OONI OF IFE AND ALAAFIN OF OYO SUPREMACY CONTEST— History and Facts Why the Ooni is Superior to the Alaafin

                                                                                          Part 1

Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD                                                                                             August 25, 2025

For my Yoruba professional colleagues in the field of historical studies, the now protracted rivalry between the Ooni of Ife Oba Adeyeye Enitan Babatunde Ogunwusi— Ojaja II and the Alaafin of Oyo Oba Abimbola Akeem— Owoade X, is too sensitive an issue to dabble into, even when the truth is vividly incontestable before them.

For this reason, even those who know the truth as professional historians are afraid to put the records straight, for fear of been branded sectionalists or accused of desecrating their sacred royal institution. It is for this reason I resolved to put the records straight as an unbiased professional historian from outside.

The reason is that the Yoruba ethnic group is historically tribalized into sub-ethnic groups beyond what outsiders erroneously view as a strong super-structural ethnic unity under one eponymous mythical hero called Oduduwa (Oodua). The present ethnic group called the “Yoruba” in Southwest and parts of Kogi, Kwara, Edo and Delta States it should be noted were never one people under one united empire or kingdom.

This is again without prejudice that many Yoruba groups like the aboriginal Ife communities and villages and, the Ijebu, among many others, do not claim descent from Oduduwa. So, in reality Oduduwa is a mere historical emblem of ethno-political unity in the same way the use of the term “Yoruba” is a mere ethno-cultural umbrella inauspiciously imposed on the rest by privileged Oyo (core-Yoruba)-born Sierra Leoneans led by Bishops Samuel Ajayi Crowther and Samuel Johnson. Ironically, both Crowther and Johnson came to Nigeria as members of Aku ethnic group in Sierra Leone but ended up, not just changing their ethnic cognomen to Yoruba, but imposed same on the rest people speaking the similar language.

Indeed, the greater part of the present Southwest geo-political zone of Nigeria made up of the present Ondo, Ekiti and, Lagos States, including the Ijebu sub-ethnic group of Ogun State were once under the suzerainty of Benin Empire at the apogee of its power and, not Oyo Empire. The traditional boundary of the two empires was pitched a short distance north of the present Otun Ekiti town in Ekiti State, which was never conquered by Oyo Empire.

The present Ibadan was not originally under Oyo Empire or Kingdom but a small independent Egba Village, until Fulani conquest of Old Oyo City and Ilorin under Alimi, prompted southward migrations of Oyo refugees, part of whom subsequently joined the aboriginal Egba indigenes and later overwhelmed them. The Alaafin of Oyo cannot therefore say that he is a superior King to the Ooni of Ife and other Yoruba Kingdoms that never came under his suzerainty in pre-colonial times.

Up till 1925 when the British Crown Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales visited Nigeria, Yoruba Obas never met as a group. So the issue of rivalry between the Ooni of Ife and Alaafin of Oyo is indeed a post-colonial phenomenon.  Following the invitation of the British Colonial administration, a meeting of selected Yoruba kings was held in honour of the Prince in Ibadan.  Those present at the meeting were the Ooni of Ife, Alaafin of Oyo, Owa of Ilesha and Alake of Abeokuta among others.[i]

From the 1937 meeting of the Chiefs of Western Provinces to the inauguration of Western House of Assembly in 1946 under Arthur Richards’ Constitution, the supremacy contest between the Ooni of Ife and Alaafin of Oyo never came up. Indeed from the 20^th century into the post-independence era, while successive Ooni of Ife were well educated, it was not so with successive Alaafin of Oyo, beginning with the most popular among them, Alaafin Siyanbola Onikepe Oladigbolu who reigned from 1911 to 1944.

