Ọ̀gbágbá Agbátẹ̀wọlẹ̀ II - The King Who Came In From The Cold

The long reign of Sikiru Adetona, Awujale of Ijebuland

The ascension of Oba Sikiru Adetona to the throne of Ijebuland at the age of 26 was an extraordinary confluence of tradition and modernity, propelled by his rare educational achievements. Young Sikiru’s formative years spanned Baptist, Islamic, and public primary schools across Ijebuland (1943-1950), culminating at Olu-Iwa College where he emerged in 1956 as a confident, English-speaking graduate - a distinction uncommon among princes of his era. After clerical work in Ibadan’s Audit Department, his ambition led him to resign in 1958 and depart for Britain aboard the MV Aureol, seeking qualification as a chartered accountant. Immersed in student life and acquiring credentials like an Associateship from the Institute of Chartered Secretaries, he cultivated a cosmopolitan outlook that would soon define his reign. Fate, however, intervened dramatically within a year of his arrival.

The death of Awujale Gbelegbuwa II in early 1959 ignited a succession crisis as Nigeria’s independence dawned. Custom dictated the Anikilaya Ruling House - Adetona’s lineage - provide a candidate, but the initial frontrunners, including his own father Prince Rufai, were deemed illiterate and ill-suited for the emerging nation. In a pivotal decision, Prince Rufai nominated his own son, recognising that Sikiru’s Western education and worldly perspective offered Ijebuland a bridge to the future. The kingmakers unanimously selected the 25-year-old prince from six nominees (he was the youngest of them), a choice swiftly endorsed by Western Region authorities in January 1960. Business magnate Chief Timothy Adeola Odutola orchestrated Adetona’s urgent recall from Britain.

In an unprecedented public ceremony at Ijebu Ode’s Itoro Square on January 18, 1960, Chief Odutola presented Oba-elect Adetona to his people - a "new dawn" signalling transparency and modernity. Following three months of traditional seclusion, his coronation on April 2nd drew the largest crowd Ijebu Ode had ever witnessed at the time. Dignitaries including rival Western Region supremos, Chief Ladoke Akintola (who presented the Staff of Office) and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, stood united in recognition of the moment’s profound cultural significance. Crowned Ọ̀gbágbá Agbátẹ̀wọlẹ̀ II (“the one who drives enmity/bitterness into the ground”) the young monarch embodied a symbolic fusion: deep-rooted royalty tempered by contemporary vision.

Adetona’s impact was immediate. Within days, his commanding presence in the Western Region House of Chiefs prompted senior Obas to nominate him - a 26-year-old newcomer - for its presidency, an astonishing testament to the respect his education and bearing commanded. Though an elder secured the role, the nomination crystallised Adetona’s unique promise as a sovereign equipped by lineage and learning to steward an ancient kingdom into the modern Nigerian era.

We who wrestle with men

The storied lineage of the Awujale traces to Ogborogan whose migration from Ile-Ife established Ijebu sovereignty. Oral tradition recounts his arduous journey guided by Ifa priests and sacred charms bestowed by Oduduwa. At Igbo, a pivotal wrestling match against the village chief Olu-Igbo secured his passage; Ogborogan’s victory earned him the epithet Amujale ("one who masters wrestling on land"), foreshadowing the title Awujale itself. This ancestral narrative, one of several origin accounts, embedded a metaphor of sovereignty as struggle - a legacy that would find resonance in the reign of Oba Sikiru Adetona.

Though generally maintaining cordial relations with governments, his commitment to the dignity and independence of his throne ignited a historic clash during Nigeria’s Second Republic. Chief Olabisi Onabanjo, the civilian Governor of Ogun State (1979–1983) and a fellow Ijebu, initially shared mutual respect with the Awujale. Yet tensions escalated as Onabanjo, a stalwart of the ruling Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), demanded partisan allegiance. Adetona refused, insisting the monarchy remain a unifying, apolitical institution. His even-handed engagement with opposition figures - including those in the federally dominant National Party of Nigeria (NPN) - was deemed disloyalty by the governor.

The simmering tension erupted in 1981 when Adetona, as a courtesy, notified Governor Onabanjo of his planned medical trip to London. To the monarch's consternation, Onabanjo turned this routine notification into a demand for detailed health disclosures, an impertinence Adetona met with defiance, proceeding with his travel. By November, the governor retaliated, suspending the Awujale and convening an investigative commission into his "insubordination." Acting on its findings in 1982, Onabanjo formally suspended Adetona’s recognition, triggering fierce legal resistance spearheaded by the eminent FRA Williams SAN. As the case wound through the courts, Onabanjo secured re-election in October 1983 and moved decisively to end the standoff by secretly signing a deposition order exiling Adetona, effective January 2, 1984. Yet fate intervened with poetic force. On December 31, 1983, a military coup toppled the republic. General Muhammadu Buhari’s ascension instantly nullified Onabanjo’s decree, preserving the Awujale’s throne by a mere forty-eight hours.

