As reported in the South West news of the National Mirror, Tuesday, January 7, 2014 (p.9), the general overseer of Victory Life Ministries International, Ilesa, Bishop Mike Bamidele, berated the government of the State of Osun for recognising the practice of traditional religion in the state. He described the action as evil and that it could retard the progress of the state. Addressing journalists in Osogbo on January 6, 2014, the Bishop said: “The introduction of traditional religion was evil. I am not the one calling it evil, but it has its basis in the Bible that it is evil and it is truly evil”. He said there is some wickedness in the religion which must be expunged to get it revived by the government, warning Governor Rauf Aregbesola to reverse his recognition of traditional religion before it is too late. Hear him: “Aregbesola should tread softly on religious issues in the state and should be cautioned against promoting traditional religion above other religions in the state.” He went on to urge prominent ministers of God, especially indigenes of the state like Pastor Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, the founder of Kingsway International Christians Centre, Pastor Mathew Asimolowo and others” to help prevent the state from being turned to idols through traditional religion.” He went further: “The state would go a century backward for promoting aspects of traditional religion that promotes evil because there are contents of the religion which could cause chaos in the state if not addressed”. Although, he did not mention what contents of the religion that now cause chaos, he went on to blame the House of Assembly for passage of the bill which he boasted “will never see the light of the day.”
Perhaps the starting point of educating our holier than thou Bishop and the self-imposed representative of God in Nigeria is the universal acceptance of culture (which includes traditional religion) and civilization in the life and affairs of man and a nation. The word “culture” has a long history of definitions and interpretations. During the Victorian era culture was proclaimed to be a curtain which divides classes, religions, political parties and even university faculties. Mathew Arnold, a great protagonist of culture, enlarged this definition to include moral values. Culture is defined by Arnold as “the study of perfection” moved “by the social passion for doing good”. In the 20th century, an anthropological dimension was added to the Victorian definition of culture. In its widest sense culture now stands for a peoples’ traditions, manners, customs, religious beliefs, values and social, political and economic organisation. Culture in this sense does not refer to an individual but to the people as individuals-writ-large.
Great nations have their civilisations, education, politics, economy, moral values and ways of life based on their cultures, religions and philosophy. Examples are Britain, Continental Europe and Asian countries and the far East where their different religions have become integral part of their social, economic, political, scientific and moral engineering. Thus, we have Judeo Christian Religion which does not belief in Jesus Christ but in God only, and some other historically predominant world religious cultures like Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Lamaism, Sikhism e.t.c. as studied and researched into by scholars in the area of world religions.
I wonder whether the Bishop ever did religious studies in the university or did a dissertation on this subject in the university. Many scholars have done their Doctoral Degrees on world religions, including traditional religions, which they end up teaching in the university. Traditional religions are an important subject in a place like the Harvard Divinity School where a Nigerian, Olupona, is a professor of comparative religions. There is no perfect religion; if there is, there will be no need to subject every religion to critical study as an important methodology for the acceptance or rejection of a PhD Degree in Religion.
Obviously, our Bishop betrayed his lack of erudition in religious studies and more so of traditional religions. Hence he spoke, using expressions that seemed clever, but actually are not sincere, and do not show much thought. In this age of globalisation, and convergence of cultures, how does traditional religion lead to the retardation of progress? What progress, and whose progress?
All religions rest on belief in a Supreme Being known as God or Allah. What you call God or Allah is called Olorun (the owner of heaven) or Olodumare in Yoruba traditional religion. The ultimate prayers and sacrifices (there are sacrifices in the bible) of traditional religions is to our creator, Olorun or Olodumare. I think by traditional religion the Bishop means Yoruba (African) traditional religion which is an integral part of Yoruba culture. It is a pity our Bishop never read Bolaji Idowu’s popular book Olodumare which is a source of reference in the academic study of Yoruba traditional religion. As Christians, we offer our prayers to God directly or through His son Jesus Christ. This is not so for the Jews who do not belief in Jesus Christ as the son of God for which reason we call that religion Judaism or Judeo–Christian religion. Our Bishop should be bold enough to attack the Jews for not believing in Jesus Christ. The traditional religious priests like the Babalawos do make atonements or sacrifices to Olodumare through some lesser deities or gods, and such sacrifices have worked among the Yoruba.
This traditional religious belief has been with us ever before Mary Slessor and other colonialists introduced the Bible and Christianity to Nigeria. What the likes of our Bishop is now saying is that we should jettison our traditional and religious beliefs for foreign assimilated religion instead of using one to complement the other. It is unthinkable whether a Bishop would ask the Hindus or Buddhists to jettison their religions as he would want the Yoruba to jettison Ifa or the divination of the Babalawos whose practices have worked and largely accepted by many Nigerians, especially among the Yoruba and in the Diaspora. Afterall, a Bishop in Nigeria once proclaimed himself as a strong believer of Ifa and the practices of the Babalawos. I and my son, Olumide, have written in separate books that Ifa as a religion, culture and philosophy is not incompatible with Christian religion, nor traditional medicine incompatible with the principles and practices of orthodox medicine. Both religions aim at moral and righteous life while both medical practices aim at prolonging healthy lives on earth.
