Expectation is the stuff of which great events are made. The uncertainties, the yearning, the praying, the striving, the preparations, and then finally, the orgasmic experience of release followed by that afterglow that only a truly sated one can emanate.
Thus it was from 21st December 2020 when rumor started making the rounds that Ogiame Ikenwoli, the Olu of Warri since 2015, had joined his ancestors. The palace promptly refuted such abomination and issued a statement to the contrary, positing instead that the monarch was merely indisposed. But the rumor was stubborn, would not go away, and waxed stronger as the attention of the palace moved from refuting it to managing emerging burning issues within its walls. Then finally, like an over pressured water hose, snippets of the truth of the matter began to ooze forth from overwrought segments.
First were some spurts from the Igba of Warri, Chief Rita Lori-Ogbebor, who through a series of notifications via “The Voice of the Itsekiri Women”, raised several issues obliquely referencing the demise of Ogiame Ikenwoli and then directly confronting the monarch’s handlers for the manner of his transition. In a comprehensive report by Shola O’Neil published in The Nation of 22nd March 2021, the foremost female chief of the kingdom is reported to have in a petition through her Abuja-based lawyers also questioned the monarch’s handling by some persons. According to the report, she accused a trio of the late monarch’s closest confidants and family members of irresponsibility –
“Sequel to the widely circulating news … over the demise of His Royal Majesty, Ogiame Ikenwoli, on or about 20th day of December, our client (Chief Lori-Ogbebor) was mandated to immediately travel from Lagos to Warri as is mandatory for a chief of the palace,” the petition stated. The document alleged that the monarch was exposed to “situations and circumstances that were flagrantly in violation of COVID-19 protocols, allowed to attend prolonged social gatherings and meet with visitors some of whom were later found to be infected with the virus and also died.”
With this, there was hardly any anymore doubt in the land that the 20th monarch of the Warri Kingdom had joined his ancestors. But the then Ologbotsere, Chief Ayiri Emami, would have none of it. According to The Nation’s report, he had retorted when asked: “Have I told you that the monarch has passed on? So, why are you asking about the palace? Have you been invited to an Alejefun (traditional rite where the death of the monarch is announced in Ode-Itsekiri)?”
So, the nation had to wait with bated breath for some official pronouncement to dispel the rumor or clarify the matter. But the hose literally burst as concern shifted from the rumored demise of the monarch to who the successor to the ancient throne of the kingdom will be. In this, a major spurt again came through the indefatigable Igba of Warri in one of her notifications from “The Voice of the Itsekiri Women” where she accused a popular Chief of “smuggling” a son of the monarch living with him in London via Abuja to the palace ostensibly as a preferred candidate to succeed his father. The chief, who hosts a popular Itsekiri Group on Facebook, did not take kindly to this allegation, particularly the use of the word “smuggle”, and proceeded to address a global audience on his Facebook platform on the matter. It went viral.
In another salvo that seemed to capture the worries, yearnings and aspirations of the people, Chief Rita Lori-Ogbebor, the Igba of Warri, fired as follows via her “Voice of Itsekiri Women”: –
“Already, the women of our land have noticed the maneuver by groups who want to take over the soul of our nation. They and their outside backers are daring to want to install a puppet king that they can push around to give them contracts from government and companies. They did this to the late king. Before he could hardly settle down on his throne, he was taken to Abuja and Sokoto. On that occasion, I phoned and told them that what they were doing was unacceptable to the Itsekiri and that they should return the king to his land, the land of his ancestors, where he reigns over his people. He is not a king for contractors or for seeking (political) party positions for people.
One of the prominent groups is that of the so-called “Twelve Disciples”. This is a cabal that, like cancer, has eaten into the body of the Itsekiri nation. Like cancer, it has eaten the fabric of the society economically and socially. This group is headed by Ejele. Ayiri is the go-getter and the daring one who will do anything to get whatever he wants. They have scared everybody who has any intelligence and who dares to show his face in or any interest about Warri and environs. People have run away for their dear lives because they will kill and burn down houses if there is the need.
