That was the question most people were asking after two apparently thin-skinned traditional rulers taught two of their subjects lessons they will never forget. One got a deep gash under his left eye – from a well-placed kick from the assailant’s well-shorn foot in a parking lot. The other victim was invited to the king’s court and then pummeled like a Sugar Ray Robinson wearing down an opponent. Did the monarchs go too far? THEWILL asks. Michael Jimoh reports…

Oduwole Wasiu, a caterer, would have been mightily glad when he got a brief on September 21 to prepare plates of steaming catfish pepper soup for more than a dozen party guests at a hotel in Ogun state. Known for his culinary feat around the neighbourhood, Wasiu hoped to delight the palates of the expected diners.

Among the gastronomes were a monarch, Chief Nureni Oduwaye, his queen, the celebrant herself Iya Alaje and her spouse, the hotelier, Yakub Omobolanle, who also happens to be Wasiu’s relative. His hotel, Moore Blessing Hotel Ikenne in Sagamu local government council was the venue.

For someone used to preparing a smorgasbord of dishes for hundreds of guests at a time, preparing a mere 14 plates of catfish pepper soup would have been small fry to Wasiu. But as Murphy’s law states, “anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time.”

It did for the cook. Like any chef worth his sauce, Wasiu knew instantly the ingredients needed to prepare a particularly tasty pepper soup were not enough. He had a mind to beeline it to the market and buy the required condiments. But the market was far away, so far that it would have been impossible to go and return and still get the meal ready for the guests in good time. What to do?

The cook made do with what was available in the kitchen and so got the plates of catfish ready for the guests who must have waiting with febrile anticipation for, as the great wit and dramatist George Bernard Shaw, once quipped, “there is no love sincerer than the love of food.”

It turned out to be exactly so for the 14 guests who were hoping for something delicious from the master chef. They were disappointed. The pepper soup wasn’t what they expected. It was below par from a cook recommended for his culinary artistry. Of course, Wasiu apologized and then explained why the pepper soup fell short of what he intended for his high-profile guests.

Whether the monarch took offence at that moment is hard to say. But it is possible he was disappointed more than any other person that day. He maintained a sagely silence though and probably sipped his drink while listening to the spirited conversation all around.

If preparing an unsavoury dish for the august guests was bad enough, then what Wasiu did next has now cost him his left eye. True, the cook failed on his part but the DJ more than made up for Wasiu’s immediate inadequacy. He kept some of the guests on the dance floor such that even the queen could not resist singing and dancing along to the music. Bad cook he may have been for that day, the chef demonstrated he could throw some jigs on the dance floor. And who did he pair up with? The Olori herself!

As recounted in the Metro sections of Nigerian newspapers, Oba Oduwaye took exception to the man – a guy who just prepared an inedible sauce – now dancing with his wife. Seething inside, the monarch gathered his flowing agbada and stormed off straight to his car. But before then, according to Wasiu, Oduwaye asked him to introduce himself. He did.

To understand what happened thereafter, it is best to hear from the chef himself after discovering that the ingredients were not enough. “So, I decided to manage the ingredients because the distance of the hotel to the market is far. We were serving the guests when the owner of the hotel and the celebrant approached me and said the guests were complaining that the pepper soup was not well-nourished.

“I told him it wasn’t my fault and that the ingredients were not enough. After I was done with the cooking, I went into the bar, met the owner of the hotel, the celebrant, Iya Alaje, her husband, and a woman, who I never knew was a queen. I started apologising to them and I was told not to worry.

“The celebration was ongoing when the monarch, Nureni Oduwaye, entered. The deejay was playing and everyone was dancing. I was surprised as the celebrant and the queen were singing secular music. I commended them because people of their age and status don’t usually like secular music, let alone knowing the lyrics.”

The chef and queen were still digging it on the dance floor when the traditional ruler asked him to identify himself. He did and even said he was the younger sib of the owner of the hotel. At this point, and very much like Councilor Balogun swishing off a meeting in the Village Headmaster NTA series of yore, Oduwaye stormed off straight to his car parked in the hotel premises.

