Tunde Odesola

It’s my third day in the serene city of Ilorin, where no fly has perched on my gleamy spacecraft, nor has anyone come near to vandalise it. What curious onlookers have done is to stand in awe at a distance and fantasise – ‘oh, what a steely capsule of gravity-defying engineering!’ If it were in some notorious cities, a blue whale washed ashore would take more hours to be stripped to the bone than for my spacecraft to be dismembered by itinerant metal scavengers. Though the cloud of insecurity hovers above the whole country, the sky is darker in some states than others. In Ilorin, my spacecraft was unscratched for three unguarded nights.

I’m still in the Oke-Kudu area of Ilorin, where I have come to see the chest-thumping Magaji of Oke-Kudu, who claimed in a viral video that he made a Canadian female witness, Loranie, go mad so that then-prince Abdulrasheed Akanbi, now the Oluwo of Iwo, could be let off the hook in a criminal case in Toronto, Canada, many years ago. This lord of Oke-Kudu said he prayed to his god (certainly not Allah) to throw a spanner into Loranie’s brain, and his god did, Magaji noted with aplomb.

To believe the Magaji is to believe the old wives’ tale of the tiger giving birth in the forest whenever the rain pours down its water and the sun radiates its fire, simultaneously. Before human feet began to trample on the eyes of the earth, Yoruba forebears evolved a proverb. It says, “If the wicked pleads his case before a court, it is not the wicked who will sit in judgment over the case.” As the Magaji has stated his case against the Oluwo, and the world awaits a response from the monarch, I’ll offer Akanbi some sincere advice – free of charge. He should sue the Magaji and be ready to prove his innocence in court. To go online and threaten some imaginary persons for defamation is not regal; the Oluwo should walk the talk by dragging the Magaji to court and scapegoat him.

I make this charge because only yesterday, another viral video of the Oluwo surfaced, in which he threatened to ensure that anyone who defames him goes to jail. I implore Oba Akanbi to make good his threat by making an example of the Magaji.

Meanwhile, while the masses await Oluwo’s proof of innocence, which I think may never come, the Magaji should be made to boil in the broth of his egotism and lies. Nothing better describes evil than an Islamic cleric, who boastfully affirms in a viral video that God heard his prayer to make an innocent Canadian go mad for a criminal suspect to be freed.

There is a proverb that stands on two legs instead of three. It is: ‘Speech is silver, silence is golden’. The third leg should be ‘Not always’. Akanbi should not remain silent in the face of the weighty criminal allegations levelled by Magaji, his erstwhile associate. The Oluwo should redeem his reputation.

Though I respect Islam and its adherents, many of whom are my friends, I do not believe the Magaji has any spiritual powers at all, let alone the power to make anyone go mad. If he does have such a power, I dare him to make me go mad! I dare him to count the beads of his ‘tesbih’ one million times, chant ‘yasin’, ‘yasin’, two million times, and do 100 ablutions on Mount Arafat, a hair on my body won’t fall off.

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However, if some Muslim faithful anywhere believe that certain Islamic clerics can use the Holy Quran to invoke God to do injustice, then it is apposite to conclude that such Muslims are ignorant of who Allah truly is. Allah is love. So, to clear the air and sustain belief among the Muslim laity, prominent Islamic bodies should denounce the teaching and example of Mgaji Oke-Kudu. This is the juncture where the League of Imams and Alfas in Yorubaland, Edo, and Delta states needs to speak up against the Magaji and his misleading ilk who speak ill of Islam. This is the junction where Islamic activists such as Ishaq Akintola of Muslim Rights Concern should condemn the blatant claims of the Magaji. To keep quiet and turn a deaf ear to the blasphemy oozing from Ilorin is to confirm Magaji’s claim that Allah is manipulable. Allah should not be disfigured by charlatans while Nigerian Islamdom watches and keeps silent. The reach of the mouth is farther than the reach of the foot; ‘ibi ti enu de, ese o de be’. Talk is potent.

The potency of talk came to the fore in Otu, an Oyo town, once upon a time. A foremost custodian of African history, culture and tradition, Prof Wande Abimbola, told me a certain man built his house on the slope of a hill. “Ha! Who built a house along a hill? “Eh, whose house is this?” Yeepa, ta lo ko ile si ara oke?” Tongues wagged. But the house stood its ground.

However, the awuyewuye talk did not cease; it grew in intensity. “Did this man not see a plain ground to build his house?” “Why did he choose a slope to build his house? “What is wrong with some people, sef?” Is he blind?” “Ha, people don’t fear o!” “This is a wrong place to build a house nah.” “If he wants to die, he should die alone. Why does he want to take his wives and children along with him?” “Some people are just wicked.”

Then, one day, the house collapsed, and the Olúbòbòtiribò story emerged from Otu, thus. The Olúbòbòtiribò story has a song. This is how it goes, “Omo kekere enu lebo o; enu lebo. Agbalagba enu lebo o, enu lebo, Olúbòbòtiribò, awo enu,” meaning: “Children, the mouth is a sacrifice. Adults, the mouth is a sacrifice, Olúbòbòtiribò, the disciple of the mouth.”

