by Mayowa Ogundele

Our neighbour, Baba Ore, died on Friday and no thanks to the fear of Ebola, he had to be buried hastily- on Saturday evening.

I won’t be surprised if it had to be so because the hospitals or mortuary had refused to keep his corpse, the way they rejected that of a friend’s father, who died ahome.

My parents had gone to attend the ‘humble’ funeral ceremony and upon return, I asked my mom all about the matter.

Baba Ore, a husband and father of one little girl (Ore), was a danfo driver. He had managed to build a small house on a piece of land. Probably, one quarter of a plot. I’m not sure if he was a Christian or Muslim.

Prior to his death, he had been sick but the doctors could not cure his disease; At least that’s what he told them.

Why? It was a spiritual attack.

Now if you are Nigerian, this should not be a strange thing. You most likely have heard about such a thing before.

If you are not Nigerian, you may be familiar with terms like voodoo, witch doctor or dark magic.

BUT if you are still lost, please go watch any of the ‘Harry Potter’ movies.

Prior to his death, he had been sick but the doctors could not cure his disease; At least that’s what he told them.

 

So, Baba Ore had gone for medical consultation quite alright but that didn’t bring any solution to the odd swelling on his neck.

His health deteriorated day after day.

Towards the end, he had lost his sight. By the time he died, his wife was a shadow of herself. Drained of any glow and in deep despair.

Her husband had died because of a spiritual attack. Something people generally believe cannot be countered using science or technology.

No!

For such cases, pastors, imams, babalawos (witch doctors/traditional doctors) are called upon to save the day.

This is reportedly so because medical doctors will never be able to diagnose any disease, even if it is obvious to the naked eye that the patient is seriously unwell.

So this got me wondering… how many of such mysterious cases are recorded in advanced countries?

Do ‘oyinbos’ or the highly enlightened folks also have or believe in spiritual attacks?

Is this a case of ‘if you believe in it, then it can happen to you’?

Do people accept such an idea because they are overly religions or spiritual?

What’s your take on the matter?

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Mayowa Ogundele is a journalist and a news presenter at Channels Television, She blogs atohluwamayowa.wordpress.com and tweets from @Ohluwamayowa

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.