By Suyi Ayodele

Can a stranger in one’s kitchen chase away the owner of the house?

I answer with a resounding YES!

History is replete with instances where strangers take over the homesteads of their hosts. The wisest of humanity ever, Orunmila, on three different occasions lost his home to the strangers he took home; some out of pity and the others as apprentices.

The West has different laws to describe situations that society cannot explain. In our elementary Economics class, we were taught that the French economist, Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, first propounded the Laws of Diminishing Returns before the duo of David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus expanded it, and made it popular.

In Chemistry, they have Charles’ Law on Volume, which states that “the volume of a given mass of gas is directly proportional to its absolute temperature when pressure is kept constant.” And in Physics, there are Newton’s three Laws of Motion, with the first one stating that “an object stays at rest or keeps moving at a constant speed in a straight line unless an outside force pushes or pulls it.”

In the Yoruba worldview, there is a constant law that guides the relationship between the Onílé (host or owner of the house) and the Àlejò or Àjèjì (stranger or wayfarer). The law is well established in the Ifa Corpus (Odu Ifa) known as Òkàràn Méjì but specifically in the seventh Verse (Ese Ifá) of the Odù known as Òkàràn Wónrín or Òwónrín. The cognomen for this Ese Ifá says: Onílé ló l’ààrè, Àjèjì ò m’esè ilé é tò, adíá fún Òkàràn Àjàgbulè.

This Ese Ifá simply establishes the legal basis between the Onílé and the Àlejò or Àjèjì. And it gives no ambiguity that any legal expert can capitalise on to give the home to the stranger at the expense of the host. It states, in its cognomen, that only the Onílé should be recognised in dispute because the Àlejò or Àjèjì does not know all the paths within the compound.

The above Ese Ifá was what Òrúnmìlà’s third diviner, Akóòkól’úléjeun (the-stranger-who-must-leave-for-the-house-owner-to-eat), prepared for Àgbonìrègún when he almost lost his homestead to the strangers he took in. The beautiful thing about the three instances is that Baba Àgbonìrègún triumphed over the betrayers who would have changed Ifá’s destiny for life.

This is why, no matter how knowledgeable a Babaláwo is, he must also consult the three principal Babaláwos: Ojú (Eye), Ahinhun (the-one-who-sleeps-deeply-but-does-not snore) and Akóòkól’úléjeun. Without that ancient wisdom, no diviner can be successful in any divination ministry because the three principalities hold the copyright to a successful divination.

We shall revisit the applications of this ancient Ifa wisdom to the topic of today, presently.

There are 31 governors in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Today, the 31 of them who go by the appellation, Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), are having their political progress threatened by a one-man hurricane, Nyesom Wike, the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Like every Àlejò or Àjèjì who must chase the house owner out of his abode, Wike is not a member of the APC. As a matter of fact, no one can specifically state which political party the former governor of Rivers State belongs to. His old Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is fragmented like the gonopods of a millipede.

Again, in the political firmament, Wike’s directives vibrate like the sound of a dane gun, covering every inch of the forest. He has men, who do his biddings, in virtually all the political parties in the country. He told us all that the APC lost the recent Osun State governorship election because President Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not commission him to lead the charge against Osun! Governor Ademola Adeleke has Tinubu to thank for that. Phew!

He reiterated that invincibility when he lampooned the 31-member PGF, who all went to Osun State but came back with nothing. Today, Wike controls a group he tags Rainbow Coalition. He has a strange definition for what the Coalition will do in the January 2027 election.

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According to the stranger in the APC home who is holding the hands of his landlords from partaking of the sumptuous meal set before them in their homes, Wike said Rainbow Coalition would support ONLY President Tinubu in the 2017 election. In the other polls, the APC’s senatorial, House of Representatives and Houses of Assembly candidates would have the Coalition’s candidates to contend with!

That arrangement is what is making the APC leaders, particularly the 31 governors, to be on the verge of internal bleeding. They argued, and reasonably too, that such an arrangement would spell doom for the party. Unfortunately for them, the man behind the Rainbow Coalition appears to be stronger than the 31 APC governors put together! This is the dilemma of the PGF.

How did the APC governors and other leaders of the ruling party find themselves in this situation? How come the one who walked casually into their homestead is the one calling the shots? Why is the Yoruba law Onílé ló l’ààrè, Àjèjì ò m’esè ilé é tò, adíá fún Òkàràn Àjàgbulèlo the guiding principle in the relationship between Onílé and Àlejò or Àjèjì, not holding water in this circumstance?

