•Oba ADEDOTUN ODUSANYA Tells City People
The Olu of Odosenlu-Alaro, His Royal Highness Oba Adedotun Oduneye Odusanya is one of the royal fathers in Ijebuland who never trades the development of his kingdom and its people with anything. Odosenlu-Alaro is an ancient town in Ijebu North East Local Government Area of Ogun State. Having ascended the throne since 2022, Oba Odusanya has been doing a lot to ensure development gets to the nooks and crannies of his kingdom. The most recent among many transformations being initiated by the king is the foundation laying of is a multi-million ultra-modern edifice in the kingdom. What baffles many people is how Oba Odusanya has quickly settled as a king and hit the ground running by using his sphere of influence to bring development to the community. It will interest you to know that Oba Odusanya is a successful business man, former automobile distributor and now a property magnate who plays big in the industry. City People reporter, JAMIU ABUBAKAR and Photojournalist, SUNDAY ADERIYE visited the palace of the highly revered king. During an exclusive interview Oba Odusanya revealed how he is gradually settling in as a king and the many things he is doing to bring development to Odosenlu-Alaro kingdom. Below are excerpts:
Tell us about the uniqueness of Odosenlu-Alaro among other Ijebu communities?
What makes us unique is the love and cooperation that exist among the people. I thank God for the wisdom He has given me to be able to put everybody together, both Christians and Muslims as well as people of the other religion to make them united. I will just be 3 years on the throne on August 15th next. During this period, we have constructed the Civil Defence building with armoury. We have built a customary court. We have done some boreholes, some transformers and some other things. If you even look at the kingdom, you would see a grader working. Grading all the roads in the town. So we are giving back to society. I’m giving back to my people. And that makes them really happy with me. Yesterday, we just distributed food for the Christmas season. Both the Christians, Muslims and people of other religions benefited from this. And that’s what we do every time. Sometimes we do it about 3 or 4 times a year. And then we have some of the less privileged people we also cater for nearly every month by giving them food and any other things we can just to support them. You can see the cooperation. At least you can see the influx of people. You can see how people are so happy about the project.
Less than 3 years on the throne, how are you adjusting your lifestyle to that of a king?
Destiny can never be changed and everything boils out to God. God will never give you an assignment without preparing you for it. So I thank God that when He called me for this assignment, He had already prepared me for it. And that is why I’m seeing favours everywhere. You can see the turn up of the Obas there. That shows the institution really accepted me and wants me there. And in the community too, you can see how everyone was very happy.
What are the things you plan to do to improve the welfare of your people?
You could as you are coming, how the road is very bad. We are talking to the government about it. The government has already seen that and I know they are going to work towards that. By God’s grace, I want a situation where we have a higher institution here. I want a situation where some industry will come here. And part of it is Adron Homes that has come here to come and build an estate in my kingdom. This is a welcome development which we receive with both hands. We are looking for investors to come and invest in my kingdom. When they invest in the kingdom, a lot of people would get work to do. If the roads were good, a lot of people who go to farm would be able to take their farm wares to the market rather than rotting in the farm. We have also tried as much as possible to do some empowerment programmes for the people.
Your fashion sense is top notch, where did you get the idea from?
Before I became an Oba, I was a socialite. And I have a lot of friends. You know a socialite will always be a socialite.
What sort of person were you before you became an Oba?
When I finished school, I went to work as a salesman in Spare Parts business at Oluwalogbon Motors. I’m talking about the 60s. After working there, I went and open my own. I started importing my spare parts i.e Peugeot spare parts. I am a Peugeot automobile distributor. So, I have a workshop. You know before Peugeot can make you a distributor, you must have all the garages and everything. We have that at Ikorodu road in Lagos. I was into business for years. When the Peugeot automobile was going down, I ventured into properties. We buy, sell and manage properties. And that is what I have been doing with my motor business up till today.
How were you able to shuttle your business now that you are a king?
It’s just by grace. Everything I do is all by the grace of God. It’s not my power because I don’t even know the way I do it. With God’s grace and mercy everything is going smoothly together.