To placate the angry chief, Omobolanle, the hotelier and the celebrant’s husband ran after him to ask for forgiveness on the cook’s behalf. The celebrant’s spouse told Wasiu to go himself and apologise to the fuming royalty. Continuing, Wasiu said: “The queen was even asking what I did wrong, but for the sake of peace, I went to apologise to him. When I got to where he was, I started begging him. I told him I was informed that he was annoyed because I was dancing with his queen and said I did not dance with her.

“As I was attempting to lie down to continue begging, he used his leg to kick my left eye. The injury in my eye was so severe that I was rushed to a nearby hospital from where I was transferred to the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital.

“The monarch only checked on me once and as I am speaking to you, I can no longer see with my left eye. I am blind in my left eye,” Wasiu told a reporter.

The matter was duly reported to the Police Area Command Sagamu. Wasiu insists “nothing was done because the police refused to carry out an investigation.”

Only days after the pepper soup incident in Ikenne, another monarch manhandled a chief in his palace in Badagry Lagos state. There were no sizzling catfish pepper soup this time or a commoner stepping it up with an Olori. It was royalty versus royalty. Venue was the royal court in Ajido community.

As reported in the papers, the traditional ruler of the community, Saheed Adamson, had invited Michael Kunnuji, his second in command, to his palace. It was in the course of their acrimonious exchange that Adamson lost his cool and then proceeded to casually beat up the chief. It got so bad that, as one report had it, youths in the area felt so scandalized they wanted to “destroy the king’s property over the incident.”

What was the trouble between the two royals?

Things got sour between the traditional ruler and his immediate subordinate over a transformer Kunnuji bought for the community which the first did not support. He then invited Kunnuji who had just returned from Jerusalem to his palace. The conversation got heated and in the process, Adamson called Kunnuji stupid which the chief threw back at him immediately. Next, the royal father descended on his right hand man right there in the palace, dealt him some blows and wounded him on his face.

Like the Sagamu incident, the matter was promptly reported to the police in Badagry from where he was taken to hospital for treatment. IAgain, it is best to hear the victim himself tell us about the unroyal conduct of his chief.

“On September 30, 2022, I went to meet the monarch alongside the bishop that came to do thanksgiving for my coronation anniversary. When I got there, I greeted him in our Egun dialect, saying, ‘I hail you, your highness.’ Then he started shouting in public, saying, ‘Do you see him, look at the way he is greeting me.’

“He told me I was stupid and I also replied that he was stupid. Before I knew it, he punched me in my face with a ring and blood started coming out. I did not retaliate; I just left his palace with my bloodied face.

“I and my lawyer, who was present at the scene, went to the Badagry Police Station to report the assault on my person. After writing a statement, the police said they could not arrest him because he was a king. I am filing a case of assault against him; I have employed the services of legal professionals and I will see that I pursue this case and get justice.”

To get justice like Wasiu, Kunnuji has also sought the services of a lawyer, Ganiyu Adeola. “We know that nobody is above the law,” Adeola told a reporter recently. “If an Oba has committed an infraction that is criminal, he must be dealt with accordingly.”

But the monarch himself seems not to care a hoot about the incident. “When contacted,” the reporter stated, “the monarch did not confirm or deny the allegations against him. Adamson, however, said that the high chief could go to court.

“He said, “Let him go to court, what is your own problem? Are you not a journalist? Why are you asking me such a question? Why can’t you advise him to go to court? Is this the work of a journalist?” To end the conversation, the royal father “hissed and cut off the call.”

Like the police in the Sagamu pepper soup incident, their counterparts in Badagry appear to be pussyfooting as well. According to the reporter, “the DPO of Badagry Police Station, SP Peter Gbesu, denied the allegation that the officers could not arrest or invite the monarch. He declined further comment and referred our correspondent to the state police spokesperson.”

The journalist did speak with Lagos state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin. It took the police spokesman days to reply the journalist, telling him “not to disturb him, saying he could not be forced to react to the incident.”