IMEKO TO BECOME NEW JERUSALEM

On September 10, 2014, Imeko in Imeko-Afon Lo­cal Government Area, a border town about 12 kilometers from the Nigeria-Benin border and about 60 km to the West of Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, was agog. Eminent personalities from all walks of life had converged to celebrate the coronation of the new Onimeko of Imeko, Oba (Pastor) Benjamin Oyediran Olanite Akanku IV.

The people were full of joy as they all thronged in large number to celebrate the official installation and presentation of staff of office to the new monarch. The huge crowd and upbeat mood of the town folk were understand­able, as it was the first time the town was having a graduate as monarch, a situation, the people felt, had deprived them of goodies development that would have flowed into the community.
In Imeko, two families from Ketu and Old Oyo ancestral lineages are entitled to become the king. Accord­ing to Professor Anthony Asiwaju, fUniversity of Lagos and Balogun of Imeko, the original settler in Imeko was from Elesi nucleus lineage in Ketu of the current Agbote ruling house. But later Ndoko who were predominantly of old Oyo ancestry from eastern rift valley abandoned their homestead to join the Ketu lineage in Imeko and become the second ruling house:
“The numerical dominance of the Oyo probably explained the growth of Oyo political influence which eventually led to a spell of an anti-Ketu rebellion and temporary change of allegiance in the late 1860s, he said. The name ‘Imeko’ according to Asiwaju, is derived from the function of the place originally as the point where travellers stopped over to customarily take pap or ‘eko’ for breakfast before they continued their journey. The name of the town therefore means to take pap ‘Mu eko’ that is, Imeko.
The new monarch was born to the Late Prince Simeon Olanite Oyekan of Agbote (Elesi) ruling house in March 3, 1977. As a man of God, he served in Redeemed Chris­tian of God (RCCG), Aworo, Imeko RCCG, Abule Peter and RCCG, Owode. He is the founder of Dominion Life Mis­sion and a teacher in Nazareth High School, Imeko, until his appointment and enthronement as the Onimeko of Imeko.
Although Imeko is the home of great men of God like Pastor Olusegun Oshoffa, founder of the Celestial Church of Christ, Prophet F.A Adeoye, founder of Mount of Salvation and others, the worship of ancestral idols and rituals is still much alive in this community. The new mon­arch was attending a Deeper Life Ministry, but according to him, he got saved in RCCG. Since then, he had developed a strong faith to work in God’s vineyard and never to compro­mise this standard. Oba Olanite has been nurturing in his mind that he would one day become a leader but did not know in which capacity, sources said.
When he went to sit for poly­technic entrance examination in Ilaro, Ogun State, in 1996, he saw in his dream at night dried leafs in fire but which were not burnt. According to him, he sought the face of God in his quiet time to reveal the meaning to him. The following day when was leaving for the park, he said:
“I heard a voice saying I should go to Abule Peter to work for Him. This time I thought to myself this is voice of God and failure to hear­ken to it might spell a doom. All I have been running after may be a loss and the kingdom of heaven as a place of eternal rest may elude me if I refused to hearken to this voice. As a result, I came to Abule Peter in Imeko where we planted RCCG and later another one in Owode now as zonal headquarters. In Ifela, we planted RCCG there as well.
“In 1999, I had admission into Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. While I was here, I had another dream in which I was told to have a seven-day fasting and prayer for Imeko. When I woke up, I started asking myself, ‘what is my business with Imeko, when I didn’t have food to eat? But I heard a second thought that maybe it might be for the sake of generation unborn. That is how I started it.
“In the sixth day of fasting, I had a dream in which I saw three hefty men blocking an old man in a pure white attire from coming to me. In the dream, when the man finally maneuvered his way to my side, he revealed the secret of Imeko on how it can be developed to me. That time, I went to the chiefs and they said I should go and relate the dream to the then Onimeko and that they would later consult the Ifa Oracle to demystify it.”
The new monarch maintained that his kind heart may be one of the reasons he was considered for the Obaship: “I’m very kind to the chiefs by assisting them with my car to take them wherever they were going anytime I sighted them on the way. Also, I facilitated how Imeko got market because there was rancour between Iyaloja and Iyalode which deprived people of Imeko of a place to trade. I was warned when I was engaging myself in the issue of the new market to stay off the matter, that if not, I may lose my life, but thank God I succeeded.”
For every glory, there is a story. Few days to the demise of the immediate past Onimeko, his late father called and warned him never to engage in any leadership tussle. But, a day after, his wife said she saw a revelation that Onimeko died and the 16th Onimeko was crowned:
“Two weeks after the demise of my father, the 15th Onimeko died and four days after I was called that I was the next to become Onimeko. Immediately, I started calling my fa­thers in the Lord like Pastor Alayande. They all said I should accept the offer that God wanted to use me in that capacity. Later, they started asking from me my credentials, but I declined. After all the pleas and persuasion, I accepted. While I was declining, some people have come up with court cases claiming the obaship, but eventually, truth prevailed.”
The question on the lips of many people, however, was how the new monarch, a devoted pastor could avoid involvement in traditional rituals and worship of the deities of the town, as a supposed custodian of ancestral culture?
The new monarch reacted: “Religion is a medium of communicating with God according to popular belief. But Jesus says in the Bible that He is the only way, the truth and the life, no one can come to the Father (God) except by Him. Just as Jesus is the intermediary between Christians and God the way, traditional religion worshippers have their intermediaries. But I’m a Christian to the core. I told them I’m a child of God that I can’t go to shrines. They agreed with me, but said wherever I appear before the shrine, I pray in the name of Jesus. I made sure I went to the shrines, but with my fellow pas­tors to summon courage and erode all doubts by people that I have not compromised my standard.”
The dream of the new Onimeko is to make the town a New Jerusalem that will be dedi­cated to God as he had earmarked three acres of land to build a church. Another of his aspira­tions is improving on education of youths as a pivot for development and bringing higher insti­tution of learning to the town. Part of his plan, is to make Imeko, an industrialized community as well as construction and rehabilitation of road networks to improve trade with neighbouring towns. He said as an agrarian community, he wants agriculture to be improved as a way to improve the people’s standard of living.
(The Sun)