Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has chided the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, for banning the celebration of Isese in Ilorin West, Ilorin East, Ilorin South, Moro and Asa – the five local government areas that constitute the Ilorin Emirate. He described it as a crime against the cultural heritage of all humanity.
Prof. Soyinka noted that soon after the Moslem season of spiritual purification, ‘it is sad to see the ancient city of Ilorin, a confluence of faiths and ethnic varieties, reduced to this level of bigotry and intolerance, manifested in the role of a presiding monarch’.
He said ‘year after year, the Ramadan has been celebrated in Nigeria as an inclusive gathering of humanity, irrespective of divergences of belief, and not once, in his life, has he encountered pronouncements by followers of any faith that the slaughtering of rams on the streets and market places is an offence to their concept of godhead’.
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A Muslim group, Majlisu Shabab li Ulamahu Society, had stormed the residence of a traditional religion priestess to caution her against embarking on planned Isese festival in the five councils. Isese, the Yoruba word for tradition, is used to denote different kinds of festivals held by adherents of the Yoruba traditional religion in Nigeria, Cuba, Brasil, the United States, Benin, and other countries.
The Islamic sect said the Isese festival must not hold, and that the Emir sent them to convey the warning.
Also, in a Sallah message delivered shortly after the two-Rakat prayer marking the 2023 Eid celebrations, Sulu-Gambari warned residents of the Ilorin Emirate to desist from any act alien to the culture of the people.
Soyinka, in a statement titled ‘ISESE FESTIVAL: An Open Letter to Sulu Gambari’, said: “It is conducts like this that has turned, before our very eyes, a once ecumenical city like Kaduna into a blood-stained mockery of cohabitation. It is conducts like this that makes it possible for a young student, Deborah, to be lynched in the very presence of armed police, on mere allegation of having belittled the image of a revered prophet. It is action of this nature, perpetrated in obscure as well as prominent outlets of the country, that turns a young generation into mindless monsters, ever ready to swarm out and kill, kill, kill. Simply kill for the thrill of it, but under presumption of religious immunity. It is conducts like this that then nerves one extremist to wake up one day in a Scandinavian country, publicly announce his intention, and proceed to make a bonfire of copies of the Qur’an. Reprisals follow, equally mindless, trapping humanity in an ever-ascending spiral of costly but gleeful violence.”
The don noted that the greatest avatars that the world has known were not without human frailties, flaws, and errors of understanding. ”You are not omniscient, and you are not omnipotent,” Soyinka told the Emir.