Nigerians React As Salaries Of Ooni, Alaafin, Alake, Other Monarchs During Colonial Period Emerges

A viral document shared online has disclosed the salaries of the traditional rulers in southern Nigeria during the colonial period.

Naija News reports that a media personality known as Bolanle Oni shared the document in a tweet on Thursday.

The document was dated January 1938 and was from the office of the federal ministry of information, national archive.

According to the document, the Alaafin of Oyo received €4,200, the Alake of Egbaland got €2,250, the Awujale of Ijebu garnered €1,700; the Oba of Benin got €1,650, while the Ooni of Ife always received €1,400.

The document also disclosed the salaries of the second-class traditional rulers, which included the Olubadan of Ibadan (€2,400), Owa of Ilesha (€1,450), Oshernowe of Ondo (€350), and Oragun of Ila (€200).

See the document below,

See reactions to the document,

Olamillion, “How Alaafin of Oyo go dey collect pass Oni of Ife.? Oni na number one king in yoruba land nah.”

Omotayo, “Where is Oba of Lagos.”

Bodede, “Na pounds them dey spend for their country? Make una dey convert am to naira.”

Oluwatobi, “They were being paid according to the commercial strength of their cities/towns. I don’t know if that is the case now.”

David, “It appears that you don’t really know the story behind this anomaly! Ever heard of Professor JA Atanda’s “The New Oyo Empire”? I advise you STUDY this review of the book”

Doverun, “Is the price in dollars so we can see how much they earned before inflation killed Naira.

“Because if pricing was in naira, I’m sure we will see N20k and current people will laugh that there were earning below minimum wage.”

Shirley, “Life is about making an impact not making an income.”

Abiodun, “My problem with the above is that there was never Olubadan of Ibadan in colonial Era. They only have Baale.”

Eject, “Where our problems started from, paying the king. Oyibo wise gan hmm.”

Olutunji, “Oyo was the political headquarters of Yoruba at the time. Ile-Ife is the spiritual headquarters of Yoruba, and its wide popularity in the modern times started only in the 20th century.”

Oluwatosin, “The Southern province secretary office was in Enugu in 1938..that means secretariat now…..so where did we get Lagos has been capital since 1914?

“See how the money made from taxation, palm oil&coal in the East was used to pay SW obas in 1938.”