By JAMES OYEWOLE
When khaki gives way to agbada, royal agbada for that matter, when a barracks salute yields to traditional drums, when a son takes the stool his father left, history is made. On Monday, October 26, 2026, Opa in Eni, Ogori, in the heart of Ogori/Magongo Local Government Area of Kogi State, stood still. The ancient quarter, with some old mud houses painted anew, its narrow streets swept clean, its mango trees and canopies offering shade to hundreds of plastic chairs, became a theatre of royalty. The people had come home to crown their own.
Maj.-Gen. Erema Akerejola (Rtd), former Chief of Logistics, Nigerian Army, 35 years in uniform, soldier of peacekeeping missions, commander of supply chains that fed war fronts, was installed as the Ubuoro of Ogori Land, Second Class Chief of Ogori Kingdom. He succeeds his late father, Professor Olu Akerejola, who held the revered title for decades and who has now joined his ancestors, leaving a stool that needed not just a successor, but a symbol.
And Ogori found its symbol in the General who misses putting on khaki every morning. He now sits among royalty, taking decisions on how the community will more ahead.
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By 9 a.m., Opa in Eni was already full. Women in uniform aso-ebi and gele tied high to the sky danced around, singing Ogori folk songs, songs that recount legendary family tales. The young and the old came out in their numbers to honour one of their illustrious sons.
By 10 a.m., the Opa Quarters had become a sea of colours. Eni women, Okibo, Okesi women and different groups from the community and Magongo all in different aso-ebi but the same joy. The Ogori Traditional Council members, in red caps and agbadas of different sizes and colours, arrived with their staffs.
By 11 a.m., the guest list had started to read like a Who is Who. Former colleagues, mostly dressed in native attires, many of them course mates of Akerejola from the NDA Regular Course, came to share in the joy. Serving officers in mufti came from Abuja, Lagos, Benin and Kaduna to honour their former boss. Sons and daughters of Ogori in the diaspora, from London, Toronto, Houston and New Jersey, flew in because, as one of them said, “The Ubuoro stool is not just a chieftaincy, it is identity.”
At 11:45 a.m., the siren sounded. Not a police siren but the siren of royalty. Local hunters fired dane guns into the air, announcing the arrival.
General Erema Akerejola entered, not in khaki, but in a colourful agbada with embroidery, with a fila gobi cap, brown and gold, the cap of an elder, not a soldier. Beside him were his wife, children and siblings. His face, familiar from the Army pull-out parade months earlier at the Supply and Transport Barracks, Benin City, was calm, but his eyes were wet. He waved, not with a military salute, but with the traditional wave of a chief.
Then the drums changed. The Ogori cultural troupe, young girls in brassiere and wrapper, beads shaking, took centre stage, dancing and they were joined by the crowd, shouting Ubuoro!
At exactly 12:00 p.m., the event started in earnest with precision. The town came on in full throttle. The rites began.
In Ogori, Ubuoro is not an ordinary title, it is a high Chief title; one that is ancient and comes with royalty. It is a second-class stool, historically reserved for a lineage that has served the community with truth, peace and service. The late father of Erema Akerejola, Prof. Akerejola, was Ubuoro. He was known as a man of peace, a mediator, a reputable university teacher and a community leader who kept Eni and, by extension, Ogori together. When he passed, the stool was left vacant for almost one year, because the elders said, “We will not rush. The son who will take this must have his father’s heart and a soldier’s discipline.”
The elders searched. Then they saw Erema.
Libations were poured, calling the ancestors: “Our fathers, Eni has chosen. Ogori has chosen. The son of Akerejola has returned. Hold him. Protect him.”
Prayers were offered and then came the irukere, the white horse tail, placed on the General’s shoulder, followed by the staff of office, a short, carved odo staff, with a bronze ring.
Then came the proclamation: “By the power conferred on us as custodians of the customs and traditions of Ogori people, and by the acceptance of the Ogori Central Council, Erema Akerejola is now the Ubuoro of Ogori Land, Second Class Chief.” Afterwards came the prayer: “May your reign bring peace. May your wisdom bring development.”
The crowd roared: “Ubuoro ooooo! Ubuoro ooooo!” Gunshots again. Women ululated.
General Akerejola, now a chief, sat on a low traditional stool, not a chair, to show humility. Then he rose to speak.
He did not speak like a soldier. He spoke like a son.
