Okunade Sijuwade Olubuse 11 (1930-2015)

WHEN the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade Olubuse II, passed on the other day, Nigeria lost not only one of its foremost traditional rulers but also a patriot and a man of immense means who brought panache and glamour to the throne. Ile-Ife is the foremost Yoruba town whose foundations, according to history, “were laid in an antiquity and geological era far beyond the ken of human intelligence.”

Oba Sijuwade ascended the revered stool of Ooni in December 1980 from a background in entrepreneurship and business. He had been Chief Executive of WAATECO, an auto distribution company and sole distributor of Soviet-made vehicles, tractors and engineering equipment in Nigeria with numerous franchises across the country. Before this, he had been Sales Director of National Motors in Lagos.

A very amiable man and cosmopolitan nationalist, he, a Christian from the Southern part of Nigeria, was best friends with the late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero himself a foremost leader of Moslems from the north and with the late Obi Ofala Okagbue of Onitsha. These friendships served as buffer of stability and inter-religious harmony between the Moslems and Christians in the country beyond sheer imagination.

He was a custodian of Yoruba culture and kindled a renaissance of the culture in the Diaspora in ways that linked the Diaspora community covering the Americas and West Indies to Ile Ife. Above all, he kept watch over the rich Ife antiquities, in perpetual counter to the Eurocentric narratives of Africa’s historical past.

Ooni Olubuse II was knit to wide-ranging social, political, ethnic and ideological cleavages and was also intellectually inclined to participating in critical, though, small group discussions.

Apart from being the custodian of tradition, he served the country in various capacities. He was Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State in 1988 and was honoured with the prestigious national award of the Commander of the Federal Republic, CFR, by former President Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1983.

His 35-year reign was not without travails. The age-long acrimony between people of Ife and Modakeke reared its head a few times and it was to his credit and that of his chiefs that he was able to put a lid on the crisis and brought peace to his domain. Also, he had controversies with some fellow traditional rulers including the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi and the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, over supremacy claims. Nevertheless, he was an advocate of unity of the Yoruba, a people for whom he saw himself as principal spiritual servant.

Ooni Olubuse II, made tremendous contributions to the development of Yoruba and Nigeria in many ways and the deluge of tributes that poured in when he passed on was well earned. President Muhammadu Buhari was apt in his remarks that the Ooni made “worthy service and invaluable contributions to the sustenance of the cultural heritage of his people with bountiful legacies.”

Indeed, he was “a great engineer”, who built bridges across all Nigeria.