ELIAKIM AND THE YEMOJA SPIRIT

1.0   INTRODUCTION

In God’s comprehensive agenda to deliver Nigeria from the forces that are perverting God’s destiny and purposes for her, the church corporate in certain locations will be called upon to embark on certain specific spiritual warfare and prophetic actions to break the power and authority of ancestral strongholds, curses and covenants on the land. The Lampstand Letters will play its part in revealing certain information to the church in these locations as the Lord grant insight. This second of the letter to the churches was originally addressed to the church in Abeokuta (the first being addressed to the church in Maiduguri). However subsequent events shortly after it was forwarded to Abeokuta, particularly the Sagamu riots which was a fall out of this year’s worship of the ancestral Oro cult, the spill over to Kano and the present danger it portends to spread nationwide, necessitates a wider circulation.

The spiritual significance of Abeokuta, the home of three Nigerian Presidents, including General Obasanjo, the Eliakim (Isaiah 22:20-25) of our time, and of Abeokuta as the seat of the Yemoja and Omonide ancestral spirits are discussed in this letter. The probable effects of the spiritual characteristics of the Egbas in pulling down the peg that is Eliakim (Isaiah 22:25) are highlighted in the light of certain prophecies  and revelations. What the church in Abeokuta (and Yoruba land) needs to do to prevent the likely calamitous consequences of the pulling down of Eliakim from the throne of Nigeria is stressed.  

2.0 ELIAKIM AND HIS FATHER’S HOUSE

Eliakim (meaning “God will set up”) the son of Hilkiah was a man who the Lord himself set up in Judah to serve a specific purpose in the days of Hezekiah and Manasseh. God gave him a designation (robe), a title (belt) and authority (key) over the house of Judah (Isaiah 22:21). He also gave him responsibilities/functions to be like a father to the people of the land; to exercise authority which none will be able to stop or stand against, to be a peg, load carrier who will confront many problems and move seemingly immovable mountains, and to be a source of pride and honor to his kinsmen. (Isaiah 22:21-23). God promised to secure his throne so then no man could overthrow him. But his kinsmen will become a burden to him. They will load him with so much burdens and requests that he who the Lord has firmly fastened secure upon his throne, which no man could overthrow, will be pulled loose by the burden of his kinsmen, and fall from his secure position. When this happens, not only will Eliakim will fail from the throne, that will be the end (extermination) of his kinsmen and everything that was hanging on him (Isaiah 22:25).

General Olusegun Obasanjo is Nigeria’s Eliakim of this moment. The Yorubas and specifically the Egbas of Abeokuta are his Kinsmen....

3.0 A HISTORY OF ABEOKUTA/EGBAS

According to history Oodua (Oduduwa) the progenitor of the Yoruba race had a wife whose name was Omonide through who he had six sons and one daughter (the eldest). The daughter was the mother of Olowu the founder and King of Owu, from which the Owu quarters (one of the four) in Abeokuta descended. (General Obasanjo is of Owu Abeokuta descent). The other quarters are Ake, Oke-Ona and Gbagura. Of greater spiritual significance is the record that Omonide, the wife of Oodua and mother of Yoruba race lived, died and was buried at the Abeokuta. Thus, every Yoruba King, and especially the Alaafin, is required to send gifts to the Alake, the custodian/guardian of the Omonide ancestral spirit, to invoke her blessing.

4.0 SPIRITUAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EGBAS

The Egbas are historically characterized by a spirit of antipathy, division, and selfishness, of treachery, betrayal, vengeance and of forgetfulness. According to Mabogunje and Omer-Cooper, the Egbas are characterized by “deep... traditional local particularism”. Till date, intense rivalry and betrayal exists between the four (4) quarters of Abeokuta. This explains why an Ernest Shonekan (Alake Egba) can take up an office won by a M.K.O. Abiola (Gbagura Egba) or why an Obasanjo (Owu Egba) can declare amidst the June 12 crisis that Abiola (Gbagura Egba) is not the messiah we need. It was the selfishness of Ojoko, King of Keshi and his betrayal by his wife that led other Egba tribes to destroy Keshi, capture and kill Ojoko in her early years. In 1821, the Owu Egba people were left to themselves when besieged by the Ijebu-Oyo-Ife allied forces after the incidence of Apomu Market. The other Egbas were indifferent, treacherous and betrayed their kinsmen. After conquering the Owu Egbas, the allied forces conquered the other Egba towns.

