The late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, was prepared for the life after when he breathed his last on Friday.
This was revealed by revered Columnist and former Editor Sunday Tribune, Festus Adedayo, in his weekly Sunday column.
In the column, titled: “Alaafin: I’ve prepared my burial,” Adedayo revealed that the monarch told him and three others on March 2, 2022 that he was set to return home.
He said what was shocking was that the Alaafin broached the issue of his death completely off the conversation they were having for the day.
He said he was in the palace of the monarch with ace broadcaster, Yemi Sonde; Bunmi Labiyi. and a female guest, adding that they had gone to invite him to the official commissioning of Sonde’s new radio station in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
He wrote: “From the blues, Kabiyesi veered into the conversation of death.
“His grouse was with the recently promulgated Ogun State Traditional Rulers (Installation and Burial Rites) Act which had by then just scaled second reading in the State House of Assembly.
“In the Act, which claimed to be bothered about the need for respect for human dignity and promotion of modernity in the installation and burial of traditional rulers, lawmakers proposed a legal framework that was to curb idolatry practices in installation, as well as burial of traditional rulers.
“The purport of the Act was to guide jealously the religious beliefs of a deceased monarch in Ogun State by according them burial rites contiguous with their belief and religion….
“Oba Adeyemi told me he had conveyed his disagreement to the law to his colleague Oba, the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, the monarch he had tremendous reverence for.
“The law didn’t make any sense, he said.
“;Why would a state government be bothered about the burial rites of a king?’ he asked, incredulous.
“‘When the man dies, he doesn’t know what is done after his departure. He is gone; whether they remove his body parts or not. In my own case, I have picked the place where I will be buried in the palace. At my age, I am already at the departure lounge. The plane is on the ground and I am just waiting for the boarding pass. The Oyomesi know what to do with my corpse and they will do it.’
“Alaafin was however not happy with how the corpse of the immediate past Olubadan of Ibadan was on display on social media and commended the example of the Soun of Ogbomoso’s burial, which was made a strictly palace affair.
“I don’t know how Baba would feel yesterday seeing his priced remains floating on social media in the hands of clerics.”
The full column is published elsewhere on this website.