His Royal Majesty, Oba Engr. (Dr.) Isaac Adeyeba Ayeni, Okin Oloro II, The Akinla of Erin Ijesa, has raised the alarm that the town, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Nigeria, is suffering from protracted government neglect which has resulted in lack of basic amenities such as water, good roads, hospital, and security among others. Oba Ayeni, who ascended the throne on 2nd March, 2016, spoke on this and many more with EMMANUEL ADENIRAN. Excerpts:
What has the experience been like since you ascended the throne?
The experience is normal like what every other King experiences, that is busy activities, issues here and there for one to resolve.
Tell us the history of Erin Ijesa land sir.
Erin Ijesa is a historical town that was founded by the eldest daughter of Oduduwa, called Akinlajalorun. She was the one that moved with her entourage from Ife to this place and it took them 17 days to trek from Ile-Ife to this place. What led to migration from Ife was the disagreement among Oduduwa children about who was to inherit the Iro.
Iro is a kind of goddess that Oduduwa used to pray for all his children. So, the eldest daughter, whose name was shortened to Akinla played the hero and headed towards Erin with groups of hunters. When they got to this place, they decided to settle down there after consulting oracles and when they saw resoures that really attracted them to settle here which was the abundance of water they discovered. When they got here, they marveled at what they saw and they called it another god, translated in Yoruba to mean “Oluwa miran” and the short form for it is “Olumirin”.
Over the time, because of the geographical location of this place, some were at the lower part and some at the upper part. They used to call the lower part, Erin Odo and the upper part, Erin Oke. At a point in time, a Son of Akinla was installed as the King of the upper part of Erin Oke, they gained independence though they are still with Erin because Erin Oke is right inside Erin Ijesa. So, we have a King there.
At a point in time, Erin decided to identify with the Ijesa people since they are in Ijesa. Instead of calling us Erin Oke, Erin Odo, or Erin Itadogun, they decided to change our name to Erin Ijesa. That is just the short form of our history.
“Most histories of towns in Yoruba land usually have wars as part of them, is Erin Ijesa history different?
The only war we took part in was the general war fought by the Ijesas, which was the Ekitiparapo war. It was fought by some brave hunters, brave men from this town who took part in that war.
Can you mention those brave warriors?
Ifamakinwa was one of them. There were three of them that took part in the war from this town. That is the major war you cannot easily forget that they took part in this and it shook the entire Yorubaland.
KábÃyèsÃ, please tell us about traditional festivals in this town…
Like I told you, when they got here, they were astonished with what they saw and they called it another god. You know when you see something that is beyond your imagination and you cannot fathom how this thing came by if not for the power of the Almighty God. So, my people used to worship and sacrifice animals to worship the god in the past. The major festival we have in this town is Iro festival, that’s the one we brought from Ife. We do not have masquerade festival like we have in other towns that surround us. The only one we have is Iro and that Iro is the one we know as the god of fertility whom we don’t toy with. Have you ever heard of Iro in any other part of Yoruba land?
You can’t have it because we are the only one that carried the effigy from Ile Ife. Iro is the only one that we celebrate annually and guard jealousy in this town.
The only one that looks like it that I can call the second festival is what we call Agbeleku festival. It’s our creation here. We did not bring it from Ile Ife.
And we only came about it during the reign of one Akinla whose wife and the slave went to farm and when they were in the farm, the queen was said to have once untied her wrapper and spread it on top of leafs and before they departed from the farm, all the small snails had crawled over the wrapper. When she came back to the palace, the Akinla saw it and probably thought the slave must have had an affair with the queen. You know that mucus-like secretion of small snails looks like sperms. So in annoyance, Akinla beheaded the queen and the slave without finding out the truth. After some time, bad things began to happen in the town as consequences of the monarch’s rash decision.
So, they had to consult the oracle, who revealed that somebody had been punished unjustly.
They had to find a way to remove that bad occurrence and doing that, the oracle directed them to celebrate that queen and the slave every three years, to appease their angry spirits. So, they carved the images of the head of the queen and that of the slave and and used these carved images to represent them in the festival.
The images are brought to the palace and a big celebration is held. The town has been enjoying peace since that time. Those are the two festivals we celebrate in this town.
How many kings have reigned over the Erin Ijesa?
I am the 26th Akinla of Erin Ijesa. We settled there in the year 1140 AD.
Since your ascension, what kinds of development have you been able to attract to Erin Ijesa community?
I can tell you that there are several and my people could testify to that. They can see the difference.
I told you to go to the internet. For the first time, Erin Ijesa, now has a website, www.erinijesa.com where you can find out every information you want about the community. That is just one and again during my reign we have a palace for the chief priest of the Iro festival.
Like how much did the palace cost?
It cost me a little over N3 million to do that. There are a lot of initiatives we have embarked upon to help the needy.
I have what I call Oba Adeyeba Foundation and l have been using the platform to assist the needy, the orphans and widows in a little way and l have been appealing to my sons and daughters all over the world to assist. Just of recent, one of our daughters, Dr. Damilola Omotoso sent us about 14 wheelchairs and walking sticks which we distributed to the people that needed them within the community.
In essence, are you saying that you have not actually felt government presence in this community?
I can tell you for free that there is no place or town in Osun State where government is making such huge money they are making in Erin Ijesa, but we have not felt the Government’s presence. There’s no hospital, if I am sick here, I will have to get to Ilesa or Ile Ife to get treated. There is a 20 bed hospital that has been under construction for 30 years that is yet to be completed.
We have just two policemen here in our police station that have been posted here and there. We have a waterfall and tourist centre that is not properly policed, meaning there is no adequate security. How do you expect tourists to be secured in a place where there is no security? where there is no hospital? if you happen to fall sick, you will have to take them to Ife or Osogbo or Ilesa to treat them. That’s not good enough.
So, what is your specific message to the government on all these?
My message to them is to look at us and attend to us because we have been treated as if we are not part of Osun State. Where you are making money, why can’t you give us attention? Don’t we deserve to be a local government headquarters? Go and see where they made local government headquarters? How much are they making there compared to this place?
Apart from that, in the whole of Oyo State, when we were under Oyo State, Akinla was number seven on the list of Kings with beaded crowns but today Akinla is number 92. Is that how it is supposed to be? Everything has been messed up.
What can you say is responsible for the government neglect over the time? Some said it is because of your location, that you are far from the capital?
It is not the location, it is just because we don’t have people at the top in government. Another factor that contributed to it was the long period of interregnum, the last King died in 1999, we couldn’t have another king until 2016. It lasted for 17 years and 17 days and that was how Akinla was relegated from seven to 92.
