Traditional Values And Culture Take The Back Seat In Nigeria

By

Dr. Wumi Akintide

WUMIONE@aol.com

 

A Tsunami wind of change is currently blowing thru our country’s traditional values most especially in Yoruba Land as traditional rulers, one after another, are quietly and more openly embracing Christianity or Islam, while abandoning their culture, traditional beliefs and values. This article merely intends to highlight that development just like my new Book, “The Lion King and the Cubs” to be launched in Nigeria on December 15 at the Akure Federal University of Technology, has done, using the Deji of Akure scenario as a reference point. My goal here is not to say whether it is wrong or right. I crave your indulgence to save that for another article, if you please.

   

My new book is a biography of Deji Afunbiowo Adesida the First who ruled Akure from 1897 to 1957, and has more or less become the real bridge between the old and the new, and between the ancient and the modern. His exit from the throne as captured by that book, has dramatized the serious wind of change that has overtaken the Deji’s title and its increasingly diminishing role, leverage and clout, as traditional rulers across our country have become a pawn in the chess game of politicians, and the new development in our country that make our people embrace Western culture, Christianity and Islam in droves.

   

We all now endorse the new sensation and prism in Christian songs and music that totally castigate and rubbish some of our traditional religion and values. “Ijo ti mo jo, ijo adura ni, Oba ma je njidi yuke, niwaju opon Ifa” meaning “the music I will only dance to, is Gospel or religious music, may I never be found dancing or eulogizing pagan or traditional music and teaching, like those of the Ifa oracle or divination”

  

That blockbuster lyric in the latest Aiyefele kind of Juju music has brilliantly summarized my point that Christianity and Islam have lately taken Nigeria by storm, and you can measure that by the number of store fronts becoming churches in our country today and in much of the civilized world including America. You could also measure that by the cities of faith springing up in the nook and corners of our country and most especially the popular Lagos/Ibadan Express Highway in Nigeria. You can measure that by the number of traditional rulers that now fall over each other to keep vigil at the monthly Holy Ghost prayer meetings of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, the fastest growing congregation in the whole world, the last time I checked, not to talk of other denominations. By far, the most popular occupation in Nigeria today is becoming a pastor. It is simply amazing what is happening to the world!

  

I don’t know how many of those traditional rulers scramble to perform the Hadj, the Jerusalem Pilgrimage in the State of Israel or rush to the Guru Maharajah Temple along Ibadan/Lagos Express. They have got to be many, I would suspect. If this trend continues, I give it another 50 years or less, our own traditional values and religion would have become history. It is already so in much of the old North where Islam has completely taken over from the heartland of the Hausa in Kano, to the Fulani heartland around Sokoto and Daura, to the old Middle Belt, the Nupe Kingdom, and the Ebira and Bornu heartlands of Nigeria, to mention a few.

 

The trend has grown more stringent in the Yoruba Kingdom in particular. It has begun with Ooni Risa himself, Arole Oodua, Oba Sijuade Olubuse publicly renouncing his self-proclaimed appellation as Oluaiye of Ife around 2001. I was on admission to the Obafemi Awolowo Teaching Hospital at the time when it was announced on radio and television that the Ooni has agreed to lie low a bit, admitting for the first time in his reign that his newly adopted titles should not be misconstrued to put him in collision course with the Almighty God. He openly explained he was nowhere near the Almighty God, the King of Kings and that he made no pretences about it. The Ooni was probably responding to popular sentiments with the whole country and his own kingdom which is only a stone-throw from Ifewara, the birth place of the new juggernaut preacher or cleric in the country, the one and only Enoch Adejare Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeem Christian Church of God

 

There were other developments that graphically illustrated the development among most of our traditional rulers across the board. I recall in 1975, Deji Otutubiosun Adelegan Adesida becoming the first Deji in history to openly wear his faith on his sleeve, as acknowledged in my book, by publicly kneeling for prayers at St. David’s Cathedral Church, and publicly taking the Holy Communion. That scenario was totally inconceivable during Deji Afunbiowo and Deji Ademuagun’s time. By the time Deji Ataiyese took over from Otutubiosun in 1991, the observation has become the rule and not the exception.

  

As a matter of fact, Deji Ataiyese who, on his last journey to Akure, had made a stop over at the Holy Ghost Camp on Lagos/Ibadan Express upon his discharge from St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos. His first wife like that of the late Osemawe of Ondo were both ordained Deaconesses of the Redeemed Church. Deji Ataiyese would have died in the Holy Ghost Camp, but for wiser counsel that prevailed on his wife and aides, at that critical point, to quickly rush him to his palace at Akure where he finally breathed his last. His death at the Holy Ghost Camp would have been a first in Akure history and a great departure from Akure tradition and the myth surrounding the institution from the dawn of our history.

