Beyond the Crown
When Oba Ajibade Gbadegesin Ogunoye III became the 32nd Olowo of Owo, his ascension was remarkable for one reason: it was without rancour, a first for a kingdom where transitions to the throne had historically been turbulent.
Born on July 6, 1966, into the Elewuokun royal dynasty, the son of the late Oba Adekola Ogunoye II and Olori Adenike Yeyesa Ogunoye had built a life in public service long before becoming king. Educated at Government Primary School and Owo High School, he went on to earn a degree in Religious Studies from Ondo State University, now Ekiti State University, a Master’s in Public Administration and an LL.B from Adekunle Ajasin University. He subsequently attended the Nigerian Law School and was called to the Nigerian Bar.
His career in the Ondo State civil service saw him serve across several ministries, including as Director of Finance, before rising to Permanent Secretary. Following the passing of Oba Folagbade Olateru Olagbegi III, he was unanimously selected by the Owo kingmakers, stepped down from the civil service and received his Staff of Office on December 14, 2019.
Today, his reign is focused on preserving Owo’s culture, strengthening peace and advancing the kingdom socially and economically. In this conversation with Yinka Olatunbosun, the Olowo opens up the rich repository of history and cultural stories that comes with occupying one of Nigeria’s ancient royal stools.
Your Imperial Majesty, you have just turned 60, and the last seven years alone have taken you from a distinguished career in public service to the throne of your ancestors. When you look back at your life at this milestone, what surprises you most about the journey?
Having just celebrated my 60th birthday, I thank God for keeping me to this day and for placing me on the throne of my forefathers. Before my ascension to the throne in 2019, I was a career officer; a top government official as a permanent secretary. At that time, in 2019, I still believed I could add value to public life. But this opportunity came as a result of my predecessor’s demise, so it was a surprise. Although I knew one day I would be the King of Owo, I didn’t expect it then. When the opportunity came, I took it. Within me, I knew that I would add value to the kingdom and to the throne of Owo. The past seven years have really confirmed it. That is the only surprise for me. I thought it would be years after my retirement. I give God the opportunity to give me the glory for life at 60 and going forward, and to be the primary ruler of Owo.
You were a lawyer, administrator and senior civil servant long before you became king. What was Ajibade Ogunoye like before the crown—and what parts of that man have you refused to let the throne change?
As a lawyer and administrator in the public service in Ondo State, I used the opportunity to build friendships and relationships. Everything I learned in the course of practice allowed me to relate well with everyone that I had cause to meet. Everything hinges on my job performance, and I ensure that humanity is served. Through that, I was able to make friends here and there, and I leveraged the relationships I established because of my desire for the throne; I was a jolly good fellow, and I comported myself well. People saw in me the ability, humility, comportment and capability to add value to anything that I deal with. My friends, right from the beginning when I was a young man, before I even joined the civil service, I have maintained my relationships. And everything has been very rewarding. To this day, I leverage those relationships to serve humanity. I never let the position get to my head so much that I couldn’t relate freely to everyone I’ve been with over the years. That said, leadership must come with responsibility and composure because it is an opportunity that must be well used to cater for the larger majority of the kingdom and that I have been able to do.
You succeeded your father, Oba Adekola Ogunoye II, and became the 32nd Olowo of Owo. What did you learn from watching him as both a father and a king, and what have you consciously chosen to do differently in your own reign?
My father late Adekola Ogunoye II was the 30th Olowo of Owo. He reigned between 1968 and 1993. I succeeded the late Oba Olateru-Olagbegi III, and ever since, the throne has been very interesting.When my father was on the throne, between 1968 and 1993, I learnt a lot from him. I was two years old when my father ascended the throne in 1968. I was brought to the palace, and for the period I was brought to the throne, for almost 25 years, I was virtually with him. I never knew any life outside the palace. I attended my primary and secondary schools in Owo. It was only during my university days that I went outside of Owo. Whenever we had holidays, I would return to Owo to be with him. I learnt a lot from him. I learnt about the culture and tradition of Owo; how my father comported himself while on the throne; how he took the affairs of his people to heart and provided solutions; how royalty works; and how I could promote the kingdom. My father was culture personified. He was such a loving father to me and a loving king to his people. He was generally accessible and compassionate in the affairs of Owo. Those qualities I learnt and imbibed. They have been helping me to be the leader of my people and their affairs have always been my affairs. Whenever any problem arises, I go out of my way to proffer solutions. I see myself as the face of the kingdom wherever I go. In the course of it. I exhibit the cultures and traditions of my people. Even through my educational achievement and exposure, I have realised that a society without culture and tradition is not worth its existence. That’s why I take the culture and tradition of my people seriously, not only to preserve it but to promote it for global recognition. Today, we have a festival called the Igogo Festival that is globally acclaimed. The festival has been there for more than 600 years. Since my ascension, I have promoted it globally. It is a festival that developed naturally, and every September we celebrate it; I am its face. I promote it so that global tourists can come and experience it. I am adding value to what I received from my forefathers.
