The Yoruba Global Alliance (YGA), has paid tribute to the His Imperial Majesty, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Atanda Adeyemi, the Alaafin of Oyo, who passed away on Friday.
The Alaafin, a prominent Yoruba monarch, breathed his last at 83, after over 50 years on the throne.
He has since been been laid to rest in accordance with Islamic rites.
Paying tribute to the departed monarch, YGA, in a statement by High Chief Tola Adeniyi, its chairman of council, noted that he was a towering pillar of support and great defender of our spiritual faith.
“The saddening news of the royal passage of His Imperial Majesty Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Atanda Adeyemi hit us like high voltage thunderbolt. Totally unexpected and unanticipated,” Chief Adeniyi said.
“The Alaafin Oba Adeyemi lll was a veritable inspirer and an inspiration to Yoruba self-consciousness. He was a towering pillar of support and great defender of our spiritual faith. He believed in the avowed rightness of the Yoruba Self-Determination agenda the same way he believed in the freedom of all peoples the world over to determine and choose the way they want to be governed.
“Oba Adeyemi was a phenomenal monarch and an embodiment of the quintessential Yoruba mores, traditions and culture and a huge encyclopaedia of Yoruba history. An intellectual with a gargantuan library in his crowned head, Oba Adeyemi was a great teacher, debater, discussant and orator.”
Describing his passing as a painful to the Yoruba nation, Chief Adeniyi noted that the late Alaafin was a rare breed who stood out as monarch.
“The likes of Oba Adeyemi appear on earth once in a millennium. Incomparable and irreplaceable, the uniqueness of Oba Adeyemi’s persona and charm stood him out as an Alaafin whose shoes may be difficult to inherit,” he said.
“The transition of Oba Adeyemi is a painful loss to the Yoruba nation, to the African race and to global humanity in general.
“The Yoruba Global Alliance, along with millions of our accredited members worldwide, mourns the passage of this titanic Monarch and a dependable and reliable royal father.
“Iku Baba Yeye, O di gbere, O d’arinako!”