Married to a ghost…Why Ooni of Ife’s wives can never remarry

The life of widows impute a horrid circumstance; it manifests different strokes of gloom on the poor, forlorn wives and mothers whose loss of their beloved husbands dole unequal miseries on to their circumstances. And none other understands this sad, brutish fact than the widows of the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade. The latter’s widows, besides being left with a home without a man, are forced to exist like rejects in a reality that does not yet exist. The late monarch’s widows can never remarry after the demise of their husband, so revealed a palace chief. The chief, pleaded anonymity disclosed that the order was prescribed by the Ife tradition since the Ooni is not considered dead but to have transited to a higher realm. He reiterated that the the Ooni still lives, stressing that it is forbidden for the widows he left behind to re-marry.
He said: “The rules are general and applies to all Ooni that has passed on and not peculiar to the wives of Oba Sijuwade, the immediate past Ooni. There may not be a clearly defined repercussion against the tradition but it is advisable that the order is obeyed at all times and for all generations. The best that can happen to the Oloris (queens) left behind by any late Ooni is for them to remain single or be inherited by the reigning Ooni.”
He added that it does not matter whether the wives are young or old, “What matters is that the tradition must be sustained in the overall interest of the society.”
The late Ooni’s wives are Oloris Morisola, Ladun, Odunayo, Adedolapo and Linda and their ages range between 40 and 60. The first wife, Olori Yetunde, the mother of the first son, Prince Adetokubo, died some years ago, long before Oba Sijuwade.