Dr Adebayo Orire, leader of Reformed Ogboni Fraternity (ROF), is also the pastor of a gospel Church, a medical doctor and a chieftain of the All Progressives Party (APC) in Ekiti. In this interview with our Ekiti State Correspondent, GBENGA SODEINDE, he explained the genesis of ROF which has just celebrated its centenary anniversary, and its relationship with Christianity and other religions as the will of God among others.
Is it really true that you are a born again pastor and Ogboni member?
I am Rev. Dr, Andrew Adebayo Orire, I am a medical practitioner of over 35 years in practice, a called man of God and a general overseer of a church, with experience spanning many facets of life — mysticism, fraternity, medical jobs, business development, pastoral job and of course, I am a political and immediate past chairman of the hospital management board in Ekiti State under the immediate past administration of the APC Government led by Dr Kayode Fayemi.
Then you are not just a member but an executive member of ROF?
Yes, over 20 years ago I had been an Alakoso, which means (head of ?) the Executive Council of Reformed Ogboni Fraternity, in Nigeria, in Africa, and worldwide. That means I will be like a bishop controlling some parishes in the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity. The ROF has just concluded a oneweek centenary programme, tell us about it? Yes, the ROF is exactly 100 years old. It was actually formed by the first Archdeacon of West Africa, the first set of Nigerians who were clergies of repute. It was Archdeacon T.J. Ogunbiyi that actually formed the ROF100 years ago patterning it after the Freemasonry, the fraternity of the old and our native aborigine Ogboni system. It was resolved as a result of what was happening in Christendom at that time.
They(Christians) were actually not faithful; they were killing each other for posts and struggling unethically for unnecessary and unprofitable things. They were all on each others’ throats and if our traditional system could be refined along the line of the fraternity system that existed in Europe, US, and even in the far East.. They now went around, studied these systems of cults operating in Britian, the US, like the Amorc.
They now gathered all these systems that were actually projecting the fatherhood of God and brotherhood of mankind. The only mistake he made was using the name Ogboni. May be if he had called it “The real brothers” or “The children of God” which they actually are, there wouldn’t have been any hue and cry about it. We people in Nigeria and Africa, don`t really appreciate what we have; you see and Ogboni has had a kind of awesomeness around him.
The name Ogboni would evoke some fears and some anxiety from people and up till date is still goes on. All he did was that he moved against anything negative or fetish . In fact, we preach against anything that goes with worshiping idol, or anything that could really hurt anybody or fellow human being. Ogboni fraternity is against anything that is not in agreement of God, and Ogboni was reformed totally to the system of fraternity where wisdom of God, the name of Jesus, and the fatherhood of God is supreme and primus. In short, ROF was formed to bring sanity to Christendom In fact, it was initially named, “Christian Ogboni Fraternity”, but the name had to be changed when other people started coming in, like Muslims.
It is quite unfortunate that people do not really know what we do in Ogboni Fraternity. There, you are supposed to worship God only ; in fact one of the primus questions in ROF is “Do you believe in God?”If you don’t believe in God, you will not be accepted. That is, the only God, “Olodumare” in Yoruba language, or Allah in Hausa language. Then you must do unto others as you want them to do unto you. You must also believe in the brotherhood of mankind otherwise you will not be accepted. But every other thing underneath that range would not be counted.
Your religion would not be counted, politics or your political parties would not be counted against you. You are free so far you are going to show truth, love, and harmony to your co-fellows and agree to the fatherhood of God. So, that was what we have been doing since 1914 when it was formed. It also believes in this harvest system like is done in churches.
But where the problem started was that we are against falsehood on oath. You must speak the truth at all times, do good to people, your brothers, you must not kill, you must love you brothers truly, you must be somebody who will return good for evil done to you by others. You must be somebody who will leave vengeance to God and God alone.
These rules were too harsh for them, so instead o going along with such a system, they started criticising it, talking evil against it and in fact they were actually going to excommunicate the founder, Bishop Ogunbiyi from the church system until people like Arch-Bishop Vinnie and some other top ministers of God from churches went into this Reformed Ogboni Fraternity and discovered that it was actually in agreement with God and the system of both traditional Amorc system and the traditional freemasonry in Europe, US, Germany and in other islands.
