How does a Yoruba Ifa priest think people can protect themselves against bandits?
If the Obas in the southwest of Nigeria want to be free from the threats posed by bandits, they ought to quickly relearn the old ways of protection that foreign religion seems to have dampened out of use.
Four Yoruba Obas had participated in a north-central Nigeria-based event and on Monday 29 January were all returning home to Ekiti State as a company until an ambush laid by suspected highway bandits hindered their safe arrival.
The unexpected ambush led to fatalities involving two members of the company, Oba Olatunde Olusola and Oba Babatunde Ogunsakin identified, respectively, as the Onimojo of Imojo and Elesun of Esun Ekiti. Their killing has driven a call by an Ifa priest, Chief Ifayemi Elebuibon who is urging a quick fresh reset back to traditional means of protection.
If the Obas or kings in the southwest of Nigeria where the latest banditry assault had occurred are to be entirely free from the threats posed by ruffians who way-lay them, they must embrace the old ways of monarchs that make them disappear in the face of danger and that is exactly what the priest Elebuibon is recommending.
We do have traditional means of protection in Yorubaland, it is just that the foreign religions that were embraced by Yoruba traditional rulers have rendered them powerless, says the priest in a Punch News interview published today.
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To understand why Yoruba Obas no longer have their spiritual, Osogbo-born Chief Elebuibon wants one to picture a disconnection that has been sponsored by foreign religions, which causes kings to abandon age-long coronation rites that once shielded past monarchs from attacks, whether physically anticipated or those that cannot be seen.
Most of the monarchs, the priest adds did not go through the necessary rites and rituals, and therefore, they lacked the necessary protection like charms that could make someone disappear and reappear, charms that can free someone from clutches when held. They only rely on foreign religions for protection.
A monarch should not be kidnapped anyhow like that if he is immune [and embraces] traditional things. Before a king sets out on a journey, there are things he must do. He must be able to see ahead if it is a journey he should embark on. He must have a spiritual guardian, but they have abolished all that.
Protection in this kind of circumstance we have found ourselves should be in three phases; the one you do for yourself to ensure you are fully protected against attacks.
Secondly, protection is provided by the government for its citizens but now that government’s protection is unreliable, it calls for individual protection. People should get potent charms against gunshots, and machete attacks and protection against kidnapping. We should not rely on government protection again.
Since Monday, the residents of two towns in Ekiti have felt under siege due to the frequency of banditry recorded in the state.
Video of the school bus that was hijacked by kidnappers in Emure LG
Unspecified numbers of School Children were kidnapped while going to Eporo Ekiti from Emure Ekiti in their school bus pic.twitter.com/X8hoB45sNl
— Ekiti trends (@ekititrends) January 30, 2024
While travelling to their destination in Emure-Ekiti, up to six pupils, the three teachers who were accompanying them and a bus driver were kidnapped as they made the journey.
A video posted on the X platform shows an empty bus that the victims had been travelling in. Looking in through window frames, members of the community that visited a roadside scene could see school bags spread along several seats in the vehicle, their number representing a child that had been forcefully taken in the Monday incident.
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
