By Suyi Ayodele

Does Ifa, the spiritual divination system in Yoruba religion, know everything? Is there anything hidden from Baba Àgbonnìrègún? Why, for instance, is one of Ifa’s cognomens is: He who sees the outer and the inner man, who deciphers a man’s inner thoughts (Arínú róde, olùmòràn okàn)? Can the short man of Igbeti hill (Okùnrin kúkúrú Òkè Ìgbètì) forget to tell his clients all that is to know? Before I state why I raised the above posers, let me quickly attempt an answer from a personal experience.

This story is a true-life account from a narrator-as-a-participant point of view. My late father unravelled the riddle for me in the presence of his half brother and childhood friend. In my place, when a child says this is what I heard from my father, nobody doubts him! Here is the story.

I have a childhood friend from the neighbouring town. We used to go to his place to play occasionally. His mother was a beautiful old woman. At least, one could say that in her younger days, the mama must have been a damsel. The old woman had a practice. Each time we came around her house, she would single me out, chant my family praise names, and at our departure, wrap some dry fish and ask me to give it to my mother to cook for my father.

On each occasion I delivered the message to my mother, I would ask if the mama was one of our relations. The usual answer from my mother was: “I am not a member of your father’s family; how would I know all your relations?” I allowed it to pass until one day, when we visited our friend, and his mother acted differently.

On seeing me, she asked me to sit on her lap and she began to chant my family praise names. She became emotional and mentioned some cognomens that are esoteric and reserved for only inner members of the family. My head swelled. Then she praised my father to the high heavens and told me how good he was as a man. While leaving her house, she gave me virtually all the ingredients that would make a good pot of soup and added six big dry fish to be delivered to my mother.

Getting home, I delivered the message and asked my mother the usual question about our relationship with the old woman. I refused to accept the usual answer from her and I told her the praise names the mama mentioned while chanting our family praises. Then I told my mother: “Maami, you cannot tell me that you don’t know who this mama is.” My mother noticed that I was serious and that I would not be swayed by her default response of not being my father’s family member. Then she said: “It is ok. When a child wants to know who his relatives are, he asks his father”, pointing towards my father’s room to go and ask him.

I went to Baba and told him what happened. All the time the mama used to give me fish for my mother, I used to tell my father too and his response would be if i thanked the mama enough. So, when I relayed that last encounter, and asked who the mama was to her to know those esoteric praise names, and her good account of my father’s personality, my father said that he would tell me what I wanted to know. but first, he asked me to go and call his half brother and his childhood friend.

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When the two old men arrived, my father told me the story behind the old woman. For 17 years, my father said that the mama was married to him. But for those almost two decades, there was no child between them. They did all they could, nothing happened. Then, one day, the husband and wife decided to go and consult the oracle again. My father said that he had two Babalawos in mind: his elder brother, Baba Falade, and the second, his father-in-law, Baba Fagbewesa, the then Alamoeku (chief diviner) of Ikoyi Ekiti. The two were the best of their era.

First, they headed to Baba Fagbewesa’s house. My father said that on getting to the old diviner, he was busy on the divination mat. As soon as the husband and wife stepped in, Baba Fagbewesa was said to have stopped the Odu Ifa narration for the consulting client, looked at the couple, thanked Ifa and said: “Ifá ni Ifá hí tò” (a divination follows another). Without casting his Òpèlè, Baba Fagbewesa said that the Odu he was narrating was also applicable to my father and his wife. Ifá, the diviner announced, said that the woman was gifted only one male child in her lifetime. Not only that, but Ifá also said that the only male child would be fathered by someone who knows how to add two to three (eni tó mo bí ase lè mú eéjì kún eéta). In essence, only a diviner, or someone knowledgeable would be able to put the woman in the family way. Baba Fagbewesa dismissed them and continued with his divination.

Leaving Baba Fagbewesa’s house, my father said that he and his wife rode on his bicycle and headed for his elder brother, Baba Falade’s house, to ask for confirmation. The same scenario occurred in Baba Falade’s place, who was also on a divination course for a client. My father said that as soon as he entered with his then wife, Baba Falade stopped in his tracks, praised his Ifa to high heavens and told them this: “Òrò riín gbe’bo, é gbo’gìgùn (Your case requires no sacrifice, needs no charm). Omo kan soso gíro l’Èdùmàrè jogún hun oyà re (It is only one child that the Creator bequeathed to your wife). Honi káa s’uba omo hun, á mo dídá, á mo kíkó (And he who will father that child must know how to cast and how to pack that which he cast).”

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The couple left for home and at home, my father said that he called the two people whom he asked me to call to witness the narration, which transpired. They took counsel and agreed that the mama would be released to fulfil motherhood somewhere else. Initially, the woman resisted. But one day, an itinerant diviner spotted her and asked her for a date. She responded that she was married. The lover-man said that Ifá told him that she would be his wife. Mama came back home to tell my father what happened. My father said that he reminded her of what Ifá said previously and asked if she wanted to die childless.

To remove any shame of promiscuity, the two agreed to divorce. Months later, mama moved in with the itinerant diviner. She did not miss that month when the foetus of joy kicked in her womb.
That produced my friend, the only child the mama had all her life! So, each time the mama saw me, she used to remember the kindness of my father in releasing her to find fulfilment in life. My father said that he could not have done otherwise because Ifa confirmed that only an esoteric could make the mama a real woman. Now I ask again: Is there anything hidden from Baba Àgbonnìrègún, Ifá?

