By Dr. John B. Mahwel

1. Firstly, I am a product of the Faculty of Law, University of Jos, having obtained my Diploma in Law, Bachelor of Laws (LL.B), Master of Laws (LL.M), and PhD all from the same institution.

In that sense, I can rightly be described as “Made in Jos.” I will forever remain grateful to the Faculty of Law and the University of Jos, my alma mater.

2. For the purpose of this piece, I must also express my appreciation to both Hon. Solomon Dalung and Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN as well as to all present, former, and retired professors and lecturers of the Faculty of Law, University of Jos who taught me as a student.

I am particularly proud that this Faculty has produced such distinguished individuals, alongside many other notable personalities who have contributed meaningfully to society at both local and international levels.

Of the two individuals under discussion, one is a former Honourable Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, while the other is the current Chairman of INEC. This is indeed a great honour and blessing to the Faculty.

3. In terms of their states of origin, Hon. Dalung is from Plateau State, while Prof. Amupitan is from Kogi State. I am also from Plateau State. However, my position in this matter is not influenced by sentiment but by my membership of the 2009 graduating class and my duty to set the record straight.

4. My Acquaintance with both Personalities:

I first met Prof. Amupitan as a Diploma student, when he taught me Law of Evidence, a course I later had the privilege of teaching alongside him for about thirteen years before his eventual appointment as INEC Chairman.

5. After completing my Diploma programme, I gained Direct Entry admission into the Faculty of Law. Upon resumption, the first person I encountered was Hon. Solomon Dalung, who was then my 200 Level Coordinator. At that time, I was not particularly close to Prof. Amupitan, as he did not teach me again until my 400 Level, when he handled Law of Evidence once more.

6. My First Encounter with Hon. Solomon Dalung in the classroom was quite striking. Unlike the conventional appearance of law lecturers in formal suits, he often appeared in full traditional attire and even brought water in a calabash rather than a bottle. While this initially surprised many students, we gradually became accustomed to his distinctive style.

His dressing reflected his teaching personality, authoritative, bold, and uniquely expressive, setting him apart from the conventional academic mould.

Hon. Dalung did not remain long in academic service, as he later ventured into politics, contesting for a seat in the House of Representatives against Hon. Beni Lar. It later became known that her father, the late Solomon Lar, had been his political benefactor.
Following the unsuccessful bid, Hon. Dalung sought to return to the Faculty.

In 2013, we both attended the interview, myself and others for regularization, and he for re-engagement. Although he was not reappointed at the time, destiny had greater plans for him, as he was later appointed a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria just two years later.

7. A Notable Experience with Prof. Amupitan

Let me briefly recount an important experience with Prof. Amupitan before addressing the central issue of this piece. As a member of the 2009 graduating class, Law of Evidence was one of my best courses in the 400-level. At the time, I had no idea that I would later return to teach the same course.

Unknown to me, Prof. Amupitan kept records of students he considered outstanding. A few months after completing my NYSC in Ondo State, I received a call informing me that I had been appointed a Graduate Assistant in the Faculty of Law owing to my outstanding performance at the LL.B class. After receiving the letter, I proceeded to the Faculty of Law to report. Upon seeing me, Prof. Amupitan was delighted.

He immediately opened his drawer and showed me a recommendation letter he had written to the Vice Chancellor in support of my employment, though he had not yet submitted it. Remarkably, I had already been appointed.

He congratulated me and advised that the entry point for Law Lecturers is Assistant Lecturer and not Graduate Assistant, and he took immediate steps to correct the anomaly. He also indicated his intention to mentor me, particularly because of my performance in Law of Evidence. He did this out of goodwill, and it was for the system, not because of any personal or ethnic connection, but purely on merit.

8. On the Issue of Integrity

As a member of the 2009 graduating class, I consider it necessary to clarify the aspersion cast by Honourable Dalung on the integrity of Professor Amupitan.

I will like to state outright that Professor Amupitan, having been a student under him and worked closely with him, is a man of integrity and one of the best Deans to have served in the Faculty of Law, University of Jos.

The record is there for everyone to see. I think it will be unfair if I don’t come out to speak this gospel truth since Honourable Dalung said the students of the 2009 set are still alive and they could confirm from them. Professor Amupitan’s reputation speaks for him, and a lot of his colleagues and students are so unhappy about Hon Dalung’s attempt to rubbish his reputation for political reasons. This type of politicking frightens some of us.

