The Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, has said that the Yoruba land is being punished by its ancestors for completely abandoning its tradition for the two prominent religions.
Adams stated this at 2022 edition of Ifa Festival, held in Akute area of Ogun State, charged all Yoruba traditional rulers, sons and daughters to go back to their roots.
He emphasized that Yoruba ancestors and deities are punishing the race with bad leaders because they abandoned their tradition.
He explained further that the introduction of the two prominent religions – Christianity and Islam in Yoruba land, had really made Yorubas people abandoned their tradition and culture, leading them to poverty, retrogression and lost.
According to him,Yoruba have the potentials and wherewithal to be the leading race in the world but added that the race need to address the problems that have to do with their culture, tradition and heritage.
“In the past years, we had the best in leadership. We had the best economy. Those that led us focused more on our well-being and what could impact positively on the society. We had good leaders who loved us, leaders who feared God and believed that service to humanity was service to God.
“But things changed in the early 70s when the two prominent religions took the centre stage and we lost touch with the divine intermediary. Since then, we have lost the essence of our being. The spiritual lapses and missing links have, in all ways, affected our present lives.
“For instance, Lagos State was once the homes of the big men. It was our pride in the South-West. Many of the treasures in Nigeria are situated in Lagos. Big houses in prime areas across the state are owned by the Yoruba.
“People of old lived in peace, without fear or frustrations. Crime and criminal tendencies were not in common because the deities and our ancestors were in control of our thoughts and feelings.
“But today, things have changed. Non-indigenes, especially the Igbos, have literally taken over Lagos from the indigenes. We sold not only our land but also our birthright and heritage to non-indigenes.
“They have bought and still buying many of the big houses in the state. The non-indigenes in Lagos are the biggest Landlords now in the state. They are stinkingly rich and they control the large quotas of our revenue in all sectors because they believe in their ancestors.
“Today, we suffer from leadership failures. There is disunity, poverty, lack of cohesion enmity in the land. We have abandoned our tradition and heritage and things are no longer the same with us,” he said.
He said that cases of kidnapping, ritual killings, and robberies are prevalent in the society because “nobody is really interested in going back to our root and traditional ways of doing things.
“And sadly, our ancestors and the deities are punishing us for ignoring them. Today, they give us bad leaders in exchange for the good ones we had in the past. None of our leaders today are in the same mould with those that led us during the times of the late chief Obafemi Awolowo.Our leaders no longer care about our well-being. They don’t care whether we live or not. They steal, rob us in the open and embezzle our commonwealth and later leave us to die in penury.
“The Igbos are mostly from Catholic, yet they would never ignore or abandon their tradition. The Benin people, Niger Deltans and Ijaws are predominantly Christians, but they would not forgo their tradition and their ancestors.The Yoruba now live on our past glories. There is huge gap and missing link between us and our deities,” Adams added.