His steadfastness against overwhelming power cemented his people’s reverence and forged an enduring bond with General (later President) Buhari - a friendship sealed by history and concluded, with profound symmetry, on the identical date of their departure: July 13, 2025. The episode served as a lasting caution against the politicisation of traditional institutions. Demonstrating magnanimity, Adetona later endowed a professorial chair in governance at Olabisi Onabanjo University - transcending past strife to champion the very ideals he had wrestled to uphold. In this, he honoured not only Ogborogan’s legacy of resilience but elevated the throne beyond temporal conflict.

When we were kings

In retrospect, the urgency that recalled a 26-year-old accountant from London to assume the Awujale's throne speaks volumes. Sixty-five years later, it seems almost extraordinary that his education - that rare fusion of Western learning and royal blood - was precisely the gravitas Ijebu kingmakers sought to dignify the ancient stool. (My Ijebu mother, then in her late teens, recalls the palpable excitement: "An educated prince, summoned home from England!") This practice of retrieving royals from abroad endures, yet Nigeria’s cynical political class has perverted its essence. Where once prestige and legitimacy were paramount, governors now often install discredited returnees - fraudsters and compromised figures - precisely to ensure no traditional ruler transcends his diminished station. Thus, Adetona’s ascension remains singular: a mirror to a nation whose bright promise at independence yielded to relentless, institutionalised corrosion.

Over six decades, Adetona cultivated respect among Nigeria’s traditional rulers. Even titans like the Alaafin of Oyo and Ooni of Ife deferred to his wisdom, acknowledging a depth of experience honed since Nigeria’s independence. Yet his influence was wielded with characteristic modesty and intellectual honesty - he famously noted that, “the Yoruba have never really been one [kingdom],” a candid rebuke to artificial unity that underscored his commitment to principled distinction over subservience. His reign navigated military juntas and democracies with calibrated independence: hosting generals like Babangida and Abacha while quietly bankrolling the pro-democracy struggle after the annulment of June 12. When Abacha’s death created a void in 1998, it was Adetona who convened fractious Yoruba leaders, brokering a reconciliation that paved Nigeria’s return to civilian rule.

His moral authority made him indispensable - a king who spoke without flinching. The climactic proof came in 2010, when his autobiography accused former President Obasanjo of weaponising state agencies to “torment” adversaries like billionaire Mike Adenuga (his cousin) and manipulate Yoruba unity. Obasanjo retaliated with a public broadside branding him “a serial liar,” an astonishing spectacle of a former head of state trading salvos with a monarch. Yet Adetona never recanted. That even Obasanjo later paid homage at his court was telling: here was a throne whose sovereignty remained inviolate because its occupant answered to history, not politicians. He was the living antithesis to the pliant rulers cynical governors now install, a monarch whose legitimacy transcended their patronage.

Regberegbe, over and out

Central to Adetona’s vision was his revival of Regberegbe – the ancient Ijebu system structuring society into distinct three-year age cohorts. These generational groupings historically bound citizens together, assigning each cohort shared responsibilities for communal progress: maintaining infrastructure, resolving disputes, safeguarding cultural rites. Adetona transformed this ancestral framework into a dynamic engine of modern development. Under his patronage, Regberegbe associations - formed for both men and women - were tasked with specific public works: building schools to educate the young, clinics to heal the infirm, roads to connect communities. This was governance reimagined through heritage, where each generation’s collective labour became a covenant between past and future. Historians recognised it as "the lynchpin of Ijebu’s democratic spirit," a fusion of timeless wisdom with tangible agency - proof that structure, purposefully applied, cultivates enduring progress.

His passing, then, resonates beyond the sorrow of Ijebuland. It marks the closing of Nigeria’s own great age grade - an era where thrones were occupied by men who possessed something beyond the patronage of politicians who installed them. Adetona embodied this: a monarch forged before coronation, his legitimacy earned, not bestowed. Today, in a nation where enlightenment signals weakness and principle is political liability, where cynics install the pliant and the profane to rule, that standard lies shattered. The promise his reign once heralded - of dignity wedded to wisdom, sovereignty anchored in service - is nowhere to be found.

With him departs not merely a king, but the last full measure of an ideal.

Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, Awujale of Ijebuland, died on 13th July 2025. He was 91