Princess Folashade Ogunwusi-Fadairo, elder sister of Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi has said that circumstances forced her brother to take more wives.
Princess Folashade spoke during a recent interview with The Punch.
According to her, the monarch has never been a believer in polygamy but tradition forced him.
Oba Adeyeye is married to six women, five of whom he tied the knot in 2022.
She however stated it was not her place to interfere with the monarch’s choice to accept polygamy against his conviction, but she realised it must have been difficult for him to do so.
She said:
“My opinion is that what you have to do, you just have to do it. Meanwhile, that’s his personal life, I can’t meddle in it. What I can say is that I don’t know if you were there during his wedding anniversary or so, if you heard the speech he made, it was very touching and it was something that personally he didn’t like but he had no choice, he had to do it. Where the Yoruba are coming from, polygamy is expected. And being the progenitor of the Yoruba race, inu e ni won bi wa si (we were born in it). For instance, my grandfather had eight wives, that’s paternal and my maternal grandfather had about seven or eight wives too. So, it’s something he had to do, although, I think he avoided it.”
