As a matter of fact, given the sheer desperation of each of the major ethnic groups to win control at the centre in 2015, the activities of Boko Haram, the agitation of the Niger Deltans, the resurrection of MASSOB, the unmistakable resurgence of a rather extreme form of igbo nationalism, the activities of various ethnic nationalist groups and the growing religious and sectarian divide in our country, it has only just started in earnest and it is a cause that I have chosen to dedicate my life to.

As long as I live, I will resist the idea of any part of Yorubaland being turned into a ‘’no-man’s land’’ where the Yoruba people are meant to live as second class citizens and never-do-wells and where they are treated like filth. If that makes me a tribalist or a bigot, then so be it.

If loving my nationality, which comprises of 50 million Yoruba people, and adoring my nation of 160 million Nigerians at the same time is a crime then I am guilty of that crime. I do not have to love one at the expense of the other. We are not America which is a nation that is made-up of immigrants and ex-slaves and a country which literally wiped out the indigenous population that they met there when they arrived who were known as the Red Indians. We are not Americans who somehow found their way into the world barely 300 years ago, we are Nigerians.

And each and every one of the great and numerous nationalities that make up our beautiful nation has a noble heritage that goes back for thousands of years. We may not be as developed or as wealthy as they are but we know who we are and we know where we are coming from.

That is why I am proud of this country and all the various nationalities that make it up regardless of our difficulties and challenges. Yet we are not so different to some others. In the United Kingdom there are basically four nationalities: The English, the Welsh, the Irish and the Scottish. Each of these four nationalities is actually a tribe yet you very rarely find a British person who will tell you that he is not proud of his Scottish, Welsh, Irish or English heritage AND at the same time proud of his nation.

He is first an Irishman, a Welshman, an Englishman or a Scot before being British even though he cherishes being both. He does not have to sacrifice his Irish, Welsh, English or Scottish heritage and roots for Britain and neither does he have to sacrifice Britain for his heritage and roots. He balances it well, he has the best of both worlds and this is indeed a wonderful thing. He derives his strength from both.

He enjoys being Irish, Scottish, English or Welsh and cherishes it deeply just as much as he enjoys and cherishes being British. And, today, centuries after Great Britain was established as one nation under one Crown and one Royal Sovereign the British citizen still cherishes his primary nationality and tribal heritage so much that power has been gradually devolved from the centre at Westminster in London to the various tribes and ethnic nationalities in the regions over the years.

Such is the agitation for the restoration of ethnic identity and devolution of power in the United Kingdom today that Scotland is preparing for a referendum to determine whether her people should remain in Great Britain or not. This is a beautiful thing. It is known as self-determination and no human being ought to be denied that right. Taking pride in your primary roots and your ancient heritage is not a crime.

That is how it is meant to be. It is only in Nigeria that we call this perfectly natural and wholesome phenomenon ‘’tribalism’’. We give it an ugly name and we ascribe to it an even uglier connotation. Everywhere else in the world the reality of ethnic nationalities is acknowledged, respected, valued, cherished and well-managed. As a matter of fact such diversity is a source of strength and pride for many. For example in the nation of Belgium one will find that there is an ancient dichotomy and deep rivalries between the Flemish people of the north and the Waloons of the south.

They speak different languages and have a completely different history and cultural heritage yet these two great and ancient nationalities or tribes are proudly Belgian and they rally under one flag. This is how it ought to be everywhere. I have no hate or ill-feeling towards any other ethnic group in this country or anywhere else. If I did I would say so and damn the consequences. Racism and tribalism is below me and such primordial traits offend my sensibilities. To harbour such views is well below my intellectual and spiritual dignity. Those that know me well can attest to this. I have as many non-Yoruba friends just as I have Yoruba ones. I look down on no other human being, no other race and no other nationality and I do not claim that the Yoruba are better than anyone else.

What I insist on though is that I should be allowed to acknowledge my history and to preserve my ancient heritage, culture, values and ethos. I also insist that my people should be allowed to develop at their own pace. I am not ashamed of who I am and where I come from and had it not been for others holding us back I know where the South-west and the Yoruba would have been by now in terms of development. And neither would I go to England or America or Enugu or Kano and claim that I own the place or that my people built it from the scratch and that they generate all the money that is there. I would never say or do such a thing and neither should I be expected to sit back quietly when someone says it about my land, my people and my territory.

