Ifa Priest: Jesus, Orunmila’re God’s messengers

Chief Adewale Adekunle is an Ifa priest and the chairman, Taskforce of Ifa Priests and Traditional Worshippers Association of Egba land, Ogun State. His focus is to identify and weed out bad eggs from the genuine ones. So far, he has recorded successes in weeding out half baked Ifa priests, fake ones and those without certificate of proficiency. In this interview with OLUWATOSIN OMONIYI-SOLANKE, Adewale speaks on what he believes is the true religion and the myth surrounding traditional religion-Isese.

Let us start with the question, what is tradition?
Tradition is something that has been in existence since. It is something created by God. So, when God the almighty, creator of heaven and earth and every other thing…Ifa, which is called ORUNMILA was created by GOD to the world and he brought all the tradition along and kept it all. Some of the traditions brought by Orunmila are Ogun, Sango, Obatala, Osun, Erinle, Omole, Igunu, Esu Odara and so many other deities. All of these deities were under Orunmila.
Ifa is something that is all over the world. There is nowhere in the world you won’t see Ifa, including the Western world. And there is no town created in Yoruba land in the world that doesn’t include Ifa especially at Abeokuta, where I reside. It was created with Ifa and the town fighting for religion now, which is called Ilorin; Ifa was consulted before it was named Ilorin. Before religion, including Islam came into existence, Ilorin had existed and tradition was always done there and did not stop from existing.
For clarification, like about 16 years ago from now, I had a customer from Ilorin who came for Ifa consultation. I did search and was told that a masquerade from his household is what he needed to appease but he said there’s nothing like that because they are all Muslim and there is nothing like masquerade.
I consulted Ifa again to know if we can help him appease the masquerade from another place but Ifa insisted that they needed to appease that particular masquerade from his linage.
So, I instructed him to go back to Ilorin to find out and he was told that truly, there is a masquerade but they don’t do it anymore. He was told that even the village housing the masquerade has been completely wiped off but the Masquerade shrine remained. As such, the necessary things to be given to the masquerade cannot be given again; access to the masquerade has become very difficult as bushes and weeds had filled everywhere. But that for the brave ones, who could be daring to go there to offer prayers, they get results for it. Everywhere leading to the place was filled with bush; only the masquerade house was clear of bushes and weeds. So, he asked, what could be done and was told to go to the place and request to be taken to the masquerade to appease it. It’s just that our people are ingrates because that person truly went to Ilorin to appease his family masquerade and suddenly, two days after, he got a call in his house, to become the national chairman of his union. I don’t want to mention the name of the union.

So how did Ilorin claim to be a Muslim town?
Not knowing the next line of action is their problem in Ilorin. In a Yoruba land, even up to the Hausa land, that takes Muslim religion so important, they have their traditions in different peculiarity. Now to make something clear, the Hausa people have more charms than the Yoruba in all forms. Take for instance; when kidnappers were taking their victims around, they used all sorts of charms to get away with the crime.
I maintain that the so called Ilorin that is known as a Yoruba land came through existence of Ifa. Ifa was also consulted before Lagos came into existence; same as Egba land and so many other Yoruba towns. Ifa is the number one tradition in the world even before the existence of any other religions.