Why this poser and the ones at the introductory paragraph? Last Friday, January 10, 2025, Oyo State Government announced Prince Akeem Owoade as the new Aláàfin of Oyo-elect. The state government said that its announcement was final. Hours after the announcement, an audio went viral. In the audio, the Àwíse Àgbáyé (Chief diviner worldwide), Professor Wande Abimbola, spoke about the circumstances surrounding the selection of Prince Owoade as Aláàfin-designate.

The former Vice-Chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, said that following the near impasse that characterised the selection of another Ikú Bàbá Yèyé for Oyo, he was contacted by Governor Seyi Makinde to use Ifá divination to select a new Aláàfin. He added that he travelled down from his US base to Oyo, and spent 10 days on the divination mat, asking Ifá about all the eligible princes. Ifá, he added, picked Owoade and the report, 21 pages, was put together by the Òyìbó wife of the Àwíse and sent to the governor.

My curiosity arose when Baba Abimbola said that almost a year after submitting the report, Governor Makinde called again to ask for another Ifá divination to select two alternatives to the first choice by Ifá. The renowned Babalawo said that that could probably be to avoid a situation where, after investigation on the character of the initial choice, there were found some blemishes on his personality! I was alarmed that Àwíse Àgbáyé could express that line of argument after Ifá had made a choice among many princes presented for divination!

Like Baba Abimbola said, nobody has ever questioned his integrity in all the positions he has held in academics and politics. The hallmark of a Babalawo is truthfulness. Asking the Àwíse Àgbáyé to consult Ifá on the all-important matter of Aláàfin is the right choice. But I am worried that when Governor Makinde asked for a second divination, he did not lecture the governor that Ifá kìí paró (Ifá does not lie), Òpèlè kìí s’èké (Òpèlè does not play tricks), and insisted that there would be no second divination.

I am shocked that Baba did not insist that Ifá is Elérìí Ìpín (the one who witnesses destiny), and as such, knows the destiny of Owoade right from his conception, and that Ifá would not in any way make the mistake of choosing a picaro as the Aláàfin! I am not a Babalawo, but I know that Baba Abimbola knows that no matter what anyone might have done in the secret, Ifá has the capacity to reveal it as contained in the common refrain by Babalawos that “ìtànsán oòrùn yí ó fi ó hán (the breaking of the sun will reveal you)!

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My second problem with the selection process is the fact that it was the governor, and not the Òyómèsì (Oyo kingmakers), who consulted the Àwíse Àgbáyé for divination. In that audio, the Àwíse asked all Yoruba to stick to the culture of the race. One of the cultures of the race pertaining to the selection of an oba is that the kingmakers are the ones who do the selection through the guidance of Ifá.

Oluwasegun Oladosu and Ajayi Adetokunbo Olaiya, in the paper: “Kingship and Integrity in Yoruba Traditional Society” (Nigerian Journal of Christian Studies / Vol. 4 No. 2 (2021), page 173), affirm this position when they posit that: “While the choice of the king could rotate among the ruling houses, some towns or cities do not have that privilege. Rather than praying and fasting over who becomes the next Oba, these communities go spiritual by invoking the Ifá to tell them the candidates for the Kingship. Those communities still believe it is better to keep it real by consulting Orunmila to protect the tradition of the land. In the ancient town of Oyo, choosing the Aláàfin requires its unique process of enquiring from Òrúnmìlà likewise in Ile-Ife. This enables the Òyómèsì, the kingmakers, to make ‘the right choice’….”

The question begging for answer here is: who were the Òyómèsì present when Àwíse Àgbáyé made the divination for Governor Makinde? Did they include the five living Òyómèsì, or were those accused of taking bribes from one of the candidates excluded and the number made up by the government-appointed Òyómèsì? Would Ifá tolerate this abnormality?

Since the passing of Aláàfin Lamidi Adeyemi III on April 22, 2022, this would be my third piece on the ancient throne of Oyo. In the two previous articles: “Aláàfin: Message to Òyómèsì, Makinde”, published on April 26, 2022, and “Aláàfin Stool: Putting culture to the sword?”, published on September 26, 2023, I expressed the fear that once the Yoruba race got the selection of Aláàfin wrong, there would be nothing left for the race.

The happening in Oyo is disturbing. Nobody doubts the power of the state governors to appoint, suspend and depose obas in the race. Our Yoruba governors are now Ifá priests who select Oba for the race. That position I canvassed in the piece: “Yoruba Governors are Ifá Priests”, published on June 20, 2023. The danger of the new civilisation is that very soon, an average Yoruba child may not know what is sacrilegious and what is the normal thing. The Timi of Ede, Oba Munirudeen Adesola Lawal, demonstrated that sacrilege when he was spotted in a recent viral video on his knees in homage to the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Sulu Gambari!

The Oyo State Government has confirmed the choice of Prince Akeem Owoade as Aláàfin-by giving him his staff of office by Governor Makinde and Oba Owoade entered Oyo town on Monday in grand style! All Oyo sons and daughter, nay, the entire Yorubaland, have no option than to accept the situation as it is now and hope that whatever might have happened, at the fullness of time, Ifá himself will allow the breaking of the sun to reveal all. We wish the Aláafin, Oba Owoade, a prosperous reign on the throne of his forebears. KABIYESI O!