In this debate I have threatened no-one, I have incited no-one, I have accused no-one and I have not sought to silence anyone with threats or blackmail. I have not expressed hatred towards anyone. Yet my family has been subjected to insults, threats, humiliation, hate-speech, misrepresentation, falsehood, intimidation, calls for arrest and lies by some people who really ought to know better. My father of blessed memory has been insulted during the course of this debate as has my late mother, my wife, my children and my people from the South-west. We have been called all sorts of names and subjected to the most filthy and disgraceful abuse and malicious lies. And now some ask me if I will ever stop this fight for the rights of my people. The answer is that I will not because a price has already been paid. I will never renounce my views.

Those that have chosen the path of aggression and open hostility and that seek to suppress our voices, intimidate us into silence and drown us with their propaganda are vulger, crude and rude. They are also experts at telling lies. Yet they cannot silence a whole nationality or just wish us away. We are here to stay. To me this is simply an intellectual exercise and we can agree to disagree and still remain compatriots and friends. However I will not give up my identity because that is all I have. I will not betray the dreams of my forefathers and their aspirations for our people. For four generations now the Fani-Kayode have contributed positively to the affairs of this country.

Unlike some of those that are bleating and insulting us we have paid our dues. Like millions of others we have a stake here and we are from Yorubaland. I have a little Fulani blood in me too and I am very proud of that but I am first and foremost a Yoruba and I will live and die for the Yoruba and indeed for my nation Nigeria if needs be.

I have written about virtually every major ethnic group and nationality in this country over the last twenty three years and sometimes in very harsh terms, including my own, Yet it is only when I disagree with some of our Igbo brothers and sisters and dispute their claims on Lagos that all hell breaks loose.

They say our territory is ‘’no-man’s land’’ yet they will never offer us theirs in return or even allow us to build there. Who is the fool here? And when we complain they have the nerve to insult us. Enough is enough. I am not a racist or a bigot but I believe that I have a right to defend that which is mine and to preserve my identity.

We ignore our differences at our own peril and this is not only naive but it is also exceptionally dangerous. They made the same mistake in Yugoslavia through the ’70s and 80s until the explosion came in the ’90s and all hell broke loose. No-one saw the war coming in that country except the more discerning and brilliant minds who had been shouting for decades before it came that their very own ‘’nationality question’’ had to be answered and that Colonel Broznin Tito’s dream of an eternal and everlasting old Yugoslavia was unsustainable. No-one listened to those discerning voices and consequently millions were killed in the most horrendous and vicious civil war that Europe has ever seen.

From being one country where the people and numerous nationalities were compelled to ‘’forget their differences’’ by law, Yugoslavia was eventually broken up into five sovereign independant states as a consequence of fratricidal butchery and unrestrained and all-out war. I pray that we never break up and that we never witness or fight such a war in Nigeria. The answer is to understand and settle our differences and not to forget them.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/the-nationality-question/#sthash.smvMX9Q6.dpuf

The badger has confirmed the earlier postulation that he is Nupe/Fulani

Full blooded fulani man claiming yoruba. FFK ur grandfather was Nupe. That makes u a confirmed aboki!

Mods front page please. This write up is very educative for our younger ones.

Na 2day?

Awaiting Nigerian Civil War 2

AWKA_MADE_GUN:
They say our territory is ‘’no-man’s land’’ yet they will never offer us theirs in return or even allow us to build there.

I have long concluded that Fani- Kayode is a hardened LIAR [/b]and only [b]a foo..l can unashamedly make such statement! What worries me however is what purpose does he intend to achieve by dishing out falsehood?

In the course course of my job, I have been to practically every corner of this country. I have also spent quite some time in the South-east. That Yorubas are not offered chance to flourish in Igboland is a CAPITAL LIE! [/b]As a matter of fact, many Yorubas and other Nigerians do live in the South-east but for reasons best known to them, do not leave any landmark that can sign-post their presence- by this I mean for instance house or business premises that [b]COULD BE PASSED TO A NEXT GENERATION. If there are any, then that would possibly be a very few. It is indeed very hard to find any Yoruba that can claim up to four generations in the entire South-east! May be, this has to do with a general mindset- afterall that was another country...

