The recent “partial demolition” of the popular Music House, owned by the ace Juju-Gospel crooner, Yinka Ayefele and the events that followed thereafter readily bring something to mind – the reign of the legendary Aare Momodu Obadoke Iyanda Asubiaro Latoosa.
That Aare Latoosa became one of the most courageous rulers that Ibadan ever had was not by accident. Having entered Ibadan as a palm tree dresser from Ilora, Latoosa enlisted as a member of Basorun Ogunmola’s private army. From there, he grew in importance by distinguishing himself as a man of valour in different battles.
He rose to become the Aare of Ibadan and the 12th Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, the first and only person to combine both titles so far. Unlike the other Kakanfos, Latoosa became Kakanfo while his predecessor, Ojo Aburumaku was still alive! He sent to Ojo Aburumaku, who incidentally was the son of Toyeje, the 7th Kakanfo to avail him the beaded chain and other paraphernalia of the office of the Kakanfo. To forestall the trouble his refusal might bring, Aburumaku obliged him.
He was installed as Kakanfo at a public ceremony on October 3, 1871; and like a true war commander and Aare, Latoosa ruled by decree and not by debate. Under him, Ibadan’s status as the ‘super power’ of Yorubaland was consolidated.
The Ibadan army was quite restless and with the city being ruled by an Aare who knew how to take full advantage of the situation, Latoosa led Ibadan into unprovoked wars.
On January 16, 1874, Aare led the invasion of Ado District in the Ekiti country. After the capture of Ado, the king went to pay homage to Aare Latoosa in the Ibadan camp. Only then did Aare remember that his second wife was a native of Ado. Though war chiefs and soldiers had taken captives, Latoosa succeeded in obtaining for the Oba of Ado 41 of his wives, 21 of his children and 30 of his chiefs. He also gave him the gift of a horse.
It was only a matter of time before Aare Latoosa earned himself the image of one who would violate his conscience in order to justify his longings; no thanks to the needless wars.
Another pointless war was the one against Iyalode Efunsetan Aniwura. Apart from being a very rich woman, the Iyalode had her own war boys who were like a private army. Her life however took a turn after the death of her daughter, an only child, during childbirth in 1860. Contrary to the stories people were made to believe that Efunsetan was killed because of her cruelty however, the Iyalode had to go down simply because the Aare had grievances against her.
Issues Aare Latoosa had against Efunsetan included her failure to accompany him to the Ado expedition as well as the fact that she did not send him supplies during the war. The height of it was that Iyalode Efunsetan did not come in person to meet the Aare outside the town wall to congratulate him on his safe return.
The Iyalode was subsequently deposed on May 1, 1874. Many of the Aare’s chiefs were not favourably disposed to the deposition but their lord remained adamant and haughty. 60 days after she was deposed, Iyalode Efunsetan Aniwura was clubbed to death in her house by two of her slaves. They were found to have acted on the orders of Kumuyilo, the Iyalode’s adopted son!
Being an Egba woman by birth, the Egbas sent messages to the Aare to probe the killing and bring the culprits to justice. Kumuyilo was thus brought to the open court. Not a few people were shocked when he named the Oluwo, the Balogun and Sobaloju, the Aare’s spokesman as the people behind the plot. It thus became clear that state power was deployed against the Iyalode. Since none of those mentioned could be punished, the two slaves that killed Efunsetan were executed at Oja’Ba on July 10, 1874.
The next person that fell into disfavor with Aare Latoosa was Aiyejenku Foko, a seasoned soldier who had seen it all. He was Asaaju while Iba Oluyole held sway as commander of the army; that was the time Aare was an ordinary palm tree dresser!
Under Aare, Foko, Aiyejenku’s quarter of Ibadan was sacked and made desolate. That was after the chief had been forced to take refuge in the house of Tajo, another senior chief. Interestingly, Aare went to greet Aiyejenku in Tajo’s house and denied knowledge of the destruction of his property.
Eventually, those who were uncomfortable with Aiyejenku Foko stopped hiding and sent word to him that he should “go to sleep”, a mature way of telling a chief to go and end his life. After failed pleas to be allowed to live, Foko put his house in order on February 12, 1877 and shot himself.
