Culled from Nigerian Tribune - Chief Ifayemi Elebuibon needs little or no introduction. He has been at the forefront of the promotion of Yoruba cultural values for many decades. In this interview with ADEWALE OSHODI, he speaks on why the Yoruba should hold their culture in high esteem, while reiterating the fact that corruption can only be brought to an end when public office holders swear with traditional items during their installation ceremonies. Excerpts:



THE Osun Osogbo is now one of the most popular festivals on the international cultural calendar. What is the secret behind this?
There is no secret behind this. It is the Osun goddess that is propagating the festival. It is not the handiwork of some people, but it is simply Osun at work. You know that the Osun grove is now a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) heritage site. There is little anybody can do about this if Osun herself is not propagating the festival. Therefore, it is Osun who is at work, and not anybody doing anything spectacular.

These days, there are many foreigners coming to learn more about the Yoruba traditional religion, at a time when many Yorubas are distancing themselves from such. What do you have to say about this?
It is just so unfortunate. I want to say that the Christian and Islamic missions brainwashed our people when they came to introduce their religions. Those early missionaries introduced their religions to us for certain reasons. They took our religion from us and gave us theirs. But if our religion is not good, why would these foreigners be coming to learn more about our traditional religion today? God is everywhere. God can make the entire world to be practising a single religion, but He didn’t allow that. So, we should not do away with our own religion. For example, in Brazil, there are Orisas houses all over, while in Nigeria, there are churches and mosques all over, but we are not better than them.

What is the way out now?
The way out is simple, yet hard. All Yorubas should embrace the traditional religion. We should embrace our culture; the way we dress, what we eat, the way we greet out elders. The Yoruba culture is complete, but we have been brainwashed by the missionaries. Why is it that when we were practising our traditional religion, there was less crime, but now that we have churches and mosques all over the place, the crime rate is so high. The solution to our problem is just for us to return to our cultural values. There is nothing bad in us embracing our culture, and I hope something can be done before it is too late.

There was a time you were producing Ifa Olokun Asoro D’ayo, a television drama promoting the Ifa religion, and it was really helping to pass the knowledge about the traditional religion to people. Why did you stop that production?
Ifa Olokun is still available. The only problem we had, and we are still having, is that there are no sponsors to help with the production. We will continue with the production if sponsors can come on board to assist us. People are still asking me about this on a daily basis. The drama series have a lot of lessons we can learn, and it will be great if we can find sponsors so that we can revive the production. However, most people and organisations that ought to support us get shy because it is traditional. Hypocrisy is one of the biggest problems facing our people. When these same people have spiritual problems, they run to these gods, but they don’t want to identify publicly with our traditional religion. There are many pastors, bishops, Imams who come to the gods for assistance, but publicly, they will be shouting that our traditional religion is not good; that it is evil. So, Ifa Olokun can be resuscitated at any time once we find sponsors.

You are also a poet, but it’s been long we heard your voice on radio; why is this so?
A poet will forever be a poet. However, I produce my oral poems on compact discs now. In the past, the radio stations paid for the poems, but these days, there are no funds allocated for such, and that is why you are not hearing my poems on the radio stations. Now, all my poems are on compact discs and they are available in the market.

In a previous interview, you said that for corrupt practices to be brought to an end among political office holders, then they should always swear in the traditional way. Do you still stand by this?
I do, and I am reiterating it that corruption will never be brought to an end when our politicians continue to use the Bible and Quran to swear during their inauguration. If we use traditional items during the swearing-in of politicians, they will even be scared to mismanage our money. However, most of them claim that they are Christians and Muslims, and cannot swear with traditional items. Even, if they belong to these two faiths, they should still use the sand to swear.

They should pour a small quantity of sand in water and swear that if they mismanage public fund, the land should punish them.
It is only if they don’t walk on the land that they won’t be punished if they divert public funds to private use. It is just painful when I hear of the huge public funds that are being mismanaged. We have no business with poverty in Nigeria, but when our public officers are stealing the money meant for the good of the country, then it will bring about lack.

Therefore, I am saying it again that it is only the traditional faith that can save us from corrupt public office holders. Even these politicians who claim that they are Christians and Muslims would have visited traditional priests during their electioneering campaigns. One funny thing about most of our representatives is that they are not committed to what they are elected to do. When you watch the British parliament in session, the House is always full to the brim, but when you watch ours in session, you find the whole place scanty. Most of them attend only when there is money to share.