By Ochiboni Bornuor

Many Nigerian citizens desperately need protection from severe traditional religious practices. Occultic groups and worshippers of deities of ancient times are spreading even further into new communities, making it mandatory for the children of members to follow up in its practices without their consent,

No doubt, before colonialism by the British, Nigerian traditional communities had lived peacefully at home with their native religions sacrificing and maintaining several of their gods.

The collusion between Christianity and the West African Traditional Religion (WATR) has tussled silently for superiority, with most families not letting go of their ancestral ways of worship and sacrifices

In the Hausa traditional society, before the coming of Islam, the people belonged to two religions – MAGUZAWA and BORI, with the former believing in about 3,000 spirits (Iskoki) among which the leading ones were Bagiro, Manzo, Baban Maza, Waziri and Sarkin Alijah. These spirits represented the devourer of souls, the torturer of souls, the greatest among men, the provider of gifts, the queen of spirits, and the king of spirits. The Bori religion employs exorcism through curative possession with a woman, Inna, holding the highest rank.

The Ibos who constitute about a quarter of the Nigerian population are no exception from their practices and transfer of their preserved ways with the deity ODINANI, which centres on a supreme creator known as Chineke, the god of creation and amongst other deities, spirits and ancestors. These deities represent various aspects of the natural world and human life such as Ani – earth goddess, Anyanwu – sun goddess, Amadioha – god of thunder, Ikenga – personal spirit, Agu – god of divination and Njoku – god of yams. The Ibos believe that ancestors watch over their living descendants, offering them guidance and protection. Although many Ibos have embraced Christianity, they freely incorporate elements of their traditional beliefs into their spiritual lives.

The Yorubas, who also make up about a quarter of the country, have maintained a very rich traditional religious base. In the Yoruba religion, deities are known as Orishas. These divine beings, sent by the Supreme Creator, OLODUMARE, are intermediaries between the divine realm and humanity, guiding and influencing people’s lives. Some prominent Orishas include Olorun (the Supreme Being), Shango (god of thunder and lightning), Oshun (goddess of love and fertility), and Obatala (creator of humanity). The belief system recognizes 401 deities known as Orishas, with each of them maintaining and sacrificing blood at shrines designated for cult hierarchy, members, and followers.

Although the aggressive Christianization policy of the early 19th century made most people in Southern Nigeria Christians, their attachment to the age old indigenous religious practices and beliefs have survived the-near-one century-long British occupation and the aggressive Christianization that came with it.

There was a strong resurgence of the original traditional religions, occultism, and the practice of witchcraft among the people as soon as the British officially departed. Thus, powerful spiritual cults and groups that had gone underground soon came out openly to dominate the spiritual life of the people, even though many of them would still go to church on Sundays.

Although occultism, juju veneration and animal worship, such as python worship, are widely practiced throughout the country with its epicentre of juju and occultism is in Benin kingdom, Yorubaland and adjoining towns in the western and mid-western region of Nigeria. The wide spread stories of young men and women succeeding in occultic practices are said to be enlisted with little or full knowledge of what has been passed on to them. The people of Benin, who are known as Binis and the Yorubas are widely acknowledged for practicing the age-long occultism and possessing harmful spiritual powers to hurt their enemies whenever occasion demands or to protect themselves from the other occultic groups at the level of spiritual tussles.

Incidentally, the old hierarchy in chieftaincy or leaders of occultic groups whose children refused to lead or participate in the dominant cults across communities or towns, are facing severe threats, fatal outcomes and banishment from the land. This is the silent degrading and inhumane neglect of unconsenting victims of circumstances left to themselves to suffer or be sacrificed by traditional morals in a society we call our own and for all citizens.

With little no voice for these voiceless victims, many have run to faraway lands to survive such “abominable” refusals while some have been murdered with righteous impunity because they committed sacrilege by spurning the gods of the land.

In the 80’s, among the Bokis in Cross River state of Nigeria, Oshita, as the story commonly known, was left to his fate to die in a mysterious circumstance and cursed by the deity, Mfam. The young man had sworn never to take the role of his deceased father, who was the chief priest of the community deity at the time the father had enlisted him in the occultic group. Despite the fact that the boy was the assistant catechist of the local Catholic parish. Oshita turned down the role despite pressure and advice from the top echelon of the occultic group. He swore to them that he preferred to die rather than to become the chief priest of Mfam. Oshita was attacked and bruised with injuries and died days after he was banished from the land.

The sad story that has always resonated over time with the occultic world in the Bini Kingdom is the young man who refused to ascend the throne of his late father, as the chief priest of a powerful cult group in Benin, Edo state, and the tribulations Osarunwense suffered as a result of his refusal to inherit the leadership of his father’s occultic activities.

Osarunwense Obamwonyi, whose father, the chief priest of the Bini Ogunamen fraternity, had passed away and interred to mother earth. He was informed that he had been initiated into the fraternity at birth and that as his father’s first son, it was his inheritance to succeed him as the next chief priest of Ogunamen. He is said to have fled the country to Europe, and subsequently deported back to Nigeria following a curse or spell on the young man due to Osarunwense’s refusal and absence to replace the mystical powers of the ogunamen occult which has lost the efficacy of their spiritual powers to fight their opposing occult groups. The young man is believed to have been chased, threatened, and banished by the fraternity for the second time from the land.

The well-publicized case of a Yoruba woman from Ikorodu in Lagos State, Gbadamosi Adejoke Korede, whose experience with her community deity is almost the same as that of Osarunwense. She, like the case of the man from Benin, following her father’s death, she was told to inherit her late father’s role in the cult. She, too, is said to have rejected to be part of her father’s group, leading to untold hardship and tragedies. She is said to be living somewhere in Europe, afraid to return home.

These sort of forceful conscription and attacks that leave the victims with no option other than to flee the country to foreign lands are condemnable. Surely, the constitution of the federal republic has made ample guarantees for freedom of association. Therefore, secret societies should not be allowed to bludgeon unwilling members of the society and successors to become their members. The case of Oshita in Boki, Osarunwense Obamwonyi in Benin, Bassey Udobong in Oron and Korede Gbadamosi in Ikorodu who were refused help by members of their communities and protection by the respective states’ security architecture, is very shameful and an embarrassment on the image of this country.

Such people reserve the right to make a choice to either belong to the cult or not to belong. Those who intimidate innocent citizens with severe beatings or death if they refused to join their secret groups should have no place in the civilized society. This disturbing trend must be stopped with the police taking full responsibility for the safety of citizen’s lives and property. To be clear, the cultists and deity worshippers have the right to choose what to worship provided they do not coerce, intimidate, or force other people to join their groups.

I am calling on all men of goodwill to come together and put pressure on the National Assembly to enact a deliberate law that will criminalize this shameful trend in the country where rather than inherit wealth and property, young people from different parts of the country are being forced to inherit their parent’s membership of secret traditional groups under threat of death. The National Assembly must make a law that will arm the victims to be able to challenge these groups in the courts and empower the police to act in the defence of victims.

From a realist viewpoint, this appeal centres around global institutions to treat with compassion the victims suffering from inhumane traditions. This set of victims have lost any kind of state’s, national, or international protection. The UNCHR is urged to urgently consider this set of humanitarian rescue as one of the many categories or grounds for international protection needed by applicants from some continents of the world.

Ochiboni Borjuor writes from Calabar.