The National Human Rights Commission has condemned the arrest and prosecution of some traditional worshippers in the South East region of Nigeria, saying it is against their fundamental human rights.
Recall that recently in South East and Anambra State in particular, there have been incessant cases of money making rituals known as Okeite by youths, hence, the total clamp down, destruction of the shrines, arrest and prosecution of some native doctors by the state government as one of the ways of curbing growing criminalities and general insecurity in the region.
Ebonyi State Coordinator of the Commission, Onyekachi Okorie, while reacting to activities of traditional worshippers in the zone and government’s actions to control their excesses, accused all religions in Nigeria of being guilty of nefarious and sinister activities by some members of their sects and wondered why such drastic measures should be taken against only the traditional religion.
According to Okorie, “It is wrong to segregate against a particular religion and then close down on the same just because some individuals or sects of the said religion abused their practices as others have done.”
He suggested that punishment should be meted on grounds of crime and who committed it in particular, noting, “I stand against cherry picking in condemnation, attack and clampdown on a particular religion for whatever reasons just because a few individuals in the same religion abused the authentic practice of such religion. African religion is far way beyond Okeite.”
The NHRC Coordinator explained that, “As a humanist, I am not religious and I am not superstitious. It doesn’t matter if such superstition is of Greco-Roman, Arabic or African origins. However, I respect all religions knowing full well that none is superior to others.
The ongoing persecution of African traditional religious worshippers by the mostly corrupt Christian elites in the South East is not only against fundamental human rights, but condemnable. All Religions in Nigeria are guilty of nefarious and sinister activities by some members of their sects. The Muslims have taken the lives of innocent Nigerians on the guise of religious extremism.
Security investigations have uncovered human bodies buried in the foundation of some Christian churches. Some ministers of some Christian churches have been seen supervising their gullible followers who starved themselves to death. I stand against any religious practice whose activities are inimical to the welfare and lives of other human beings. Igbo cosmology, metaphysics and theology with all its traditional and cultural values are very clear on what the belief system is all about.
“Just wondering if the entire Muslim and Christian religions could be clamped down upon just because some Christian churches moved for the persecution and possibly killing of Nigerians because they are blasphemers or because they are alleged to be witches? The idea of seeing African traditional religion by African educated elites as evil and sinister is only a mark of evident post-colonial induced self-hatred and lack of reasonable level of world view.”