To the best of my knowledge, there was indeed an issue relating to result processing during our time. At that period, examination scripts were manually marked, and results were prepared and forwarded to departmental secretaries for electronic processing.

This system created gaps in the chain of custody, which were unfortunately exploited by some individuals to manipulate and upgrade students’ results, often without the knowledge of lecturers or Faculty authorities. These irregularities were largely traced to non-academic staff.

Professor Amupitan had recently been appointed as the Dean of the Faculty in 2009, and there were a series of complaints of result manipulation and several errors contained in the final year results that year.

Importantly, it was the lecturers themselves who detected these discrepancies and reported to him. He then ordered an investigation. The result of the investigation confirmed that some students had indeed been awarded unmerited grades, and the Faculty decided to reflect their true grades.

I recalled when the result was finally approved, Professor Amupitan was even out of the country, and the Faculty Board of Examiners was chaired (in his absence) by another respected Professor of Law, who is also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

The Minutes and proceedings of the Faculty Board Meeting where the result was approved will show clearly that the allegation was untrue. Consequently, corrective measures were implemented, and the affected results were reviewed and reverted to their original scores.

It is crucial to emphasise that this action affected students across all categories, not only those in the Second Class Upper division, but also those in Second Class Lower and Third Class categories. In fact, some students were unable to graduate with the 2009 set as a result of this sanitisation.

It set a new tone for the Faculty and the effort was well appreciated by the students. In my considered view, this development should be seen as a demonstration of institutional integrity, a Faculty leadership committed to upholding standards rather than condoning irregularities. If nothing, Professor Amupitan ought to be commended for that bold step.

9. Regarding the claim that a serving Deputy Inspector General graduated with a Second Class Upper division, I state categorically that, to the best of my knowledge as a member of the 2009 set, there was no serving Deputy Inspector General in our class. This, however, remains a matter open to public verification.

10.I must also state unequivocally that throughout my time in the Faculty of Law, both as a student and as a staff member, I have never been aware of any act that would call into question the integrity of Prof. Amupitan.

He has served in numerous high-level positions, including Head of Department, Dean of Law, Chairman of the Committee of Deans and Directors, Member of the Council of Legal Education, two time Governing Council member of UniJos, Pro Chancellor of another University, and Deputy Vice Chancellor, among others. If there had been any credible integrity concerns, they would have surfaced long before now.

12. On the Issue of Alleged Frustration

It is also important to clarify that when Hon. Dalung was pursuing his Master’s degree at the University of Jos, Prof. Amupitan had not yet been elected Dean of the Faculty of Law. It is therefore difficult to sustain any claim that he could have frustrated Hon Dalung in that capacity.

Furthermore, no Dean has the unilateral power to victimise or frustrate a student on the basis of the issues that affected the 2009 set. Academic processes are subject to institutional checks and collective decision-making mechanisms.

13.Conclusion

In conclusion, I am not one given to frequent public commentary, particularly on social media. However, I felt compelled to write because this issue directly concerns my class, the 2009 set, and my alma mater.

While I hold both individuals in high regard, I urge caution, especially in this politically sensitive period, regarding the nature of information disseminated to the public.

In my humble opinion, Hon. Solomon Dalung went too far in his attack on the integrity of Prof. Amupitan. If there are grievances, whether relating to his non-reinstatement into the University or issues concerning the ADC and INEC, they should not be presented in a manner that risks misleading the public, particularly given his status as a former Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the effort being made by Professor Amupitan to restore public trust in the electoral system.

This is calling a dog a bad name to hang him. To call Professor Amupitan I know a man of “zero integrity” is false, misleading and unacceptable.

14.Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope the general public is better informed, particularly regarding the issue raised by Honourable Dalung about my Class set of 2009.

May God bless Nigeria

E-signed

Dr. John B. Mahwel

By Wole Olujobi

Ekiti people are on the march again to elect a governor that will run their affairs from October 16, 2026 to October 16, 2030.

In the loop is the incumbent Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji who is virtually running a lone race as opposition parties are in the limbo, existing only in names and not in functionality.

As things stand, Oyebanji enjoys a universal acceptability founded on trust and performance to hone his bid for second term election success.

