THAT THE MODERNISATION OF ONDO KINGDOM MAY CONTINUE!
Address by His Imperial Majesty Oba Dr. Victor Adesimbo Ademefun Kiladejo, Jilo III, CFR, the Osemawe and Paramount Ruler of Ondo Kingdom, on the occasion of his 70th birthday and 17th coronation anniversary, November 11, 2013. It is November 11, 2023 (11-11-23)! Today, is indeed a special day. I give all the glory to God for bringing me to life on this very day, exactly 70 years ago! I am full of praises to the good Lord for giving me life, through my parents of blessed memory, and into the Kiladejo family line. That this year also marks the 17th year it has pleased God to place me, even me, on the more than 500 years old throne of the Òsemàwé makes the joy complete. These are historical landmarks that I will never be able to thank God enough for. I thank my late father, Prince Gbadebo Adedoyin Kiladejo, for being such a good man, whose conduct, in no small measure, paved the way for one of his children to mount the throne, as a representative of the Jilo ruling house. I am profoundly grateful to my siblings too, for their support and goodwill. What about the king makers, our Èwàrèfà? Can I thank them enough for considering me worthy to receive their unanimous support 17 years ago, when it was time to fill the vacant stool of the Òsemàwé?
The then Dr. Victor Kiladejo was arguably not the best known among the princes, who all looked good to occupy the throne. He was not even too well known to any of the kingmakers. Yet, in their divine wisdom, they chose to invest him with the office of Òsemàwé and Paramount Ruler of Ondo Kingdom! I remain eternally grateful to these very patriotic sons of the Kingdom, for that historical decision made by them, simply out of commitment to the goodness of our land. That includes those among them who have passed on, on account of old age, but whose memory will live forever! What is more, the Èghàe have collectively made the enormous task of ruling the highly sophisticated and cosmopolitan people of Ondo Kingdom these past 17 years, quite easy. And this is not to take anything away from the challenges of this throne. My prayer is that the fountain of wisdom from which those wonderful counsels, with which they have advised the Òsemàwé, would not run dry. As they have dedicated themselves to good governance in our Ondo Kingdom, I pray that the Almighty God will watch over them and all that is theirs. Same goes to the lineup of chiefs of the Kingdom, traditional and honourary, men and women, alike. The Òsemàwé is completely grateful to them for their companionship, advices and goodwill towards the Palace, and to the entire Kingdom. The people of Ondo Kingdom are like no other! Enlightened. Distinguished. Self-conscious. Accommodating. Hospitable. Proud of their very rich heritage and historical accomplishment; and dedicated to the development and advancement of their Kingdom. We give all the glory to the Almighty God for the transformation that He has used the Òsemàwé and the people of Ondo Kingdom to achieve on their community in these 17 years. We now have four higher educational institutions in our Kingdom, and still counting. We coordinated with the youths of the Kingdom to put behind us something that was surely going to be a blot on our fine history as a people – the phenomenon of cults and cultism. From a mere town, ours has now attained the status of a city, with all the elements thereto. Our markets and market women and men are better organized, and happier.
The deliberate integration of the Ondo Diaspora into the scheme of things vis a vis the development of Ondo Kingdom is unprecedented, and continues to bear laudable fruits in the upgrade of our secondary schools in particular, and the general outlook of our city in general. Is it the relative peace that reigns, making our Kingdom one of the calmest places in Nigeria, that we can thank God enough for? Or the harmony that reigns in the community, among the elites and regular citizens, indigenes and settlers, alike? This, for me, is an auspicious occasion to appreciate the goodness of God for all that He has used us to accomplish these past 17 years. It is an opportunity to thank, in particular, our people, the good people of Ondo Kingdom, including our High Chiefs, for the general sense of wellness that has fallen upon, and continues to reign in our Kingdom in these years. I acknowledge all my predecessor Òsemàwé, from Oba Pupupu, whose reign flagged off the Òsemàwé monarchy way back in 1510, to Oba Ibidapo Adesanoye, Osungbedelola II, whose reign preceded mine. The Ondo are perhaps one of the most cosmopolitan people among the Yoruba, who are themselves known as one of the most cosmopolitan ethnic nationalities in the world. The implication of this is that our people have tentacles and network of friends and associates all over the world. These are people who have contributed in no small measure to whatever we have to celebrate today as advancement in our Kingdom. Some of them have been specially recognized, over the years, with honourary chieftaincy titles of the Kingdom. On this special day of ours, I say, thanks, to all of such friends of ours, at home and in the Diaspora. We are Ondo Èkímògún; and we do not treat friendship lightly. We also do not forget our friends; and that is why you can be sure that we will keep appreciating you. We also promise to always have your back. This journey of the past 17 years, and indeed much earlier, has been travelled with me, by someone for whom the metaphor, pillar of support, is perfectly suited. Together, we have weathered and journeyed on, through thick and thin. We have agonized together, just as we have celebrated good moments and fortunes together. This is a person who has demonstrated uncommon commitment to the Òsemàwé, and Ondo Kingdom. She started off as a princess, later Mrs., and now Olori. May the blessings of the Almighty God continue to pour upon, and soak Olori Comfort Olayinka Kiladejo, the Queen Mother of Ondo Kingdom. The children God has blessed my Olori and I with, all adults now, have been wonderful in their support for us, on this royal enterprise, from Day One. I thank them, their spouses, and our