The name Ondo resonates with people as being the name of a notable kingdom and that of a

state. Why was the state, created in 1976, named after Ondo Kingdom?
That is an interesting one. Ondo was lucky that it never faced any war. It was never attacked by
anybody. There was peace. So, development was rapid and it became a place of abode for
many people and natural preference for the colonial masters when they came. Ondo also
became the headquarters of most of the multinational companies, and in terms of education,
religion and commerce, Ondo was a preferred choice. So, when the province was carved out,
consisting of the present Ondo and Ekiti states, it was not difficult for that province to be named
after Ondo, under the reign of a very powerful Osemawe. So, they were all called Ondo
Province before the creation of Ondo State. Thus, when Ondo State was created, the name was
equally adopted. That was how the state got its name.
There seems to be some supremacy battle among traditional rulers in Yoruba land, but not
many would know the position of the Osemawe. What is the rank of the title ‘Osemawe’ among
Yoruba Obas?
As far as I’m concerned, as the current Osemawe of Ondo, my current priority is not on the
ranking, but to ensure the sustenance of peace in my kingdom, to attract developmental
projects to the kingdom as well as ensure that the culture and tradition of Ondo is maintained.
However, as far as the title of the Osemawe is concerned, documents in the archive revealed
that as far back as 1885, Osemawe of Ondo was one of the first five Obas to be given staff of
office (pointing to the staff) by Her Royal Majesty, the then Queen Victoria of Britain. Other
Obas were Ooni of Ife, Alaafin of Oyo, Alake of Egba and the Awujale of Ijebu Ode. In the 1903
Obas’ protocol list of Sir Macgregor (a Briton who was the then governor of Lagos colony) ,
which is now used as a reference point, has Osemawe as number five on the list. Again, the
Osemawe was once the chairman of all the Yoruba Obas in Pelupelu (meeting of Obas). But,
like I said before, my priority is on the development of Ondo Kingdom and not on ranking.
It is a norm in the African setting for communities or cities to have taboos. What are the taboos
in Ondo Kingdom?
There is hardly any community in Yoruba land that does not have its own taboos. The one that
readily comes to mind is that in Ondo community, we don’t eat rodent (called Okete in Yoruba
language). And if you are bringing palm fruits into Ondo, you don’t bring the whole bunch. You
need to have detached the fruits from the bunch. Again, new yams are not to be exposed or
brought to the market until after the yam festival when the Osemawe would traditionally eat the
new yam. It is after this that it can be exposed. Those are the major taboos.
It is also a traditional norm for kings to inherit the wives of former kings. Does it also happen in
Ondo Kingdom?
It happens in all Yoruba land. When an Oba transits, the new Oba inherits the wives and
children of all the past Obas. What that means is that it is the responsibility of the king to provide
their material needs, and the new king is expected to treat the inherited wives both as his
‘mothers’ as well as ‘wives.’ The important thing is the care for them. That is why the Yorubas
don’t say an Oba dies, an Oba can only transit, and when that happens, whatever was left by
the past Oba, the new Oba would have to inherit them. It is continuous. Inheritance, in this case,
means that you take up the responsibility of providing their material needs.
You recently celebrated 10 years that you ascended the throne. What has it been like?
I would say it has been quite interesting and challenging. But, I must confess that I enjoyed
every bit of it. Challenges are inevitable and they are to prepare one for more serious tasks in
the future. I’m happy my chiefs and subjects are cooperating with me. There are so many visible
developmental projects that we can point to that have come into existence since I ascended the
throne. Many of our roads are dualised, we have many mega schools, we have modern markets
and we also have universities now, particularly the Wesley University and the University of
Medical Sciences. It will interest you to know that the University of Medical Sciences is the first
of its kind in West Africa, and we have people coming from virtually all over the world to receive
treatment from qualified, experienced doctors there with the ultramodern and state-of-the-art
equipment that are comparable with what you can see in the western world. That truly gladdens
my heart.
Ondo Kingdom was pronounced a city in 2015. Was that something you specifically set out to
achieve when you were crowned?