When he started his leadership journey on December 9, 2021 in Abuja where he had gone to obtain his governorship nomination form at the APC National Secretariat to contest the June 18, 2022 Ekiti State governorship election, the first sign that Ekiti State and her people were on the verge of a new and productive leadership deal manifested on his return to Ekiti State on December 10, 2021, as thousands of his grassroots sponsors on various self-sponsored campaign platforms came out in bright colours, as they lined up Ado-Akure Road blaring horns amid drumming to welcome the Ikogosi-Ekiti-born multi-talented politician to the warm embrace of the APC leadership and Ekiti people in general at the Ajilosun party secretariat reception in Ado-Ekiti attended by the high and low in Ekiti political and non-political classes.

His acceptance among Ekiti people is not without basis. While holding government positions that taught him lessons in humility and political leadership responsibilities, he had conducted himself in admirable manner, lending support to the needy and making himself accessible among the generality of Ekiti people. Added to this grassroots appeal was the well-thought-out campaign programme encapsulated in a six-point agenda, which in the last three years, he has faithfully implemented in education, health, agriculture, social investment sectors, security, economy and infrastructure development, including creating an atmosphere of amity among contending political forces in Ekiti State, for enduring peace, thus earning the trust and confidence of Ekiti people.

Not done, the governor also put the state on the world aviation map, as commercial operations at the Ekiti State Cargo International Airport debuted as an economic boost in the state’s history in prime development efforts, winning laurels from flagship media organisations and top economic and development watchdogs.

Among the states that top the list on the metrics of performance, the Federal Government listed Ekiti State under Oyebanji in Nigeria’s ease of doing business ranking, joining other states, such as Lagos, Kaduna, Oyo, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ogun, Enugu, Plateau, Kano and Nasarawa, as the foremost drivers of the nation’s economic growth.

Three and half years down the line, Oyebanji’s profile and accomplishments in his drive to raise the standards of living and value of mutual habitation among Ekiti people have etched his name in gold as a legacy of honour and service to the people, so much so that what Ekiti people are today advertising in Oyebanji is not an isolated, local content that seeks to elevate the governor in the context of marketing for political expediency; it is a moral responsibility among the people to acknowledge the governor as a revolutionary in politics and governance. For him, to lead a common front in a diverse political setting is to define a moment for a deep introspection to chart a course for progress in the digital era where Ekiti State must play a frontline role.

On top of it is the mission to accomplish the vision in the most transparent and fulfilling manner in the atmosphere of peace.

For effect, the governor, besides credible performance, has forged amity among old rivals through his visionary leadership and politics of accommodation, coalescing diverse partisans to challenge the political conflicts amid artificial distortions that have stultified the growth of the state over the years.

Today, those contradictions have since taken the back seat, as Oyebanji leads the charge to redirect Ekiti State to the path of honour and sense of history that once shaped Ekiti people in their collective destiny for progress.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led movement for democratic rights and progress among Nigerians has begun with Ekiti State as a test case. In the impending ballot, voters’ direction is clear for Oyebanji, who has matured politically to encourage divergent partisan views to thrive as an essential element of participatory democracy.

Far from the volatility of the past politics of ambush, only a leader that has a sense of history, maturity, patriotism, candour, moral conviction and integrity, such as Oyebanji, will achieve the level of tranquility that pervades the state in the first election that an incumbent governor is poised for a clear win in an historic and historical succession poll.

Even though a pocket of opponents still exist to fulfil the democracy ritual of plurality in electoral contests, fact is that Oyebanji’s moral authority is a compass of trust and magnet that has shrunk the opposition to a miserable decimal as, APC, driven by the progressive ethos of its founding fathers, is set for a runaway victory with Oyebanji running on the crest of acceptability and trust among Ekiti people.

Indeed, moral authority is Oyebanji’s magic wand for victory as Ekiti people head to polls on June 20 to return the governor for a second term, as history unfolds for a focused man driven by vision for collective progress of his people.



Oyebanji is capable of achieving the feat because he has a thrilling spirit that craves for universal communion because he loves peace and cherishes amity in human relationships. And when he does that, his motive and motivation are borne out of a desire to expand his coast to strengthen his sense of tribe and community.

For Oyebanji, whose genius is rooted in his honesty of purpose and ability to relate with the grassroots in the most transparent manner in a remarkably relaxed coolness, there is nothing greater than community spirit where one feels secure that he has delivered on a divine call to serve the people.

As the pitched politics of electoral campaigns unfolds ahead of the June 20 poll, the acceptability anchored on performance, humility and the trust that Ekiti people have in Oyebanji is his energy in the last lap of the current political race to breast home to victory.