Quoting from the scriptures, Ajisafe Ajayi described the Egba situation as “every Kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself will not stand”. As noted by Mabogunje and Omer-Cooper “The problem of return to anarchy was always so real in Abeokuta”.

One other piece of historical information about Owu Egbas is relevant here. Mabogunje and Omer-Cooper commented of the Owu Egba they “Owu remain hardy, brave and courageous, participating fully in the life of new communities they find themselves and occasionally throwing up from among its members a capable leader for the whole community” (Olusegun Obasanjo). The anti-tax uprising of 1918 was started by the Owu Egba. From another angle, among members of Owu Community that settled in Abeokuta in 1830 was a Fulani Mallam who was reputed to have played a major part in the conversion of many Egba leaders to Islam.

5.0 THE YEMOJA SPIRIT

Judith Gleason in her book “Orishas: The Gods of Yoruba land” described Yemoja as the “mother of the waters and of all Orisha”, “the ancient mother of fishes, the moist earth, wife to Aganju...the owner of the dry uncivilized land to the north.’ Her first son was Orungan “the tall one who fills the space between earth and sky...strong as the air we breathe”.

One day when Aganju was away hunting Orangun seized Yemoja and did “a forbidden thing”. When he wanted to repeat “his misdeed” Yemoja ran “among the reeds trying to escape his advances”. But still he pursued and would have her again. As his hands reached to grasp Yemoja’s waist, she fainted, striking her head against a stone. From her breast gushed streams.

Then her “generous belly burst open to release sixteen orishas” -- Olokun (the ocean), Osha (the lagoon), Shango and his wives Oya (R. Niger), Osun and Oba River, Ogun, Oke (mountain), Oko (farm) Aje (wealth), the sun, the moon and the dread Obaluaiye. Interpreting the traditional myth above in the light of the scriptures, the following facts can be adduced: Oragun was a fallen angel (“Son of God”) who took Yemoja (“a daughter of man”) and gave birth to sixteen orishas “men of renown, heroes of old” imbued with demon spirit. (See Gen. 6:1-4). Waters (the sea and rivers) are symbolic in the bible as abode/domain of evil spirits (see Ps. 74:13-14, Isaiah 27:1, Ezekiel 27:1-4, 28:1-2;  29:1-6; 32:1-7 and Rev. 13:1-7 and 17:1 to 18:6). Fishes are symbolic of smaller powers given authorities over parts of a country (see Eze. 29:3-5 and Exodus 7:13-21. Also the Lampstand Letters “Healing the waters of Nigeria” and “Thrones of Nations”). So when Yemoja describes herself as “mother of the waters, and of all orisha (and) the ancient mother of fishes...” she is stating her role as progenitor of a kingdom of fallen men-spirit described as Orisha by the Yorubas.

6.0 ABEOKUTA AND THE YEMOJA SPIRIT

In a continuation of her description above, Yemoja is quoted as saying “Listen, at the place where my body through violence gave birth to the world, the grand fathers of men created a holy city called Ife, meaning distention. But my spirit fled west again in the direction of Abeokuta. Here and there all over Yoruba land I have infused various waters with my sacred energy, but it is at Abeokuta that I flow most freely beneath the bridges past the great rocks down rapids and continuously out to sea”.

This was Yemoja the mother of all Yoruba Orishas talking! In other words, the spirit of Yemoja, the mother of all Orisha including Shango, Ogun, Oya, Obaluaiye etc., is strongest and most at home in Abeokuta!! If you add this to the historical fact that Omonide, the wife of Oodua, and mother of all Yorubas died and was buried in Abeokuta where Alake is the guardian of her spirit, then one would easily appreciate the spiritual significance of Abeokuta to the Yoruba race.

However, glory be to God who in his wisdom also ensured the Christianity settled in Yoruba land first in Abeokuta. Indeed history record that Ifa had claimed in 1930 that a nation from over the seas (a power behind the sea) i.e. British missionaries would come and raise the Egba nation.

7.0 CONCLUSION

In his New Year message at an all-night in Kafanchan on 1st January 1999, Pastor Nuhu Kure peeped into the year 2000 and indicated that as a result of the problems the civilian president will have with the south-west, there might be a change in power. In the prophetic publication ALARM VOL. 2 NO. 2 April to June 1999, is an article titled “Beware Yoruba Nation”. The following is quoted from the prophesy “Beware the Yoruba nation”.