Immediately I ascended the throne in 2006, I invited the sons and daughters of the community
to brainstorm on what they thought we should do to move the community forward. We then
established the Osemawe Palace Forum and that forum set up the agenda as to what they
expected of their king. By the time I finished the traditional rites, which lasted for about six
months, my high chiefs and other chiefs also cooperated with me. They reviewed the outcome
of the deliberations and we came up with what they believe I should do. So, the achievements
were products of combined efforts. We have an enviable history, which we are very proud of.
We have detailed records of our history from inception over 500 years ago. So what we did was
to celebrate the 500 years of our existence. It was as a result of the celebration that we wrote a
book that detailed everything that happened in different phases; medicine, education, religion,
and different facets of life. Different segments were written by professors in different fields. The
book was titled, ‘The Evolution of Ondo Kingdom over 500 years; 1510 to 2010.’ That was when
the idea of Ondo becoming a city came up. We set up a committee, called the Ondo City Vision
2015 Committee, to look at how we can justifiably turn Ondo from a town to a functional city
within a period of five years, so that by 2015, we would be able to proclaim Ondo a city. To the
glory of God, by December 2015, we justifiably proclaimed Ondo town a city.
We rarely find traditional rulers having pet projects, but you have one. What inspired that move?
It was borne out of my interest in rendering service to my people, particularly the
underprivileged. As far back as 2009, I established the Oba Kiladejo Crown Foundation for the
benefit of all. We have economic empowerment programmes, public advocacy and health
programmes. We also assist prisoners in skill acquisition. On yearly basis, we invite doctors
from the state and beyond to provide free health care to our people. We also provide drugs for
those diagnosed to have chronic non-communicable diseases, like diabetes and hypertension.
We also provide glasses for some, we do counselling, and we don’t normally limit ourselves to
just investigation; we continue with their treatment. This year, we attended to well over 2,000
people. That is very important to us. We also give scholarship to indigenous students and we
also help the widows. Some years back, we built and equipped a medical centre for one of the
universities in this community. There are so many things that the foundation is doing and that
gives me joy.
Before now, people used to take their conflicts to the palace for resolution, but given the
civilisation and growing number of courts these days, do people still bring cases to the palace
like before?
I would want to refer to what we have now as a place for alternative dispute resolution. The fact
is that, we only resolve conflicts because conflicts are bound to happen. While conflicts are
about persons, crime is against the state. So, in our own centre, we don’t attend to crimes at all.
We use many methods, like negotiation, conciliation, mediation and then arbitration. It is only
when all these fail that we think of litigation. But in most cases, I’m happy to tell you that it’s
been quite rewarding because ADR is cheaper, faster and the pre-conflict relationship is always
maintained. In Yoruba land, it is said that you don’t come back from court and still maintain
cordial relationship, but relationships are not ruined with this approach. Let me also tell you that
we are trying to reorganise it the more by involving experts, like retired judges and other
professionals to give expert opinions.
There have been differing opinions on what the roles of traditional rulers are in the
contemporary society. What is your view on this?
That is an interesting one. As far as the roles of traditional rulers are concerned, we have the
formal and informal. The formal role is primarily to advise the government and the advisory role
is not limited to the state, it applies also to the Federal Government. For example, we have the
National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria, which gives us the opportunity to advise the
Federal Government and I’m the representative of the South West Obas in the Security
Committee of that council. Also, at the state level, we also have State Council of Traditional
Rulers for us to get involved in whatever the state government is doing. So, we do quite a lot.
We also act as intermediary between the government and our people because we are the
closest to them and we know where the shoe pinches. As for the informal roles, which is just as
important, we are the custodians of the culture and tradition of our people. We provide the
necessary umbrella and much desired enabling environment for peace. We also attract
developmental projects to our respective communities. We have quite a lot to do and we do it all
the time.
Some people are also saying there should be constitutional roles for traditional rulers. What is
your view on this?
On the issue of constitutional roles, all we are saying is that those things we do should now be
part of the constitution, and the kings, Obas, Igwes, Emirs and others should be appropriately
recognised in that respect, and if need be, compensated for that. When we talk of constitutional
role for traditional rulers, we are not saying we want to start competing with the politicians,
neither are we advocating for political appointment or involvement in politics, I believe that our
formal and informal responsibilities are so much that we should not be bothered with additional
responsibilities of becoming quasi politicians.