The chase has begun and Ekiti people are waiting in the wings to seize the moment to invest their votes in Oyebanji for a prosperous Ekiti State. He is already doing it. The next four years are for the consolidation of the current gains nurtured by leadership trust and discipline with prospects for greater Ekiti State in the new Nigeria being nurtured by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The vision is clear. The mission is defined. Ekiti people are resolute and committed to Oyebanji’s leadership anchored on trust. The triumph is imminent. June 20 is the jubilee day for the celebration of the leadership rooted in harmony with the vision of Ekiti people for progress, to tame the succession bogey that had haunted second term elections in Ekiti State and arrest “the culture of 10 steps forward and 30 steps backward” that had been the bane of Ekiti State’s development over the years.

* Olujobi is the Deputy Director of Media and Communications of BAO Campaign Council

By Festus Adedayo


A huge social dynamite recently exploded in the discourse of black magic. With the 2027 elections and early political manipulations already holding our lives by the jugular, the explosion went unnoticed. One of Yoruba’s leading musicians, Saheed Osupa, real name Saheed Okunola, openly detonated the dynamite. On March 30, 2026, at a live performance marking the birthday of a Yoruba actor, the musician admitted that he uses traditional spiritual power to fortify himself and enhance his musical success.

Osupa is a known Islamic faith adherent. Can anyone openly hoist two flags of black magic and Islam? A viral video of the Osupa confession instantly hit the airwaves. And tongues went wagging. Addressing his backup singers who were reportedly struggling to keep pace with his gobsmacking ability to memorize musical lines, Osupa urged them to make spiritualism the cornerstone of their existential pursuits. “Someone once advised me to grant an interview denying I am a fetish person, but I refused. I didn’t harm anyone with it. I only seek progress. If I don’t engage in it, what else should I use? Is it Panadol that will make me successful?” he joked.

Osupa also maintained that he constantly pays obeisance to Ifa, an ancient Yoruba religious system of divination. Ifa, he said, is a major hub of his personal spiritual routine. Then, his damming revelation: “Everybody practices it. Some do theirs in secret, but I do mine openly”.

Black magic operates essentially with mystical power. Through black magic, mysterious things which overwhelm science, difficult to explain, happen. Magic is a mystical power brought to life through ritual performance. Magic also influences human or natural events in a way that is outside of the ordinary human understanding.

Osupa’s open confession provoked the question, which we must answer individually, as Muslims or Christians, does black magic, called Juju, influence how we think about existence? Does the traditional belief in mystical power, manifest in the use of herbs, divination, magic, witchcraft and sorcery, occupy a part of our daily existence? E. Bolaji Idowu, famous theologian and ethnographer, in his 1967 seminal article, “The Study of Religion with Special Reference to African Traditional Religion,” published in ORITA: Ibadan Journal of Religious Studies, agreed with Osupa. Idowu even went ahead to say that Africans regard African Traditional Religion (ATR) as a “contemporary living reality.”

As the negative effects of globalization and western education, as well as changes in the socio-economic, political and religious life in every part of the earth, affect the African, they are forced to seek remedy in forsaken magic, herbs, witchcraft and sorcery. Many African beliefs and practices are almost all faded away. Yet, belief in mystical power is on the upsurge, daily gaining prominence in Africa. Christians and Muslims, great great grand-children of the Whiteman’s African converts of early 15th century, are going back to the beliefs of their forebears practiced before his advent.

Today, the media is inundated with stories of pastors burying strange objects, including human parts, as foundation of their churches. In Yoruba magical realism, it is called awórò. It is believed to be a magical pull for multiplication of audience. Islamic clerics who double as dibia of Yahoo Boys seeking occult powers to fortify their trade get burst almost on a daily basis. Human parts traders, when burst, often lead investigators to pastors/Islamic clerics whose divination aids this nefarious trade. Many in political authority, when struck by strange ailments, go in search of native doctors who use combinations of incantations and sorcery to treat them. There are recorded healing from these exercises. Also, partly due to skyrocket in costs of drugs, reliance on orthodox medicine is waning as herbs and roots take over the job of medics. Many Nigerians have local incisions round their bodies, upon which they wear suits and flowery clothes that cover the scarification. Yet, mum is the word from what seems to be an implosion in the number of Africans who migrate to black magic for resolution of their earthly travails.

