It is a common Yoruba
belief that any predicament that befalls any individual has a source and cause.
There is no predicament that afflicts a man without some source. This belief
gave origin to divinations and healing in Yoruba culture. Divination priests
(and now their pastor-counterparts and Muslim clerics) seek to understand the
source of a problem facing an individual and then proffer what they consider
the most appropriate solutions.
Yoruba belief has four
major categories of causes of a predicament:
Akoba, Afise, Afomo and Afowofa.
Of these four causes, two are externally induced, one is self-provoked and one
can be said to be accidental. Akoba can be roughly translated as being
set up by others deliberately or inadvertently to take the blame for an offence
not committed. Afise means a
deliberate attempt by others to induce predicament in the life of an
individual. Afomo implies getting
into a predicament for being at the wrong place at the wrong time or walking
into a predicament. Afowofa is
self-induced predicament.
An important
prerequisite for solution out of a predicament is that the afflicted individual
gives a true narrative of his life and his ise
owo (deeds professionally and socially). It is a process of relieving the
conscience of its burdens and trusting the diviner or the healer to help find
solution. This practice of demanding a true account of the individual’s past records
in order to find a solution for his predicament cuts across all religions. The
Catholics call it confession, while other diviners and healers call it other
names.
Bukola Saraki has a
problem with his narrative. Conceited, arrogant and cunning, he has lost
himself in his maze of self-deceit and lies. He tells a warped narrative. He
seeks to self-attribute his predicament to Akoba
by telling the discerning populace that his “political distractors” are
responsible. To checkmate Akoba, he
rigged himself to the post of Senate President, believing that by sitting high
above his “distractors” as he did in Kwara State for 8 years, his predicament
would go away.
Disquieted by the
persistence of his predicament, he turns his attention to Afise. He says it is because he is “fighting corruption” and the
bigger corruption is fighting back by inflicting him with false declaration of
assets and fraud. Saraki wants us to believe that bigger corruption wrote his
declaration of assets on his behalf and committed fraud in his name. He opened
a warfront against the bigger corruption and their Afise. Bukola adopted a three-pronged strategy for his war. He
consulted his marabout in Ilorin to consult his ancestors to fight his war. Not
sure of his ancestors’ capacity or willingness, he consulted the Chief Imam of
Ilorin to go higher up and get the angels to fight his cause. While still awaiting
the reply from heaven, Bukola engaged the services of earthlings - lawyers and
his spokesperson to publicly accuse Afise
of misdemeanors and plotting to bring him down.
Confused by his
gradual demystification and rapid loss of face as well as his apparent failure
to attribute the growing storm of his predicament to “Akoba” and “Afise”,
Saraki instructed his lawyers to run to the High Court as well as the Appeal
Court to convince them that he could not and should not be arrested and brought
to Code of Conduct Tribunal to answer for what “Afomo” has put in his way. His confused SANs could not find
appropriate laws to stop the storm and resorted to inventing their own puerile
and despicable interpretations of the law.
Everyone but Bukola
understands that the cause of his predicament is Afowofa through his shameless greed, disregard for the laws of the
land, mad ambition and delusion of grandeur. Bukola is either too arrogant or
delusional to share this in his narrative. A troubling question to ask is
whether he really understands his own actions, history and life. Is Bukie
cooked mentally?
Afflictions from Afowofa have no solution. Only
charlatans in all religions claim to have solutions to predicaments from Afowofa. True priests of all deities
call the affliction and its consequences Kadara
(destiny) and in severe cases of Afowofa,
like Bukola Saraki’s, the individual is confined to an asylum or solitary
confinement so he does not harm his society.
In the case of Bukola,
these two solutions combined are the best to save Nigeria from his toxicity.
