Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, the Oluwo of Iwo, seems unwilling to let the curtain fall on his seemingly limitless royal theatrics. Just when the public thinks the monarch has exhausted his repertoire of headline-grabbing antics, one other efficiency is reportedly in the works.
This time, the flamboyant monarch is claimed to be considering a royal distinction so extraordinary that it threatens to depart even the most unconventional of Yoruba conventional rulers scratching their heads. If the stories are something to go by, Oluwo is getting ready to confer on himself a title with out precedent in the annals of Yoruba kingship.
One is tempted to ask whether or not the palace has turn into a theatre of the absurd, with the throne doubling as a stage and the crown serving as a prop in an endless one-man present.
For a conventional establishment steeped in historical past, hierarchy and cultural significance, such reported ambitions increase official questions on the line between royal innovation and private grandstanding. A monarch could distinguish himself by way of unusual braveness, service, knowledge and cultural preservation, however self-appointed grandeur is one other matter completely.
For Oluwo, whose public outings and pronouncements have repeatedly attracted controversy, the newest reported ambition threatens so as to add one other chapter to a royal narrative by which spectacle typically competes with substance. The concern shouldn’t be that a monarch ought to by no means be unconventional, however that custom should not turn into a casualty of the relentless pursuit of publicity.
Whether this newest report quantities to a different publicity stunt or a severe royal endeavor stays to be seen. But if the intention is to astonish the world, the Oluwo could as soon as once more have succeeded in commanding consideration.
The extra pertinent query, nevertheless, is whether or not the spectacle enhances the dignity of the throne he occupies or merely provides one other act to a royal drama that has saved the public guessing. After all, a crown derives its price not from the variety of titles connected to its wearer, however from the historical past it embodies and the respect it instructions.
