Taboos’Re Our Real Problems Not Witches – Elere Omo General Overseer

By Favour Odanye, Osogbo

The General Overseer of Egbe Emere Onitesiwaju, also known as the Progressive Peer of Heaven Society, Chief Mrs Elebuibon Ajibola (Iya Oosa) has cautioned Nigerians against quickly blaming witches for their personal misfortunes, stating that ignorance of one’s spiritual taboos is often the true cause of many life challenges.

She said this on Wednesday at the 2025 Annual Anniversary of Egbe Emere Onitesiwaju held in Osogbo tagged “What is Egbe?”.

According to her, most people lack self awareness and are quick to blame whatever misfortune they face on witches adding that the witches also have other things to do than destroy people’s lives.

“It is not everything that happens to us that is caused by witches. Some people are simply suffering because they have broken their taboos or do not even know what their taboo is,” she said.

Elebuibon explained that every individual is connected to a specific Egbe, and failure to discover this connection leaves one unaware of personal taboos which often leads to recurring problems in their lives.

“Some people haven’t discovered themselves, they don’t know the orisa they belong to that caters for their inner head. They don’t know the type of their Egbe hence they eat anything because they don’t know their taboo. Taboo is the main factor causing many problems for people not the witches”, she said.

However, she advised individuals to take care of their body, mind and spirit stating that,” If you feel unwell, seek help both from traditional herbalists and modern hospitals and if indeed spiritual forces are troubling you, divination and sacrifice are only the first step. You must also go to your doctor or take herbs to repair the damage already done to your body. The evil might have triggered something already inside you”, Elebuibon stated.

She added that the group isn’t limited to only Nigerians, stating that she has members in diaspora from the United Kingdom, United States of America, Brazil among others.

Meanwhile, The President, Traditional Religion Worshipper Association, Osun State, Dr. Oluseyi Atanda disclosed that the involvement of diasporas in the Progressive Peer of Heaven Society is adding value to the society while being a source of conviction for some non-believers or those at the crossroads, whether to believe or not to believe.

“For somebody from the diaspora to travel all the way down because of a celebration of heavenly mates, that is making some people sit down, rethink, and come back to their culture. So, the diaspora involvement in our cultural religion has a positive influence on some non-believers”, he said.

Speaking in the same vein, Chief Mrs Olajide Ojefomola also explained that at times, some people are not disturbed by their Egbe.
However, others are disturbed because they made certain promises to their Egbe which will be their taboo on earth.

“Many people sometimes do not get disturbed by their Egbe but before we became human beings our spirit was in heaven,we were with our Egbe. We had our family and we made some pacts with them but when we came to earth, we forget those promises so at times our egbe can disturb us, that is why most important you must appease your Egbe”.