Do you agree that ROF is a secret cult? What Do you mean by secret cult? You see, this is part of the ignorance that is peddled around, a secret organization will not be registered. ROF is registered under the company Act; ROF is a legally registered organization. A secret society will not worship publicly in places that are known to people, the addresses of all the headquarters and the branches are known to people. A secret society will not know the members, we know the members, a secret society will not have anything written, we have a constitution of this ROF.
A secret society will not hold meetings in the day or in places where people can see them; we hold meetings in the day and in places where people can see us. they tell me that they close their doors, but even in churches you have to close your door at times. It is just that people don’t know what they do there and they assume a lot of things. The only thing is that the society has its own secrets, just like every other society has its own secret.
What are the benefits of ROF?
As a society that goes with truth and love and harmony is of God and it is practicing love of faith in line with the injunction of God, you will know that there is reliability in there.
It is a place where you can go and do business with your brother with your eyes closed, with your mind at peace. You can know that you can worship your God under any guise knowing that there is only one God; you can know that when you get to any place where these people are, you can rest assured that your family are there. Right now, I can go to any city or country now to strike a deal with any member and he will take me serious more than any other person who is not a member.
The trust is the thing there, the brotherhood there, the fraternal relationship is there, and when you are doing business with anybody that is your brother, know he cannot take your money away. You know he cannot kill you, you know he cannot do anything negative or anything that could harm you. But there are politicians there and politicians do lie, how do you manage this?
I am a politician, and I don’t lie, and I know you have known me for over 10years now and I Know that you know that I don’t lie and I am a politician, or have you ever seen me telling lies? You see, politics does not make you. But if you are a liar, even if you are in heaven, you will still lie. After all, Satan was one of the best Angels of God but he became the devil. So, if you are a liar and you find your way to Ogboni fraternity and it has become your habit to lie, definitely you will still lie.
But if you are a truthful person and find yourself in the business of politics, you will not lie. So it is you who wants to lie and not the system that makes you to lie.
So, there are persons from different political parties together in ROF, how do you handle that?
That is the beauty of it. You are not going to see any difference in us. In fact, we deal with each other as children from the same father and mother. We can go and do our politics outside and when we come back in the evening, we embrace each other. If there is anybody that is killing each other out there, we are not concerned. Because there will be no reason for you to kill your brother if you call him your brother, since we have swear an oath not to kill our brother and even not to do anything against the love of God and against the law of the nation.
So if you don’t want to die of the repercussion of breaking your oath, you must behave well. Whether it is APC, PDP, APA, Labour, APGA, or any other political party, you must remember you are one and must see each other as brother who must not hurt each other. Can you settle quarrels that do not emanate from the gathering? There is no problem that you take there that cannot be settled because that is one of the things which we were guided by; that is, to be at peace with all men at all times and you must forgive others their sins. You see, forgiveness is one of basic rule of the organisation.
You are also pastor of a gospel church, how do you manage the relationship?
I grew up as a Catholic, even I grew up as one of the sacristy boys on the altar before I later joined another gospel church. But for some time, for what happened in Christianity, and in some churches I do not go to church again. I took to fraternity, to mysticism, and spiritualism.
I was studying very hard, reading the Bible, Holy Quran, and other spiritual books and practicing them and I found my way into the fraternity, Amorc, Reformed Ogboni fraternity and Freemasonry, and in the process, God called me. But because I was not suffering any physical, social or spiritual problem, I was socially accepted and acceptable, I had my job, money was not my problem, so Ignored the call of God, and the call from God kept coming and I delayed. God now began to punish me in many ways so that I could heed the call in time, to the extent that people would lie against me.
My businesses started going down, so many things were happening to me that I had to heed the call of God and that was since about six years ago that I have heeded the call of God. I have been doing his will. In fact, I would not have had any business with church if not for God that called me because majority of the pastors of churches nowadays are liars.