Thus it was not surprising that the Ooni would take precedence over the Alafin throughout the British Colonial period and even after, becoming the first Post-Independence Governor of Western Region of Nigeria. This explains by the Unofficial Members of the 1946 Constitution Western House of Assembly included the Ooni of Ife Oba Adesoji Aderemi and the Oba of Benin Oba Akenzue II, with the Osi-Balogun of Ibadan Chief Isaac Babalola Akinyele who died in 1964 and later became the first educated Olubadan of Ibadan.

The claim by the Alaafin of Oyo that only he has the exclusive traditional right to confer universal Yoruba chieftaincy title on any man; is therefore untrue and not founded on any traditional right or even the right of conquest.  Such claim can only subsist on the core-Yoruba (Oyo) traditional sub-ethnic nation made up of the present Oyo State, part of Osun State, Yoruba part of Kwara State, and such Yoruba community island as Modakeke in Ife.

But if the Alaafin is basing his right on the universal use of the word, “Yoruba” which traditionally belongs to him, but now applied as a universal identity cognomen by other Yoruba-speaking nations, that becomes a different ball-game altogether. We shall come to that, bearing in mind that the use of “Yoruba” as the ethnic identity of the people of the present Southwest only gained currency in the early part of the 20^th century. We will however stop at this point by saying that the Ooni of Ife is not traditionally and historically a Yoruba man, hence his later use of the term “Oodua” is more applicable in law than “Yoruba”; being that even the Alaafin of Oyo cannot contest his status as the head of Oduduwa ethno-cultural heirloom.

There is no debating the fact that throughout the period of the flowering of Benin and Oyo Kingdoms until the outbreak of Yoruba civil wars of the 19^th century when Ibadan became the effective military power in north and central Yorualand, Ile-Ife was respected by both Kingdoms as their patriarchal head and was never conquered. So there was no question of supremacy contest between the Ooni of Ife and the Alaafin of Oyo.

Even as it stands today, if election is held between the Ooni of Ife and the Alaafin of Oyo among Yoruba traditional rulers on who should be considered the traditional head of Yorubaland, definitely the Ooni will carry the day. The Ooni of Ife dominated the leadership of Yoruba Kings throughout the British Colonial period with little or no opposition from other Yoruba kings.

One does not need to go into the details of the protracted supremacy tussle between the two traditional rulers when both were in one Oyo State, which was consequently resolved by the creation of Osun State. Even today the Olubadan of Ibadan and Soun of Ogbomosho, the two leading traditional Oyo Kings after Oyo proper, are opposed to Alaafin’s claim of superiority over them. The current Oyo State House of Assembly is presently under fire by these two communities for attempting to enact a law making the Alaafin of Oyo the Permanent Chairman of Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs.

Their position which is valid in history is that after the fall of the old Oyo capital of Katunga the old order of Oyo supremacy ended and no longer exists. To them therefore, every one of them became equal, especially when both exercised superior military powers over the new Oyo throughout the period of the 19^th century civil wars. While this is outside the purview of the present essay, however, it should be noted that it was based on this intra-Oyo (core-Yoruba) supremacy battle that Ibadan changed the title of its King from Baale to Olubadan in 1936 and, Ogbomosho followed suit by similarly changing from Baale to Soun in 1952.

Foremost in all their claims is the fact that all the three cities were founded by refugees from the old Kingdom of Oyo, and thus their present status cannot be placed on the same traditional status with the old Oyo Empire. So how can the same Alaafin of Oyo who came down as a refugee and whose claim of supremacy is being challenged by Ibadan and Ogbomosho claim supremacy over the Ooni of Ife and the whole modern Yoruba nation?

However, for those who might not be aware, the present supremacy contest between the two foremost contests in Yorubaland stemmed from two remote factors all in the 19^th century. And that was after the Fulani conquest of Old Oyo Capital City of Katunga; which consequently gave rise to decades of Yoruba civil wars. Before that time, there was no question of the Ooni of Ife being recognized as the patriarch of the “Yoruba group” of nations.

