Posted by From ANDY ASEMOTA, Katsina on
The Oba of Masifa-Ile community of Osun State, Oba Matthew Olayiwola, has disclosed that he has been having a running battle with members of the Ogboni fraternity ever since his coronation.
The Oba of Masifa-Ile community of Osun State, Oba Matthew Olayiwola, has disclosed that he has been having a running battle with members of the Ogboni fraternity ever since his coronation. According to the monarch, the cult group made overtures to him to become a member of the fraternity but he turned them down.
A Christian ruler, Oba Olayiwola said that his insistence on upholding the tenets of Christianity irked the members of the cult.
'They saw it as an abomination for an Oba to shurn Ipebi rites of initiation," Oba Olayiwola told Sunday Sun.
'There were many attempts for me to be initiated into the tradition of Ogboni and witchcraft." To overcome them, the chief resorted to fervent prayers.
A graduate of law from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Oba Olayiwola later became state counsel in Oyo State Ministry of Justice from 1982 - 84.
Before his appointment, Oba Olayiwola claimed that a prophetess had predicted that he would be king. 'Before I became a king, a Prophetess had once told me that I would one day become a king. She said she saw me on a throne where others bowed before me. I actually dismissed it as mere guess.
'So it was in 1974 when I went home for my annual leave that some elders of the town called me to a meeting and as soon as I arrived, they saluted me ‘Kabiyesi'. On realising that they wanted to make me a king of the community, I fled the town and I never returned," Oba Olayiwola recalled. 'But that did not deter them, rather they kept pestering me. I sent three registered letters to them through the post office that I did not want them to refer to me as their king. I even threatened further that anybody who called me king would be arrested. Thereafer, I fasted for seven days, praying against the coronation but everywhere I went, I was told that God had ordained it that I would be a king."
The reluctant king-to-be later accepted to be king, but on the condition that he would remain a devout Christian.
'I experienced salvation before I was called upon to become a king," he said. 'I became a born-again through the Apostolic Church. So three days to the time I was called, an elderly man came to inform me of various idols in the community in which they would want me to observe and worship. I was also told that, by virtue of my exalted position as an Oba, I must be initiated into the Ogboni cult."