You spent almost two decades working within government and rose to the rank of Permanent Secretary. Kingship, however, comes with a very different kind of authority. Has your background in law and public administration made you a different kind of traditional ruler?
My experience in public service exposed me to what I should do in the course of my kingship. I was an administrator, bureaucrat and lawyer. That enabled me to be well-equipped for that task ahead. The experiences I have garnered have been a big plus. There are traditional administrations of a kingdom. They have unique features comparable to Western ideas. The difference is that the traditional setting then never had means of writing. Aside from that, all features of modern-day governance are well-grounded in traditional institutions.
When the British first came to Yoruba land, they marvelled at what they met on the ground. The administrative structure of the Yoruba kingdom was comparable to those of the West. Some of us with Western education now combine that knowledge with tradition to provide robust leadership.
The Igogo Festival is perhaps Owo’s most famous cultural celebration, but beyond the spectacle, costumes and festivities is a deeply sacred tradition. What does Igogo truly mean to the people of Owo, especially to a younger generation that may experience it very differently from their grandparents?
Igogo festival is truly the greatest cultural endowment of the Igogo people of Owo. The festival started over 600 years ago during the reign of the ninth Olowo of Owo. Every year, we collectively celebrate the festival. It showcases the culture of owo and expresses our culture and tradition at its best. It is expressed in costumes, sacrifices, prayers, dance, songs and musical instrumentation. Dressing and relationships. It is a culture that establishes the family union. At the festival, a good number of our people come home to celebrate. It is a very important festival to the people of Owo. It is based on our experiences and what really happened in Owo Kingdom and Queen Oronsen.
Other queens who were already in the palace became jealous, especially when they discovered the taboos of Queen Oronsen. The other queens deliberately flouted her taboos, which made the Queen leave the palace in annoyance. She entered the forest group, where she disappeared. The king sent a team of men to rescue Queen Oronse but she refused. That’s the back story. Our effort is to promote tourism through the festival to attract global cultural tourists from across the world. We are now seeing visitors from across Nigeria come to celebrate with us. We have introduced youth cultural programmes as part of the activities because the festival lasts almost a month. We have introduced the Oronsen beauty pageant, football competitions, and traditional wrestling, now repackaged to include other elements. The experience as a whole has been very appealing to the younger ones. The festival is now globally known.
Owo has extraordinary cultural assets—from Igogo and Ulabi to its ancient terracottas, ivory works and other antiquities, many of which are known far beyond Nigeria. Do you dream of an Owo where people travel from around the world specifically to experience its history, perhaps through a world-class museum or cultural centre? What would it take to make that happen?
Owo is noted for other festivals such as the kolanut festival and the ero festival, which is a retirement festival. We have another festival which we are repackaging now. To be called Ogwaloko. Owo is the centre of arts, terra cotta, ivory, woodwork, and history, as well as modern blacksmithing. Over the years, Owo has evolved into a place of industry. We have a unique clothing system exclusive to the Owo people. Our forefathers developed it over the years. I have been working hard to package our cultural endowments to attract global tourists. Now, I am working to establish a centre that is still under development and evolving, where our cultural endowments can be exhibited in a mini museum in the palace. We have a national museum within the Global Palace here, which has been a great centre to visit, and people have been coming from across the world. After we complete our hall of fame, it will be another centre of cultural attraction where people can learn more about our heritage. Owo is a famous and well-established kingdom with its own standing army. The majority of our youths are trained in warfare.
One of the difficult questions for every custodian of tradition is how much to modernise. As Olowo, where do you draw the line between making Owo’s culture accessible to the world and protecting traditions that were never intended to become tourist attractions?
Owo has been a great centre of traditions in various forms. We are known for it. We revel in it. We are proud of it, and we will do everything to continually protect it. As we expose our culture and tradition to modernism, we are very conscious of protecting everything that we have so that we don’t lose it to modern influence. The people of Owo are very conservative in their culture and tradition. We protect what we have from unnecessary influence. And we are proud of what we have. We don’t joke with it. All the people of Owo know this. We do whatever it is within our means to protect our culture and tradition against unnecessary influence. We call it the West’s desire to make sure the younger ones know our values and orientation. We are conscious of it and we protect it from unnecessary western influences.
Sport is clearly close to your heart, and football in particular has an extraordinary ability to bring young people together. Beyond the Olowo Football Cup, how would you like to see Owo turn its sporting talent into genuine professional opportunities for young people? Could sport also become part of the answer to youth violence, cultism and other social problems?