 

No wonder after the Oba’s transition one of the early front runners for the vacant throne was Prince Adegbola Adelabu, aka “Ileri Oluwa” who, at the material time was an ordained pastor of a denomination in Akure. He was actually selected the Deji-Elect for close to four years before his selection was derailed by the Ondo State Government upon a late admission by his newly created Osupa/Odundun line, a unit of the sole Asodeboyede Ruling Line in Akure, that he “Ileri” was not a member of their family.

  

You can imagine the extent to which our tradition and culture in Akure had been bastardized by having a complete stranger desecrate our culture and tradition by having him go thru all the formalities of installation, by doing his “Idana Arapon and spending the mandated time and performing rituals at the old Asamo Court in Akure where the central shrine of “Obanifon”, the supreme deity of Akure was based. The last rite, Prince Adegbola needed to perform before entering the Palace was his putting on the crown, for the first time, at Chief Ooye’s Court in Akure followed by another ritual at Ejio’s Court at Erekesan Market before climbing the Okiti Omolore after which he would have been given the right of passage to the Palace. That was how close the “Seriki Tulasi” got to being crowned the Deji by default. The way things are going, an Okrika man or an Ifite Oraifite or an Agbarator man who was born and raised in Akure could one day be crowned the Deji, no questions asked, if he had the cash to wangle his way out.

  

After Ileri’s selection was torpedoed by the Agagu Government the new incumbent Deji, the first non-Omo-ori-ite to first ascend the throne in keeping with Akure tradition, in more than 700 years, did so, by having his coronation formalities conducted in reverse. He was ushered to Governor Agagu’s Office to receive his staff of office in much the same way like the new Kabiyesi Osolo and the new Kabiyesi Iralepo were made to receive their own at the same office a few months earlier.

  

It was after receiving his staff of office that the present Deji began his coronation formalities, thus putting the cart before the horse, because that was the way Governor Agagu has wanted it. As I pointed out in my book, Agagu has desecrated Akure tradition and he has disrespected the Deji as an Institution and Akure as a whole by doing what he did at a time his Deputy Omolade Oluwateru was Akure’s representative at his kitchen Cabinet. It was an outrage to say the least.

  

I also did not appreciate the way his Government has gone about giving recognition to the Osolo and the Iralepo during an interregnum and by failing to have the two Obas sign an article of Association and conditionalities that would be binding on them and their former prescribed authority, the Deji-in-Council. The same charter would have defined their kingdom because because Agagu cannot create a king without a properly defined kingdom which is what he has done. Make them a king today and define their kingdom tomorrow. That was plainly stupid and a future Pandora box for Akure, whichever way you slice it.

  

Our tradition and values are now being pushed into the back seat every where you look and it is a big shame. For your information the new Oluyin of Iyin, Kabiyesi Ajakaiye’s coronation was performed in a Church, for the first time ever in the history of Uyin. You can quote me on that. Kabiyesi Ajakaiye the pioneer and retired Chief Justice of Ekiti State has blazed a new trail by doing that. By the same token. the late Timi Agbale Olofa Ina of Ede, Oba Tijani Oladokun Ajani Oyewusi Agboran the Second who recently died in a London Hospital and was brought home to be buried under full glare of television cameras in accordance with Muslim faith because he was said to be a Sheik in his life time, was another example.

  

The point I am making is that a lot of water has passed under the bridge for Yoruba tradition and values. Not even late Oba Adetoyese Laoye the former Timi of Ede, a Christian by faith, and a great Yoruba Ambassador of Yoruba Culture was allowed to be buried like that. Timi Agbale Olofa Ina was a very important Yoruba hero in Yoruba history similar in importance or just a notch below the Alafin of Oyo, as the political Head of the Yoruba Empire, if you are following the History of the Yorubas as documented by Johnson.

  

The way things are going in Yoruba Land, as I predicted in “The Lion King and The Cubs”, the time will surely come when all that would be needed to select an Oba is just a simple letter of recognition by the Government and the presentation of the staff of office, and that would be it.

 

The proliferation and politicizing of the position has made a total mockery of the Institution and is going to be worse as the new President, YarAdua says says he is just about ready to compound the problem by creating a new platform for traditional rulers in the federal level, probably to be filled by the rotating Chairmen of all Council of Chiefs in all of the 36 states and the federal Capital, I would imagine. That would be the day. Traditional rulers, as a rule, have lost much of their powers and clout as Chairmen of Local Government have usurped their position, if the truth must be told.

  

When a Federal House of Chiefs is created, only Council of Chiefs Chairman at the state level would have any chance of being selected and the competition would have become more intense and draconian, reminding us of the time when the salary of the late Odemo of Ishara, Oba Akinsanya was reduced to one penny a year by the Akintola Government in the old West, because of the outspoken Oba’s support for the Awolowo faction of the great divide in the Yoruba politics of the time.

  

By far the most destructive influence on our culture, tradition and value system is the increasing upsurge and influence of Christianity and Islam in our own region of Nigeria, and the attempt by our people to be more catholic than the Pope in the way and manner we defer to, and embrace hook, line and sinker, the culture of the Western World with little or no reservation. It is a dangerous development. I can tell you that.

  

I rest my case.