It is a great feeling that Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja on Friday 26 September 2025, is going to be formally crowned the 44th Olubadan of Ibadan. His Imperial Majesty has been part of the Ibadan story for many decades.
By Ibadan standard, he just a young man of 81; still full of vigour and stamina. He would be the first former governor in Yorubaland to become an oba. His kingship is foretold, yet it fills us with so much new expectations. He is a modern monarch that would preside over an old metropolis, deep in lores and intricate in romantic pageantry. This is Ibadan, now the city of Ladoja, that must recover its old muscle and relevance.
Governor Seyi Makinde has done well by helping to uphold the tradition of Ibadan for seamless transition from one reign to another. He has the enviable record of being the one presenting the staffs of office to the three most prominent traditional rulers in Oyo State; the Alaafin, the Soun and now the Olubadan. His position emphasises the superiority of the New Order over the traditional institutions we inherited from our ancestors.
I first met Oba Ladoja in 1998 when he was one of the men being considered for the governorship of Oyo State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The governorship was won by Alhaji Lam Adesina, an old teacher and former member of the House of Representatives. Ladoja was to return in 2003 when he won the governorship of Oyo State on the ticket of the PDP. His victory also came with the full Ibadan package of turbulence and political melodramas.
When in 2004 TELL magazine organised a three-day workshop for local government chairmen at the De Rovan Hotel in Ibadan, Ladoja gave the opening address. He was represented in the subsequent sessions by his deputy, Otunba Alao Akala. In 2004. he invited me to his 60th birthday in Ibadan where Vice-President Atiku Abubakar was also at the centre of the celebrations. Many of the forces that helped him to power, including President Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief Lamidi Adedibu, were conspicuously absent.
It was apparent at that celebrations that Ladoja’s governorship had entered turbulence. There is an apocryphal story about that days of struggle. Baba Adedibu was asked to come to Aso Rock Presidential Villa with the Governor of Oyo State.
He went with Ladoja. On sighting Ladoja with Adedibu, President Obasanjo was reported to have said: ‘Baba, I asked you to come with the Governor of Oyo State, not with Ladoja! His era has passed!’
Now the Ladoja Era has dawned in Ibadan. The city has changed dramatically in the last 200 years and it has become the most politically consequential megalopolis in Yorubaland. It was in this city that Ladoja was born on 25 September 1944 and from there he rose to represent Ibadan in the Senate during the short-lived Third Republic. One of his colleagues in the Senate then, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is now the President of the Republic.
His long stay in public service has earned him a reputation for resilience and unsinkability. He is subtle and almost self-effacing, yet he is a politician of considerable eloquence and personal charisma. He is deep.
Ibadan is a living testament to the ingenuity and statesmanship of our ancestors, especially following the turbulence and demographic shifts that occurred following the collapse of the old Oyo Empire. At the beginning of the 19th Century, Ibadan was a small Egba settlement. Then, Lagelu, an Ife prince and general, flushed with victory from the Owu campaign, moved to Ibadan to establish his own kingdom. In his entourage where soldiers from different states who had participated in the Owu campaign.
The largest groups were the Ifes and the Oyos. They drove away the Egbas (who had backed Owu during the war) who then moved west to establish a new town called Odo Ona. But Lagelu was soon accused of tyranny and the Oyo veterans, who were many among his troops, staged a coup, executed Lagelu, and installed Oluyole, a young commander and descendant of the illustrious Alaafin Abiodun, as the new ruler. Oluyole was to set the tone for what Ibadan is till today.
At the time Oluyole became the ruler of Ibadan, the old Oyo Empire had collapsed, and the Oyo nobles had succeeded in installing a new Alaafin in exile at a settlement called Ago Oja. The new Alaafin, Atiba, also a descendant of Abiodun, was a man gifted with wisdom and statesmanship. He was able to persuade Oluyole to accept Alaafin as his nominal sovereign (the ruler of Ibadan, having not received his crown from Ile-Ife could not be an independent state under the old Constitution and could only be a Baale).
Oluyole did not like the title of Baale and he took the title of Bashorun. Oluyole promised to help Alaafin recover his old capital, Oyo City, which was lost during war against Ilorin, an Oyo town, which had now been seized by Fulani Islamists and renegade Oyo partisans.
But after the death of Atiba, the Ibadan did not keep their promise. Instead, they were intent of creating their own empire. But they stood by their pledge to ensure that Atiba’s son, Adelu, who held the title of Aremo when his father was alive, succeeded him.
This was against the Constitution of the old country which forbade primogeniture, but instead prescribed that the Aremo, once his father dies, must go home and commit ritual suicide. This was what the Are Ona Kakanfo, Kurumi of Ijaye, insisted on. Ibadan opposed him and Oluyole led his army into war against the legendary Kurumi who was eventually defeated and his city, Ijaye, destroyed.
Then the Ibadan proceeded to violate the old Constitution prescribed by the Ancient Ones of Ile-Ife that no Yoruba state must enslave another and that each prince of Oduduwa was co-eval and independent. Ibadan moved its armies to create an empire across Yorubaland, riding roughshod over brother states and creating chaos, even sometimes worse than those visited on the country by the bearded Ilorin soldiery.
The impact of the 16 years Ekitiparapo (Kiriji War) is still with us today. One significant event of that era was the decisive battle of Osogbo in 1847 when the Ibadan army, under the command of Balogun Oderinlo, defeated the Ilorin forces, thereby stemming the tide of forceful Fulanisation of the country. On the pretence that they have come to make peace, British imperialists, who had seized Lagos in 1864, turned the entire Yoruba country into part of the British empire at the dawn of the 20th Century. At the time of the armistice of 1886, there were more than 500,000 Yoruba soldiers under arm, yet the entire country was occupied by less than 2000 British soldiers and members of the Hausa Constabulary recruited from Lagos. Thus, Yorubaland became part of the world-wide British Empire and ultimately the new Nigerian state.
The imperative of history imposes on leaders, new responsibilities and evident challenges. Oba Ladoja is coming to the throne fully prepared. For several decades, he has been part of the power dynamics of Ibadan and Nigeria, witnessing its transformation from being the political capital of the West to becoming the capital of just Oyo State. He had been a Senator and later the Governor.
He is fabulously wealthy and well-connected. Unlike those who were newly imported into the job, he is a grassroot man who understands the intricate sinews of Ibadan and has the skill to manage its unpredictable temper. After a lifetime of preparations, he is ready to do the job that would keep him busy for the rest of his life. Congratulations Kabiyesi. The Ladoja Era has begun. May your reign be long and glorious!