What is the meaning of Orunmila?
Orunmila means only Heaven has the knowledge of who will succeed in the future. Those days, people do go to Orunmila to consult what their future looks like and they were usually told that it would be successful. But that was making the young people of those days becoming lazy. So, Orunmila stopped predicting people’s future and just tell them to go work, only Heaven knows what the future holds.
Orunmila is a messenger from God Almighty. He is known as a path way. He is not God. Orunmila is a child to a messenger of God, just like an eyeball of God. He is someone trusted by God among all deities that were created. Orunmila is the number one among all deities. All things Orunmila wants is what God wants also. The way God loves Orunmila after coming back to the earth, is beyond normal understanding. He wasn’t given birth to, by a human or dead before he went back to God. He called up to God that he should drop down the rope for him because he has done enough on earth and that if he remained among humans, he would turn to a sinner. He told God that he would do the remaining of his assignments from the heavenly place. That is why God is involved in all the things we do and we call unto, through Orunmila too.
Are you saying Jesus Christ and Orunmila are same? Christians believe that God sent his only son, Jesus Christ to the world.
There is a big difference. God did not give birth to any child but ESAN (Vengeance) is the only child of God. God repays all according to their deeds. So, there is no one that knows it all. Then Christianity has been in existence even before the birth of Jesus Christ. All written in the bible that Jesus is the son of God was written by some people but certainly not from God. If truly, it’s from God, why do we have New and Old Testaments? If it was God that did old and then people did new, that means God isn’t involved. If we take a look at all what is happening in Nigeria now, church is no longer about genuinely serving God but rather a business. There are no more companies. All we have now are churches everywhere. On a street, we can have hundreds of churches. Young men no longer take interest in working but engage in church activities to an unproductive level. They have all been brainwashed.

So, has creation of many churches made the traditional worshippers to become aggressive about their right and religion?
We, the traditional worshippers don’t involve ourselves in fight but Ifa itself stood up to proclaim its works because the traditional worshippers don’t cause trouble; they do not want unnecessary fights and drama. You cannot hear that a traditional worshipper is locked up in a prison yard because of a fight or that they involved in all sorts of illegal acts. The real place where love and truth stands, is in the traditional religion. Though, there are people that tell lies but they end up being disgraced. They can never be successful in life. So, I do tell people to patronise the real Ifa priest/worshippers. Most retired government workers now end up becoming traditional worshippers and Ifa priests. They have retired and become jobless and since they are still living, they start by picking up their fore fathers’ books of traditional practice and then start up something with that. Fortunately, for these of people, they have access to government workers. Hence, they prosper faster in the Isese practice.
But thank God, our kids too are becoming smart by going back to school up to the peak of education. Ifa is also revealing itself now, to the world and God is also proclaiming.
In this work, there are some who are not truthful but they will end up getting disgraced for their actions and they will turn miserable. But I do tell people to go to the real ones because there are real ones and fake ones too. Ifa doesn’t want pride and these other traditions are all from Ifa.

So, what is the difference between Jesus and Orunmila?
Orunmila is far from Jesus because Jesus came to the world through Orunmila.

No sir! Jesus came through the Holy Spirit.
I made people understand the fact that Mary did not conceive through the Holy Spirit. WORUGBOGBE, (Odu Ifa) made it known that Mary did not conceive through the Holy Spirit. Mary cried for a child and she was married to Joseph.
So, Mary has been in Joseph’s house for a long period of time. She was pregnant but there’s something called ‘hidden pregnancy’. It’s an ancient myth about pregnancy. The pregnancy was there but it was hidden. Nobody knew that Mary was pregnant. Angrily, Joseph took Mary to her household that he wasn’t interested in having Mary as his wife again, alleging that she wasn’t faithful to him. As such, he wasn’t responsible for her pregnancy. So, her parent took her to Orunmila, the ancient traditional religion for consultation. So, Orunmila, did the consultation and told them that she was already pregnant but the wicked ones held the pregnancy so it won’t develop. Then, he told them that they’ll have to do as the Ifa would instruct, which include eating some herbal concoction and appeasing the gods of the lands. The Ifa consultation assured the parents that, everyone responsible for her predicament will leave her and immediately she is done eating it, she should go to sleep and that she should not walk around so that they won’t get her the second time. Mary did as instructed and the pregnancy grew and they went back to Orunmila, who laughed and told them that God has answered her prayer and that she will give birth to a baby boy and the child will be a blessed and glorious child. And his glory will shine brighter than that of Orunmila and that all they needed to do was to consult Ifa immediately after his birth, so he can last long in this world. So, when they got home, they took Mary back to Joseph and told him his wife was pregnant but Joseph vehemently disagreed and said how come? He said he brought her back to her parents lamenting that she couldn’t conceive and now they brought her back to him that she was pregnant! How possible?! He asked if they expected him to accept the pregnancy. And because of this, everybody got to know about Mary’s pregnancy and wondered what sort of pregnancy that was. But Joseph was so much into Orunmila and believed him. Then, Orunmila sent two of his messengers to Joseph to tell him that he (Orunmila) was the one, who made the consultation and said that Mary was actually pregnant. Even before he took her back to her parents and she would give birth to a baby boy, who will be very glorious. Orunmila insisted that the pregnancy was his. But because of the shame of the earlier rejection of the pregnancy from Joseph, he then turned it to pregnancy of the Holy Spirit. After the birth of Jesus Christ, before they named him Jesus, they went back to Orunmila for enquiry as to the name to give him. Then, Orunmila said his mother’s name is Ewe because she ate leaves concoction before going to sleep. So ,you can call this child JEWESU, which was switched to Jesu. So, Orunmila said they should get two Doves and one Sheep to name the child. It was when Orunmila moved on with his work, everything became different. So, after Jesus’ birth, Mary was asked to always use one sheep to bear all her kids. Meaning, she would always sacrifice a sheep before giving birth to other siblings. But if they cannot do that, then Jesus won’t have siblings. Long story short, Jesus is not the son of God but God’s messenger! Vengeance is the only child of God.

