Ooni, God and Worship (1)

The Ooni of Ife; Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi (Ojaja II) recently sparked a controversy during his installation thanksgiving held at St Paul’s Anglican Church, Ile Ife. Ile Ife is in the Osun State of Nigeria. He bowed down to the Almighty; the God of Israel in worship. Since then, critics of him have been angry that the traditional ruler knelt down to worship God in the church service. They claim that the act desecrated Ooni’s revered stool. But thank God, the revered monarch has responded appropriately by telling them that no king or ruler on earth can compare with the creator. wow! This is encouraging news.

In his words, “it was an unacceptable sacrilege to equate Ooni’risa or any other king with God Almighty. God is the creator of humanity and it is God who makes possible the enthronement of any king. God is still the supreme KING. of kings who has kept all kings alive and has made it possible for me to be crowned the source king of Yoruba civilization. I do not regret at all kneeling to exalt the almighty God who not only created me but also kept me. he saw me alive, he saw me through all the storms in my life’s journey and finally crowned me as the custodian of the Oodua race. This act of equating me with the God of gods, the King of kings, and the sole owner of the universe is an evil sacrilege planned to shame the throne. My emergence as Oba has been possible only because of the almighty Olodumare to whom I am eternally grateful.” Great! Well said our king!

. Now naturally, as a student of divine power, I was immediately interested after seeing this report. Ooni of Ife is the most respected monarch in Yoruba land and one of them in Nigeria. He is the custodian of Yoruba culture and traditions. And mastery of it is considered as the beginning of the existence and civilization of the race. They call it the ‘source’. Yes, the source of Yoruba existence. The Yorubas who have a population of over fifty million practically ‘worship’ their rulers. They believe they are divine. And for a king with this kind of background and influence to publicly acknowledge and promote the existence, supremacy, authority, and worship of the God of Israel is quite commendable. Not many rulers and influential people reason this way. Some don’t really acknowledge that there is a creator at all. They believe that they are not responsible to anyone and that they can ‘do and undo’.

Even if they don’t say it, you see them perform. How do you feel when people in authority want to be adored? When do they behave as if they have the power of life and death? When do they treat their subjects like conquered slaves? When do they appropriate the wealth of the people for themselves? When did they appropriate the titles of God for their names? Have you not heard some of them reply to His Majesty, His Imperial Majesty, His Royal Majesty, His Excellency, The Lord, His Excellency, His Excellency? They fight with you when they don’t get this recognition. They yearn for them with all their soul. Real. And these are the mortal mothers who are subject to disease, death, and decay. Listen, no mortal is or will be God. There is only one God, creator of heaven and earth and controller of the universe. and his name is Jehovah. Yes!

Now Ooni’s actions remind me of some great, powerful and influential rulers in the Bible. But due to space, we will discuss only four of them. Two recognized the Almighty and were exalted and the other two questioned his authority and were also adequately compensated. We are talking about Kings David, Solomon, Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh of Egypt. Each had an encounter with the creator that would make or break them. Compliments of the season!

Gabriel is the author of the book The Power of Midnight Prayer.