On Saturday, March 16, the ancient town of Ile Ife was agog with jubilation over a set of twins delivered of Queen Tobi Ogunwusi.
Announcing the birth of the newborn prince and princess, the palace officials were seen in various videos dancing and rejoicing with the Ooni of Ife, who was welcoming offsprings from one of his six wives since the weddings in 2022.
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, married Queen Tobi customarily on October 9, 2022.
With his three-year-old prince, Tadenikawo in his mum’s custoday, the king would not see Queen Tobi’s new prince and princess until 21 days.
But why?
Well, it’s the tradition.
“That’s the tradition in Ile Ife,” revealed palace sources exclusively to Kemi Ashefon.
“An Ooni must not see a newborn baby and the mother until the hair of the newborn is cut, which could be in 21 days or more. Then, some rites would have been performed and the baby (babies) would be brought to the palace amidst pomp and pageantry. No Ooni sees newborn babies, they are given birth to outside the palace.”
Recall this rite must have triggered the exit of Queen Silekunola from the palace when she was pregnant with Prince Tadenikawo.
Queen Tobi had been absent from the palace for some months and hadn’t been seen at major events/festivals in Ile Ife. But before her pregnancy, she was said to have stayed put with the king in the palace.
Though the highly revered monarch has a daughter who is in her 20s and studying abroad, his first marriage to Adebisi Adebukola nee Bombata didn’t produce any children. They were married for eight years before the marriage crashed.
His marriage to Queen Wuraola Otiti, which crashed after 17 months also didn’t produce any either.
Queen Tobi is the first to get pregnant and have babies out of all the six queens the monarch married after Queen Naomi divorced him via an Instagram post in 2020.