Traditionalist expresses concern about public display of Alaafin’s corpse

Oba Adetoyese Olakisan, a traditionalist, has said that the public display of the corpse of late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, was totally wrong and should not have happened.

He expressed concern about the death in succession of many prominent traditional rulers in Yorubaland.

Olakisan, who is Oluaye Oba Ogboni Agbaye, stated that the monarch was neither installed in church nor in a mosque, but was made an Oba through traditional procedures, then the same should have been adopted for his burial to avoid evil repercussions.

He warned against surrendering Yoruba traditional religion to the domination of foreign religions to avoid negative aftermath.

“During the installation of the Oba, he was not installed in church or mosque. A process was followed before his installation. How his corpse was displayed outside during a prayer session by some Islamic clerics is against the tradition. It is a taboo.

“So many Obas are passing on. These are Obas that were installed in a proper Yoruba way. These monarchs that died were not too old to remain alive. They are Obas. They should live long.

“We have allowed foreign religion to dominate our own traditional religion. We didn’t start as Muslim or Christian. We all started as traditionalists. We should return to our traditional ways of handling certain situations,” Olakisan concluded.