Ikú Popzy-momzy’s sudden demise shall, very likely, upend the scale of balance in the sacred Yoruba Obaship coven. And who’s to say it wouldn’t adversely affect the smooth edges running down and around the Yoruba political footstool itself.
Much as I never saw eye to eye with the late King on many things. I still cannot figure out a shoo-in replacement for him in a very long time. Even with his flaws, he nevertheless brought something original to the throne. Just to the throne alone, and not necessarily to the kingdom.
One of such was his ability to control a story – any story! The King was a brilliant custodian of his own story and not necessarily the story genuinely pertaining to the race as many folks would want to make us all believe. Doesn’t necessarily have to be a factual yarn, but a compelling storyteller nonetheless – with the spiritual gift to make his listeners – true believers after all he’s said and done!
He was bold. Or better to say – courageous. And he had a way of tackling any authority or interlopers plotting to trespass on his domain or usurp his personal interest. Charismatic, clever, definitely ruthless if and when necessary. You hardly see a pushover while looking at him- unlike a couple of the arrowheads around now. Where one could be seen as a fluke, the other – the self-proclaimed Emir is pretty dull as a plank.
The Yoruba Council of Traditional Rulers And Chiefs shall no doubt suffer without his political leadership and that one-of-a kind machiavelian sagacity that he possessed that some of us despised him for. The members shall likely be thrown into some kind of wilderness that may take eons for them to escape from.
This is one of the true Yorùbá-Ronú moments we’ve long been waiting for. And this shall confront the race swiftly. About the appropriate time, we shall regret some of the decisions to coronate so many dummies on the Yoruba thrones at about the same time. Realistically speaking – our buffers are weakening – one after the other. Considering the fact that Ọba Sikiru Adetona, is months older than the Nigerian nation as the Awujale thus making him – arguably the longest-reigning monarch in the SW.
Though I never did like Ikú and I never for once sugar-coated it too. But I have fully accepted it long ago that he was a necessary evil and from that standpoint – I thus declare that – the departed Aláàfin shall be sorely missed!
Men nursing polygamous ambitions shall miss him, so also are daydreaming females hoping to belong in a King’s harem – if only for just a night! Wannabe-chieftains hoping to be coronated by him shall also miss him as their collective dream is forever truncated by his sudden demise. And most importantly, the cosmetics industry just lost a huge and steadfast customer too!
Suffice to say that – in this one King alone, we’ve all lost something tangible and some other things somewhat intangible!
May His Soul Rest In Peace!