“Be and Let me be” is the approach of the Yorubas to religion— anyone who says this isn’t the case is a gaslighter, a liar, a dangerous person and possibly a jihadist. We are not saying Yorubaland has 100% religious tolerance but as far as Nigeria is concerned we are by far the most tolerant region in the country. 

Ask your people who have lived in Yorubaland to tell you what happens on Fridays, Sundays and religious holidays here. Everyone celebrates with everyone. When a Christian passes by a muslim praying here, the greeting is “Olorun a gba” meaning we understand it’s the same God, with different approach. Christians will buy Ramadan supplies for Shieks and all other Muslims they know, respected Muslims will share hampers to us during Christmas. Here we believe IWA L’ẸSIN. Go figure. 

This approach to peaceful co-existence is why a family of 10 can have at least two members practicing different religious and they still live happily. 

You can’t relate because it’s either your way or nothing over there—which is everything Yorubas stand against. We are seeing the signs here and we will do everything to prevent it. Afterall nobody can look at the impact of religious extremism in the North and say that’s what they wish for the SW. We are possibly the only region in Nigeria that has kept our identity solidly intact despite the barrage of foreign religions in our land, we welcome them, we embrace them, we listen to them, our people make their decision but we have never allowed them tamper with our identity. You will rarely see us answer 2 foreign names. For what? We have the most beautiful names. And we will never place any language above ours—afterall Yoruba language is heavenly. 

Here, we understand there will be religious arguments in order for our people to find their personal truth in their religious journey, and we value free speech, and freedom to practice any religion of your choice. So we will disagree to eventually agree but we will NEVER resort to violence. We will never get to a point where our people or anyone living in our land will be attacked and killed in numbers because an insane person drew a tattoo of The Prophet in Denmark. We will never arrest people for eating during Ramadan, be it muslim or Christians.

We will not subject our traditional institutions-which the colonialists were in awe of when they arrived- to becoming second fiddle to political religion influence peddling. It will not happen.

I hope the pushback you have seen on this post will be your sign and a warning that this attempt to gaslight Yoruba Muslims in order to radicalize them is futile. We are one here and any agenda to divide us will fail. 

Ire O.