By: Dideolu Falobi THE ancient agidigbo drums have spoken and the doors and the windows of the palace of one of the revered sons of Oduduwa have been thrown open waiting for the people of Erin-Ijesa to come and clean the palace; all signaling the end of the era of one of the longest rulers of Ijesaland so far, the PhD-holding, brilliant, handsome, charming, romantic, dependable, courageous, articulate, caring, accommodating and selfless Oba(Dr.) Gabriel Adekunle Aromolaran II, CFR, the Owa Obokun Adimula and paramount ruler of Ijesaland. Forty-two years during which Ijesaland was not put to shame.
Forty-two years during which we had no war or mutiny in Ijesaland. Forty-two years during which our people triumphed academically, commercially, financially, industrially, politically, infrastructurally. Forty-two years during which the epidemics that reared their ugly heads did not find their foot in Ijesaland.
Forty-two years of peace, progress, harmony, development, integrity, conviviality and the elevation of everything noble about Ijesas. Baba Aromolaran made all of us proud as our paramount ruler in all the situations that arose during his relatively long reign, a good number of them being extremely challenging. My first encounter with Kabiyesi was in 1995 when I went to make a case for the industrialization of Ijesaland under his deliberate leadership.
He received me with a lot of warmth, expressed full support for my vision and gave me a list of Ijesas that I should bring on.