But we use the Bible as Christians and it works for us…
To the glory of God, as long as you believe in something and your faith is attached to it, then it will definitely work out and if you do not have faith in it, also it won’t work and that’s why we don’t cast spell on any one but the two religions criticise the traditionalists. During all our sacrifices, we all call on same God even though differently and we are all prayer warriors. It was the same way the Holy Spirit led the Christians to write the bible that the same spirit led the traditionalists. If you can successfully write the bible in all language and then publish, you’ll turn to a mini God worshipped by everybody. Who was taking records of all these things done by God or was it God himself that came down to tell us how he did His things? We all heard all of these things through Ifa. Bible was written by people. Do you even know that we are both children of ‘Esu’ (SATAN) because in the bible, it is recorded that God created Adam and Eve. When he created them, then who did he tell that he will create them? Is it Angel that came down back to write the bible? Is it the spirit that came also? Adam and Eve gave birth to two kids- Cain and Abel.
Then, one day, God called them and instructed that they make a sacrifice to Him. Who was there when he told them to sacrifice something to him? After the sacrifice, God accepted that of Abel and rejected that of Cain. But God knew what is good and accepted the good sacrifice and rejected the bad ones. Cain decided to kill his brother because of jealousy. When Cain murdered Abel where was God?

God is a patient God sir…..
God was so patient till the extent he allowed Cain murder Abel, his brother and asked him why he killed his brother? What was God looking when he killed his brother Abel and why was he asking him after he killed his brother that why did He kill his brother? Then, Cain heard God’s voice and ran away. Where did he run to?

To his cousin’s place as the Bible made us to understand.
Where did the cousin come from? Meaning that some people were already existing as at that time and why are we now saying Adam and Eve were the first human created by God? All the gods already have family. And it was recorded that when Cain came back, he came back with a wife. Where did he see the wife from? It was even said that Cain’s generation is the black generation which means we are black and we are the generation of Cain. So, it means we are murderers, right?! Who are the white that wrote the bible? Did Abel give birth before he died? So, who gave birth to the white since we are called the black sheep’s and that our mind and heart are black?
My analysis means that there was nothing like Adam and Eve. We, the Yoruba are all children of all the gods/deities. Obatala gave birth to the white, both crippled and the disabled. That is why Obatala doesn’t eat palm oil and salt and same applies to the white and the Albinos. They do not eat palm oil and salt as well. Instead, more of vegetable oil, butter, cheese and so on.

