Why I knelt down before 37-year-old Olu of Warri – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, an 84-year-old man, has given reasons for kneeling down before the new Olu of Warri, Utieyinoritsetsola Emiko , a 34-year-old monarch.

He was on Saturday crowned the 21st Olu of Warri, and had immediately assumed the title of Ogiame Atuwatse III.

Obasanjo, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi, explained on Sunday that he was paying homage to the ancient Iwere Kingdom, which is the ancestral home of the Itsekiri in the Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State.

The media aide stated this in a chat with The PUNCH on Sunday afternoon after a viral photo captured the aged ex-President paying homage to the young monarch.

Akinyemi described his boss as the “Baba (Father) of Africa” who could pay homage to all exalted traditional seats.

He said that Obasanjo did not kneel before the monarch but before the ancient Iwere Kingdom.

“He (Obasanjo) went to Warri this (Sunday) morning to pay homage to the new king. It is a traditional institution; he (Ogiame Atuwatse III) is not the one sitting down, it is the institution that is on the throne.

“Obasanjo is the Baba of Africa and he can pay homage to every exalted traditional seat,” Akinyemi told our correspondent on Sunday.

The aide said, “It was not Baba’s first time; he also once prostrated before Gbagura (an Ogun State monarch).”

The former President, who is the Jagunmolu of Egbaland, had, in August 2019, attended the coronation of Oba Saburee Bakre as the Agura of Gbagura in Ago-Oka, Abeokuta, Ogun State, where he also paid homage to the then-new king.