Oluwo of Iwoland, Oba Akanbi, has described kings as representatives of God on earth whose conducts should model pure monarchy, which does not give room for a secondary means of communicating with God.Adding that idol worshipping is alien to kingship.
The Oluwo of Iwoland, Oba (Emperor) Abdulrosheed Adewale Akanbi Telu 1 is the traditional ruler and Chairman, Council of Obas in Iwo Zone. He is the political and spiritual head of Iwoland. The monarch challenged the infiltration of idolatry to subdue the sacred symbol of God on earth. Oba Akanbi said the foundation of every crown is God.
This was made known via a statement made available by his Press Secretary, Alli Ibraheem, he affirmed that idolatry was alien to kingship, noting that crowns are sacred, authoritative and the exclusive property of God.
Oba Akanbi said, “God is the king, that means the palace where the king lives should be the house of God. The only odium and rival of God in that palace are the deities or idols. There cannot be two kings in a palace.
“Idols must not be in a king’s palaces. Go and tell the kings. You married a wife and she brought another man to the house, how would it be? That is what the kings in Yorubaland are doing to God. Yet, they are looking for God’s blessing.
“Our fathers who were monarchs who worshipped deities were wrong. I take a bold step to apologise for their mistakes. The damage deity worshipping by monarchs has caused us is monumental. I will lead the path to right the past mistakes in the Yoruba traditional system. We can celebrate our exceptional fathers, we must not worship them unless we want our children to worship us too.
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“Idol worshipping is a strange religion to kingship. This is not about Christianity or Islam. It is a pure dictate of the Creator after creation. Kings as representatives of God prime responsibility of promoting His oneness from worshipping His rivals”, further stressing that only monarchs carry the same name with God, but the same monarchs are promoting His rivals.
“My royalty is synonymous with the one brought by the founding father of Yoruba crown (Oduduwa). Only God is the king. Oduduwa fought deity and won Obatala. The greatest of God’s name is ‘King’. No one else bears that name with him except monarchs. As such, we are just earthly representatives.”
In addition, Oluwo stated that kings are expected to respect the likeness of God and steer clear off His don’ts, which will cause direct access to him and unquestionable authority, noting that due to the promotion of His rivals (deities) by some kings, they are spiritually cut off by resigning themselves to static gods.
He encourages the illumination of all the monarchs in Yorubaland on their superiority over deities.
