A historic development which brings to an end a near two year interregnum, Prince Abimbola Akeem Owoade has been formally designated Alaafin of Oyo, after receiving the okay from Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.
Then, after prolonged consultation and the due process, the announcement was later made through a public announcement in a press release signed by the Prince Dotun Oyelade, Commissioner for Information and Orientation.
But that passage went on to say that the election of Prince Owoade was the result of highly complex, often elaborate use of both traditional modes for divination and divination in general, and finally decided by Oyomesi, the kingdom’s “kingmakers.
With this important task, the void broken by the departing former, Alaafin, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, which disappeared from this world on April 22, 2022 is filled. Selection has been a source of great fascination among armchair experts as well as practitioners of the field in every area of Yorubaland, who view the office of the Alaafin as being representative of social prestige in traditional Yoruba society.
The Honourable Commissioner, Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Ademola Ojo added that such news release will, in itself, fulfill all the socio-legalities as of now related to succession turmoil since the exit of the great (the late) Alaafin.
He prayed for peace and rejoiced among those peoples in Oyo State hoping that those peoples might plot together in favor of the newly proclaimed chief over whom the ancestral throne now sits.
The appointment of Prince Owoade as the new Alaafin is likely to bring a new phase to the ancient Oyo Kingdom one that has been central to Yoruba history, and whose culture and tradition remain of great cultural and traditional significance in contemporary Nigeria.
The Commissioner spoke of the future with optimism, presenting a prayer for a princely regime of peace, of prosperity, and of fraternity for the venerable country.
The importance of this investiture is heightened by the fact that the app running that, as one of the most prestigious of the Yorub cultural crowns, the crown of the Alaafin, has never been any other than one of the most important traditional chieftains of the region.
The new Alaafin will have to walk on a tightrope between the maintenance of the rich tradition governing the old institution, led by him, with the changing status of the domain in the faces of the coming times.
Currently, all the people inside Oyo Kingdom, patrons from all corners of the country are all sitting on their hands waiting desperately to have their traditional engagements, ritual, ceremonies properly recorded for the formal installation of their traditional title, the next Alaafin of Oyo as Prince of Abimbola Akeem Owoade.
