Oba Sikiru Adetona: The Day Ijebu Lost Its Lion By Tahir Ahmad
When news broke last Sunday that the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, had passed away, the nation fell into collective mourning. Just hours earlier, Nigeria had learned of the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
That two towering figures—one a king, the other a general—would leave the world on the same day felt too symbolic to ignore. In life, they stood on different thrones. In death, they departed as legends of the same era.
Oba Adetona was not just a monarch. He was a movement. Crowned in 1960, the very year Nigeria became independent, he reigned for more than six decades—longer than any other Yoruba king in history.
He watched leaders come and go, guided his people with a sharp mind and fearless voice, and stood as a moral compass when others faltered. His throne was not just an ancestral seat. It was a pulpit from which truth was spoken to power.
One of the most defining moments of his reign was his clash with Ogun State’s then-governor, Olabisi Onabanjo. It nearly cost him his crown. But fate—and Muhammadu Buhari—intervened.
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When Buhari seized power in 1983, one of his first acts was to halt the plot to depose the Awujale. What began as royal gratitude turned into an unlikely bond between the general and the king. It now seems almost poetic that both men would draw their final breaths on the same day.
To understand Oba Adetona is to understand the Ijebu spirit—proud, enterprising, and fiercely self-defined. Ijebuland has birthed some of Nigeria’s brightest lights: Mike Adenuga, Subomi Balogun, K1 De Ultimate, and a long roll call of visionaries in business, music, and governance.
But no matter how high they soared, they always bowed before one crown. The Awujale’s influence went beyond tradition. He was both the pride and the conscience of a people.
Nothing captures this better than the Ojude Oba festival, that dazzling annual celebration of culture and royalty which, under his watch, became a national treasure and a global spectacle. What began as a modest homage has blossomed into a grand convergence of history, faith, fashion, and heritage.
And because of Oba Adetona’s vision and commitment to excellence, Ojude Oba now bears UNESCO’s recognition as an intangible cultural heritage. He made it more than a festival—he made it a legacy.
Today, Ijebu mourns its king. But more than that, it celebrates a man whose life was rooted in dignity, whose reign was defined by courage, and whose death has crowned him an ancestor. The Awujale may no longer walk among his people, but he will never leave their hearts.
For kings like Oba Sikiru Adetona do not die. They live on—in culture, in memory, in history. Rest well, Kabiyesi. Ijebu bows. Nigeria remembers.