The ignorance of the Bishop shows clearly when Ifa is seen as a repository of knowledge. The concept of Omoluabi derives from an Odu Ifa while the bulk of African moral systems also derived from Odu Ifa that is being scientifically studied at home and abroad. Suffice is to say that this same Ifa as a core of Yoruba traditional religion has so captured the imagination of people in Brazil, Cuba, North America and other advanced regions of the world that the Yoruba traditional religion is being practiced in these places as African diasporic religion, sometimes with greater interest and intensity than we do here. In the last Orisa world conference at OAU, Ile-Ife where I delivered a key lecture on “Philosophy and Development: Lecture in Honour of Awo Ifatoogun” on 25 July, 2013, one would appreciate the popularity of Yoruba traditional religion as evident from the attendance from different parts of the world.
The Bishop shot himself at the foot when he veered from his original condemnation of traditional religion to an unsubstantiated rantings. Terribly confused, he changed his argument to say a different thing that Aregbe has placed traditional religion above other religions in the state. One may therefore ask him: what precisely is your grouse against Aregbesola and traditional religion? Is it its introduction or placing it above Christianity and Islam in the state? The absurdity of this religious howler is the fact that Aregbe is a muslim. Now, the Bishop has shifted to another preposterous position that the same Aregbesola is now trying to religiously traditionalize, and no longer Islamize the state just because the three recognized religions are now used in prayers at official functions in the state. Now we are confused as we do not know what to believe. This confusion is a perfect demonstration that some of our clerics have been talking as if they do not know what they are talking about.
We like to point out that culture and all religions are not immune to criticisms and revisions. To those who accept beliefs and norms without criticisms, cultures and religions are static, not evolutionary. We do not live in a world of unchanging beliefs. Thus, even in traditional religions, criticisms are welcome precisely because religious beliefs are dynamic in nature. Hence our Bishop should not be wholly bound by his subjective and dogmatic belief. As rational men we all have autonomous standing for reflexive criticisms. It is precisely these criticisms that have led to revisions of those things that the Bishop calls evil, because he is incapable of making a distinction between traditional religion of the last century and these of modern time when those aspects of traditional religion that offended our sensibilities have been jettisoned. If you like, call it traditional religion in its modernity, and this precisely is what has been recognised as the third tier of religion and practice among the Yoruba people of the State of Osun. Rather than berate Aregbesola’s effort in this direction in the 21st century, we should appreciate what he is doing to forge a unity of religions (just as we do in the unity of the sciences) among the three recognized religions in the state.
In fact, Yoruba traditional religion as practiced in Nigeria and in the Diaspora is part of the global study of African traditional religion. Why should Yoruba traditional religion be recognized in faraway places like Cuba, Brazil and the Americas and not be recognized in Nigeria, its source? Why should eminent Europeans like Susan Wenger and Ulli Bier be so interested in Yoruba culture and religion as to spend the better parts of their lives in Osogbo to the extent that one of them, Ulli Bier, has a Lecture Theatre at the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding named after him in Abere, Osogbo? In as much as our Bishop acted in complete ignorance of what are meant by culture and religion and the relationship between the two, we would pardon him his offences, but he should apologize to governor Aregbesola and the entire Yoruba race, many of who not only believe in, but practice, traditional religion in Nigeria and in the Diaspora with equal passion and intensity as the christians and muslims believe in, and practise, their religions. After all religion, like philosophy and culture, is a way of life. This is probably why those who brought Christianity to Nigeria have recognized the same sex marriage which, because it is alien to our culture and traditional beliefs, Nigeria has rejected as taboo. But our holy Bishop has kept quiet about this religious and cultural evil.
I have said there is no perfect religion just as there is no perfect culture, otherwise there would not have been over 1000 Christian religious denominations as we have in Nigeria today. Now, if the Bishop’s motive is to disparage Aregbesola and the APC government in the State of Omoluabi (a derivation from Yoruba philosophy culture and traditional religion) over religious matters, he has failed woefully because he is on his own.
For all we know, Bishop Mike Bamidele may well be a hypocrite, like many of them who preach morality in the morning and break it at noon!
•Moses Akinola Makinde, FNAL is a Professor of Philosophy, DG/CEO, Awolowo Centre for Philosophy, Ideology and Good Governance, Osogbo.
