The Oluwo of Iwoland, Oba Abdulrosheed Adewale Akanbi, Telu I, has revealed that worshipping idols is damaging the rich culture and tradition of the Yoruba people.
According to Oba Akanbi, the Yoruba have one of the best ways of life, but that deity worship is having a detrimental effect.
“Firstly, worshipping deities the way it is done in Africa is not about love. Worshipping of deities is actually deteriorating, causing a lot of damage to our rich culture and tradition. We can do this culture and tradition beautifully without worshipping deities,” Oba Akanbi said to Vanguard.
“We have a very rich and quality tradition, and our language is the best. But we haven’t moved. Do you know that we have not moved? Even these people that we’re talking about; the Chinese, the Russians, the Germans, the English, do all their courses and advance their education in their own languages.
“Even the Ethiopians are using their own language and I wonder why we haven’t moved. We don’t move because we have so many superstitions. Superstitions are limits and they limit us as humans. They are pegging our greatness so as saying that your forefathers are the only ones that are specially chosen. What are you, then? Are we not supposed to be greater than them?”
He said that many people are running away from traditional institutions because of the superstitions that kings are diabolical.
“And it is my job as a king of the people that is close to the people. It’s not the job of the government. It is the job of a king to sensitise and change the mindsets and remove all the scare tactics. All we want to do is talk about voodoo that does bad, a voodoo that will kill you.
“We are the ones that have gods that kill. Ogun a pa e (Ogun, the iron diety will kill); Sango a pa e (Sango, the thunder deity will kill). What kind of father is that? All should be removed from our day-to-day life. The fear tactics are not to be about love to the people.
“If people are running away from the king’s palace, what are they running away from? They’re running away from culture. They are running away from a rotten culture, but our culture and tradition are beautiful and we should showcase them to the bigger world.
“People are running away from everything that is hostile to their daily living, and this is not what makes us a Yoruba people. And that is the problem of this clime. You will see the way I dress now, today, believe me, the way I react, I display with so much splendour is the reality of our culture. The culture is not to threaten or curse or use deities to scare people.”