“I am grateful,” he started in Ogori dialect. “For 35 years, I wore khaki. I woke up every morning, put on khaki, gave instructions, and my subordinates obeyed with trust. That is the discipline I miss most since I retired. But today, I wear agbada. My new subordinates are my fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters of Ogori. I know they will question my instructions, they will add or remove something, because that is civilian life. But that is the beauty of Ogori. We argue, we agree, we move forward.”
He paused, his voice breaking: “This stool was my father’s stool. My late father taught me that the biggest battle is not in Sambisa, not in peacekeeping in Darfur, but in keeping your community together. He held this title with integrity. I will not disgrace him. I will not disgrace Ogori. I will not disgrace the Nigerian Army that trained me.”
He promised three things: unity within Ogori, and between Ogori and Magongo, “We are one people, one hill, one destiny”; security; and development.
He referenced his recent donation of solar panels to Ogori and Magongo communities to illuminate public spaces and boost security surveillance, saying it was just the beginning. Knowing him too well, he is a promise keeper.
“I am a soldier, but I am now a chief. A soldier defends territory. A chief develops territory. I will do both.” There was a standing ovation.
Maj.-Gen. Erema Akerejola is Ogori-born, from Eni Quarters, Ogori. He was born into the royal family of Eminefo, precisely to Professor Olu Akerejola and Mama Grace Akerejola.
He spent 35 years in the Nigerian Army, serving under four Chiefs of Army Staff. He served as an instructor for 12 years in various Army training institutions, NDA, Jaji, Nigerian Army School of Supply and Transport, mentoring young officers who today are generals and colonels securing Nigeria.
His major contributions were in logistics. As Commander, Corps of Supply and Transport, and later as Chief of Logistics (Army), he drove reforms that strengthened the Army’s transport and supply systems, ensuring troops in the North-East counter-insurgency operations received fuel, food, ammunition and spare parts. In the Army, they say: infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars. Akerejola won wars quietly.
He retired in March 2026 with a full military parade at the Supply and Transport Barracks, Benin City, Edo State. Troops marched in formation, the bugler played the Last Post, and emotional tributes flowed. Colleagues described him as “a disciplined and courageous leader whose commitment to national unity and operational excellence inspired subordinates and peers.”
In an interview after his retirement at the 2026 Ovia Osese festival in Ogori, he said life outside the military was a mixed bag of emotions, but full of promise. “I miss putting on khaki every morning,” he said. “In the military, an instruction goes through the mill and is obeyed with trust. In civilian society, people question it. But it is a new phase, and I give gratitude to God.”
He is married, with children, humble and not given to loud politics.
What does his installation mean for Ogori?
Ogori is a small community, about 20,000 people, on a hill in Kogi, bordering Ondo and Edo, known for the Ovia Osese festival, for highly educated sons and daughters, the first community in Northern Nigeria to produce a graduate, and for women who do not have tribal marks. But like many hill communities, it suffers from a bad road to Ogori, among other challenges.
Having a retired Major-General as a second-class chief gives Ogori access and a voice. He also bridges the old and the new: he is the son of the late Ubuoro, so traditional legitimacy is intact; he is a General, so modern exposure is intact.
At the reception after the installation, food was served, Ogori pounded yam, efo riro, bush meat and assorted drinks. Guests ate.
One of his former colleagues said of him: “Erema was the best logistics officer I knew. He ensured we never ran out of diesel in Maiduguri. Now Ogori will never run out of development.”
A woman leader, Chief Oluwatoyin Iyela, the Eyiodina Eyisinayo of Ogori, said: “We have been waiting since his father died. Today our hill has a new guardian.”
The colourful installation of General Erema Akerejola as Ubuoro of Ogori is more than a chieftaincy. It is a story of Nigeria, a soldier returns home, the community honours him, and tradition embraces modernity.
At Opa in Eni, as the sun set over Ogori hill, drums still beating and children still dancing, the new Ubuoro sat on his stool, receiving homage. One after another, sons and daughters knelt and prayed.
He succeeds his late father, but he also succeeds himself, from cadet to general to chief.
In his royal agbada, with his staff of office, he looked every inch what he is: a man who served his fatherland for 35 years, and now will serve his fatherland of Ogori till the ancestors call.
Long live the Ubuoro Ajagajiga! Long live Ogori!
