The Illegitimate King

By Rasheed Olayemi N. Mustapha

According to tradition, only the king’s heir should be enthroned as a new king in Obadi-Oki. King Joba stressed this point before his demise, but immediately after he had passed away the kingmakers took a bribe from a wealthy and influential man in the town to make him the king.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rasheed Olayemi N. Mustapha
• Release date: Aug 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463785492

Book preview

1

King Joba was indisposed, he was thin and feeble. His triplets, Ade-Okin, Adeoye and Adetola, the high chiefs, and all the kingmakers of Obadi-Oki had been doing their best to take care of him for over two months. Several herbal concoctions had been prepared and given to him to drink but his condition remained the same. Being an octogenarian didn’t help matters, his vision was blurred and he had a loss of appetite. King Joba had been ruling Obadi-Oki for forty-five years. His reign had been peaceful, and since his accession to the throne, Obadi-Oki had seen enormous improvement and growth in its economy.

The people were predominantly farmers, growing palm trees, cassava, yam, plantain and vegetables. The annual rainy season of eight months, gave a good support to the agricultural practices of the town. The popular Obadi-Oki River provided an avenue for the people to grow vegetables at the coastline, and enhanced fishing. The fishermen used cast nets, gill nets, hooks and lines. Some of the fishes were sold fresh at the local market, while others were processed by smoking or drying before being sold. Salting and frying were two other ways the people preserved the fishes. People come from far and wide to patronise the Obadi-Oki market, particularly on market days.

There was a prominent farmer in Obadi-Oki, Chief Boluwatife, but people called him Ise-oko-pe. He had a large plantation where he planted palm trees. He also had a processing factory for the production of palm oil and other palm produce. Palm kernels were processed into various finished products before being sold to neighbouring towns and settlements. The palm tree was quite an advantageous tree, virtually all its parts were useful and profitable. Its leaves were made into raffia which was used as a rope, the leaves were also used to make brooms and toothpicks. The dried barks of the trees were used as firewood. The leaves, bark and roots were used for medicinal purposes.

Chief Boluwatife took advantage of the benefits of the palm tree to establish medium scale and large scale industries in Obadi-Oki, because his plantation had almost all the raw materials required for their production. He sold his products to the people of Obadi-Oki and to buyers from outside the town. The most popular among his products was the palm oil. For local soap makers, palm oil was an important ingredient in their production. The local soap popularly called kongi was the cheapest and