The Ojima of Okeluse in the Ose Local Government Area of Ondo State, Oba Oloyede Adeyeoba, at 17 years old, is one of the youngest monarchs in Nigeria and hasbeen on the throne since 2019.

In a recent interview where he spoke about his recent graduation from secondary school, he stated that he was 15 years old during his enthronement as it was two months before his 16th birthday.

He added that he was selected adding that “the tradition of my town stipulates that the first male child of the reigning king is automatically the successor of the king, and in my own case, I’m the only male child in our family. That is how I became the king, succeeding my late father. I was in the boarding house, so I stayed in school.

“Every last Tuesday of the month, I would go to meetings and if there was an occasion that I needed to attend, I would attend the occasion and come back to school. The school knew my position in the community and they always release me,” he said.

H explained further that, “I was very surprised because I was very young then. It looked like a dream to me. I was in school then. I was in JSS 3. It was on a Tuesday morning. They told me in school then that my dad had said I should come home. I was so surprised that I asked myself, “What is going on?” The reason was that I went home only when we had holidays, so saying my dad asked me to come home was a surprise to me. Though I knew he was in the hospital then, I didn’t know he had passed on. They told my manager (guardian) not to tell me.”

Speaking on his relationship in school, he said, “I did play with everybody, but when I became the king, there were some changes in the way I related with them. For instance, we used to play and touch one another’s heads before, but now that has stopped. Also, before, when I wanted to greet the teachers in the morning, I would bow, but now I don’t bow again.”

He added that if there was an offence that all the students needed to be punished for, he was not punished with them, emphasising that “No, they did not punish me with them. They always separated me while others would be punished. (Story adapted from The PUNCH)