Encomiums have continued to pour on the successful
reign of Oba Abdul-Fatai Aremu Aromire as the king celebrates his 10th year of
being crowned.
The Ijora community, his family, friends, well
wishers and fellow kings from far and near have all came out en-mass to wish
Ojora more years on the throne.
His impactful reign on his people have made the
rich and the humbled all came together to felicitate with Oyeyinka Aremu, the
king whose kingdom covers, Ijora, Iganmu and beyond.
Having touched many lives positively, Ojora of
Lagos has this to say, “Recollecting my humble background, my duty to God is to
serve my people and put smiles on their faces. My door is always open to all and
sundry because my Creator’s benevolence on me is ceaseless.”
Princess Adewunmi Aromire, the Iyalode Onibaba in
one of her numerous posts on social media described the Monarch as a God sent
to his people, She said, “Dad, the community you have made and your loving
commitment to each and everyone has blessed our family and the entire
Kingdom you rule over in more ways than we can count...happy anniversary Daddy.”
The Ojora
of Lagos, HRM Oba Fatai Aremu Aromire is undoubted to be reckoned with when
one is to talk about traditional rulers with influence and might, yet he’s so
humble and kind-hearted.
Oba of Ojora and Iganmu community in
Lagos once said, “Let’s thank the Almighty
for the journey so far because I must be sincere with you that the journey was
not smooth at the beginning because it was a real battle as so many people know
that Ijora was not a peaceful environment but thank God and all things being equal
everything has been working fine for me and the entire Ijora communities at
large.”
In1993 when the former Ojora of Ijora land passed on, that was
the beginning of a journey that has changed the face of the kingdom with the
ascension of Oba Abdul-Fatai Oyeyinka Aromire who was a personal
assistance to the late Chief,
As he
recalled, the Ojora of Lagos said, “I must say that while he was
alive, he was a nice man, father and fun to be with as he majorly exposed me to
all the nitty-gritty of the community.”
He
stress further, “So when he passed on, it was the turn of my ruling house and
seven candidates contested for the tussle since we could not determine who the last person that reigned in my own ruling house was; so the head of the family then, the late Onitire of Itire land called the elders of the family together and suggested that the contest be
thrown open to all the princes. Before then, I had my own aspirant that I was supporting
because I was the youth leader in the community and I had drummed support for
my elder brother to become the king because I was never interested in the
tussle at all having knowledge about the whole Ijora story and its environ
since it was tagged one of the most troublesome communities in Lagos. I had
already packed my bags and baggage to travel
abroad but then I was waiting to witness who will eventually emerge as the king
since my brother was one of the contestants.
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| The King and his Queen |
But, funny
enough some of our families members
were behind the crisis of telling him not to go along with me to see the head
of the family. I was actually afraid that the ruling house will shift from my
household if we don’t submit names of the candidate after three months and as such
the next ruling house will eventually take over; so what we eventually did was
that everybody was told to write an application and I equally did since my elder
brother was reluctant and by so doing a date was chosen for all the candidate
to meet at the palace of Onitire and my own thinking was that we were going
there to vote for our candidate and even as I was contesting too, I was equally
drumming support for my brother.
“Funny
enough there was no election what so ever but rather we met a young Ifa Priest
and we were informed that he will be the one to carry out the selection process
and I was shouting there that we were told that it was going to be an election
because I am the secretary of my own family and I had mobilized people who will
vote for my brother and since I was the one that had all the candidate forms so
I dragged my brother’s form as number one, so when the Ifa priest asked me to
start; my brother was the first candidate to sit in front of the priest and the outcome was shocking. When my brother sat down, he was given cowry to speak to
and when he was done, the next thing the Ifa priest did was screaming, water!!
Water!! And that if my brother becomes the chief, he will be an armed robber
and die on the throne and that was my own candidate; the next candidate sat
down (Mukhaila Onisemo) and again the Ifa priest told him he will not spend two
years before his death on the throne, then
Officially he was installed on the 5th of June,1994 and
his ascension to the throne has been of greatness to the community.
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