Lamidi Olayiwola Atanda Adeyemi III popularly called Oba Adeyemi was born on October 15, 1938. He is the current Alaafin of Oyo. Oyo is the traditional empire of Yoruba land, which situates in the current Oyo State of Nigeria. the Old Oyo Empire has been said to have existed without interruption for a period of about 600 years. In the olden days, the Alaafin was an absolute ruler.
He is also called by other names including Kabiyesi (the King Who No One Can Question) Iku Baba Yeye (The One Who Can Command Death or Pronounce Same Upon His Father or Mother Or He Who Is Parent To Death), Alashe (He Who Wields Authority), Ekeji Orisha (Second-in-Command to gods).
Lamidi Olayiwola Atanda Adeyemsi III is the son of Oba Adeyemi II, the former Alaafin of Oyo who war reportedly deposed and sent into exile in the year 1954 for having a sympathy for the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC). Oba Adeyemi II had come into conflict with the then deputy leader of the Action Group.
It was in the year 1971 that Lamidi Adeyemi succeeded Alaafin Gbadegesin Ladigbolu II. This happened shortly after the end of the Nigerian civil war, when Colonel Robert Adeyinka Adebayo was the governor. Oba Adeyemi was selected among other interested contestants to become Alaafin in the year 1968 but the government of the day delayed his coronation and he was not crowned until January 1971, then, he was working as an insurance clerk. After he became the Alaafin, the then head of state General Murtala Ramat Mohammed included Oba Adeyemi as part of his entourage to the hajj. Oba Adeyemi was appointed the chancellor of Uthman dan Fodiyo University, Sokoto and he held the position from the year 1980 to 1992. In the year 1990, he was appointed Amir-ul-Hajj by the then military head of state, President Ibrahim Babangida, in recognition of the role he plays in the consolidation of Islam in Nigeria.
On 3 May 2011, the then Governor of Oyo State, Adebayo Alao-Akala following The state government’s passage of a law that introduced rotation of the office of Chairman of the Council of Obas between the Alaafin and his two rivals, the Olubadan of Ibadanland and the Soun of Ogbomoso, announced that the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III was no longer the Permanent Chairman of the Council of Obas and Chiefs in Oyo State. It was believed that the above measure was introduced by a People's Democratic Party (PDP) majority State House Of Assembly, was in response to the Oba Adeyemi’s support for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) during the April 2011 elections. In that election, The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) beat the PDP hands-down.
Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Atanda Adeyemi III is a holder of the Nigerian national honour of the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR). It was him who installed the late Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (MKO) as the Aare Ona Kakanfo (Field Marshal or Generalissimo) of the Yorubaland on January 14, 1988 and equally the talented singer, Queen Salawa Abeni whom he crowned as the Queen of Waka Music (the Golden Voice of Africa) in the nyear 1992.
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