Princess Folashade Ogunwusi-Fadairo, the sister of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has shed more light on the lifestyle and childhood of the Ooni of Ife. In an interview with The Punch, Folashade gave some insight about the royal family.
She said that growing up with the Ooni was fun as he was very intelligent, creative, jovial and fun to be with. Folashade, who is the first female in the family, revealed that Ooni is the 5th child, and he has two younger siblings.
She explained that as a child, the Ooni was also stubborn in a way, but he learnt a lot by himself.
She added that Ooni was a child who was skilled, but he always got scolded as he was in the habit of damaging items in the house in order to create new things.
For instance, he once used the rope from a flask as the lace of the shoe which he created by himself.
She added that the Ooni also started driving at the age of 11 without anyone teaching him. “He just took the (car) key, started the car, and that was how he started driving,” she said.
Folashade also revealed that there was a prediction that one of his brothers would become the Ooni. They weren’t sure which of the brothers it would be, but their dad gathered them and prayed for all of them. She added that their grandfather and late mom used to address The Ooni as “Adeyeye Ooni”, long before he bacame the king, and she can’t remember hearing them adding Ooni to the names of her other brothers.
Eventually, the prediction came to pass and it was, in fact, Adeyeye who became the Ooni.
Folashade also talked about how they were raised in a strict Christian home. There was a time they were attending the Deeper Life church and had to do away with television.
Speaking on the Ooni being polygamous despite having a Christian background, she said that the Ooni wasn’t the polygamous type and he only had to do it because of the circumstances.
“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,” she said
She added that where the Yorubas are coming from, Polygamy is expected. So Oba Adeyeye being a progenitor of the Yoruba race, he had to to take more than one wife even though he somehow avoided it.