Today, in Ile-Ife, the Olúbòbòtiribò myth has grown to be deified in deference to the potency of the spoken word, says Abimbola. Many musicians, such as the plane-stopping Wasiu Ayinde, had made a song about Olúbòbòtiribò awo enu. And, I wonder why a musician who knows how the tongue can engender reputational ruin could engage in an embarrassing public display unbefitting of his age, position and commonsense. Iru kileyi, Omo Anifowose?

This is the time for self-check, Baba Sultan. While you blocked the Value Jet plane from taking off at the Abuja airport, I heard you say in the viral video, “Je a ma ja lo; let’s continue fighting.” At 68 years of age, you should bridle your actions and mouth, o ye ki e ko ara yin ni ijanu, boda Wasiu. That tarmac display was very shameful. Watching an online video recently, I was shocked when the Lagos State Chairman, National Union of Road Transport Workers, Alhaji Mustapha Adekunle, aka Sego, punished an NUTRW member who maltreated a female commercial driver. Alhaji Wasiu, if you stand in the way of my spacecraft as I make to leave Ilorin now for Iwo, I will use you to ‘ko bodi’ into space.

Moving away from that yeye on the tarmac, I return to my exploration in earnest. After spending three days in Ikoro-Ekiti and three days in Ilorin, I plan to spend just one day in Iwo, where I am about to head now. Iwo is no less a town than Ikoro-Ekiti or Ilorin, but a day is enough for the assignment at hand because my guest, the Oluwo, is a very busy oba; busy hoisting Islam over Yoruba tradition and culture. I think I’ve done half of the Iwo job by charging Akanbi to man up and challenge to court the Magaji.

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The lift off from Ilorin was great. Within the blink of an eye, Iwo came into aerial focus. Iwo, my Iwo! Iwo Olodo Oba, Iwo Atenigbola, Ateni Gbare! Iwo holds a special place in my heart because I have more friends and mentors in it than in Ikoro-Ekiti and Ilorin combined.

My spacecraft splashed down gently into the Oba River in Iwo, and indigenes came rushing to see the alloy wonder and its Igbajo astronaut. I smiled and waved teeming crowd.

Oba Akanbi, long may you reign! Long may the crown remain on our head, long may the king’s horse eat the fodder, may thy horsetail become a needle, kabiyesi. Àse!

Kabiyesi, I can hear grumblings in the land. No sooner had I landed than I sighted a letter by an Iwo-based association, the Mogajis and Forum of Iwo Princes, seeking an official meeting with Osun State Governor, Asiwaju Ademola Adeleke, over some “issues of urgent public concern which had for quite some time loomed as worrying and warning signals to possible breach of peace in Iwoland”.

The letter addressed to the governor reads further, “It is on the basis of the above that we intend to get an audience with you at your earliest convenience. These issues, painful as they are to report, having exhausted all humanly reasonable internal interventional mechanisms, without results, are to be discussed at the meeting being proposed.”

Signed by its chairman, Alhaji Fatai Owokoniran, and secretary, Prince Saheed Ganiyu, the letter, whose receipt was acknowledged by the Governor’s Office, Osun State, on July 4, 2025, expressed confidence in the governor’s ability in conflict resolution.

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A recent viral video by Prince Lawuyi and Prince Abimbola Alade suggested why the forum of Iwo princes wrote to Governor Adeleke. In the video viewed on online TV, Atopinpin, the two octogenarian princes faulted Oluwo’s preference to be called Alaafin of Iwo, instead of the Oluwo of Iwo title borne by his ancestors. Also, the princes said it was wrong for Oluwo to charge princes money for traditional titles, a development they said was strange to Iwo.

Although I am not from Iwo, I believe I can offer some sincere advice to the Oluwo and Iwo people. Everyone knows the Oluwo is no stranger to controversy, but when a king is about to clock 10 years on the throne, he should be dignified in speech and conduct. As the king looks forward to another decade, I pray that his corpses of fraud and imprisonment in the US would be buried for good. However, for people not to refer to those embarrassing cases, the Oluwo must learn to be royal and less controversial.

But if the Oluwo refuses to change in the coming days, the people of Iwo should call on ‘oluganbe’, the potent leaf the Yoruba use for curing sobia – the guineaworm. No king is more powerful than his people.

My assignment is done in Iwo. But before I leave for my Igbajo Iloro abode, I need to etch the Ikoro-Ekiti myth of Onikoro Mèbí, Àgbìgbònìwònràn and the Queen in a riddle for the wise to solve.

Who typifies the Oluwo, the Magaji, and the queen in this exploration story?

For reminders, the Àgbìgbònìwònràn, who should be a change agent, ended up needing change himself as he worsened the situation he met on the ground. Onikoro Mèbí was arrogant and beastly, killing with impunity. I will unscrew the riddle of the queen: the queen typifies the government, and the kingmakers who enthrone misfits as princes. I will leave you to figure out who typifies Àgbìgbònìwònràn and who typifies Onikoro Mèbí? Goodbye, Oluwo; goodbye, Magaji.

* Concluded.