- Oba Akiolu urges Lagos government to fund upgraded traditional rulers, warning neglect drives some to land grabbing.
- He marks his 23rd coronation anniversary with a prayer session and renews call for Isese Day recognition.
- Fola Tinubu lauds monarch’s leadership and contributions to Lagos development.
Twenty-three years after ascending the Lagos throne, Oba Rilwan Babatunde Akiolu says the state government still has unfinished business with its own chieftaincy system and that the cost of leaving it unfinished is land grabbing.
EKO HOT BLOG reports that the monarch raised the issue on Sunday at a Lagos prayer session organised by Islamic clerics to mark his anniversary on the throne, using the occasion less to celebrate than to press a long-standing grievance: that traditional rulers elevated by government fiat are often given titles without the means to hold them.
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By his account, the shortfall isn’t just a bureaucratic inconvenience. It has consequences. Oba Akiolu said that while the bulk of Lagos’s obas and chiefs conduct themselves as custodians of peace, a number have turned to seizing land, a habit he traced directly to being upgraded in rank without any corresponding logistical or financial backing from the state.
“I didn’t like it at all. And I have pleaded and advised the government that when you upgrade all these people, give them the logistics support to hold that office. It was in the absence of that, they resort to land grabbing, which is not in the best interest of any human behaviour,” he said.
It’s a complaint the Oba has aired before in different forms, and one that speaks to a structural gap in how Lagos manages its traditional institution: government confers status on chiefs and monarchs but doesn’t always fund the office that comes with it, leaving some to make up the shortfall on their own terms.
Culture was the other thread running through his remarks. Oba Akiolu used the anniversary to repeat a request he has made to the state government multiple times: official recognition of Isese Day, the observance of traditional Yoruba religion and heritage, and its designation as a public holiday.
Fola Tinubu, Managing Director of Primero Transport Services, offered a different kind of tribute at the event, calling the monarch a father figure to many and crediting him with steering the traditional institution with wisdom while backing initiatives for Lagos’s development.
As with recent anniversaries, the event stayed modest: no elaborate party, just Islamic clerics reciting the Quran and praying for the Oba’s health and continued reign, joined by family, including his children and grandchildren, alongside prominent Lagos indigenes and well-wishers. Prayers were extended to Lagos State’s peace and development, and by name to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Two Decades and Three Years on the Throne
Oba Akiolu, born Rilwan Babatunde Osuolale Aremu Akiolu on October 29, 1943, was named the 21st Oba of Lagos by the kingdom’s kingmakers on May 24, 2003, following the death of Oba Adeyinka Oyekan II, who had held the stool since 1965. He was crowned that August 9, after confirmation by the state government.
He came to the throne from an unusual background for a monarch: 32 years in the Nigeria Police Force, where he rose to Assistant Inspector-General before retiring in 2002, and a law degree from the University of Lagos, followed by training at the Nigerian Law School.
That dual grounding in policing and law has often been credited with the disciplined, order-first posture he has brought to the role.
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Twenty-three years in, Oba Akiolu remains a fixture in conversations on Lagos security, land, culture and development, with a standing among the state’s political and business class that few monarchs can match, even as, year after year, he marks the milestone not with pageantry, but with prayer.
More photos from the 23rd Coronation Anniversary of Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu:
Click to watch the video of the week below:
