FROM: THE NATION NEWSPAPER
http://thenationonlineng.net/new/monarchs-urged-to-respect-culture/

The president of Agbefaga of Yoruba Empire,Chief Fayemi Fakayode, has urged traditional rulers in Yorubaland to support traditional religion rather than giving it a bad name.

He said monarchs in the land are supposed to be agents of the traditionalists. but but this is not the case.

Fakayode, who spoke as a guest lecturer at this year Ifa festival of Masifa-Ile Traditional Religion Youth Movement in Osun State, said the traditional leaders are also contributing to the impression that those practise such religion will be destroyed.

Fakayode maintained that the unpopular nature of traditional religion is as a result of the fear created in the mind of the people that anyone who practises traditional religion will end up in hell.

He, therefore, called on the Yoruba traditional leaders to be an agent of change and promoter of their inheritance from their ancestors.

According to him, “the unpopular nature of traditional religion in Nigeria can be traced to the negative influence of the traditional rulers on the religion which is supposed to be their first choice. The other religious leaders are not also helping matters as they normally preach and implanted in the people the fear that whoever practises such traditional religion will go to hell fire.

“Kings in Yoruba land are representatives of what we believe (orisa) but they refused to follow the laid down procedure of tradition. The kings in the land are also supposed to be the custodians of tradition but, they have become agents of destruction of the religion.

“I therefore want to implore my fellow yoruba especially youths never to allow people to take away our inheritance and replace it with something else. I also want to tell you that the culture and the religion we see as taboo are what the Western world are learning in our universities. They noticed that there is a way in what we are doing and they are gradually joining us. Please let us all stand up and embrace the truth.