In 2018, a Kenyan scholar, Moses Kirimi Ndunjo, conducted a research on the effect of traditional worldview among evangelicals of Tharaka community of Nithi County, Kenya. He especially concentrated on its implications on their Christian discipleship. He found out that, although they accepted Christianity, with over 90 percent of them having confessed acceptance of Jesus, “this has not so much affected their belief in traditional mystical power as many of them continue to hold firmly to the belief in Urogi (witchcraft); Araguri (medicine men) and Kumerua i Kirimu (the traditional rite of being swallowed by a mythical creature, called Kirimu usually for boys shortly before initiation). This is regardless of whether they are educated or Christians.” These were the words of Professor Dickson Nkonge Kagema, an associate Professor of Religious Studies and Philosophy at Chuka University in Kenya.

The situation remains pretty the same in Nigeria. In February, an RCCG pastor, Bola Abiodun, was reported to have threatened an invocation of a deadly curse on a lady for addressing him as “Mr” rather than “Dr.” He then threatened the lady, “Don’t disrespect me if you don’t want to see my other side…If you don’t apologize to me in the next 5 minutes, you may not wake up tomorrow,” he wrote on his X handle. Many reasoned that the boldness of the pastor was rooted more in black magic than Christendom.

While many Nigerians and Africans imbibe the precepts of modernity, with their medical, scientific and technological explanations, on another hand, they do not abandon mystical power and its magic. The main features of magic are divination, witchcraft, sorcery and other mysterious phenomena which are at cross purposes with modernity.

Very many magical situations have been reported which defeat scientific reasoning. Hunters have shot at games in the forest which morphed into humans. These are cases in criminal law which test the confines of law and tradition. While modern system of law mostly attributes such stories to hallucination of the hunter, it seems to confirm that a world exists for traditional belief and practices. In Kenya, four years ago, wrote Professor Kagema, “I heard from my wife that there were two young men who were eating grass in our local market because they had stolen a motor bike. As a scholar and a priest, I could not exactly comprehend how this was possible. I went to see for myself and to my amazement, it was a true story. Two young men were busy eating grass and making a noise similar to that of goats. I joined my fellow pastors to pray for them but nothing changed. It was only after their relatives accepted to pay the owner of the motor bike that the lads recovered when the responsible magician reversed the situation.”

The position of magic in the African music industry where Osupa operates is notoriously dire. Persuaded that there is an enemy somewhere pursuing them and who wants to make mincemeat of their musical talents, African musicians are constantly in the pursuit of unseen enemies. As they do this, they search for black magic validation and deflection of potential attacks on them. It is why it is almost a rarity to find an African musician who does not fortify themselves with black magic.

In the early 1970s, gruelling wars were fought between musicians for individual validations. Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny Ade, Dele Abiodun, Emperor Pick Peters, Idowu Animashaun on the Yoruba Juju music turf; as well as Yusuff Olatunji, S. Aka, Kelani Yesufu, alias Kelly, Haruna Ishola, Kasumu Adio, Ayinla Omowura, Fatai Olowonyo, Ayinde Barrister, Kollington Ayinla etc, in the Sakara, Fuji and Apala genres. These wars were fought with black magic, ending up neutralizing some and leading to the liquidation of others. Recipients of the fiery swords of those wars could never doubt the efficacy of black magic.

Among Igbo traditional musicians, too, during and even after their demise, there have been continuous debates, leading to rivalry, over who holds the supremacy title of the most popular Igbo highlife musician. Fans and artists were/are most times at the center of the disputes. The contentious discussions hover over musicians like Dr. Sir Warrior, Bright Chimezie, Stephen Osita Osadebe, Oliver De Coque, in comparison with modern artists like Flavour and Kcee. It is however not known whether while alive, these musicians fought mutual destructive battles as the Yoruba’s.

As a signifier of the clash between the musicians and their enemies, their drums were known to encounter calamity at performance grounds. In my piece with the title, Lamidi Apapa’s missing cap (May 21, 2023) I wrote in passing about the fiasco of drums. In an interview granted renowned broadcaster, Dele Adeyanju, shortly before he died, Yoruba Ijesaland’s most evocative and authoritative Adamo music singer, Adedara Ar’unralojaoba, had had an encounter with another musician, Ayinla Omowura, in Ilesa, today’s Osun State, in the 1970s. 