The cabal has reached the palace, the soul of the Itsekiri nation. The iroko tree has fallen. Backed by outsiders who claim to be Itsekiris, they are now prepared to take over the throne and take over our souls. This is the story today and Itsekiris should know it. By the Grace of the Almighty, the Creator of the Itsekiri people, the Itsekiris will fight to install a king who has the following qualities –
- He must be eligible and SUITABLE
- He must be mature in mind and character
- He must be economically stable and independent
- He must not be known to be a user of any illicit or hard drug
- He must be able to unify the kingdom and must be seen as a potential unifier and rallying point
- He must be of good and stable character, pedigree, and credibility
- He must be fluent in Itsekiri language and conversant with basic Itsekiri traditions, norms, and customs
- He must have the ability to harness the kingdom’s vast human talents for the benefit of all.
Anything short of these will be unacceptable and will spell doom for our kingdom. We shall hold our land. The Itsekiri people, the youths, should now forget money and fight for their souls and for their children yet unborn – to be Itsekiri again, in the proper setting of being an Itsekiri. They should fight for their lands that are being ceded by this cabal for positions in the senate and federal government. For example, lands are being ceded in Warri North Local Government by Ejele and Godwin Ebosa. Their reason is that they want peace. Warri South West was ceded by Chief Ibori and Uduaghan under the pretense of wanting peace. Different parts of Warri South have been taken over by our neighbors in the name of peace. Shall we not fight naked rather than die naked? This is the question Itsekiri youths should ask themselves.
I talk as an old woman and a mother who has been fighting. I fight as a woman who saw this coming 30 years ago. You can see for yourself. They have gotten into the palace to take over our throne and bastardize it. The only pride of the Itsekiri man or woman is our culture and inheritance, which we must fight to preserve till the very end.”
With that patriotic salvo, fired by the power of woman, everything quickened. From a sluggish rhythm since December 2020, affairs hastened to a hurried pace. After a series of meetings and altercation between the camps of Pa Akoma and Prince Emmanuel Okotie-Eboh, the ruling house finally announced the latter, a son of Nigeria’s first republic’s Minister of Finance, as the Olori Ebi and regent to preside over the affairs of the Kingdom until the Ogiame recovers and returns to his throne or a successor is enthroned. In response to the Ologbotsere’s formal request to the ruling house to present a candidate to the Ojoye-Isan (the traditional advisory council to the Olu headed by the Ologbotsere himself as the most senior chief, the ruling house embarked on a selection process in which they considered the eligible princes in consult with the Ifa Oracle for confirmation. In a video clip circulated on social media, one of the chief priests of the oracle consulted swore by the gods that Tsola (Prince Utieyinoritsetsola Emiko) was the oracles’ choice. He affirmed that some twelve others were rejected for various reasons and that there was a warning that the kingdom will be destroyed if a particular candidate was forced on the people. So, swearing by the Egbejugbele deity, he said they then consulted with the name of the one that was chosen. He said he did not know him and had never met him. He cautioned the nation on the influence of money and declared that if the kingdom accepts the chosen prince, normalcy and progress would be restored in the kingdom. He further disclosed that one of the candidates would die if he is forced on the people. So, satisfied, the ruling house presented the chosen one, Prince Utieyinoritsetsola Emiko, a nephew of the reigning Olu and son to the immediate past Olu, Ogiame Atuwatse II. But lo and behold, the Ologbotsere, citing a 1979 edict that prescribes procedures and conditions for ascension to the throne, disqualified the chosen prince. The ruling house made it clear that the Ologbotsere had no such power and in a swift and unprecedented reaction, formally suspended him from that office and role forthwith. The Iyatsere who is next in line to the Ologbotsere stepped in and the pace quickened further.
Come April 5 2021, the Alejefun ceremony (traditional rite to announce the death of the monarch) was performed in the palace at Ode Itsekiri, the traditional headquarters of the kingdom, and Prince Utienyinoritsetsola Emiko was presented as the Omoba, successor to the throne of the Olu of Warri.
