Nigeria’s Mirage of Religious Freedom

Although a resident in Ibadan, Oyo State, as an adherent of the Isese religious belief indigenous to the Yoruba people, the post sent shivers down his spine, prompting him to surf the internet for more information on the matter. Soon after, he found a video in which some men stormed the house of an Osun Priestess (later identified as Yeye Ajisekemi Omolara) but she was not at home. The men, who were reported to be members of the Majlisu Shabab li Ulamahu Society in Ilorin, delivered a message, spiced with threats, to her younger sister who identified herself as Alaba. They told Alaba that her sister must not hold any festival in any part of Ilorin: ‘Listen to me, woman,’ they said, ‘tell your sister that Ilorin does not allow such (indigenous religious festivals). What they want to do, Ilorin does not allow it. We are Muslims here (in Ilorin). You cannot carry out any festival for Sango or Ogun or Osun (Deities in the Yoruba Pantheon) in the Emirate of Ilorin.’ Another man who seemed to have led the mob, gave this concluding remark before they all left:

Many other Islamic clerics in Kwara State also came out to reinforce the threat, with one declaring that the city of Ilorin is a special one to the Islamic Prophet. ‘This is the city far from Jahannam (hell) and close to Jannah (paradise). If you must worship your deities, go to Osun or Ogun,’ another group sang in another video.

Overwhelmed by threats, stunned by the deafening silence of the state government and without any assurance of safety from the Police, Yeye Omolara resolved that it was wise to cancel the festival. ‘I have received multiple death threats from unknown people,’ she said while announcing the cancellation of the festivals.

The Kwara State police command, rather than protect the oppressed party, asked traditional worshippers in the state to take their celebrations and festivals elsewhere. This was done under the guise that the security situation in the state is not favourable for such a celebration. This development has also forced the International Council of Ifa Religion to suspend a festival planned to mark Isese Day in Ilorin, on 20 August. The council which made the announcement in a statement on 15 August, noted that it was to avoid confrontations especially as ‘the police authorities were already prejudiced against our faith.’

Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, condemned the action of the Muslim group describing it as an affront not just to the Yoruba indigenous culture but to the diversity of humanity. ‘The truncation of a people’s traditional festival is a crime against the cultural heritage of all humanity,’ he said in an open letter to the Emir of Ilorin, Ibrahim Sulu Gambari. But the latter in his reply dismissed Soyinka’s argument, saying that the Nobel Laureate was being ‘economical with facts’.

Apart from Soyinka, other Nigerians like social critics, Festus Adebayo, Femi Macaulay, Julius Ogunro and renowned Ifa priest, Chief Ifayemi Elebuibon, have expressed surprise at what they argued was a brazing show of intolerance and violation of a people’s right to religious practice; but Ifaniyi is not surprised. In fact, he told me that he has endured worse treatment since his childhood. He recalled how a new principal in his secondary school publicly humiliated him for wearing some white beads on his wrist and ankle which his father, an Ifa priest, had given him. ‘She said I worshipped false gods and forcefully cut the beads off my wrists,’ he told me. ‘My parents had to meet her the next day to challenge her and make her realise the significance of the beads to my faith.’ Taiwo is also used to constant harassment by policemen who profile him as a ritualist or a fraudster. He always wonders why it is a crime for him to express his religious belief, while Christians and Muslims can do the same freely.

Adebayo Ifawale, who resides in Lagos, is also an adherent of the Isese religious belief. He shared similar experiences with Ifaniyi, even in Nigeria’s centre of excellence. ‘Sometimes, I hide my religious accessories when going out, to avoid harassment from police and scornful stares from ordinary people.’

The rancour in Ilorin over the Isese festival is a precursor to religious crises, which are not alien to Ilorin. It raises concerns about citizens’ fundamental right to religious freedom, while also exposing the mockery of secularism by the Nigerian state.

From the North to the South, among Christians and Muslims, members of these dominant religious groups often express chauvinism and trample on the rights of each other as well as members of minority religious groups. Muslim fanatics in the North attack Christian preachers and alleged slanderers of the Islamic prophet; Muslims in the South East endure constant attacks by Christian fanatics; while traditional religious worshippers suffer attacks from both Christians and Muslims. To mention but a few: the brutal killing of Eunice Elisha, a Christian preacher in Abuja on 9 July 2016; the heartless killing of Deborah, a female student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto State, on 12 May 2022; the hijab controversy in Ilorin characterized by attacks and counter-attacks between Christians and Muslims, in May 2021; the disruption of Oro procession by Christians in Lagos, in August 2022; an attack on disciples of an indigenous Egungun (masquerade) by Muslims in the Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State in May 2017; and a bloody clash, triggered by mutual suspicion between Muslims and Obatala worshippers in Osun in March 2023; among others. Evidently, section 38 of the 1999 constitution, which guarantees every citizen’s freedom ‘(either alone or in community with others and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance,’ is of little significance to many Nigerians.