The Oluwo of Iwo land, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi says he wants to redefine kingship because his fellow rulers do not understand their roles as Kings.
The flamboyant king who has always criticised his fellow Obas of not doing what is expected of them as traditional leaders, told City People in a recent interview that the kings need to restore the lost glory as many do not understand their roles anymore.
Do you know what I am doing? I am trying to save us from extinction. All I have been saying is: Let us do things the right way. We need to restore the lost glory of the kings. Many kings need to understand their roles as Kings in a kingdom. That is why God has asked me to actually come at this time to come and redefine Kingship, to tell people the actual meaning of kingship and at the same time to bring us back to our history the same way. Olorun fun mi ni Igba atijo, o fun mi ri. This helps us to resolve the mysteries of the past.
That is why I often tell people the story of Oduduwa who came to put order to our lives. He set up a government. He knows about kingship. He saw that there was no problem among this people. Our culture is so beautiful. Our language is so beautiful. But we have not been able to put it to good use.
We have a problem from the kings themselves. They are now doing “memory things” our progenitor didn’t give to us. I have been asking everybody give me the god, the lesser god that Oduduwa worshipped. Give me one name. Give me just one name of an Oosha that Oduduwa bowed to. God chose Oduduwa to come and liberate us. And he made that place Ile-Ife (love), a place of love. He is the one that brought love. He is the one that called it Ife-Ifee. The leaders that existed before him were all leaders, not kings. They didn’t have a crown Oduduwa didn’t wear Are, Oduduwa didn’t know Ogun or Sango. Ogun was the first king in life. Sango was the 3rd king in Oyo. He didn’t know them. My question is what Oduduwa didn’t passion to us where did we get it from. I am not saying we should celebrate Ogun or Sango, our heroes of the past. I am not saying don’t do their festival but we should not worship them like gods. When did heroes start becoming gods. We have to understand why they are our heroes. How come we don’t have modern people becoming gods, like the man who manufactured places, phones. We were ignorant then, Oju Dudu.
We can celebrate them because they are our heroes. We can celebrate Ifa priests who use to divine for us, then centuries back.
But should a king worship these small gods.? No, we need to be grateful to God for giving us Ifa to help us divine. But at the same time should it be a subject of worship for kings.
Many don’t know the meaning of Kingship. It is service to the people. A king is the servant of the people. Serve the people. Serve the people diligently. If you serve the people they will appreciate you. If you really serve the people you won’t have the time for personal business.
Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi was made the Oluwo of Iwoland in Osun State last year. He was given his staff of office by the governor of the state, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on the 16th of January, 2016.
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