Nevertheless, the current situation only emerged as an indirect protest by the Alaafin of Oyo over the appointment of the Ooni of Ife as the Co-Chairman of the Nigerian traditional rulers; otherwise the Alaafin knows from history and tradition that the only traditional title he has the exclusive authority to confer on anybody outside the Oyo Kingdom is Iba-Are Ona Kakanfo.

Indeed, going by strict traditional rule, only real indigenous Yoruba (Oyo) are entitled to the Office of Iba-Are Ona Kakanfo. Thus, the appointment of the late Chief Moshood K. O. Abiola—an Egba, and Iba Gani Adams—an Akoko to the office was an aberration to tradition which hitherto restricted appointment to such position to the core-Yoruba cities of Oyo, Ibadan, Ogbomosho, and Ilorin before Fulani conquest.

 The later appointment of the position of Iba-Are Ona kakanfo of persons outside Oyo (core-Yoruba nation) by the Alaafin was therefore a ploy by the Alaafin to create artificial suzerainty over other parts of Yorubaland which were never conquered by Oyo Empire or formed the core traditional Yoruba nation.

If we go by Yoruba tradition as recorded by the earliest Yoruba historian Bishop Samuel Johnson with all his native Oyo biases, there is no basis for the Alaafin to question whatever action the Ooni takes in the name of Yoruba. In his account of their joint origin from Ile-Ife, Samuel Johnson wrote:

The Olofin (Alafin) King of Ife had several children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren; amongst them were, the King of Ado or Benin, the King of Oyo, the Osomowe of Ondo (from a daughter), the Alara of Ara, the Ajero of Ijero, the Alaye of Efon, the Owore of Obun, the Orangun of Ila, the Aregbajo of Igbajo, the Owa Ajaka of Ilesa…. Although the Alado (King of Benin) was the eldest yet the Oloyo was the most beloved, and to him he gave the land, and told him to scour it all over, and settle nowhere till he came to a slippery place, and there make his abode; hence the term Oyo (slippery) and hence Oyos are such slippery customers.[ii]

 From the foregoing, it was made clear that the Ooni of Ife sits on the throne of Alaafin’s ancestors. How then can someone sitting on the throne of one’s father be designated junior by those not qualified to sit on the same  throne, but were commanded to migrate to somewhere else? The decision was in fact in tandem with the traditional Igbo and Edo custom of the eldest son inheriting his father’s household, while his younger ones leave to establish somewhere else. This again further explains the Igbo-Mokun Igbo root of Ile-Ife.

From the account also, we can surmise that Oranmiyan who sired Oba Eweka I, the founder of the present Benin dynasty, first settled in Benin before going back to Ile-Ife to give birth to the ancestor of Alafin of Oyo. This explains why Bishop Johnson described the King of Benin as senior to the Alafin of Oyo. If then the Oba of Benin whose tradition says is senior to the Alafin of Oyo considers the Ooni of Ife as his superior, on what basis is the Alaafin assuming superiority over the Ooni?

Ironically, the other time it was the Eleko of Eko (Oba of Lagos) Rilwanu Akiolu disrespecting the same Ooni of Ife on the basis of the claim that he is not Yoruba but of Bini descent. Unfortunately for him, arising from his ignorance of his own history, he was disrespecting somebody considered in tradition as his grandfather, since the same Oba of Benin he claims descent from similarly claimed descent from the same Ooni of Ife.

The conferment of the title of Okanlomo Ooduaon Chief Dotun Sanusi by the Ooni of Ife was therefore incontrovertibly in line with his authority as the custodian of Oduduwa pantheon. The change of the title from “Yoruba” to “Oodua” was as timely as it was customarily necessary, because the Ooni was never a “Yoruba” or was he ever under the authority of the Alaafin of Oyo.

Therefore, while the Alaafin has the right to protest the use of the term “Yoruba” in the conferment of the title being the traditional head of the people originally called “Yoruba” by their Hausa and Fulani neighbors to the north, he has no such authority in the Ooni’s use of the term “Oodua”, since he possesses no authority over all the Kingdoms that claim affinity to  Oodua (Oduduwa).

