Traditional religion worshippers on Sunday charged all Yoruba obas to emulate the departed Alaafin Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, to promote Yoruba traditional religion, the bases for their crowns.
Chief Adefabi Fadiran, Oyo State Chairman of Traditional Worshippers Association of Nigeria, gave the charge in Ibadan in a statement he issued.
He stated that the association condoled with the Oyomesi (Oyo traditional chiefs), Oloris, children of Oba Adeyemi, Sango devotees worldwide and all Oyo indigenes over the passing of the first class traditional ruler.
The traditionalists, however, condemned the open display of the late Alaafin’s corpse during the prayers session, stating that such action was against the tenets of traditional respect for a departed king.
They noted that while Oba Adeyemi was alive, he never minced words in condemning the open display of any Yoruba oba’s remains for any purpose.
“He even once went against an attempt by the Ogun State House of Assembly to alter the state’s burial procedure for departed obas.
“The alteration was to weaken the power of traditional religion and practitioners in taking the needed roles at the burial rites of an oba,’’ the statement read.
The association appreciated Sango devotees in Oyo town for tolerating the Muslim, and Christian worshippers for the initial prayers said “before taking over the last traditional rites’’.
“The maturity showed by the Sango worshippers would go into history as worthy of emulation.
“We ask all traditional worshippers to start different appeasements to smoothen the departed Alaafin’s transition to the great beyond.
“We send our condolences to the children, the Oloris, Oyo indigenes, Yorùbá land in general and most, especially to Ṣàngó devotees worldwide who have just lost one of them.
“In fact, Oba Adeyemi was a true devotee of Ṣango and that was why he joined the ancestors on Sango Worship Day,’’ Fadiran stressed.