Every Yoruba community has foundation - founding members.
They are usually friends/family who are made up of farmers, hunters, warriors.
They have their individual strengths and weaknesses. In setting up the community, they identify each one's strength and through Ifá investigation elect themselves into offices needed in the social administration of their new found land as they learned from the fellow Yoruba town that they have migrated from.
They set up the system and the houses of the founding members become the ruling houses. Visitors can come and settle into the land. Individuals who distinguish themselves within the community are given chieftaincy titles to honor them for their good contribution towards the development of the community.
The system of politics is built on the integrity of the nobles, and because of the philosophy of reincarnation which is entrenched in the Yoruba worldview, the community retains a chieftaincy title for a particular lineage because they know that the genius of its institution will reincarnate in time for the continuation of positive leadership. Integrity cannot be sacrificed in public office in the Yoruba democratic system of government.
OATH OF OFFICE:
The founding fathers (the ancestors) established their political authority and stability on an oath with the earth - the mother of us all. All those who sit on the seat after them through the right protocol is assured of their spiritual backing (which makes them divine) and are bound by the oath of service in the interest of the land and the people through the guidance of Ifá. They enjoy the privilege of deity on earth as long as they can carry the cross of moral integrity in service to the land and the people of the land. This system of government possesses checks and balances to ensure that rulers can not become totalitarian.
There is no individual who will bring himself under an oath with the deities of the land that will not act according to the oath that he or she has sworn.
If this former system of arranging our society on ancestral integrity doesn't come back, forget moral integrity in the high places. Because in the western system which we currently practice, it is the survival of the most blatant liar.
In the western styled democracy, rich people buy and sell narratives using the media, and on election day, they induce with money to get popular (naive) votes to win office.
The leader that might be of benefit to the people might not have the finance to drive a campaign the way you people want it in a western styled democracy.
Furthermore, the thrones of the land has ancestral connection to accountability checks that bind the king to sets of codes of conduct that if breached can result to as high as instructing the king to open the Calabash (commit ritual suicide) and join the ancestors.
A system of government that can make the highest man in the land, the equivalent of a president today, to be brought under a verdict to kill himself when found wanting and such happens, is a democratic government.
Is this system prone to corruption? Just as much as anything is prone to corruption, but oaths are not broken without consequences, this was not a position that was contested in the pristine Yoruba societies.
It was a style of Democracy based on a philosophy that humans know that they are the ones who will use their hands to get what they want in their society.
It was before the gospel that came to tell us that there is a God above who can give us harvest in lands we did not cultivate. It was the foreign God that taught us that we will collect from those who don't have and give to those who have. It was the God who said we are forgiven by grace no matter what our action is; it is the religion that came to teach us that not our actions but the sacrifice of Jesus Christ speaks for us before God. It was a culture that derided moral uprightness, calling our practical day to day righteous living "filthy rags". It plays down on moral values and allows us comfort in disintegration in Jesus and Mohammed's name. The politicians who swear oath of offices with those books will dare not do the same with the local deities of the land and act the way our politicians are currently acting to serve themselves.
The Yoruba system of democracy revolved around the moral integrity practiced in the Ifá-Òrìṣà Religion, it wasn't a vote of popularity contest which could be manipulated by cajolers (Ọlọ́ṣẹ̀rẹṣẹ̀rẹ́).
If we don't change where and how we expect our leader to be selected for us, then we can't have true change.
if it is via this same means of buying nomination form and campaigning across the 36 states of Nigeria, then only those that have stolen and/or who want to steal (more) will have the luxury of competing to become our leaders and those are the people we will have to choose from.
Our duty therefore is to identify a process that emphasizes integrity more than popular votes.
This integrity will be based on that of Ifá- Òrìṣàs of African land. (In the case of Yoruba, Yoruba land).
We are not saying that Christians and Muslims should not continue to freely worship and mingle freely as they wish, but the system of selecting into position of leadership within the geographical location called Africa (Original Africans) must be from the Ifá-Òrìṣà culture of all Original Africans. It is the Same across Africa.
Our homes became plundered when we (as our kings and chiefs and lords) preferred the Whiteman's things and we begged the Whiteman to come and teach us Whiteman ways, we were selling our own things in return for what he brought. Little did we know that we were destroying our own house. Now, we are in disarray.
It is time to see how far long we have gone into servitude in the hands of the one we thought was a friend. We are far gone. He has taken integrity away from us and made us to abandon our roots.
We thought we were progressing at first, but here we are, we know better.
With the traditional system, You can't sell your people out and Sango that witnessed to your rite of passage and with whom you have sworn an oath into the service to the people will not make an example of your house in the community. It will become a history attached to such home for a very long time.
We must correct our foundation, without this, every face lifting and makeup and adjustment we are doing is still going to result in an eventual crash, it is inevitable.
You can't correct the faulty foundation of a building from the top, you go back to the foundation. If you get the foundation right, your building will stand.
Ifá is the foundation of our society. Òrìṣàs (Alálẹ̀) are the pillars. Ọba is the head.
By Ayobami Ogedengbe
Copyright: © 2021
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