TRADITIONAL AND RELIGIOUS LEADERS ON POVERTY ALLEVIATION SYNDROME
By Taiye Olaniyi
The Yorubas are apt when they sing, “Eni ti ko fi ti Oba se yo te” meaning that he who despises the authority and the rulership of King shall be disgraced and shamed.
From time immemorial, in sociocultural content and context, those appropriated with kingship status through customs and traditions of the varying geographic areas have their rulers acclaimed in various manners.
Such privileged individuals have the towering status of being referred to as a “King”, Oba, Kabiyesi amongst the Yoruba, Oba in Benin, Obi of Onitsha,Olu of Warri, Etsu Nupe, Atta Igala Ohinoyi of Ebiraland and numerous traditional title holders in other climes.
However, far more skyrocketing in status amongst the Traditional Rulers covering the geographic spaces of their immediate communities, and recognized as tribal cum religious leaders of their peoples are the Ooni of Ife, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alafin Of Oyo, Oba of Benin, Emir of Kano, Obi of Onitsha, Atta of Igala, Etsu Nupe and a host of others.
They are not only the traditional rulers of their peoples but also the spirito- religious leaders for that matter.
Yes, they rule their various communities according to the dictates of their specific and spectacular sociocultural indices and paradigms, they seem both “Lords Spiritual and Temporal”.
They are “Primus inter pares” as such, deserve all respects, every recognition and be dignified in all ramifications.
Their words and actions must exhibit authority, authority that most times, should the self-styled an unroyal blood ever should challenge could sometimes lead to grievous punishment and maybe death.
They are sometimes so dignified to the level of being deified in what the Yoruba call, “Alase Ekeji Orisa”, the one whose authority goes akin to that of a deity.
On the other side of the divide are the Religious Leaders in whose back in thoughts, words and actions their followers must find paths to God based on the Messengers and Prophets of old.
Traditional religions which tended to be most an interplay with man in his biotic and abiotic environment, his culture and traditions including the customs of the people have been so diluted and degraded to an unrecognizable levels today.
Nigerians today are under the influences of Islam and Christianity, their varying rituals and observances, including the modes and manners of preachments and dictates of our various religious leaders.
Though guided by the uniqueness of the teachings of the Glorious Qur’an and the versions of the Holy Bible by the Muslim and Christian leaders respectively, the denominational and sectarian nature in the two religions have called to order how the followers and congregants have and are faring in terms of meeting their daily needs.
What are the daily requirements in the society for which both the traditional and religious leaders be also instrumental in their provisions in their various communities and for average Nigerians as a whole?
The provisions, availabilities and otherwise equally determine the ways and manners the relevance and key performance indicators by which both our traditional and religious leaders be somehow assessed.
“Thy food, thy clothing, thy convenience of habitation, thy protection from the injuries, thy enjoyment of the comfort and the pleasure:all these thou owes to the assistance of others and could not enjoy but in the hand of society.
It is thy duty therefore to be a friend of mankind as it is the duty of the society to be your friend “.
Unto Thee I Grant.
The generality of Nigerians are today living in abject poverty and tattered penury.
Many even bemoan why God for whatever reasons has created them in this part of the world.
The glaring affluence of many of our traditional and religious leaders, their families and wards go contrary to those of many millions living the lives of miseries, regrets, hopeless and helplessness.
They though daily preach the life embellished in ideal communal life of their traditional and cultural ethical values,but to many of them, they relish in the life of pulling the lips of others, thus forcing them to spit uncontrollably.
The aesthetics of many of their palaces, the cost implications attendant to their numerous vehicles, pomp and pageantry at parties and public functions and the plights of hunger and blight of famine in the lives of their subjects daily call for the scrutiny of their authorities which deprive others of their daily existence.
For the religious leaders, nothing spoils their penchants for unending demand for tithes, haram and plethora of filthy means of affluence.
Miracles rendering they preach against individual human capital development, the unholy jihad they institute in ethno-tribal clashes, banditry, kidnapping and almajirrism due to uncontrolled population explosion including associated substance abuse of all sorts amongst children and youths are saddened to the serious minded, our hearts and minds too.
The situation now is like what Dr. Kenneth Idiodi has aptly described as, “Religion has been politicized, politics has been religionised while both religion and politics have been commercialized “.
Since “Man the Problem, Man the Solution”, it is incumbent on us all to re-examine our tradition and culture including our various religious inclinations, the custodians and thus make best of bad situation in all our thoughts, word and conducts.
We need to be more scientific minded in everything humankind and interplay with the environment these days of climate change, its implications on the natural environment which we once used for good farming, pastoralism, food and animal productions but are now subject of herders/ farmers clashes graduating into innumerable ethnic clashes, banditry, kidnapping and unending skirmishes of war everywhere in Nigeria.
No matter the tons of sermon by our religious leaders, as Oliver Smith once admonished, “You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips”.
By their fruits ye shall know them.
Further to this is a Sufi admonition that states that we should “Worship not the tombs of Holy Men but do their work and be saved”.
We need to examine the role of self in self realization, self awakening and self understanding of the one and only God within each and everyone of us all.
This is more heartening than daily subjecting oneself to the whims and caprices of others no matter how they lay claim to being highly placed in the eyes of the Almighty.
In the same vein goes Jesus Christ’s affirmation: “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name, drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?
To such questions Jesus answered and I quote, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven”
https://www.bible.com › bible › M…
Matthew 7:21-23 NIV – Bible.com affirmation.
The question then is, are poverty and associated miseries the portion and destiny of us Nigerians according to the dictates and obligations to the traditional and religious institutions?
“Time will Tell, Time will Tell, Time will always Tell “so sang brother Jimmy Cliff.
God bless Nigeria.
*The writer, Taiye Olaniyi is a Lagis based public commentator*
(vitalnewsngr.com)