To the Aare, no one was indispensable. Even the most valiant warriors were as useful as damaged goods. With Foko dead and gone, it became the turn of Seriki Iyapo, son of the well revered Balogun Ibikunle to face the Aare’s irrationality. Iyapo who was one of the bravest soldiers in Ibadan then eventually committed suicide on November 17, 1877.
The Seriki’s death was the eye opener the chiefs needed to realize that they were being decimated gradually. They therefore resolved never to win any battle until Aare Latoosa dies.
To worsen the already tense situation, the Kiriji War started. Ibadan had the Ekitiparapo coalition to fight against while it had to also protect its borders against the Egbas, Ijebus and Ifes, her ambitious neighbours. But while the likes of Balogun Ajayi Jegede Ogboriefon, Oluferegbe, Kongi’s stepfather, Suberu Ajengbe, the Ekerin and Ali Laluwoye were facing fire from the Ekitiparapo army, Aare Latoosa’s family members were living riotously in Ibadan and molesting families of soldiers at the war front.
Angered by the development, the chiefs sent a message to the Aare to send Sanusi, his first son to the front to come and help them overcome the Ekitiparapo troops. Latoosa was not a novice; he understood that he was the one the chiefs wanted, not his son. He therefore took permission from the Alaafin to take to the field at Imesi Kiriji and come back home in 17 days. He would later find out that he both underestimated the strength of the enemy as well as that of the conspiracy of his chiefs against him.
Determined not to win for Aare, Ibadan soldiers showed gallantry but refused to defeat the enemy; thus allowing the war to drag. Twice, Ogedengbe, the champion of the Ijesa and Ekiti coalition was captured and allowed to go.
By the time the war ended, they had fought for 16 years. Sadly, Momodu Asubiaro Iyanda Latoosa, whom Oke Aare in Ibadan was named after didn’t live to see the end of the war. He died of a broken heart in 1885 leaving his Balogun to take over the army.
The war which claimed the lives of countless valiant Ibadan men like Akintaro (son of the famous Balogun Akere), Amodu (son of Balogun Ali Iwo), Sunmonu (Aare Latoosa’s grandson) and Belo (Basorun Apanpa’s elder brother) ended in a ‘no victor, no vanquished’ situation. Ibadan could not defeat the Ekitiparapo alliance; neither could the coalition of the Ekitis and Ijesas defeat Ibadan.
It took the intervention of Alaafin Adeyemi I, Ooni Derin Ologbenla, missionaries and agents of the British Government to end the war.
Fast forward to 2018, 132 years after the war, Ibadan has another history-making Aare. He is the first Aare in the history of Ibadan to combine the position and that of Governor. Never in the history of Ibadan has any Aare had that kind of political power.
Not too long after becoming the Aare, the Governor became somewhat like a thorn in the Olubadan’s hide. His moves were those that would ordinarily make the Olubadan blame himself for the choice. The Aare elevated 10 of the Olubadan’s most senior chiefs to position of obas. Koseleri! (unprecedented!) People shouted and cried, ‘there can never be more than one oba in Ibadan’. After all the cries, Ibadan became quiet again.
Like Latoosa in the case of Efunsetan, the Governor’s decision to demolish Music House was borne more out of personal issues than the actual “contravention” of building laws. It ended up looking like a popularity contest and Ayefele happened to be a wrong opponent.
With public outcry from all the corners of the world, machinery was deployed for damage control. No one has asked whether a governorship aspirant has enough powers to schedule visits to the Governor’s office. At least the ‘peace meeting’ held.
Wittily, one would note that Kiriji, Latoosa’s final war, was against Ekitiparapo. Ayefele, against who government bulldozers were deployed, happens to be an Ekiti man. And again, like in Kiriji where Alaafin Adeyemi I personally intervened to make peace, his grandson, Alaafin Adeyemi III led the obas that intervened in the Music House matter. Thankfully, the situation was managed before it snowballed into something more terrible.
And like the ancient Aare’s last battle, which was needless, the Music House battle was needless in that if the efforts put into the partial demolition and the social media ranting had been deployed into peacemaking, headway would have been made long before now.
Sadly, a dented image is never easily repaired as reference will continually be made; just as Latoosa is still being discussed 133 years after his demise.
Meanwhile, Aare Latoosa’s death has a lesson in it for every power broker. His burial ground was recently given a facelift by the great-grandson of Ekerin Suberu Ajengbe who died in 1880 in the Kiriji War, one of Aare’s needless battles.
-Wole Adejumo.
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