A now aggrieved Ayiri Emami, the suspended Ologbotsere, decided to challenge his suspension and the choice of Omoba in court. His grouse? As next to the Olu, the ruling house had no power to suspend him, he claimed. Only the one with the power and authority to appoint has power to suspend or remove him from office, he was reported to have opined. And as for the Omoba, he put his foot down that his mother is neither of Itsekiri nor Edo stock, as decreed by the 1979 edict, but a Yoruba!
Meanwhile the march to coronation day had begun under the leadership of the Iyatsere. The Iken rites were carried out by the Omoba and some 21 communities of the kingdom came out in solidarity to perform all day for two weeks in a row in honor of the departed king after his remains were formally interred at the royal cemetery in Ijala. The Omoba had, after the Iken rites, proceeded to Idaniken, a ninety-day seclusion prior to his coronation as king. And a coronation date of 21st August 2021 had been announced. Seeing the trajectory of events, and as the caliber of the Omoba began to show through, some who were reportedly against him began to decamp to his side unabashedly. Asked why the Omoba was chosen, Yemi Emiko, himself a prince and uncle to the Omoba, had this to say:
“He is the most qualified – stable character, strong mental capacity, clear understanding of the sensitivities of our people, deep, calculated thought processes, and skillful analytical mind on kingdom matters. There was simply no serious competition around him this time around.”
This notwithstanding, and besides the confirmation of the Oracle, there were still some persons who, many suspect for reasons of personal aggrandizement, cast aspersions on the selection process and outcome.
Among such were the suspended Ologbotsere and his supporters. Apparently miffed at the progress being made towards the coronation of the Omoba, they sought for some dramatic means to stall the process. By the way, by now the courts had miraculously embarked on their routine holidays and the cases before them were thus redundant, at least for the time being. So, out of the blues came the prince that was “smuggled” in from London on social media dressed as Omoba. A couple of days later, those beating the drums to which he was dancing showed up on an Arise TV program in the person of a self-styled spokesman of the Ologbotsere Descendants announcing to an increasingly baffled world that there were two Omoba. They argued like sounding brass that the Omoba that recently surfaced on social media met all the conditions stipulated by the 1979 edict whilst Prince Utieyinoritsetsola did not because his mother is Yoruba. For balance, Arise TV invited the duo of Chiefs Mene Brown and Ariyo to air the position of the other side a day or two later. The hitherto baffled audience must have heaved sighs of relief as these chiefs straightened the records and facts that had been badly mangled in the preceding show, including the fact that the Itsekiri people are themselves of Yoruba stock and as such there could be no question as to the matrimony of the prince that has been chosen to ascend to the throne.
Before this last desperate attempt to stall the process leading to the coronation, some person(s) had broken into the royal chamber in which the crowns of the king and other regalia are secured, and removed the key crown, a silver crown said to be 410 years old and had adorned the heads of the fourteen previous Olus, in a bid to frustrate the coronation of the Omoba. The police had been investigating the matter and at a point the suspended Ologbotsere was invited for questioning but nothing had come of the investigations. So, the issue about what crown will be used for the coronation began to worry the minds of an empathetic and prayerful citizenry even as they wondered how the issue of the contending “Omoba” on social media will be resolved.
Events soon came to their aid. The coronation program was formally announced by the Iyatsere thus allaying fears about the matter of the crown. There must be a befitting crown for a coronation to take place. And then the police put out a notice for the arrest of two princes in connection with the theft of the crowns – Prince Oyowoli Emiko, the contending prince on social media and in court, and his brother, Prince Omatsuli Emiko, both of them sons of the immediate past Olu, Ogiame Ikenwoli. The misguided princes had been thrown under the bus by those who sponsored them on the path of dishonor in furtherance of their own selfish interests. Whilst these sponsors are free out there today in the wilderness they have created for themselves, the unwary princes have become fugitives!
