Such has been written about the Soun of Ogbomoso and how he swapped his cassock for an Oba crown. I congratulate him, and even would celebrate with him if I knew him. What I cannot accept is the view that being an oba or traditional ruler is somehow in consonance with Christ. Not in my Bible. Traditional religion has its own glory, but it has no embrace with the Christian faith. Any pastor who claims it is pharisaic and a liar. Peter wrote about a royal priesthood. But the royalty of Christ does not rhyme with an earthly thrown. It is not about the Soun alone. It is all across the country. Our traditional crowns are not the Christian crown of righteousness. They come from ancestor worship. They pay obeisance to gods and spirits. Any rite it performs, its dances, its costumes, its chants, its food, et al, are rooted in a form of worship. We may coat it with linguistic finesse and say we went to school, and we have disavowed the gods. But they follow the same rites to enter the crown. The priests and queens of the palace gods still have their place. The faithful in the kingdoms still thrive. The king cannot banish them. Even if you build a church in the palace, you are only involved in compromise. Can two walk together unless they agree? Asked Prophet Amos. The witch of Endor could not invoke Prophet Samuel, only a semblance of his beard. Hence Paul said: “No wonder Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” The same Paul said: “Come out from among them and be ye separate.” It is not my place to say a person was called by Christ or not when he decides to put away the calling. Syncretism is part of our history, hence our cultures absorbed Islam and Christianity. Those who have read Fagunwa’s A Forest of a Thousand demons see the dynamic. If it is accepted that a Christian faith can work with a traditional crown, it is cultural triumph, not a mystical truth of the Christian scripture. It is like the conundrum from philosopher Nitzsche about “the Roman Caesar with a soul of Christ.”
NB: Sam Omatseye is a respected columnist with The Nation
