The Nexus between Tradition and Modernity: A Case Study of Ooni Adesoji Aderemi’s Legacy in Post-Colonial Politics of Nigeria

Interrogating the Ooni Institution legacy in the post-colonial politics of Nigeria is conceptually problematic. This is because, in post-colonial Nigeria, the Ooni throne had been occupied at different times by three distinct personalities with different ideological, educational and socio-economic orientations. Incidentally, the three Ooni have assertive personalities that have impacted the Nigerian post-colonial political space. This study essentially focused on the evolutionary pattern of the Ooni Institution’s engagements in the post-colonial politics of Nigeria. The study examined how the Ooni Institution was able to manage the changing roles and power of the Ooni occasioned by the exigencies of Europeanised political authority in post-colonial Nigeria. Particularly, efforts were made to explain strategies deployed by Ooni Adesoji Aderemi to manage the seemingly irreconcilable differences between monarchism and republicanism of constitutional democracy in post-colonial Nigeria. This study also identified specific instances in Nigerian post-colonial politics in which Ooni Adesoji Aderemi played a crucial role as a stabilising agency to maintain the corporate existence of Nigerian statehood. In this instance, Ooni Adesoji Aderemi’s decisive interventions during the Nigerian civil war were examined. Of importance to this study is also the role of the Ooni as a legitimising authority for military regimes at epochal moments in the Nigerian checkered political history. This study has made a concerted effort to identify the role of Ooni in defining the Yoruba personality in Nigerian politics as a unifier and bridge builder for a sustainable and harmonious state. Keywords: Post-Colonial, Politics, Ooni Institution, Tradition, Modernity