The traditional head of Ile-Ife and the spiritual leader of the Yoruba people is known as the Ooni of Ile-Ife. Prior to Oduduwa’s rule, which historians place between the 7th and 9th centuries A.D., the Ooni dynasty existed.
After Oduduwa’s death and Ogun’s abdication from the throne, Oduduwa’s support base left Ile-Ife. According to a separate narrative, which is not supported by the available evidence, Ogun sent each of Oduduwa’s offspring on a distinct journey with the intention of expanding Yoruba territory.
The 51st and current king of the Yoruba Kingdom of Ile-Ife is the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi. He succeeded the dead Oba Okunade Sijuade in the office in 2015. The 47-year-old monarch’s earlier marriages to Queen Adebukunola Bombata Ogunwusi and subsequently Olori Wuraola Zaynab Otiti-Obanor ended in divorce due to irreconcilable disagreements. However, the Ooni of Ife searched out and discovered love once more with Morenike Naomi Oluwaseyi, a well-known evangelist in Akure, Ondo State.
She assumed the role of the monarch’s First Wife following her marriage to the Ooni of Ife on October 17, 2018, which automatically confers on her the titles of Queen of Ife and the Yeyeluwa Oodua of the Yoruba Land.
This expose tells you everything you need to know about Olori Naomi Silekunola Ogunwusi, the wife of the Ooni of Ife:
EARLY LIFE AND CHILDHOOD
Morenike’s birth name On October 12, 1993, Naomi Oluwaseyi delivered a letter to Mr. Kehinde Oluwaseyi and Pastor Grace. Naomi is a native of Akure in the Ondo State. She is one of seven children, the third. She attended Omotola Nursery and Primary School for her nursery and elementary education before continuing on to Akure Academy in Ondo State for her post-primary education. She then registered at the Adekunle Ajasin University in Ondo State to pursue a degree in Social Studies. She stopped attending the state-owned Adekunle Ajasin University in 2011, when she was 18 years old, after deciding to become an evangelist.
PERIOD OF EVANGELICAL MINISTRY
She made the decision to pursue her passion of becoming an evangelist after leaving Adekunle Ajasin University. Her evangelistic ministry tenure began in 2011 with the help of her mother, who gave up her position as a private practitioner to support her daughter’s desire to work in the evangelical church. By October 2011, Naomi had become a full-time evangelist, seeking to take up the ministry of evangelism head-on, and the ministry quickly acquired full steam.
In Akure, Ondo State, Naomi founded EN-Heralds, an inclusive ministry, with the assistance of her mother Pastor Funmilayo Grace Kehinde. Naomi committed herself fully to preaching and disseminating the teachings of Christ. At public events like crusades, she actively participated in gospel announcements to call her audience to a fundamental reorientation and repentance. She recognized and created enthusiastic heralds who she identified as joining in the ministry of revealing Jesus to those who do not know him out of her zeal for the evangelical ministry.
The interdenominational ministry called EN-Heralds, which Naomi and her mother co-founded, provided as the means by which Naomi’s catalytic ministry in Akure, Ondo State, and its surroundings was sustained by nurturing sincere commitments from other heralds and converts.
MARRIAGE WITH THE MONARCH
The Ooni of Ife and Naomi Silekunola Oluwaseyi legally married at her parents’ home at Ijiako Estate in the Ijapo neighborhood of Akure, Ondo State, around 17 months after their marriage had ended owing to irreconcilable disagreements. Naomi was 25 years old at the time. Except for family members from both sides, the conventional marriage was not a public event.
Olori Naomi Silekunola Ogunwusi received the titles of Queen of Ife and Yeyeluwa Oodua of Yoruba Land following the traditional marriage at the Ile-Ife Palace in Ile-Ife, Osun State, following the accomplishment of the appropriate traditional rites. She is acknowledged formally as the Ooni of Ife’s First Wife.
The Ooni of Ife and Olori Naomi Silekunola Ogunwusi have been wed for 38 months as of the date of this writing. On November 18, 2020, the couple welcomed their first child together.
The family resides in the Ile-Ife Palace, popularly known as Ile Oodua, which is situated on Enuwa Square, off Adeyemi Road, in Ile Ife, Osun State. As the ancestor of the Yoruba people, Oduduwa came from Ile-Ife, and the palace serves as the Ooni of Ife’s formal residence.
The Ooni’s succession structure was erratic before the 20th century. The four current ruling houses are Ooni Lafogido, Ooni Osinkola, Ooni Ogboru, and Ooni Giesi. However, with the modernity that colonialism brought, the succession pattern was established. Politics, personal grudges, and the obscuring of history have all been heavily criticized as influences on the structure. In contrast to the previous three, who were supposedly the sons of Ooni Lajodogun, certain individuals who were thought to be Ogboru’s siblings have either been entirely eliminated or absorbed. Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II is the reigning Ooni at the moment (born October 17, 1974).