If Jesus was born through Ifa consultation of Iworugbogbe, why was he not trained through the Ifa mythology?
Everyone’s purpose on earth is different and God’s plan for everybody is different. We are all on earth with different mission. For instance, out of the nine children by my father, I am the only one, who turned an Ifa priest but my father was also an Ifa priest. That is why we, traditionalists do not criticise people and stop people from doing what they want. Do whatever you choose to. But now, in this time when we allow kids to do whatever religion they want, they will come back to challenge their religion of orgin by condemning it and fighting the religion, which they grew up with and that is why we no longer accept our families to do another religion anymore. It is said in the bible by Jesus that he has come to this world to turn Father and child back against themselves. He said it that it’s not the father’s religion that saves the child which is a very bad thing and should not be like that. Jesus was wrong. In fact, Jesus got angry too and even uttered a curse. He did that when he got to the fig tree without fruit. He cursed the tree and till today, we are yet to hear where the tree bears fruit.
For instance too, Jesus met Judas, where he was observing some traditional rites with his friends and age grade (but not in the Bible) and sat with them, ate and celebrated with them. And his Disciples asked him why he was doing so with them and he said let us do with them so they can do with us too. Judas was not one of the Disciples of God but how Jesus preached to him, convinced him to become one of the Disciples. But some aged ones among the people refused to follow Jesus.
Okay, let me ask why do JEHOVAH WITNESS followers don’t go to church again? They go for meeting not service and if you see them and ask them to pray, they won’t. Why do Scripture Union (SU) not use earrings? Was it not in the same Bible, we heard that God created silver and gold for our own use? Is it that same God that asked us to stop using it? Did we turn it to God?
Why are the Celestial not putting on Church adherents now wear slippers? It’s personal doctrine that arose from Oshoffa’s leg, which didn’t have size in the market. They built all sorts of slippers for him but he could not wear it. That was the reason why he commanded all Celestials not to put on slippers while on their white garment because of his own condition. The leader of the SU, his wife pierced her ear from the top to the bottom of her ear but when she used the earrings, her ears would cut and same thing as necklace. When she used necklace, her neck would swell. That was the reason she commanded all ladies in the church not to use any jewelry and it was accepted. All we have in the bible now is the personal interests of people. Handmade bible is now much and we do not even know the Holy spirit filled Bible again. People now use the Bible and church as a business ventures.

How sir?
Jesus said it after he misled people, that they’ve all forgotten their destinies and glory. After he told people to remember the child of whom they are, he saw that they did not answer. Then, he used parables to tell them not to describe their father’s house with their left hands. But when pastors tell people that they should not go back to worship any other god, it become confusing…. In his words, he said that do not follow my paths but listen to the words of my mouth. If you know that your ways and paths are good, you would not tell your Disciples not to follow your ways. He said because he is not Holy too. He was just a messenger and not a leader.

So, what happened between Jesus and Judas?
The killing of the six traditional worshippers from Judas’ town made Judas to betray Jesus. That made them conspire against Jesus; that made Judas reveal who truly Jesus was and made it possible for them to get him. At time too, God was annoyed with Jesus. He, then, went ahead to ask for forgiveness but God did not answer and it was when he was coming back from where he went to pray that they got him because all his disciples were asleep. If truly God was the one that sent Jesus to kill those six traditional worshippers, then he should have come to his rescue. God did not destine us to be unfortunate. It has to do with how human bring misfortune to themselves. God did not forsake Jesus Christ at that time but His destiny and deeds at that time brought about the challenge to Him. The Muslim believe that anybody that doesn’t worship Mohammed cannot receive favour from God. Everybody is just trying to make their religion relevant but at the end of the day, Ifa will overcome all other religion.
10 years before now, traditional religion was not really relevant but 10 years from now, it will be more relevant.

What is the difference between traditional religion, Babalawo and Ifa?
Babalawo is the Ifa. Ifa is for all the world. We all pay tribute to Ifa through use of proverbs. All Yoruba generations are Ifa generation. ADAHUNSHE means a neutral person, who does not do Ifa or traditional medicine but only uses it for himself. He is just doing for himself alone. ONISEGUN gives remedy to sickness. BABALAWO consults the Ifa. He does whatever Ifa asks him to do.

What do you preach in your Orunmila Church?
All I preach is how to be successful in life and how to help people in the little way you can. For everything we do, there is a reward. Do not be wicked; do not wish people bad luck and misfortune.