Show us your King, we’ll know who you are! Adeyeye Ogunwusi is Royalty Royale!

“Well, the time came, and a King stepped out of the car, decked in white, bedecked in gold…and it was wow ever after”

Show me your King, and I’ll know who you are!

Event was slated to start by 11:00 am, and guests, a Governor, a couple of Obas, University dons and other eminent persons had arrived and sat 15 minutes prior. Then came the moment when the Ooni of Ife arrived, and I saw royalty displayed at a level of resplendence I’ve never seen before.

Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II is everything royal can be. He carries this aura of royalty so well you’d almost think him as Zeus.

As news filtered into the event centre that the Ooni of Ife had arrived, immediately, calm gave way to commotion. It was as if people knew normal was about to get lifted into extraordinary. I watched on in awe from where I sat, as a terrific show was made of his entrance into the event centre. And, the style was all round grand.

Six fine looking men, three on each side, all decked in flowing white agbada, and deliberately walking at a pace of swag, led Ooni’s car into the premises. These six guys are the ones, I think, are called “Abobakus”, the Kingsmen knighted till death… Ooni’s car, the meticulously engineered, all-white and unapologetically grandiose Rolls-Royce Phantom, rode in slowly, swarmed with paparazzi.

Again, it was all really looking interesting.

But, I think the most interesting part was the energy with which the Ooni’s own troupe heralded and hailed his entrance. You could see them chanting Oba Ogunwusi’s praises and panegyrics, his Oríkì so loudly and proudly as his car rode in, all of them engaging in frenzied dance at the same time.

In fact, there was this guy among this troupe, who blared Oba Ogunwusi’s praise with notes from one locally-made wind instrument like that, so passionately that one could see his jugular give way.

Yeah, this guy here!

In short, it was all so enchanting. And, all of these rites and ritual continued for about 10-15 minutes even after Oba Ogunwusi’s car had parked. While a pack of camera-ready paparazzi waited for him to step out, everybody, including we the guests, eventually got the memo that all of that dancing and singing that continued must be performed as a sort of rite before the Oonirisa disembarks from the car.

Well, we watched on….and at that point, I started ‘feeling’ for the other Obas who had arrived earlier, almost 20 of them oh…including the Deji of Akure. I felt like, shebi these other Obas won’t be beating up themselves like this, asking, ‘shey me too no be king ni?’

Well, the time came, and a King stepped out of the car, decked in white, bedecked in gold…and it was wow ever after.

This King bleeds royalty, Oba Ogunwusi embodies monarchical swagger like no other, he exudes the freshness of youth, and he does all this so naturally. That’s the catch, the naturalness of it all, the effortlessness.

He stepped out the car, standing tall both literally and poise-wise, and didn’t we all love it. Right there, a kingly King stood before us. The Ooni of Ife, the gatekeeper of Yoruba culture is our king. Our monarch.

I give it to the Ife kingmakers, they hit an original in this one. Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II is the King, an original; you wanna confirm? Just take a glance, you’d just know!

This event was the Second Annual Lecture of the Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo state, where the Vice-president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo was the guest Lecturer, two weeks ago