Traditionalists tackle Ogun Assembly over burial rites bill

Traditional worshippers in Ogun State on the auspices of the Osugbo Remo-in-Council yesterday tackled the Ogun State House of Assembly over a bill that seeks to quash “idolatry” in the installation and burial of traditional rulers in the state. The State Traditional Rulers (Installation and Burial Rites) Bill 2020 recently scaled second reading at the […]

Traditional worshippers in Ogun State on the auspices of the Osugbo Remo-in-Council yesterday tackled the Ogun State House of Assembly over a bill that seeks to quash “idolatry” in the installation and burial of traditional rulers in the state.

The State Traditional Rulers (Installation and Burial Rites) Bill 2020 recently scaled second reading at the House.

The proposed legal framework, if finally passed into law, gives room for any monarch in the state to be installed or buried in accordance with his or her religion or belief.

But the group has described the bill as “a deliberate act to tamper with the norms and beliefs of the Yoruba cultural heritage.”

The Osugbo Remo-in-Council, at the end of an event in Sagamu yesterday, issued a communiqué, which was jointly signed by the Chairman of Osugbo, High Chief Taiwo Sule; the Vice Chairman, Ifasola Opeodu; the Chairman, Committee on Special Duty, Michael Sorinola and the Secretary, Johnson Adeokun, warning that the passage of the bill might lead to a religious war.

Adeokun, saying the bill was an infringement of the rights of traditional worshippers, maintained it might lead to “chaos, war and pandemonium among the people of different beliefs and religions.”

The Secretary urged the House to halt further debate on the proposed bill and throw it into the “trash bin.”

He stressed that the Obaship institution was “a traditional institution for traditional believers” and anybody who wanted to become a king must be ready to abide by its practices.

“Anybody who voluntarily gives himself out or permits or volunteers himself to be crowned and installed as a king under the Yoruba culture will immediately attain the position of Alase Ekeji Orisa, having agreed,  accepted  and concurred to fall in line and abide by the rules, regulations, doctrines and practices of such traditions.

“Such a person cannot be heard to be complaining thereafter, especially after such a person had completely enjoyed the water in the jug, as the Awujale and some other Obas in Ogun State are doing,” he said.