They will see visions that are not true and you know I hate lies so much. And when God called me, he even gave me some specific instructions not to attend certain churches and I have to heed his call. And thank God, I have been doing well since then and I have been seeing the very beautiful hands of God in my life.
I want you to explain spiritualism as it relates to the physical realm? All things that you see in the physical realm emanate from the spiritual realm. And what is the spiritual realm?
It is the realm of the invisible, the realm of vibration, the realm of waves, the realm of sound, the realm of the world, the realm of intangibility.
The realm where things that will happen in the physical must first of all be incubated, the realm which determines and controls the physical, so it is the realm of God, and who is God?
God is spirit and what is spirit?
Spirit is not what you can hold with your hands, but that gives you power in the invisible realm to manifest his glory in the physical realm. So, whatever is to happen to you in the physical realm must first womb bed and wall so that the fibroid won’t grow again.” Commenting on recurrent STDs that never seem to have permanent cure, Aworonke told Daily Times that it cannot happen with her treatment.
“Except it is a spiritual curse, there is no disease that has no natural medicine to control and eliminate it. It is like using the right tool for the right work and you get an excellent result. “I don’t believe in drugs or treatment that you use for one or two days and there are no changes; come to my clinic and a trial will convince you. My advice to STD carriers is that if one partner is infected, whether fresh or old infection, the couple should be treated together and for the same length of time to avoid a reoccurrence.’ God all through my life and it has paved ways for me at all times. As to how God answers prayers, I want to say that everybody is God in his own right as empowered by God. It depends on your faith in God, you see, invocations, proclamations and affirmations are just normal. You see, what you think you are doing through other gods, you are actually doing through God the Almighty. For instance, if you keep on hammering things to yourself now something you ordinarily would not have gotten in the next one year, but because of your faith that you will have it in few weeks and you keep on saying it to yourself that you want it, believe me you will have it. So, there is no way iron or wood and any other symbol carved as gods will do anything for you, it is God that approves and answers all prayers. It only depends on your faith, perseverance and consistency. It is you that is talking, it is the power of the spoken word in you given by God that is doing it. That is one of the things that I learnt in the study of spiritualism and spiritism; you can put anything down and begin to chant incantations and when God answers the prayers, you think it is one Ogun, or one idol that you put down that is doing it. But mind you because you took that negative way or means to achieve this, there will be repercussion because God is against idol worshiping and there is nothing you do whether negative or positive on earth that you will not get the reward before you die.
Do you believe in destiny? And can you explain it?
I believe in destiny; what you call destiny is what some people manifested in the spiritual realm and you cannot have the physical real without the spiritual.
Do you have negative and positive in the spiritual?
“Yes”, just like we have positive and negative in the physical. Is religion better than cult or fraternity in the real sense? I say ‘No”, and “Yes”, because if you are a celestial church member and you light your candle to kill, that is evil, and if you are a Catholic member and you use your holy water to curse, that is bad, if you are cult member or you are a fraternal member and you use your spiritual powers to pray for your friend or enemy, that is good, but if you use either of them negatively, that is bad.
What is the way of God and that of the devil?
The Way of God and work of God is anything Good, and the way of the devil is anything bad and devilish Ask because of some people who believe that God’s ways are slow, they prefer to consult the devil or Idols which they believe act faster? There cannot be anything faster than God and there cannot be anything slower than God. You see, it depends on the way you make use of his powers in you, but all the ways you may want to apply must be pure because everything you sow, you shall reap, meaning that whichever way you may go towards achieving things has its own repercussion. And nothing you do on earth that you will not get its reward. So it is better to choose the clean, pure and God- approves ways of doing things to achieve anything in life because as for me, I have maintained the positive ways of new things into his life at the point he was coming to earth before he is formed in character. These two, the past and the present would now mold themselves together to form his destiny. That is, you have some things that must happen to you because of your past reincarnation, I have some things that must happen to me because of my past reincarnation.
When you were in your mother’s womb, what your mother was saying, the environment she was living in, what your father was saying to your mother up till the time you grow up and become the person of your own mind, you have the society which you live at present, so the past and the present would combine to give you your destiny.
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