AJAGBE-MOKEFERI: The “God” Of Ibadan

Once upon a time, in Ibadan lived a fiery and feisty Muslim cleric called Alhaji Abdul Azeez Ajagbemokeferi.

In poignant portrait, he was a short man with long, bushy and greying beard. He had a halting gait such that when he walked, he appeared to be springing towards a fight. And he did spring towards many fights as he travelled across major historical towns in Yorubaland confronting priests and worshipers of traditional religions.

During his times, Ajagbe has a cult like followership in ibadan, third to the holy prophet Muhammad (SAW) in Medina and second to Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, his admirers cum followers traversed the entire nation and beyond, crisscrossing at speedy intervals to his Ibadan palatial abode for spiritual favours of sorts.

Ajagbe as he was better known became very famous for forcing his way into sacred and scary shrines, groves and sanctuary, to cart away several ageless statues and paraphernalia of traditional worships.

As Ajagbe’s fame grew, so was the traffic to his home of various people seeking solutions to thier problems bulged. His abode became a scenery of long and rowdy queues of an army of people waiting in turns to meet with the all powerful Ajagbemokeferi.

When summoned into Ajagbe’s consultation room, you do not need to speak of reason for your visit, all you ever need to do was write your problems or trouble in a paper tucked and sealed inside an envelope and hand it over to Ajagbe, without opening the envelope, Ajagbe would tell exactly to utter dismay of his visitor the contents of the paper. Such was the paper of the highly powerful Ajagbemokeferi.

As it’s with every messenger, there is always a Judas lurking around trying to prove superiority, Ajagbe’s Judas was Oloolu, Oloolu was a famous, mystical, mythical and dreaded “Egungun” in ibadan.

Oloolu, unlike other Egungun does not cover his face, women are forbidden from seeing him, any woman who sees him will either die or remain permanently barren, due to such powers, his outing is always preceded by radio announcement with stern warning to the women.

The day beckons for the Oloolu outing, announcement has been made, Alhaji Abdul Azeez Ajagbemokeferi also gave a warning not to the masses but to the Oloolu himself, he warned the Egungun to steer clear of the vicinity of his home as his wives wouldn’t be dettered from coming out to look at the Oloolu, Ajagbe was going to commit the dreaded sacrilege.

The battle line was drawn, Olubadan made a lot of spirited efforts to douse the tension but both of them refused to shift ground. The city of Ibadan was thrown into uncertainty and trepidation hung palpably over thier cloud.

With just about 10 metres between the groups, Ajagbe was confronting Oloolu face to face, in that moment, the world seemed to stand still. Oloolu began to chant incantations, swinging his “Seere” back and forth. Before Oloolu could finish his incantations, Ajagbe forcefully seized his “Seere”, dropped it on the rough ground and crushed it ferociously with his heel.

Ajagbe then sprayed a black powder on Oloolu and pushed him, the unexpected happened, the dreaded Egungun was lying helplessly on the floor, demystified and humiliated. The Oloolu supporters, including his drummers, chanters and skull carriers fled, the arrival of the police saved the Oloolu from further humiliation.

But how did it get to that? Behind that fight was a very strong will by each party to establish superiority through a claim to supernatural powers. If Oloolu had won, of course it was going to boost his reputation and would cement the myth that woman that sees Oloolu would either die or reach early menopause.

Ajagbemokeferi then became a hero, the number of people besieging Ajagbe’s house for help increased astronomically and so was Ajagbe’s wealth. He became the envy of everyone even a successful business man.

Bagbansoro Uthman Olamilekan

bagbansorouthman@gmail.com

08106856586.

Twitter:@The_Bagbansoro