The spirit expressly calls for the church in Yoruba land to take up lamentation against the spirit of violence emanating from ancestral worship in the land. That by inspiration, the entire Yorubas nation is about to commit a racial suicide. If the program being hatched by the ancestral spirit materializes, the church in Yoruba land will suffer. The nation will have as national religion, voodism in place of Christianity and the church in the land will suffer terrible persecution. The church should use and take a lamentation against the spirit and save the nation and entire nation of Yoruba from calamity.

From the foundation of the earth have I purposed to use this diversity (of the tribes of Nigeria) to shame the wise and the homogenous. My people relent not, stand upon your watch. I shall frustrate the tokens of liars and those who have covenanted with the dead to bring this evil act to pass shall not see the glory which to have purposed concerning your nation.

Take note that I am passing through this diversity to bring my counsel to pass. After that I shall also visit the leviathan and the octopus. For it is a program of humbling that the entire polity may fear me, live in unity and fulfill my purpose of the union. I am God. I change not, My glory I cannot share with any man. “The devil is about inciting the (Yoruba) race against their son. They will commit a heinous crime against his family. He will be forced to use the machinery of the state against them. The result will be an intra-ethnic rivalry leading to the wasting of the tribe. Arise O Yoruba Women, wail and lament before your children are wasted on your streets, before your husbands are destroyed, for evil has been determined against your race. Hell has let loose against you. Weep, I say weep that the Lord may intervene on your behalf.

In the mouth of 2 or 3 witness every word shall be established. Let the church in Yoruba land, especially the church in Abeokuta take arms against the ancestral Yemoja Spirit and her children. May the Lord kill her and her children with death. May the Lord kill her and her children with death. Amen.

8.0 LET US PRAY

1. Wail, fast and pray to God against the ancestral Yemoja Spirit and each of her sixteen (16) children (Orishas) that want to divide Nigeria and pitch the Yorubas (especially Egbas) against one another. Set your face against the idols of Yoruba land according to Isaiah 19:1, Jer. 43:12-13; 46:25 and Ezek. 30:13.
2. Stand firmly against the spirits of selfishness, antipathy, indifference, treachery, betrayal, vengeance and forgetfulness that have characterized the Egbas.
3. Pray that history will not repeat itself, that the Egbas (and Yorubas) will not commit a heinous crime against President Obasanjo, and he will not be forced to use state machinery against them.
4. The Ogun State Governor, Segun Osoba has been quoted to have said he has legalised (formalized) the Ogboni and other traditional cults. Stand against these cults (Egungun, Oro etc.) and against their human agents like Segun Osoba.
5. Ask for a spirit of repentance and reconciliation among the four quarters of Egba, and in Yoruba land. Pray that Christians will take a lead in this respect.
6. Take a prophetic stand against the spirit of the rivers of Yoruba land and declare they will no longer harbor or deify demon - spirits. Pray specifically against the spirits of Oya, Oba, Oshun, Olokun, Osha, and Yemoja. In Egbaland, pray against the war spirit residing in Rivers Ogun, Oba, Osun, Yewa, Ona, Owiwi and Arekonga stream where battles have been fought in Egba history.
7. STOP PREE:  Writing in The Guardian, Friday 30th July 1999 (page 30), Ajunmeze Henry made the following interesting  observation “....Afrobeat, per se, is an offshoot of Fela’s cultic engagements in which symbolic codes of Yee paripa  had variously manifested in  different songs and expressions. Fela’s music is a translation of the Oro cultic symbol into universal language...” It is no surprise that Fela Anikulapo Kuti was also Egba. In the light of the Sagamu communal riot due to the Oro festival, pray according to Isaiah 24:8 and Ezek. 26:13 that God will put an end to the sound of the Oro and other cultic songs in the land.

9.0 BENEDICTION

I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am the Lord who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works Rev. 2:23.

10.0 REFERENCES for further reading

• Ajisafe Kolawole Ajayi, History of Abeokuta. Kash and Clare Bookshop 3, Kakawa Street P.O. Box 756 Lagos, Nigeria.
• Gleason Judith; Orisha: The Gods of Yoruba land. Athenneun. 1971, New York. 122 pp.
• Healing the waters of Nigeria. Lampstand Letters Vol. 1 Nos. 4 & 5, December 1998. U.I. P.O Box 4150 Ibadan.
• Mabogunje A.L and Omer-Cooper J. Owu in Yoruba history. Ibadan University Press 1971, 123 pp. v. The Alarm, Vol. 2 No 2, April to June 1999.

Please circulate this edition to Christians in Yoruba land especially Egba Christian/Christians in Abeokuta.