The claim by the current Alaafin of Oyo that he is superior to other Yoruba kings by right of British cessation of authority with him is not right but a turgid misinterpretation of the said agreement as well as the lack of knowledge of the course of his history leading to the said treay. According to him:

Oyo simply rose to prominence through wealth gained from trade and its military skills. It was the largest West African empire, the most important and authoritative of all the early Yoruba principalities. More so, the British, as it was in their tradition, recognised lineage as meaningful supremacy and legitimacy, preferring to sign the Treaty of Cessation with the Alaafin as the Superior Head of the Yoruba Nation.[iii]

It is necessary for historical accuracy to state that Oyo Empire was not the largest in West Africa among its contemporaries. By far the largest Empire was Benin which at its apogee covered about two-third of the present Southwest geo-political zone, the entire Edo and Delta State, parts of Kogi, Enugu, Anambra, Bayelsa and Rivers States.

Again, the said treaty signed between Oyo and the British administration of Lagos Colony under Governor Alfred Moloney on 23rd day of July, 1888, which was described by the then Rev. Samuel Johnson as “a Mild Treaty” was not purposely signed on behalf of the entire Yoruba nation of today because the Alafin of Oyo, who was virtually a vassal of Ibadan but only in name, had no such powers to carry out what he propounded in the said treaty.

The treaty was prompted by Alaafin Adeyemi I, following the obvious threat to his Kingdom created by Dahomean invasion from the northwest, the Kiriji war with Ekiti Parapo and their Ijesha and Ilorin allies led by Are Ogedemgbe, the Egba and Ijebu blockade of their trade routes to Lagos for the procurement of arms and other articles of need, and the rising incidence of famine following raids by the Egba on Ibadan farms.

It should be noted that several entreaties by the Alaafin of Oyo and Ibadan chiefs to the Awujale of Ijebu to either open the trade route for Ibadan and Oyo traders failed. Even the request to intervene and settle the conflict was rebuffed by the Awujale. It was however the Ooni of Ife-elect, Derin of Oke Igbo who subsequently intervened. His effort failed because none of the opposing armies was willing to be the first to leave their camps at Kiriji battle ground for fear of being attacked from behind by the other.

With the Dahomey forces threatening Oyo, it became apparent to the Alaafin that the only means of putting the war at an end was to enlist the support of the British Government in Lagos through the native Anglican Missionaries stationed at Ibadan.  As Samuel Johnson clearly noted at length:

After the failure of Derin’s efforts, circumstances compelled the Alafin to make a genuine effort for the restoration of peace. (a) The Dahomian ravages of the western district, and the threats to “visit Oyo this coming dry season.”(b) The men of the frontier towns sent to him to say that they will all desert their towns if the King could not send an army to protect them. But the King’s most effective army are the Ibadans, and those with them and they are pre-occupied. On the 8th of October, 1881, he sent for the Rev. D. Olubi of Ibadan as head of the missionaries in the interior at the time, and with him “any two of his sensible colleagues.” The order was obeyed on the 12th and the interview took place on the 13th…. He consulted Mr. Olubi in particular as to the best way to reach the British Government to crave their assistance (i) to put an end to the fruitless war ravaging the country; and (2) to offer a check to the Dahomian inroads into the Yoruba country. He said that he was led to take this step as all his efforts to stop the war at its commencement failed, and also recently he fared no better. Also because the Egbas would intercept any messages of his to the coast. It had happened more than once that when his messengers were at Abeokuta on peaceful errands then the Egbas would start an expedition against the Ibadans as if he egged them on to it. So it was at the time of the expedition against the Bioku, and also at a raiding expedition to the Ibadan farms, and twice in the Oke Ogun districts.

