Isese Day, MURIC, and other Religious Matters

The traditionalists in Yorubaland should be savouring the fruits of democracy by now. They marked the Isese Day on Wednesday, 20th August, 2025. They had been long marginalized, so they thought, by the two dominant religions in Nigeria. No doubt, the traditionalists are religious minority group in any state in Nigeria. Though the Yoruba states are at the forefront of championing the Isese cause, I don’t think there is any Nigerian state that does not have a fraction of traditionalists. 

For readers who might not know who traditionalists or Isese people are, they are individuals or groups who believe in a complex pantheon of deities. Many traditional worshippers are essentially pantheists who believe in pantheism. Pantheism is a philosophical and religious belief that equates the universe with God or claims that divine reality is identical with the universe. To the traditionalists, anything and everything is god or could be god. In essence, in traditional religious thought, gods are uncountable. 

That is why objects of worship for traditional worshippers can vary from from place to place. They do not have  unified object(s) of worship. It depends on what their ancestors handed over to them. Some worship sun, moon, thunder, river, mountain, fire, etc. They invoke different gods according to their needs. Some would have their gods (idols) made from woods or rocks which they would afterwards worship. Though this might sound stupid to reasonable people, it is religion anyway. And adherents have the rights to worship what they create.

Even Satan—the senior king of devils—is revered and would be eulogized as a form of appeasement when there is a need to do so. Animals are not spared too; they are objects of worship. It depends on place and time, cows are gods in some regions. Trees are worshipped, ghosts are gods, even female genitalia are temples of gods (I mean they are gods in their own right). All the aforementioned are believed to have spirits inhabiting them and those spirits could be invoked and worshipped.

All these do not need to make sense to those of us that do not worship idols. The point is that it makes sense to those that worship them and because there is element of worship in it, it is religion. But how sensible, reasonable, and sane is the sense that makes sense out of these objects as objects of worships? My focus in this column is not to answer this question. My focus is on Muslim Rights Concern MURIC and other religious matters.

It is no news any more that public holiday for traditional worshippers has been added to the long list of holidays in some states in Nigeria. It was Osun State (or the State of Osun) under the governorship of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola that started it. That was in 2013. It was followed by Ogun State in 2023. Lagos and Oyo have joined the league. Other states will possibly join. This is democracy at play. Except where extreme secularism is blended with a democratic system of government, democracy itself is pantheistic. Although the federal government has not given it any recognition, the traditionalists are making frantic moves for federal recognition. it would not be surprising if, by next year, a nationwide public holiday is declared by President Tinubu to celebrate Isese Festival.

I don’t worship idols because the humanity in me (being human) has elevated me to see myself as the most honored among all creatures. If idols are living things or beings, they should rather be subservient to me and to anyone that has thinking faculty. Not the other way round. So, no one should think I am holding brief for idol worshippers. 

Having made this clarification, I am of the opinion that the Lagos State Government did well for the declaration of Isese public holiday. We all know the role the juju people played during the gubernatorial election in Lagos through their Oro rituals when it dawned on the political and traditional rulers in the State that the “Obidients” were about to sweep Lagos—having defeated Tinubu in the presidential election. On this, I wrote an article titled “Kano Thugs, Lagos Thugs, and the Threat of thuggery to Nigerian democracy.” This is the time to settle them. In addition, Nigerian witches and wizards, of recent, have been pitching their tents in support of some political office seekers. They were solidly behind Tinubu when he needed them most during the 2023 presidential election. They even sent strong warnings to those who opposed President Tinubu. 

The above aside, Nigerian traditionalists are Nigerian citizens who deserve special days recognized by government like Muslims and Christians. This reality and the realization of the reality is well captured by the man in charge of MURIC, Prof. Ishaq Akintola. Akintola understands this reality and beautifully captures it thus: “This demand is just, legitimate and constitutional. In so far as the other two religions enjoy the right, traditionalists also deserve it. Therefore, we have no objection to their demand.” The MURIC man spoke well like one that truly understands the  pantheistic nature of democracy.

But here is a point to ponder on, and the MURIC man is right again. He says, after expressing his public holiday support for the Isese people:”But the support came with a conditionality, namely, that traditionalists must also respect the rights of others by putting a stop to the declaration of illegal curfews, restricting the movements of others, violation of the rights of women and the secret killing of human beings for ritual sacrifice.” This caveat is very important. If not in Nigerian chaotic democracy where everything goes, how can a small group of Isese people restrict people’s movement because of their religious rituals? Isn’t this nonsense? 

But the Muslims and Christians are also culprits, though to a lesser degree. It is not unusual to see major roads being blocked on Friday and Sunday because of Jumua’t service and Sunday worship. Where is sense in this? How can we claim to be socially responsible? Which moral right can we claim to criticize the Isese people for restricting movement during their religious observance? And where is the godliness in this ungodly behavior of churches and mosques blocking major roads during their holy ghost service. A good example is the discomfort “the men and women of God” of the Redeemed Christian Church of God’s used to cause to users of Lagos-Ibadan expressway. It has been long since I plied that expressway, I don’t know if that nonsense still goes on. 

The only difference—which is of course an ugly and a dangerous difference—is that the Isese people’s movement restrictions have taboos and fetishisms attached to them. Anyone who violates the restriction—knowingly or unknowingly—might become a sacrificial lamb to appease their bloodsucking gods. Such a person might be stricken by the god of fire, god of thunder or any of their gods that urgently needs to suck human blood.

That was why MURIC cautioned, “If the adherents of Isese religion (also known as traditionalists) demand the recognition or enforcement of their rights, they must first recognize and respect the rights of others.” 

MURIC further warned: “They [Isese people] must remove all the skeletons in their cupboards. They have come to equity. They must come with clean hands…there shall be no more illegal curfews, no more unlawful restrictions of people’s movements particularly during Oro festivals, no more infractions on the rights of women, no more public flogging of innocent Nigerians by masquerades, no more killing of humans for ritual sacrifices, etc.”

May I seize this opportunity to implore the Muslim-Muslim government of President Tinubu to meet some of MURIC’s democratic demands. After all, MURIC is a quintessential champion of the the Muslim-Muslim political campaign. In the spirit of democracy and rewarding MURIC, Shari’a should be declared in all Yoruba states for those who are willing to be ruled by it. Friday should be free working day for Muslims like Sunday is for Christians. Tuesday might be made free working day for traditionalists. Agnostics and atheists may also have Wednesday. Civil servants might have only one or two days to work in a week. This will go a long way to help civil servants save a large fraction of their salaries which they spend on transportation. 

Let’s have enough public holidays, all in the spirit of democratic, to make every religious group feel important. When too many holidays finally destroy the economy, we can have a roundtable discussion on the way forward.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen 

salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com