Omowura and his band members, which included lead drummer, Alao Adewole, alias Oniluola, had entered the venue of a night gig without paying obeisance to Ar’unralojaoba, who had earlier played. In the words of Ar’unralojaoba himself, on arriving the bandstand to take over the evening belt of entertainment from him, Omowura walked in, arrogant with his assumed musical superiority. As Adewole sent his drumming stick on errand to produce the usual electrifying rhythm, the drums not only refused, they began to get torn in sequence. All in all, the drummer lost about four drums within a short period. A rapprochement only came when Omowura prostrated before the elderly Ar’unralojaoba, with obeisance and propitiation to the god of the drum.

Also, many musicians, in search for protection, join occult associations. Alhaji Dauda Epo Akara, famous Awurebe music legend, who lived in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, was renowned for prologuing his songs with high dosage of Islamic verses recitation. It was only upon his death that it was found out that he belonged to an Ogboni cult. So also were many of the musicians of that era. Osupa’s confirmation that he does not neglect African traditional medicine and worship could be an indication that those fiery intra-genre wars among Yoruba musicians are still raging underground silently today and are being fought by magical spells.

Scientifically unexplainable occurrences of black magic happen daily in Africa. It is why, especially in Nigeria, in spite of modernity, as the 2027 election period gets nearer, indications of gravitation towards black magic by politicians will get higher. At junctures where three footpaths meet, calabashes, inside which are propitiation materials (heads of goats, palm oil sprinkling, cowries, èkuru – steamed white bean pudding – white cloths and many more) are placed there at dawn. It is believed that these black magic sacrifices have very strong hold on the outcome of elections.

The power in mystical Africa comes in different forms. It is mostly verbalized in words or incantations. Among the Yoruba, it is always alliteration and simile. For instance, in incantations to suborn obedience, the enchanter will say, “the leaf of Ogbó orders you to listen (gbó)”. Both words are alliterative.

John Mbiti, a renowned Kenyan Anglican priest, philosopher, major scholar of African Traditional Religion and theologian, who was famously reputed to be the founding father of African Christian theology, brought a new flavour to the mystique of magic. He said, in Africa, it is believed that words/curses spoken by an elderly to a younger one carry the power of force. The words of parents to their children are also viewed as possessing potent power, especially if they are uttered or pronounced in a fit of anger or time of crisis. Among the Yoruba, children court words of prayers from their parents and avoid curses from them. It is believed that such words enjoy efficacy.

Among the Ameru, a Bantu ethnic group indigenous to the eastern and northern slopes of Mount Kenya, the belief is that if parents die with their curses hanging on their children, such children run mad thereafter or die. Mbiti gave validation to this. In his 1969 book, African Religions and Philosophy , he said that formal ‘curses’ and ‘blessings’ from parents possess extremely potent powers and are believed to be very efficacious. Children, he said, travel several kilometers from their domiciles to be blessed by their aged parents, while taking extra care to ensure that their parents do not curse them.

In this work cited above, Mbiti even confirmed that in Africa, there were mystical powers which, upon being adequately invoked, cause “people to walk on fire flames without getting burnt, to lie on thorns or nails without getting pierced, to harm people from a distance, to change into dangerous beasts which can hurt people or their property, to change nonliving things into living creatures, to see into hidden secrets, to detect thieves or even stupefy them so that they are caught unawares and to foretell the future.”

Africa is moving backwards towards these magical powers. It probably has realized the incapability of orthodox medicine, power and authority to protect the African from their existential realities. This has led to what is called syncretism. In it, people practice their individual religions of Christianity or Islam, play significant roles in mosques or churches, while at night, they go to their groves to offer propitiation to African gods, in exchange for protection or salvage. Some people have said that this is recoursed to because of the perception that the Christian and Islam God is not immediate in His intervention, unlike the potency of black magic, renowned for its immediacy.

Many western-oriented persons, as well as Islamic and Christian organizations, refer to black magic as fantasy or inconsequential. A pastor was recently quoted in a news report as gloating that Osun river worshipers in Osogbo thought his members who touched the grove would die, but didn’t. However, black magic is the lived reality and experience of millions of African people. To them, it is efficacious if appropriately administered.

If only many Osupas who use the black magic could come out to attest to its efficacy and openly identify with it as this musician did, there is the probability that their testimonies would drive more converts into it. This may make faster the ongoing process of digging up the remnants of magic which our forefathers were lured to bury centuries ago.