Since his enthronement as the 16th Oluwo of Iwo in 2016, Oba AbdulRasheed Akanbi (Telu 1) has always been in the news for both the right and wrong reasons. Unarguably, the monarch has strategically helped shift attention to the town (Iwo), which hitherto had enjoyed less publicity in the past.
To many observers, the 55-year-old monarch, has been one of the most controversial in the country essentially due to his lifestyle, mode of dressing and others, but he appears unfazed and unperturbed by the avalanche of criticism.
While some feel his personal views are in sync with modernity, he has drawn flak from others, who believe they desecrate tradition.
Apart from the many royal rumbles, Oluwo had a fair share of ‘romantic rumbles’. He had a stormy relationship with his former wife – Canadian-born, Chanel Chin — before they parted ways.
Oluwo and his former queen were known to be serious lovers with the monarch always serenading her on social media and anytime they were together at functions.
After things got messy, he described their botched union as ‘four years of a fraudulently-arranged relationship”.
His marriage to Chanel, which produced one child he named ‘Oduduwa’, later crashed in December 2019 following ‘irreconcilable differences’. Chanel quietly relocated back to Canada with her kid.
This time around, Oba Akanbi is in the news again, and this is for romantic reasons. The monarch has found love again from the Ado Bayero Dynasty in Kano.
The monarch will be welcoming a new bride – Princess Firdauz Abdullahi of the royal family in Kano.
He is remarrying barely three years of divorce from his first marriage to Chanel.
Firdauz is Ado Bayero’s granddaughter and the Emir of Kano’s niece.
The new bride, 27-year-old, is seen as the cynosure of eyes due to her ravishing beauty.
According to sources, the monarch who may not be physically present to observe the marital rites in Kano, will be waiting in his Iwo palace to receive the new bride according to traditional rites.
When the notification for Oluwo’s royal wedding emerged in the public space, it sparked a row. In February, the office of the palace had vehemently denied a letter that surfaced on social media where the monarch reportedly solicited for the sum of N20 million from the Osun State government for the wedding to his new bride.
The crux of the matter now is, will Oluwo also place a crown on his new bride who hails from the northern region, just like he did for the former wife?
The unanswered question, remains what everyone will be looking out for. But on the basis for crowning a queen, he once said: “Oduduwa revealed to me that our progenitor normally crowned his own wife. He crowned his first wife Yeyemoso who is now referred to as Olokun. Go and look at Ori Olokun, the head of Olokun and see.”
“Professor Adisa Ogunfolakan who also happens to be a prince in Ife and the current Director of Natural Museums and History at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, has confirmed my statement. Archaeologists went and researched what I said and they found an Ooni with the wife donning crowns. Even the crown of the queen was nicer than the king’s own.”
While Oluwo’s latest marriage affair has buried the Yoruba saying: “there is no respect for a king without a queen in the palace”, the monarch, regardless of regional boundaries, has joined the league of those promoting inter-tribal marriage as a de-tribalised Nigerian.
