There was supposed to be a new king in Ilaro.
The order had come from Oyo, the great imperial centre whose influence stretched across much of Yorubaland. A prince had been selected to leave Oyo and take up the throne of Ilaro.
His name, according to Ilaro oral tradition, was Ajasa.
He began the journey southwards.
But he never arrived.
Somewhere along the route, the prince who was travelling to become king died.
His death did not merely bring a royal journey to an unexpected end. It opened the way for another man to take the throne, changed the direction of Ilaro’s early history and became part of the chain of events surrounding one of the town’s most famous figures, Oronna, the legendary warrior whose name remains deeply connected with Ilaro.
The story is one of the lesser known episodes in the history of Ilaro, a town whose past is closely tied to Oyo, warfare, migration, royal succession and the struggles that shaped the old Egbado country.
The King Was Not Simply Chosen in Ilaro
EXPLORE NOW: Biographies & Cultural Icons of Nigeria
The political relationship between Ilaro and Oyo shaped the town’s early kingship.
Under the Oyo imperial system, the Olu of Ilaro was closely connected to the Alaafin.
Traditional accounts preserved by Ilaro sources state that the Olu traditionally served for three years before returning to Oyo.
During the king’s absence, an Adele Olu, a senior chief, acted as regent until another Olu was appointed.
This arrangement meant that the throne of Ilaro was not simply an inheritance passed from father to son.
The Alaafin had an important role.
For generations, therefore, a prince could be sent from Oyo to Ilaro to serve as its ruler.
That was the system into which Prince Ajasa was born.
And it was under this system that his final journey began.
The Prince Chosen for Ilaro
According to the oral history preserved in Ilaro, the Alaafin selected Ajasa to become the next Olu of Ilaro.
For the prince, this would have been a significant appointment.
He was not travelling to an ordinary settlement.
He was travelling to become the representative of Oyo authority in an important frontier community.
His arrival would have meant a new reign, a new administration and a new royal household.
But Ajasa never reached Ilaro.
He died on the journey.
The exact date and precise location of his death are not preserved in the surviving accounts of this tradition.
His death, however, created an immediate problem.
Ilaro still needed a king.
And the person who eventually took the throne was not the prince originally sent by the Alaafin.
The Man Who Was Already in Ilaro
At the time of Ajasa’s death, an important Oyo representative known in the local tradition as Ashade Agule was already connected with Ilaro.
When news of the prince’s death reached him, he reportedly sent word to the Alaafin.
The response from Oyo changed everything.
The Alaafin ordered that Ajasa’s body be returned to Oyo.
He then instructed Ashade Agule to take up the position that Ajasa had been expected to occupy.
Instead of a prince arriving from Oyo to become Olu, the man already present in Ilaro became king.
The succession that was supposed to begin with Ajasa therefore began with another man.
And that man would leave his own mark on the town.
A Different Kind of Olu
Traditional accounts associate Ashade Agule’s reign with changes in the life of Ilaro.
He was remembered as a ruler who encouraged farming.
Agriculture was particularly important to a settlement such as Ilaro, where food production was fundamental to the survival and growth of the community.
One tradition also connects his reign with a form of punishment in which offenders were put to work on the king’s farm.
The practice is associated with the expression Roku Oba, a phrase preserved in local historical memory.
Whether every detail surrounding the origin of the expression can be independently established today, the tradition provides an interesting glimpse into how royal authority and agricultural labour were remembered in old Ilaro.
But the greatest challenge facing the community was not farming.
It was survival.
When War Came to Ilaro
The western frontier of Yorubaland was not peaceful.
The expansion of Dahomey and the military pressure exerted by Dahomean forces created insecurity for communities in the region.
Ilaro’s traditional history remembers this period as one in which the settlement faced repeated threats from external attackers.
It was during this turbulent period, according to Ilaro tradition, that Oronna entered the story.
Oronna is remembered as an Oyo prince and warrior who came to Ilaro and distinguished himself in battle.
He was not simply remembered as another soldier.
He became the legendary defender of the town.
The Old Three Year Kingship Eventually Disappeared
The story of Ajasa becomes even more significant when viewed against the later transformation of Ilaro’s kingship.
The traditional three year arrangement did not survive indefinitely.
By the nineteenth century, the political power of Oyo was weakening.
The old imperial system was breaking apart, and communities that had once operated under Oyo’s authority increasingly developed stronger local political institutions.
Ilaro was part of this transformation.
Oba Asade Agunloye I, traditionally recorded as reigning from 1812 to 1832, is identified in Ilaro historical records as the first Olu who did not return to Oyo after three years.
His reign lasted two decades.
That was a remarkable departure from the old system.
The throne was becoming a permanent local institution rather than an office tied directly to a three year cycle controlled from Oyo.
Later rulers included Ojo Kosinwon, Tella Agbenuaran I and Olugbenle.