grandchildren, for being there for us all the time. I am grateful to Mr. President, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, for the honour he has always accorded us. Through him, I extend my sincere gratitude to all his predecessors, who also have shown the Òsemàwé much respect. Same goes for His Excellency Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, of Ondo State, for keeping his promise to allow our University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), the first of its kind in this country, to be. On this, His Excellency has demonstrated the Omoluabi essence. I use this occasion, to express the appreciation of Ondo Kingdom to him. We acknowledge also the goodwill to Ondo Kingdom, of all the Governors, who had served in this State, in the 17 years we are marking today, for their efforts in moving our Kingdom forward. This includes our own son, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, whose eight-year tenure as Governor, 2009 – 2017, was supremely beneficial to Ondo Kingdom. Neither the Òsemàwé nor indeed, the community, can thank Governor Mimiko enough. He is, by his own choice, not a chief; at least, not yet; but our appreciations know no bounds for the physical transformation that Governor Mimiko’s tenure meant for our Kingdom. May the good Lord continue to preserve you all for His glory. Let me at this juncture note that the challenge of community development in Nigeria is enormous. It is something we cannot expect government alone to deliver upon. At any event, a flip through the pages of our community’s history would indicate that Ondo Èkímògún people were never into the habit of handing over all that pertained to their development to government alone, to direct. Ours has always been a textbook example of community development. It was this same spirit that drove our forebears to set up one of the 12 oldest secondary schools in Nigeria, and the very first purely community secondary school in the whole of the country, Ondo Boys High School, which actuallyted in 1913, and only formally acknowledged in 1919. This, invariably, made Ondo the hub of academic engagement for children for all across Yoruba land, and beyond. That same spirit is still alive. It is why I have the confidence to challenge, on this special occasion, all Ondo sons and daughters, on the need to throw ourselves, once again, as our forebears did, into the task of advancing the cause of development of our community. To the glory of God, in the past few years, we have mobilized the different segments and professional groups of the Èkímògún people, and organized them into identifiable groups, with a view to making them catalysts of community development. We have seen how beneficial this effort has been. I, therefore, solemnly undertake that this process will continue in the years ahead. The ultimate goal is to ensure that every Ondo son and daughter, at home and abroad, is into one form of organized formation or the other, dedicated to the enhancement of our motherland. The Ondo Development Committee (ODC), set up under one of my distinguished predecessors, Oba Itiade Adekolurejo, in 1986, shall continue to be our foremost coordinator of these community efforts. The Òsemàwé Palace Forum (OPF), set up in 2017 to operate from Lagos, shall be the key platform for harmonizing individual and collective support from within and around that city, to the development of the community. I, on this special occasion, enjoin all of us to continue to cooperate and work with both ODC and OPF, for this purpose. A lot has been said of culture and its centrality to development. Permit me, therefore, to cite one apt description of the place of culture in the affairs of the Èkímògún people, thus, “Ondo are exceptional in their total absorption and commitment to their tradition and culture. The culture itself is such that one cannot but be held spellbound by its sheer scope and incomparable dynamic force. Its depth and superb readiness are breadth-taking and overwhelming. The Ondo (person’s) warmth, hospitality and civilised gregariousness attest to the nobility of this culture and heritage’ (Mimiko, N.O. and Awude, D., Bearing Testimony: 20 Years of Ondo Development Committee 1986 – 2006, Ondo: ODC, 2006: 20). I stand on this royal platform, this day, as the very personification of the rich culture of our people, to call on all Ondo sons and daughters, at home and in the Diaspora, to hold our culture in high regard; and guard and guide it jealously. Ondo people must in particular, ensure that our children are proficient in our Ondo dialect, as such is the foundation of development. Enough of the tendency to view things relating to our culture as primitive and negative. The truth is that they are not. And as we have now seen from events all across the world, all serious people tend to emphasise tenets of their own culture in whatever they do. Let us, therefore, put on our thinking caps, as new generations of Ondo Èkímògún people, and ensure that we leverage all the good aspects of our very rich culture, to promote our desire for community development. As I noted in the Preface to the book we published in commemoration of 500 years of the Òsemàwé monarchy, a few years ago, “In the tradition of Ondo’s historical and insatiable desire for progress and development, we must not end our celebration of five centuries of an enviable Kingdom without looking ahead. The modernisation of our Kingdom first started by our Kingdom’s trailblazing efforts in development of education, commerce, internal and external trade and sustenance of our cherished values of integrity, industry, freedom and tolerance of others. These must be made to drive our proactive strategy for growth in our sixth century and beyond” (in Ajayi, S. Ibi (ed)., The Evolution of Ondo Kingdom, over 500 years, 1510 – 2010+,” Ibadan: Spectrum Books, 2013: xii). It is on this note that I commit the entire people of Ondo Kingdom, everywhere all over the world, and our friends, into the safe hands of the Almighty God, for safety and boundless blessings. I thank you specially for turning out in your numbers, to honour the Òsemàwé, our Palace and Ondo Kingdom. God bless you all!