The Olosi of Osi-Ekiti, Oba Stephen Alabi, has said that any Prince aspiring to the throne of its forefathers owes a sacred duty to preserve its precepts and traditions in full measure.
Oba Alabi told newsmen in Ibadan on Monday on the sideline of recent alleged controversies surrounding laid down traditional rites of burying the late traditional ruler, Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, in Ogun state.
The royal father said that even those who do not become the Oba owe the same sacred duty.
It would be recalled that the International Council For Ifa Religion had recently threatened to sue the Ogun State Government and the family of the late royal father for violation.
The traditionalists had vowed to correct what they called an anomaly and a departure from the laid down traditional practice of the Yoruba tribe in giving the last respect and rites to the deceased royal father.
The group claimed that the burial of traditional rulers should be done according to the customs and traditions of the Yoruba people as against those of foreign religions like Islam and Christianity.
Oba Alabi noted that it was not right to dictate a personal faith to a communal stool that goes way back to antiquity, adding that any talk of cannibalism or repugnant practices in the burial of Obas belong to the imagination of their purveyors.
“In law, there is volenti non fit injuria, which means, in the context of the present issue, that a Prince, who knowingly and voluntarily takes the throne, cannot resile from the tradition attached to it.
“As far as I know, the Yorubas have been a highly civilised people from time immemorial. The stools we occupy date back to antiquity.
“Every civilisation has its ways of burying its dead. The Oba does not even die but joins his ancestors.
“How, therefore, can someone who does not die be buried? We must not demonise the Yoruba monarchy,”the royal father, who is also a Law lecturer in one of the universities in Ondo state, said.
Oba Alabi, the Olosi of Osi-Ekiti in Ido/Osi Local Government Area of Ekiti, has proven competencies in media, law, sports, and resource management spanning many years.