Their longer reigns reflected the changing political circumstances of the nineteenth century.
Ilaro Entered a New Political Age
The decline of Oyo did not bring peace to the region.
Instead, new political struggles emerged.
The Egbado communities found themselves caught between powerful neighbours and military threats.
Egba influence expanded.
Dahomean raids continued to threaten communities along the western frontier.
The people of the region therefore faced a difficult political reality.
The old protection associated with Oyo was weakening, while the new political order had not yet provided lasting security.
Ilaro’s strategic importance made these changes particularly significant.
The town was no longer simply an Oyo settlement.
It was becoming the political centre of a wider Egbado territory.
The British Flag Over Ilaro
By the end of the nineteenth century, another power entered the story.
In 1891, the British extended protection to the Egbado.
During the reign of Oba Olugbenle, the British flag was hoisted at Ilaro.
This marked another major turning point in the town’s history.
The political world that had once revolved around Oyo was being replaced by colonial administration.
The Olu remained important as a traditional ruler, but political authority was increasingly being reorganised under British rule.
The transformation continued throughout the twentieth century.
Ilaro became an administrative centre and later the headquarters of Yewa South Local Government Area.
Its traditional importance also expanded beyond the town itself.
The Olu of Ilaro eventually became recognised as the Paramount Ruler of Yewaland.
The Four Ruling Houses
The royal institution that survived these political changes became associated with four ruling houses:
Tella Agbenuaran
Asade Agunloye
Olukogbon
Adeika
These houses remain central to the history of succession to the Olu of Ilaro.
The development is striking when compared with the story of Ajasa.
In the earlier period, the Alaafin could send a prince from Oyo to become Olu.
Centuries later, succession had become firmly rooted in the local royal houses of Ilaro.
The throne had travelled a long political distance.
The Prince Who Never Became King
Prince Ajasa’s story is ultimately a story of a crown that was never worn.
He was selected for a throne.
He began the journey.
But death intervened before he could reach the town he was supposed to rule.
His body was returned to Oyo, while another man was sent to Ilaro in his place.
History then continued without him.
The tragedy of Ajasa’s story lies precisely in how little is known about his final moments.
There is no surviving contemporary account describing his last journey in detail.
His name survives primarily through the oral history of Ilaro and the tradition surrounding the succession.
Yet his story still matters because it reveals something important about the nature of power in old Yorubaland.
A throne was never simply an empty chair waiting for the next prince.
Behind every succession were journeys, alliances, political authority, royal families and the unpredictable events that could change everything.
The Crown Survived the Journey
EXPLORE NOW: Military Era & Coups in Nigeria
Ajasa never became Olu.
But the institution he was travelling towards survived.
Ilaro survived the decline of Oyo.
It survived the wars and political struggles of the nineteenth century.
It survived British colonial rule.
It survived the creation of modern Nigeria and the transformation of traditional political authority.
And the town continues to preserve the memory of the warriors and rulers who shaped its identity.
At the centre of that memory stands Oronna, whose legendary disappearance gave Ilaro one of its most recognisable cultural traditions.
Every year, the Oronna Ilaro Festival brings that memory back into public life through cultural performances, gatherings and celebrations.
The festival was formally organised in the modern era from the early 1990s, with the first Oronna Day Central Planning Committee inaugurated on 24 May 1992.
What began as an old story about a warrior has become part of the modern cultural identity of Ilaro.
And behind that identity lies a much older story.
A prince once travelled towards Ilaro carrying the expectation of a crown.
He never reached it.
Another man took his place.
A warrior later became a legend.
And a town continued to write its history.
Author’s Note
The story of Prince Ajasa is one of the intriguing chapters preserved in Ilaro’s traditional history. His journey from Oyo towards the Ilaro throne ended in death before he could become king, after which another Oyo representative, remembered in local tradition as Ashade Agule, took his place. The events that followed belong to the wider story of Ilaro’s development, from its early relationship with Oyo to the struggles that shaped the Egbado country and the emergence of Oronna as the town’s legendary protector. Together, these traditions reveal how royal succession, warfare, migration and cultural memory became intertwined in the history of a community that eventually grew into the traditional heart of Yewaland.
References
Samuel Johnson, The History of the Yorubas: From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate.
Robin Law, The Oyo Empire, c.1600–c.1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Robert S. Smith, Kingdoms of the Yoruba.
Ilaro Traditional History, Our History, historical account of the founding of Ilaro, the Olu institution, ruling houses and succession.
Oronna Ilaro Festival, History of Ilaro and published historical materials on Oronna and the origins of the Oronna Ilaro Festival.
Kola Folayan, “Egbado to 1832: Birth of a Dilemma,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Vol. 4, No. 1.
The Guardian Nigeria, “Okeho… Celebrating 100 years of return from old to present settlement,” 5 November 2017.
The Nation, “Okeho: Celebrating 100 years of unity,” 8 November 2017.
