There are times in history that offer a people the opportunity to reaffirm their identity, unite their ranks, and project strength to the world. Saturday, April 5, 2025, the day Oba Akeem Abimbola Owoade was crowned the 46th Alaafin of Oyo was one such moment. A throne very much older than the Nigerian nation itself was revived in royal grandeur. But where splendor was expected, we saw an awful void. Where unity should have reigned, fragmentation ruled the day.
The coronation of the Alaafin, an wholly symbolic event in Yoruba cultural memory and expansive Nigerian heritage should have commanded national reverence. Instead, it was treated like a provincial footnote. The most important stool in Yoruba history, once the core of an empire drawing out from the Niger to the Atlantic, was compressed to a local ceremony with tiniest representation from key figures across Yoruba land and virtually no attention from the federal seat of power.
Yes, the coronation should have been more than a festival of culture. It was a shot to rally the Yoruba nation in the face of growing marginalization and political discrimination. Yet, what could have been a celebration of unity and pride became an indictment of the very people who should have championed it. To call the absence of the President, Bola Tinubu, himself a Yoruba son, at the coronation “disappointing” would be a crude understatement. Not only was the President absent, there was no formal statement from the Presidency to identify with the installation of one of the most important traditional monarchs in Nigeria. Vice President Kashim Shettima, was also nowhere to be found. How terrible ?
Only the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, an Oyo indigene and politically convenient fallback, was sent to represent the federal government. The symbolism was loud and clear: the federal might, currently helmed by a Yoruba man, had no interest in the cultural soul of his people?Again, South-West governors? Largely absent. Save for Osun State’s governor, who at least sent his deputy. Where were the others?
Isn’t it shocking? That at the historic installation of the new Alaafin, one of the most hallowed stools in Yoruba civilization, most Yoruba political elites couldn’t be bothered to attend? This same elite class shows up, in full agbada and entourage, for weddings, birthdays, and chieftaincy titles of obscure celebrities and political cronies. Yet, when it came time to stand for a symbol that represents the Nigerian federation, they were missing in action. What kind of leadership ignores the rebirth of its own cultural capital?
To worsen the tragedy, the Alaafin’s coronation shared its date with the Lisabi Festival in Abeokuta, another major Yoruba cultural celebration. How is it that two of the most significant events in Yoruba heritage collided on the same weekend? This is not merely a scheduling error. It is an acute commentary on how disjointed our institutions have become. That no effort was made to bring together or stagger these events shows a shocking lack of coordination among Yoruba cultural and political stakeholders. The inability of the Yoruba elite to unify under one cultural banner, even for a day, is telling, and dangerous.
More pathetic, rather than direct their anger at the Tinubu’s absence or the governors’ silence, a group of self-styled Yoruba cultural defenders, what some now call the “Ronu Coven” focused their energy on an irrelevant target: the Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Adebo Ogundoyin. Their chief accusation? That he has Igbo heritage through his mother and once attended a community event involving Igbos in 2019. Let us be clear, Ogundoyin has been nothing but an exemplary son of Oyo. He speaks Yoruba fluently, conducts Assembly business properly, married a Yoruba woman, and has continuously served the interests of his people with pride. The attack on him is nothing short of that bigoted paranoia masquerading as cultural purity. How unserious ?
What’s worse is that these attacks distract from the real issue: the political and cultural abandonment of the Almighty Alaafin coronation by Yoruba leadership. By choosing to scapegoat a Oyo speaker who was present at the coronation, while the President and governors were not, these critics have only succeeded in undermining the very cultural unity they claim to cover. This is just a misplaced priority that Yoruba “ambassadors” must begin to differentiate performative outrage from meaningful advocacy. It is very easy to target someone like Ogundoyin, a relatively young and accessible politician, but much harder to hold the Tinubu or state governors accountable for their dereliction of cultural duty.
Let’s not forget, when Oba Rilwan Akiolu was crowned in Lagos in 2003, even Atiku Abubakar, then Vice President and a political rival, attended the event and chaired the occasion. That’s what leadership looks like. That’s what maturity in multicultural governance demands. Tinubu, a man who rose to power touting Yoruba solidarity, had the opportunity to demonstrate this same cultural leadership. He chose silence, and for this Yorubas must be disappointed.
The fallout of this coronation goes far beyond the ceremonial on the surface. What it unfurls is a Yoruba nation suffering from internal fragmentation and political aloofness. Our inability to unify around our most sacred traditions speaks volumes about the declining influence of our cultural institutions. If Yoruba leaders cannot rate their own symbols, how can we demand respect on the national stage?This silence, this cowardice, will echo beyond the walls of the Oyo palace. It sends a very dangerous signal to future generations: that our culture is secondary, that our unity is negotiable, and that our heritage is disposable.
This Alaafin coronation should have been a rallying point, a renaissance moment for Yoruba unity, identity, and pride that will probably happen once in a lifetime. Instead, it exposed the deep and dirty fissures in our political and cultural leadership. Rather than uplift the throne of Alaafin and project our heritage as a source of strength, our leaders chose indifference. Rather than hit our outrage at those who truly deserve it, absentee governors, an absent president, some of us chose to vilify one of our own because of his mother’s tribe.
That is not leadership. That is not unity. That is not the Omoluabi way. The time has come to make a choice: will we continue to sabotage ourselves from within, or will we finally hold our leaders accountable and restore dignity to the cultural institutions that define us?
Ogungbile Emmanuel Oludotun writes for Oyo Affairs