By Motolani AbdulGafar
The author of “Ifa: Moral Principles For Effective Divination and Living” and “Ifa: A Sacred Traditional Science”, Engr. Ganiyu Fayomi, has said all cardinal numbers in Ifa corpus have their own significance and importance in social and technological developments.
He stated that the most important number in Ifa corpus is numeric four which is used to seek divination for people in decision making process.
Fayomi noted that the issue of consulting Ifa for divination is based on logic as the result gotten from the combined cowries (opele) is what dictates their reasoning to predict the outcome of the situation.
He explained that the casting of four identical cowries which divide side by side into two roles, two on each side or in some other cases four on each side where a half-nut opens, translates to ‘1’ or in a simplified way ‘True’ while it translates to ‘0’ or ‘False’ if it closes.
“Hence, the result of the opele is what determines the odu ifa the expert will recite and use in making his predictions,” he said.
Fayomi stated that the essence of his publications and orientation of Ifa is to enlighten people that the logic of the Ifa corpus is similar to the logic of computer programming in order to convince them on basic facts they need to understand about Ifa and to discredit the negative belief about traditional practices among civilised youths in the society.
He noted that the real basis of Ifa revolves around good things, claiming that those who engage in witchcraft are evil doers who try to picture Ifa as a bad divination device for the the non-initiate.
He said his publication on Ifa is also to teach elites on how to use opele themselves without consulting anybody to avoid being misled.
