—- Beg Aiyedatiwa to declare work free day

By Dayo Johnson, Akure

As traditionalists across the South West celebrate ‘ lsese Day’, adherents from Ondo state, have advocated for oaths taking in the traditional way by political office holders as a panacea to corruption and arbitrary use of power.

They also, appealed to Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, to set aside August 20 of every year as a holiday to mark the festival like his colleague governors in the South West States.

Speaking in Akure, the state capital, where they converged to celebrate the day, the Araba Isese of Ondo state, Araba Folorunsho Adetunji, said traditionalists have made several pleas to the state government on the need to declare a holiday for the World Isese Day celebration in the state.

Adetunji said the holiday would allow the Isese adherents to come together as an avenue to get closer to their creator and pray for humanity, Nigeria, Ondo State and their different households to prosper.

“Isese day is the celebration of origin and showcasing the doings of our ancestors in the early period, our culture, custom are all summed up under Isese celebration”

He said traditionalists should be accorded the same respect like other religion, saying the traditional worshippers also have a critical role to play in the development of the state and country.

Adetunji said apart from this, Isese day should be seen as a day to celebrate Yoruba traditions, culture, customs and spirituality saying the celebration also include, parades, lectures and the display of other traditional apparel to attract tourists from other parts of the world.

Adetunji said “Isese day celebration cuts across all traditional lines. The practice of Isese involves communication with ancestors and other spirits through prayer, offerings, and divination to help proffer solutions to the challenges confronting the country.

“We want to plead with the government of Ondo state to grant the Ondo state traditionalists a public holiday and to give the traditionalists a sense of belonging.

“This is to show us that we are not sidelined and communicate to us that the government is fair

Also speaking, Araba Awo of Okeagbe, Ayobami Ogedengbe, said that “political office holders taking oaths in traditional way will go a long way to add another dimension to the country’s political space.

Ogedengbe who said this would help restore sanity in the system, an average Nigerian or Yoruba man understand the implications and consequences of what will follow

“The system that we currently use has loopholes for one who is challenged as far as integrity is concerned. Our people know and understand that the gods uphold integrity and no Yoruba person will go against his or her oath before the gods.

“This will restore sanity into our system because an average African, average Yoruba man is scared of the consequences that will follow if you swear with Ogun or any of the traditional means.

“They dare not swear to what they don’t believe in and swearing using the traditional means adds to the potency of African traditional religion and some of the mechanisms used as vehicle for the practice.

“The usual means of oath taking with Bible in the Christianity way and Quran in the Islamic way had failed to bring the best out of our leaders.

We don’t have any business with poverty, insecurity, or political division, in this country as we are abundantly blessed but the challenges the nation was facing was due to bad leadership without fear of God.

“The hardship in the country is as a result of lack of truth and this is no way to curb this, and if we don’t treat dishonesty, there is no way for the country to move forward because of our leaders are not truthful, there can’t be meaningful progress.

“If there’s a system in place to punish dishonesty, we believe whether you like it or not our leaders will want to be upright in their dealing and do what is right”

Meanwhile, the adherents prayed for the people of Yoruba descendants all over the world and those in leadership positions to take the country to the promised land during their procession across Akure, the state capital.