By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

Gov. Soludo of Anambra State should be commended for his clampdown on the self-styled native doctors whose utterances and misdeeds pervert our African traditional religion and mislead young and undiscerning people into committing heinous crimes. Sadly, in Anambra state, our African traditional religion is being put to bad use by worshippers of African traditional religion, among whom are native doctors or medicine men.

But what is religion? In simple parlance, religion is defined as the way by which we try to reach our God or gods. And each religion has its own doctrinal teachings and form of worship. In today?s world, we have these types of religion, namely Shintoism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, Islam, Christianity, and others. And in Nigeria, Islam, Christianity, and the African traditional religion are the predominant religions.

However, the African traditional religion had been in existence in Nigeria before Islam and Christianity, which are Abrahamic faiths, were brought to us. Our people?s embrace of Christianity did not lead to the obliteration of the African traditional religion, however. But people are still converting to Christianity from our African traditional religion. So the number of Christian proselytes is increasing at geometrical progression.

Now, in Igboland, of which Anambra State is a part, people who practise the African traditional religion are believed to be practicers of idolatory as carved wooden objects serve as intermediaries between them and their gods. Worship of ancestors is part of the religious practice embedded in the African traditional religion, too. The worshippers do pour libation to their gods and invoke the names of their departed ancestors for protection and blessings. The form of religious worship which is peculiar to the African traditional religion is incantatory chants.

More so, most native doctors or medicine men are known to be the custodians of our traditional religion. They are well-schooled in Igbo cosmology. And they are believed to be clairvoyant people, who possess mystical powers, which make people visit them for divination. People whose health conditions defy orthodox therapies visit them for alternative treatments, too.

But now, in Anambra State, the native doctors are perverting the practice of African traditional religion to realize their selfish and pecuniary goals. For example, they brazenly claim that they have charms and amulets, which can make streetwalkers thrive in their despicable and abominable trade of prostitution. Armed robbers visit them for spiritual fortifications, which will ward off bullets from them, too. And the native doctors are covertly boasting that they can prepare charms for people in order for those people to become stupendously rich.

But what gave rise to people?s embrace of money-making rituals is the erosion of family values among us. Poor but honest people are butts of joke in our society while rich people are lionized and praised to high heavens. And traditional rulers are wont to confer chieftaincy titles on the unscrupulous rich people. So it can be seen that a nexus exists between the upsurge in money-making rituals in our society and our societal values. Our possession of wealth is the index of our success, which informed people?s desperation to acquire money at any cost.

Consequently, impressionable young people who are indoctrinated with the teaching that one can become wealthy by perpetrating money-making rituals are making beeline to the shrines of native doctors and medicine men. Visiting native doctors for money-making rituals is the fad among young people, now. Accompanied by medicine men, young people are frequenting rivers to take a dip in them and make sacrifices so as to become rich.

Consequently, the reprehensible practice of money-making ritual has gained a foothold in Anambra state, now. And the claims and postulations of the medicine men that their fetish practices can make people become rich are being sewn onto the tapestry of the African traditional religion. So the onus is on the native doctors to prove that their practice is benign, and not a smokescreen or ruse for fleecing desperate people of their hard-earned money.

But the deeds, which the native doctors perform, have negative impacts on us all. One of the corollaries of their acts is the pollution of our waters-ponds, lakes, and rivers- with sacrifices, which are made of animal offals and innings, yams, and other smelly things. They spoil the aesthetic of our environment by placing their unsightly sacrifices on road intersections, too. The decomposition of their sacrifices causes stench to ooze from them, which has negative implications for our health. And their pollution of our waters with sacrifices make water from those rivers unfit for human consumption and domestic use.

But the more worrisome implication of young people?s resort to money-making rituals is that it leads them to abduct and kill other people for money-making rituals. And it induces laziness into them as they perceive the perpetration of fetish practices as a short way to amass wealth. Instead of learning trade or acquiring tertiary education, which will make them become financially independent in the future, they roam about in search of native doctors who will do money-making rituals for them.

So Gov. Soludo deserves kudos for his clampdown on the self-styled and evil-minded native doctors whose utterances and doings pervert our African traditional religion and mislead young and undiscerning people into embracing criminal life-styles. His resolve to run spiritual charlatans out of town will save our African traditional religion from further assault and perversion, too.

We should thank Gov. Soludo for winnowing the chaff from the wheat. It is a highly commendable and timeous action that will save Anambra State from drifting into a bogus mystical boondoggle.

?Chiedu Uche Okoye, a poet, writes from Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State. He can be reached via 08062220654 and 09125204141

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