Following the foregoing plea from the Alaafin, Rev. Olubi advised that the Alaafin should write two letters of request for assistance to the Lt. Governor of Lagos Colony and the Anglican Church in Lagos respectively. This was because at that point in time, Lagos Colony was under the administration of the British Colonial Governor at Accra. Below are copies of the two letters:

The Palace, Oyo.

October 15th, 1881.

To His Excellency, LIEUT.-GOVERNOR W. B. GRIFFITHS,

Sir — I hereby approach your Excellency and through you to the Imperial Government of England with this humble request : (i) My country has long been disturbed by a desultory war, which your Excellency well knows and which has put a stop to all trade and impoverished the country, and thousands of lives have perished by death or hopeless slavery. I have several times undertaken to bring about the long desired peace, but my efforts have from time to time been frustrated. Instead of terminating the war is extending, to threaten the utter extinction of the Yoruba race. The Dahomians have taken advantage of this to ruin my kingdom. A few months ago seven towns have fallen a victim to their rapacities and Iseyin is now threatened. The next turn might be to my own royal city. With all possible speed I beg that the Imperial Government— for which I have always a great respect — to come to my help. I crave your assistance both to come to settle this unfortunate war between the belligerent powers, and to stop the Dahomians who have made an inroad into my kingdom. To assure your Excellency of my great anxiety I pledge myself to undergo any expenses if only peace be effected as the issue. All my frontier towns are in great panic now, and if I make no stir to protect them they will all scatter and so I will undertake this in the coming dry season. I mention this lest you may say after asking your help I make a movement.

I beg to remain,

Adeyemi, King of the Yorubas[iv]

The second letter which was addressed to the Secretary of the Anglican Mission in Lagos Colony was similarly a plea for intervention. It reads:

The Palace, Oyo.

October 15th, 1881.

The Rev. J. B. Wood-

Dear Sir, — I beg to approach you with my humble request:

You might have heard of the desultory war in my kingdom which has been wasting its thousands. I have undertaken several times to effect peace, but my authority was not respected by the belli        gerent powers. And seeing that if this is not done in time, the extinction of the Yoruba race is inevitable I sent specially on the 9th inst. to call your representative here at Ibadan to consult with him how the Imperial Government might be reached that I might crave assistance to bring about the peace speedily. Now, I humbly beg you to assist me in urging the Government to attend to this my request speedily. The letter addressed to the Government will be forwarded by you and please use your influence in this important matter for the sake of humanity to save my kingdom from extinction.

I am, etc., etc.,

Adeyemi, King of the Yorubas.[v]

From the foregoing two letters, it is clear beyond every doubt that it was the Alafin that was pleading for British assistance to safe him from annihilation from the Kingdom of Dahomey and other Yoruba nations, mainly the Egba of Abeokuta, the Ijebu, and the Ijesha and Ekiti Parapo, who were battling Ibadan, his main military power at the battle of Kiriji. So where did the supremacy claim originate from? It remains however to see how the above two letters led to the said but false treaty of accession with the British Colonial power.

To be continued.

Dr. Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe is the Odogwu Ibusa & President, International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria (ICAC-GEN). He was formerly Director, Centre for Igbo Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He lives in exile in Manila, Republic of the Philippines.

Email: Nwaezeigwe.Genocideafrica@gmail.com

Visit our: https://icac-gen.org to understand the core of our struggles.

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[i] Annual Colonial Report No, 1315, Nigeria Report for 1925, 10

[ii] Rev. Samuel Johnson, The History of the Yorubas—from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate Lagos, CMS Bookshops, 1921

[iii] Laolu Elijah, “Ooni: British signed Treaty of Cessation with Alaafin as Superior Head of Yoruba Nation – Oba Owoade” Vanguard https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/08/ooni-british-signed-treaty-of-cessation-with-alaafin-as-superior-head-of-yoruba-nation-oba-owoade

[iv] Johnson, The History of the Yorubas—from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate, 463

[v] Johnson, The History of the Yorubas—from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate, 464