To answer these troubling questions, we need to find what those before us said about the situation that the 31 APC governors have found themselves in. A child who fails to learn from the wisdom of the elders, it is said, will fail in life.

To begin with, the elders of my place say that before a man marries a woman with a hunchback, he must first map out the method (s) he will adopt to be able to sleep with her. So, if I may ask, what were the rules of engagement for a convenient benevolence between the hunchback wife, Wike, and the husband-cum concubine, APC? What conditions did the APC governors, as leaders of the party in their various states, set before Wike was allowed to ruin the PDP for the APC in 2023?

If the APC governors had no conditions then, or not privy to any, would it be right for them to start to set new conditions for the stranger in their mansion now? If the FCT ministerial slot is one of the ‘choicest’ and Wike got it as ‘compensation’ for the 2023 job, does that not tell the 31-governors that the one who is Wike’s appointing authority, President Tinubu, is the one who knows what he values in the Rivers man?

There is no denying the fact that Wike has no iota of respect for the APC governors. Many Nigerians equally don’t have too! If we stretch it further, Wike appears not to have respect for anybody, including Tinubu himself! Yes, Tinubu! My argument:

If Wike respects President Tinubu, there is no way the FCT Minister will be this contemptuous of the APC governors the way he carries on! The minister cannot claim to respect the President but despise or hold the President’s friends in low esteem; that does not appear logical! It is not for fun that the elders say: if you love me, you must equally love my dog. Why? When you know and love the owner of a dog, you don’t beat the dog mercilessly (a kìí mo alájá, ká n’ífê alájá ká tún wá si ajá è nà)!

Or maybe, there is something hidden between Tinubu and Wike that mere mortals like the APC governors are not aware of. Otherwise, the President, by now, ought to have called his minister to order. Wike, no matter how powerful he is today, can only be at one polling unit on the day of the election. So, where is his sense of ubiquity coming from? Why is President Tinubu looking the other way while Wike rubbishes every other person in the APC? Why does Wike have his way every time?

Is Wike not becoming more powerful than the President himself, gradually? How many times did Tinubu intervene in the Rivers State crisis? Where is Governor Siminalayi Fubara today? Even after Fubara joined the President’s party, did he have peace? Where were the remaining 30 APC governors when Wike forced Fubara to drop out of the 2027 governorship race? Yet, Wike is not a member of the APC! Honesty, in the words of Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State, I say: “Sorry, it’s confusing me.”

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Agreed, the minister succeeded in crippling the PDP for the APC. But is there no danger in that itself? What do our elders say about a dog, which after eating its own puppies, is asked to guard a corpse? What do they say about the woman who steps on her own wrapper not having any qualms in setting another woman’s own on fire? If Wike destroyed the PDP for Tinubu’s APC, who told the President that he and his party cannot suffer the same fate? Is that not the genuine fear the APC governors are expressing?

So, what can the 31 APC governors do in the present situation? How do they solve the Wike’s riddle so that the lyrics of the music of yore by the late Ekiti ethno-Juju music maestro, Chief Elemure Ogunyemi, to wit: Olúlé há lo ha kà’lejò (the owner of the house will vacate it for the stranger), ‘will not be fulfilled in their lives?’ I don’t have an immediate answer for the troubled APC governors. I only know what the Wise One did when confronted with a similar situation.

Years ago, Orunmila travelled outside his Òkè Ìgètì area of Ilé-Ifè on a divination mission. Along the way, he met a man, who was denied the throne of his father. Ifá asked the man why he was not made the king of his lineage. The stranger responded that his people did not trust him because of his belligerent nature. The stranger added that he was labelled subversive, and a slanderer. Hence, his crown was given to another person.

Òrúnmìlà had compassion on him. Despite the warning by his three Babalawos not to assist a stranger rejected by his people while on that divination expedition, Òrúnmìlà took in the wayfarer as part of his team on the mission.

When he returned home, he asked the stranger to stay in one of the rooms close to the entrance of the house. That made it possible for the stranger to be the first point of contact to whoever visited Òrúnmìlà.

Character is like smoke, say our elders. Not too long, the stranger began to manifest his true character. When divination clients showed up, the stranger would either divine for them or simply tell them how badly Òrúnmìlà had treated the clients who came earlier. Then he would take from the sacrificial items earlier brought by other clients and give to the new ones as gifts.

