Our Reporter, New York
US-based award-winning movie director Rahman Oladigbolu, has said he sees no reason the Alaafin of Oyo cannot be a Christian.
Rahman, a prince in the kingdom, made the remarks during an interview with 90MinutesAfrica hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo on Sunday.
“In Oyo, where I came from, we are trying to select a new king,” he said. “It has been the tradition for some decades that the Alaafin of Oyo will be a Muslim. Now, we have some Christians among the people vying for the position, and there are discussions about whether Oyo can have a Christian Oba. Of course, if you can have a Muslim Alaafin, I see no reason you can’t have a Christian Alaafin.”
The director of the movie “Theory of Conflict,” which focused on the Israeli–Palestinian crisis, argued that organised religion had created great division among people everywhere it existed. He wishes that society could develop to the point where people would no longer discuss religion as a criterion for positions and other kinds of interactions.
“The whole point should be to ensure that people would not be talking about religion in issues like this, but it is difficult because of the agenda of people wanting to impose their religion on others,” he said.
“So these are where all the problems still lie, and until we’re able to understand it, I don’t see how we can move forward,” he stated in reference to the religious controversy surrounding the selection of a new Alaafin.
The filmmaker says education and enlightenment are the panaceas for the problem of division caused by religion, especially organised religion, which creates the we–against–them dichotomy.
“It is only enlightenment that can carry people to the point where religious considerations no longer matter in societal affairs,” he explained.
“When people are enlightened to the point where it doesn’t matter, then it won’t. But today, they still see each other from their religious prism because even the behaviour of people that occupy positions in society gets influenced by religion.”
