kingmakers too are guilty of not properly consulting the gods before appointing kings.

From Oba Alabi to Oba Adeyinka and finally, Oba Kosanwo, they all display dearth of exceptional leadership skills.

One of the kings, Oba Adeyinka, a dictator, forcefully takes Awero, another man’s wife: A woman who is still breastfeeding her baby. Even as she pleads, “my child is young,” the king turns deaf ears.

This annoys the kingmakers, and as custom in Yoruba land, calabashes and twigs are carried to the king. He describes this as abomination and goes into the forest. But the king does not learn his lessons.

When the third king, Oba Kosanwo, a former slave, is appointed, evil starts befalling Iwosa again! Things do not work well. A woman birthing triplets dies in the process, another woman eats mushroom and dies with her husband and her son. Palm wine turns into water and a boy commits suicide. Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of Iwosa.

Not only that, the king forcefully takes other people’s land. To him: “It does not matter who owns or has it. The king has need of it.”

He continues, ”you have done all the necessary rites for me. Whether I was a son of the slave no longer matters.”

Again, the king makers revolt, insisting the king must go.

The helpless kingmakers proceed to the home of the oldest and the neglected man in Iwosa as they seek solution.

Ogbonjagbaralo is old; with dim eyes. The king makers are shock that he knows them personally despite his dim eyes and old age.

In anger, the sage asks: “Is it that we do not have tradition or that we do not have old ones among us that you have decided to direct the affairs of Iwosa your own way? Is it that there is no one to inquire from in Iwosa? Why have you chosen to do it your own way? You are king makers; you do not own the kingdoms remember.”

The sage further says, “we have had several slaves ruling as kings in Iwosa. Oba Alabi was a slave to good ideas; a slave to his thought. Iwosa would have been bigger than this if he had permitted visitors to reside here. Each time they came, he made living difficult for them. He was a lone king who refused to associate with other kings. Oba Adeyinka would have been better if he knew what was right but he did what was evil.

He was a slave to women. What shall we say about Kosanwo, a former slave, who everyone believes will have compassion on the people because of the process he had gone through? To be candid with you, no one can remove Kosanwo on the throne. You have enthroned him king. That’s the tradition, no one could open Calabash for him. He is not the son of the soil and he knows that.”

The kingmakers, thereafter, seek a way out and the wise man responds, “there is only one way. If you are ready to make sacrifice. If you can sacrifice your positions as kingmakers,  He will only reign for four years. Things will become uncomfortable for him after which he will leave the town on his own accord.”

A novelist, poet, and playwright, Falayi is a graduate of English and Literary Studies from the University of Ado Ekiti.

In 2008, her debut book was published and was widely accepted. She has written quite a number of books, which have been approved and recommended to be used in schools.
Akeju’s Turnaround, Unbending Steel and Bond are her first set of books. She has authored over twenty books.