I think sports will positively impact our youths’ careers if they use the sporting facilities available to them. They can make it a way of life or even develop their future career around it. As a result, we packaged the Olowo football competition, now rechristened the Oba Ajibade Gbadegesin Ogunoye III Football Competition. It runs annually, and the final takes place during the I Hegogo festival. The final will be in September. We have been discovering talents.
Football serves as a major unifier for young people. What is your vision for local grassroots tournaments like the Olowo Football Cup in channelling youth energy into professional sports?
It is a means of redirecting our youths from cultism, violence and other social vices. Instead of doing negative things, they direct their energy to football, scrabble, monopoly, and we are thinking of reintroducing lawn tennis. Table tennis is already part of it. For us, it is about total sport development in Owo so that talents can develop. We want to have a football club in Owo, and God willing, we will make that happen in due course. Our youths are being exposed to sports as a means of livelihood. All we do is ensure we have peace in Owo. We thank God for what we are able to achieve in that direction. Our youths greatly appreciate what we do.
You are a traditional ruler, but you also operate in very modern spaces, including your role as Chancellor of the Federal University of Science and Technology, Babura. Do you ever find these worlds at odds with each other, or has moving between them actually changed your idea of what traditional leadership should look like today?
As a traditional ruler and a chancellor of a Nigerian university, nothing hurts in delivering on both responsibilities. There is no clash of interest. Traditional institutions are about service to the people, about responsibility. The society is well run and well-ordered. Both responsibilities work together without clash.
The public sees the ceremonies, chiefs, visitors and grandeur of the palace, but probably very little of the burden that comes with the crown. What has been the most difficult adjustment from being a private citizen to becoming a king whose time and attention belong, in many ways, to his people?
What people see in kingship is the ceremony, the people who come around, the grandeur of the palace, the reverence of the chiefs and the like. Deep down it is a great responsibility. A great sacrifice, and it is very demanding of the crown. As a person who later has the responsibility of being on the throne, such a person must be ready to serve and must be ready to serve himself. Before ascending the throne, based on my experience, I knew the demands of being a king from my father’s example. As a king, you are no longer a man of your own again. Much more is expected of you. People who must revere you must see you as above board, exemplary in character, and a leader people can run to. Your palace must always be open whenever you are in town to attend to the needs of the people. There is no king without the people. The essence of being a king is to serve the people.
And when you do manage to escape the demands of the throne, what does Alayeluwa do for fun? What music do you listen to, what sports do you follow, where do you like to travel—and are there still simple things from your pre-palace life that you insist on doing?
I don’t get to escape. My work is demanding. Whenever I am, I make sure I attend to the demands of my throne—no time for leisure. But if the opportunity comes to have fun, I take it. I am a lover of music. I listen to any genre: traditional, Western, religious music, on television and in the car. I played football in my younger days, and to this day, I still watch football, especially the foreign clubs that have Nigerians on their team. I follow the local clubs in Nigeria like the Sunshine Club of Akure. That is the only club I can call mine.
At 60, what do you know about life, leadership and people that you wish the 40-year-old Ajibade Ogunoye had known? You have been a scholar, lawyer, civil servant, husband, father and now king. Of all these identities, which has taught you the most about yourself?
My life experiences over the last 60 years have been deep. What comes to life is that everything is in the hands of the Creator. Accomplishments in life are not necessarily in the hands of an individual. Everything is divinely ordered. Some highly educated people may not achieve much in life. My take is that inordinate desires should be limited. The greatest achievement is to provide for the needy and to make sure we add value so those who don’t have the means can enjoy life as well. You may have excess money but not be able to eat more than once a day. It is when the resources are not there that you would want to eat.
When I hear people embezzle millions in Nigeria, I wonder what you want to do with it? Even the children that you leave the property for may not necessarily need it. The children will equally find their means of survival. And some have turned such resources to negative use. We need to caution our desires for material wealth. If we are so conscious of that. Whoever has the means should support the needy.
Finally, Owo has had 32 Olowos, each leaving his own chapter in a history that stretches back centuries. When your own chapter is written, what do you hope will distinguish the reign of Oba Ajibade Gbadegesin Ogunoye III?
I am the 32nd Olowo who has ever ruled in this kingdom. Owo has been blessed with successive monarchs who are powerful and outstanding. We have had great kings. I will make my own impact positively, and I will be reckoned with. I thank God for life and the opportunity to serve my people. We are blessed with agriculture, and we desire to add value through agro-processing. A time will come when this kingdom will be a centre of agricultural processing. I give God the glory, and I want to see Owo rise and continue to rise.
