Princess Folashade Ogunwusi-Fadairo, the elder sister of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunsusi, has said that Ooni didn’t like polygamy, but that circumstances forced it on him.
Folashade who is from the same father and mother with Ooni spoke with the Punch in an exclusive interview published on Saturday morning.
Starnews Nigeria reports that
when she was asked about her opinion on the polygamous lifestyle of the King, she said, “my opinion is that what you have to do, you just have to do it. Meanwhile, that’s his personal life, I can’t meddle in it. What I can say is that I don’t know if you were there during his wedding anniversary or so, if you heard the speech he made, it was very touching and it was something that personally he didn’t like but he had no choice, he had to do it.
“Where the Yoruba are coming from, polygamy is expected. And being the progenitor of the Yoruba race, inu e ni won bi wa si (we were born in it). For instance, my grandfather had eight wives, that’s paternal and my maternal grandfather had about seven or eight wives too. So, it’s something he had to do, although, I think he avoided it.
When asked again if it is compulsory for the Ooni to have more than one wife, she said again, “Yes. As kabiyesi, he just has to take more than one wife.
He has to do it. How do I say this now? It is what God wants him to do and that is what he is doing.
“He was chosen for it. If I’m chosen for it, I will know what to do. He is called for it, he will do it. If it is my calling, I will know what to do but that’s his own life and he knows what to do. I believe you get what I’m saying.
“The Yoruba will say, “Ibi ori da ni si la n gbe,”(where fate leads one to, that’s the path one takes). Ibi t’ori da si, Ibe l’oun gbe yen (he’s on the path that fate chose for him). What God purposed for him to come to do in this life is what he is doing and there is nothing anybody can do about it”, she added.
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