The Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, is dead.He died in London age 85.Born to a great royal family in the Ogboru house, Ilare, Ile-Ife. He studied at Abeokuta Grammar School and Oduduwa College in Ile-Ife.
Prior to ascending the throne, he worked for three years in his father’s business, then for two years with the Nigerian Tribune, before attending Northampton College in the United Kingdom.
Prior to ascending the throne, he worked for three years in his father’s business, then for two years with the Nigerian Tribune, before attending Northampton College in the United Kingdom.
At age of 30 he was made manager in Leventis, a Greek-Nigerian conglomerate. In 1963 he became Sales Director of the state-owned National Motor in Lagos.His own father, Prince Adereti, who died at barely 54 on the 11th of May 1949, never became Ooni. But it was his grandfather, Ooni Adenekan Olubuse I, who reigned as the 47th Ooni between 1894 and 1910, ahead of Ooni Ademiluyi and Ooni Sir Adesoji Aderemi (in that order) and became, from all accounts, the first modern Ooni of Ife.Sijuade was crowned Ooni of Ife in 1980.
