Farewell to a Royal Icon: Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona

Sunday, July 13, 2025, was a day to remember in Nigeria. The 91st birthday of Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka fell on that day. Unfortunately, Oba (Dr.) Sikiru Kayode Adetona, the Awujale of Ijebuland, and former President Muhammadu Buhari also paid down the debt of nature on that day.

Awujale Adetona was remarkable in a number of ways. His father, Prince Rufai Adeleke, was ready to become king, but he gave the throne to his son instead, who ruled the Ijebu kingdom for 65 years after ascending to the throne just one month before his 26th birthday.

In every aspect of his appearance, demeanor, speech, and behavior, he was royalty. He was honest in all of his statements, had faith in his own judgment, and followed his convictions. Not even a threat to his life could make him change his mind; he would never back down.

That much was demonstrated in a remarkable confrontation with General Sani Abacha, the autocrat who controlled Nigeria with an iron grip, following the brutal annulment of the country’s most free and fair presidential election by military President Ibrahim Babangida’s government.

Awujale Adetona believed that giving Bashorun MKO Abiola, who had won the election handily, control of the government—even if he led an interim government—was the only option to break the political impasse that the military had established.

At his palace in Ijebu Ode, he arranged secret, occasionally public gatherings of opposition politicians, civil society activists, and other Abiola supporters. He was dubbed Oba NADECO, or monarch of the National Democratic Coalition, as a result.

When General Abacha placed Lieutenant General Oladipo Diya, his deputy, in the gulag for a fictitious coup and appeared determined to execute him and others, Awujale Adetona publicly denounced the injustice.

One of his subjects, Ogun State Governor Bisi Onabanjo, was upset with the Awujale during the Second Republic and wanted to have him removed in order to make amends. Nevertheless, he firmly stood up, defended his rights, and denounced the persecution that he believed was unjustified.

Fortunately for him, the coup that turned Major General Muhammadu Buhari into a military head of state cost him his seat. Colonel Oladipo Diya, who was then serving as the military governor of Ogun State, read the riot act to Ijebu Ode natives who had supported former governor Onabanjo, who was then imprisoned in Gen. Buhari’s gulag.

Awujale Adetona consistently demonstrated distinctive radical and progressive qualities throughout his public career. He was able to successfully combine the modern and the ancient by bringing new concepts to perform roles and behaviors that had been practiced for centuries.

As part of the celebration of an improved Oju­de Oba Carnival, he led his people to construct an ultramodern palace and revive and introduce the Regberegbe age grade. This carnival matched the scale, glamour, and steeze of the Rio Carnival in Brazil, the London Nothing Hill Carnival, and the New Orleans Mardi Gras.

He succeeded in convincing Segun Osoba, the former governor of Ogun State, to turn the old Public Works Department building across from the Aafin Awujale into the Ojude Oba Arena in order to provide room for more athletes. At the Ojude Oba Carnival, however, the venue is getting smaller in comparison to the enormous throng.

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He reorganized the group of Ijebu titleholders into three groups: the Council of Chiefs, for chiefs; the Council of Otunba, for Otunbas; and the Ijebu Traditional Council, for kings. To improve their villages’ standing, he made several “Baales” into crowned kings.

More significantly, he appointed talented people to those roles, even though he gave the relevant families the option to select candidates for family titles and attempted to advise them to choose deserving candidates.

He ceased taking part in the dance that signaled the entrance of Alagemo priests in Ijebu Ode for their festival, but some felt that he went a bit too far when he almost eliminated several ancient traditions due to his Islamic religious beliefs.

Allegations were made that he ceased to supply the necessary materials for the yearly Obirin Ojowu Festival celebration. Additionally, Egungun Masquerades became an uncommon and almost extinct festival in Ijebu Ode.

The pinnacle of his radical and progressive qualities was his ability to convince the State House of Assembly and Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun to pass a law allowing Ogun State kings to be buried in accordance with their religious beliefs rather than by traditionalists who are said to have hacked the bodies of deceased kings into pieces for ceremonial purposes.

We offer our condolences to the people of Ijebu Ode on the passing of Awujale Sikiru Kayode Adetona, a unique and forward-thinking monarch who had a profoundly noteworthy influence on Yorubaland’s kingdom system. Now, the query is, “Where does another Awujale in the color of the recently deceased come from?”