A file image of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Akeem Owoade. Photo Credit: Alaafin of Oyo Media

The Yoruba Leaders of Thought (Egbe Ilosiwaju Yoruba) have appealed to the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Abimbola Owoade, to immediately resolve their recent dispute.

Tensions between the two foremost traditional rulers resurfaced last week after the Alaafin faulted the Ooni’s decision to confer a chieftaincy title on prominent businessman Dotun Sanusi. The development, observers noted, reopened longstanding rivalries within the Yoruba traditional institution.

In a statement issued on Sunday in Ado Ekiti and signed by its National Secretary, Bayo Aina, the group’s National Leader, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, called on Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke and Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde to urgently step in and mediate.

Olusi, in the statement titled “Time to Sheath the Sword”, urged the South-West Council of Obas to establish a standing committee that would address disputes among royal fathers before they escalate into public embarrassment.

“We appeal to the South-West Council of Obas to have a standing committee that will act to nip similar schisms in the bud in the future before they detract from the honour and awe that we hold our traditional rulers in. If such protocols already exist, this channel should be utilised more in the future to prevent a repeat of this current embarrassment,” Olusi said.

The group expressed concern that the rift was unfolding at a critical moment when all efforts should be directed toward supporting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.

“We are distraught that at a time when every hand should be on deck to support and ensure unquestionable success of one of the most illustrious Yoruba leaders and sons, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, some of our foremost leaders at various levels are more or less fuelling this fire,” the Yoruba Leaders of Thought said.

The group lamented what it described as the weaponisation of historical narratives to ridicule or glorify either party in the dispute, warning that such divisions weaken Yoruba unity and global image.

Olusi added, “Rather than using such narratives for the purpose of forging unity and a sense of pride among our people, narratives that can help us in fulfilling our manifest destiny as a leading group among the Black race, historical narratives have been weaponised into a tool to promote discord and resentment. It is saddening that many of our leaders are taking sides in a narrative that has no capacity to transform the current struggles of our people in Nigeria into a resounding victory over the existing technological and developmental gap between us and the rest of the world.”