And so D-Day arrived. 21st August of the year 2021 and the coronation of the 21st Olu of Warri. Messages of good will and solidarity poured in from far and near. A melody specially crafted by the choir of the Queen Mother’s church to commemorate the event had been in the air for weeks already. Citizens adorned in colorful and specially made attires for the occasion trooped out in their tens of thousands. Canoes and boats colorfully and fabulously decorated pulled out into the Warri River at dawn for the spectacular splendor that is the traditional regatta. A 2021 customized Rolls Royce, a Bentley, also customized, and a private jet, had in the preceding week graced the social media space as souvenirs the Omoba had gifted himself to mark the occasion. As the Warri Kingdom was upbeat in joyous celebrations, so was Itsekiri in diaspora. Families, societies, associations, individuals and friends, found one way or the other to be part of the celebrations wherever they were. Several TV stations, including the popular Arise TV and Channels TV, broadcast the day-long event live.
And then all on ground in Warri and elsewhere in the world, thanks to social media technology, saw him who shall soon be crowned the 21st Olu of Warri as he was ushered into his royally adorned boat at the Warri metropolis side of the Warri River. Other colorful boats lined up behind with drumming, singing, and dancing in an elegant procession to the traditional headquarters of the kingdom for the coronation rites and ceremony.
He fetched water, paddled a canoe, and hewed wood, all symbolically, for the last time. He would never be engaged in such menial tasks again. He was on the path to bear the kingdom on his shoulders and take on much more onerous and nobler responsibilities.
In the specially built hall for the purpose of the coronation, filled to capacity, the Masters of Ceremony, celebrated broadcasters Alero Edun and Patrick Doyle, reeled out the names of dignitary after dignitary that came from far and wide to grace the occasion, welcoming them with befitting accolades. Most prominent amongst them were His Royal Majesty Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ọjájá II, the Oni of Ife; His Majesty King Dandeson Douglas Jaja Amayanabo of Opobo and Chairman Rivers State Traditional Council; eminent chiefs of the Benin Kingdom representing His Royal Majesty Oba Ewuare II, Ukuakpolokpolo, the Oba of Benin; His Royal Highness Alfred Achebe, Obi of Onitsha; Chief Gani Adams, Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland; Senator Omo-Agege, Deputy Senate President of the Nigerian National Assembly representing the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Mohammadu Buhari; His Excellency, the Governor of Delta State represented by his Chief of Staff, Mr. Festus Ovie Agas; His Excellency, Philip Shuabu, Deputy Governor of Edo State; His Excellency Alhaji Abubarkar Atiku Bagudu, Governor of Kebbi State; Alhaji Mordi Sheriff, former governor of Borno State, Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN, Honorable Minister of State for Labor and Employment; Idris Wase, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives; Mr. Olumide Akpata, President, Nigerian Bar Association; Amaju Pinnick, President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF); etc., etc. …
The list went on and on.
Then it was time. The Omoba was being ushered into the hall but well ahead of him, a brand new throne, carried aloft by enthused youths, was brought in and positioned for the highlight of the event. On social media the throne was depicted thus: –
“Those that built the new Ogiame’s customized stool also sent a voice directory. The stool has an electronic detector. It is 80% raw gold and sapphire gemstones. Imported from Eastern Europe, the manufacturers and the cost have not been disclosed. However, it is being estimated at 3.5m Euros.”
Seated on the new throne, the Omoba was royal equanimity personified. Then at exactly 3.30 p.m., after asking the Itsekiri nation for the third time if he should place the crown on the royal head, Chief Gabriel Awala, the Uwangue of Warri Kingdom, lowered the crown, a new golden crown, on Prince Utieyinoritsetsola Emiko to the joyful ululation (“hiii Iwo”) of the entire Itsekiri present in body or in spirit, and the Omoba transmuted to Ogiame Atuwatse III, the 21st Olu of Warri. It was the crowning moment of all that had transpired from the final days and dark hours of 2020 through the murky struggles in the dawn of 2021 to the glorious day that was 21st August. A golden crown had replaced the stolen silver crown, literally and figuratively! And a new era was born for the Itsekiri people, the Warri Kingdom. All Glory be to the Most High!
WARRI PEOPLE 