Awujale Succession: When Law Is Clear, Noise Must Give Way to Order
By Olayinka Ogunade
By any objective standard, the current debate over eligibility for the throne of the Awujale of Ijebuland ought not to exist. The law is clear. The declaration is explicit. Yet a dangerous mix of misinformation, selective reading of statutes, and outright legal adventurism has combined to cast needless doubt on what is, in truth, settled custom and settled law.
It is therefore necessary to set the record straight.
At the centre of this controversy lies the Customary Law Declaration regulating succession to the Awujale of Ijebuland validly made pursuant to Section 4(2) of the Chiefs Law of 1957 and expressly reaffirmed under the Ogun State Chieftaincy Law of 2021. Contrary to claims circulating in some quarters, the 2021 law did not amend, dilute, or overturn this declaration. It reinforced it. Assertions to the contrary are either borne of misunderstanding or calculated to mislead the public.
What the Declaration Clearly Provides
The declaration governing the Awujale stool in Ijebu-Ode establishes fundamental principles that admit no ambiguity.
First, it recognises four ruling houses:
Anikinaiya
Fusengbuwa
Fidipote
Gbelegbuwa
Second, it fixes an unambiguous order of rotation:
Anikinaiya
Fusengbuwa
Fidipote
Gbelegbuwa
This sequence is not advisory. It is binding. No committee, pressure group, or court of public opinion possesses the authority to reorder it.
Third and most crucially the declaration is categorical on eligibility. Only members of the ruling house of the male line may be nominated as candidates. Recourse to the female line is not a parallel route to succession; it is a narrowly defined exception, available only where no eligible male-line candidate exists within the ruling house.
Even then, the conditions are stringent. The claimant’s mother must qualify as an Abidagba a true-born child delivered while her father was on the throne—or fall within another strictly circumscribed category expressly recognised by the declaration.
This language is neither vague nor accidental. It is deliberate, restrictive, and precise.
Put plainly: female-line succession is a last resort, not an alternative pathway.
The Disconnect Between Law and Aspirants
The uncomfortable reality is that many of those currently positioning themselves for the Awujale throne trace their claims through female lineage, despite the clear availability of qualified male-line candidates within the recognised ruling houses. Under the extant declaration, such claims are untenable.
Sections 3(a) and 3(b) of the declaration leave no room for interpretative acrobatics. Ambition, however fervent, does not override statute.
The declaration also prescribes a clear and orderly process. Upon a vacancy, the Secretary of the Local Government must formally announce the ruling house entitled to present a candidate. That house is then afforded fourteen days to submit its nominee to the Odis. Failure to do so triggers a lawful progression to the next ruling house in the established rotation.
This framework is designed to ensure continuity, order, and legitimacy not confusion or contention..
Most importantly, the law is settled on a critical point: the declaration in force at the time a vacancy occurs governs the succession. In the case of Ijebu-Ode, the applicable declaration remains valid and binding.
The Ogun State Chieftaincy Law of 2021 did not rewrite the rules of succession to the Awujale stool. It neither abolished male-line succession nor introduced new eligibility criteria. Rather, it reaffirmed existing customary declarations, including the one governing Ijebuland.
Any claim suggesting otherwise is legally unsustainable.
The current phase of the succession process clearly vests the right of nomination in the Fusengbuwa ruling house, not Gbelegbuwa or any other house. This position is grounded in both custom and law.
More critically, eligibility remains confined to candidates of the male lineage. Arguments advancing female-line claimants in the presence of qualified male-line candidates run directly contrary to established tradition and binding legal instruments. To deviate from this framework would be to invite avoidable controversy into an otherwise straightforward process.
Traditional stools derive their authority not merely from history but from order & custom crystallised into law. When sentiment is allowed to trump statute, tradition itself is diminished.
The selection of the Awujale of Ijebuland is too consequential to be reduced to conjecture, misinformation, or pressure politics. The declaration is clear. The law is settled. The path is known.
In matters of the throne, noise must give way to law.
Dr. Ogunade is a public analyst and writes from Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.
