Osun State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Sunday Akere, in this interview with TUNDE ODESOLA, clears the air on the allegation that Governor Rauf Aregbesola has an Islamisation agenda
There are fears that Governor Rauf Aregbesola is planning to Islamise Osun. What is your take on this?
No statement is farther from the truth than this. Religion is a very personal, sentimental and volatile issue. So, we must be mindful of the way we use it. The State of Osun is one of the most peaceful states in the nation and we want it to remain so. Osun, like other states of the South-West, is highly heterogeneous in terms of people of diverse religious beliefs. We have people who worship all forms of gods like Ogun, Sango, Obatala, Iyemoja, Esu, etc. We also have the major dominant religions, Christianity and Islam. In all these diverse forms of worship, the Yoruba have co-existed for years without any religious upheavals. The region has never witnessed any religious crisis owing to the accommodative, tolerant and reasonable nature of the Yoruba. The State of Osun, as the ancestral source of all Yoruba is, for obvious reasons, very rich in culture and tradition.