The stranger became popular. People loved him because of his ‘generosity’. And he was equally a fearless man and a great talker. Before long, Òrúnmìlà began to lose popularity among the people. And one day, after an encounter with the stranger, the people teamed up with the stranger and Òrúnmìlà was chased out of his home.

It was then reality dawned on Ifá. He remembered what Ojú (Eye), Ahinhun (the-one-who-sleeps-deeply-but-does-not snore) and Akóòkól’úléjeun told him about bringing a belligerent stranger to his home. A man whom his people considered subversive cannot be loyal to someone who is not even his blood relation.

Òrúnmìlà ran back to his diviners. Akóòkól’úléjeun, the legend says, made the final divination that day. Òrúnmìlà provided all the items for sacrifice. Done, the sacrifice pot was placed at oríta méta, where Èsù lives. In the evening, Èsù came out and saw the sacrifice.

Among the items were 16 canes. The deity picked the canes and headed to Òrúnmìlà’s house. There, Èsù gave the canes to the 16 sons of Òrúnmìlà. He instructed them to flog whoever tried to cause trouble in the house.

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Shortly after Èsù left, the stranger came with his trade. As he started another domestic conflict, Èjì Ogbè came out with his 15 other brothers. They used the canes generously on the stranger. When he could no longer bear the pain, the stranger ran out of Òrúnmìlà’s house, carrying nothing. Thus, peace was restored and the owner of the house could drink water and keep cup again.

Are there lessons for the APC governors here? I don’t know who their diviners are. But they must know that until Òrúnmìlà realised there was a problem, his house was in disarray and his children at the mercy of the stranger. Who is the APC governors’ Òrúnmìlà?

Yet another of Òrúnmìlà’s encounters with a stranger he helped.

One of the stories of the third Odù Ifá, Ìwòrì Méjì, says that the divination object known as Òpèlè, used to be a human being at the beginning of creation. As a young man, Òpèlè (Divination Chain), was smart and very inquisitive.

Òrúnmìlà noticed the virtues in the young man and took him in as an apprentice. But before he signed on Òpèlè, the chief diviner asked his three personal diviners what Ifá would have him do. The Odù that came warned Òrúnmìlà not to teach Òpèlè all the secrets of Ifá. The warning birthed the saying of the elders thus: Ìwòn ba laa kó aàjèjì ní ìmò; bó bá mo lâ mò jù, ebi ní fii pa Baba Awo rè (you don’t teach a stranger all the secret of Wisdom-Ifá- because when he becomes too knowledgeable, he afflicts his trainer Babalawo with hunger).

Within months of Òpèlè in Òrúnmìlà’s school of divination, the young man had mastered the trade very well. Òrúnmìlà’s confidence in Òpèlè beclouded his reasoning. Àgbonìrègún forgot the warning and allowed Òpèlè to attend to big clients, including kings!

As the months went by, clients started going to Òpèlè instead of Òrúnmìlà. Some even reasoned that the young man was better than Òrúnmìlà himself. The dearth of divination clients meant hunger. Òrúnmìlà began to lose his source of income. His family began to suffer, while Òpèlè began to thrive in his house.

Then, Òrúnmìlà remembered his Babalawos. He ran to them for help. He made the necessary sacrifice. Èsù, again, accepted the items. He asked what Òrúnmìlà would have him do to Òpèlè. That is where Ifá displayed uncommon wisdom.

Orunmila reasoned that since Òpèlè knew all the Odù Mérìndínlógún (the 16 Ifa Corpus) very well, there was no need to send him packing. Ifá argued that doing so, Òpèlè would simply establish a divination company and all clients would go to him and Òrúnmìlà and his household would be in ruins.

So, he asked Èsù to turn Òpèlè to a divination object. Instantly, Òkiri òkò, kiri abé (the one who hawks stone and hawks his masculine organ), Èsù, stretched his Àse (so-shall-it-be) wand towards Òpèlè. The latter immediately turned to a divination chain. Òrúnmìlà picked it and named it Òpèlè. It is said among the wise thus: Eni gbó’Fá ju Ifá la fií dí’Fá (the one who claims to be wiser that Ifá is the one we used for divination).

Let it be on record: I have not told the APC governors anything here! I am just one person and they are 31 powerful governors. When they get to their closets, let them think. The elders of my place say: a man’s swaddle cannot suffocate a town, but a town’s swaddle can suffocate a man (òjá enìkan kìí ká ìlú, òjá ìlú ló ńká t’enìkan). I believe them; the wise men of my place!