But that has n't been the case with the Igbo. And it is not just a Lagos thing or the allure of trading as bandied by the likes of a morally-challenged Kayode. In 2006, while on duty in Borno State, I stumbled on an elderly night guard attached to an LG secretariat whom I mistakenly took to be a Kanuri, because of the way he dressed and freely conversed in that language. It was not until I introduced myself and my origins that I got to know he was from an Aro, my maternal clan and that he has been living in Borno since before the civil war!! If we are assume that he came initially for business, that obviously changed but he managed to stay on and raise a family rather than clear his drawer and return home.

What I am trying to state is this: as far as Nigeria remains a single country, ALL AREAS ARE UNRESTRICTED TO OPPORTUNITIES, TO EVERY PERSON THAT IS DEEMED TO BE A NIGERIAN! It is sheer idiocy for anyone, like FFK to infer that Yorubas or any other ethnicity is n't allowed to progress and develop in Ala-Igbo. In contrast, current religious and ethnic intolernce witnessed in the North and now steadily canvassed in the south-west by a hopeless FFK is the real danger to Nigeria's unity which he claims to defend. What a clown!

That said, the choice to live and be willing to contribute to areas outside one's ethnicity remains a personal one, FAR from the hatred and deceit exhibited by a useles and scornful Kayode. And I am happy that some Yoruba folks in this forum like TUNDEOLANIYI have long confessed to enjoying as much freedom in pursuing their interests in Igboland as they could get in their native areas.

AWKA_MADE_GUN: Mods front page please. This write up is very educative for our younger ones.

OP, Femi Fani-Kayode actually wrote this, but never titled it this. If I'm not mistaken, he titled it The National Question.

bismarck:

I have long concluded that Fani- Kayode is a hardened LIAR [/b]and only [b]a foo..l can unashamedly make such statement! What worries me however is what purpose does he intend to achieve by dishing out falsehood?

In the course course of my job, I have been to practically every corner of this country. I have also spent quite some time in the South-east. That Yorubas are not offered chance to flourish in Igboland is a CAPITAL LIE! [/b]As a matter of fact, many Yorubas and other Nigerians do live in the South-east but for reasons best known to them, do not leave any landmark that can sign-post their presence- by this I mean for instance house or business premises that [b]COULD BE PASSED TO A NEXT GENERATION. If there are any, then that would possibly be a very few. It is indeed very hard to find any Yoruba that can claim up to four generations in the entire South-east! May be, this has to do with a general mindset- afterall that was another country...

But that has n't been the case with the Igbo. And it is not just a Lagos thing or the allure of trading as bandied by the likes of a morally-challenged Kayode. In 2006, while on duty in Borno State, I stumbled on an elderly night guard attached to an LG secretariat whom I mistakenly took to be a Kanuri, because of the way he dressed and freely conversed in that language. It was not until I introduced myself and my origins that I got to know he was from an Aro, my maternal clan and that he has been living in Borno since before the civil war!! If we are assume that he came initially for business, that obviously changed but he managed to stay on and raise a family rather than clear his drawer and return home.

What I am trying to state is this: as far as Nigeria remains a single country, ALL AREAS ARE UNRESTRICTED TO OPPORTUNITIES, TO EVERY PERSON THAT IS DEEMED TO BE A NIGERIAN! It is sheer idiocy for anyone, like FFK to infer that Yorubas or any other ethnicity is n't allowed to progress and develop in Ala-Igbo. In contrast, current religious and ethnic intolernce witnessed in the North and now steadily canvassed in the south-west by a hopeless FFK is the real danger to Nigeria's unity which he claims to defend. What a clown!

That said, the choice to live and be willing to contribute to areas outside one's ethnicity remains a personal one, FAR from the hatred and deceit exhibited by a useles and scornful Kayode. And I am happy that some Yoruba folks in this forum like TUNDEOLANIYI have long confessed to enjoying as much freedom in pursuing their interests in Igboland as they could get in their native areas.

We can't be deceived, the moniker, Tundeolaniyi, is the handle of an Igbo. The same person as Nedu666 and all the monikers bearing alfa.

Orlando Owoh:
We can't be deceived, the moniker, Tundeolaniyi, is the handle of an Igbo. The same person as Nedu666 and all the monikers bearing alfa.

Tunde Olaniyi is a confirmed yaroba from ekiti.

This man wants to be president so this is his own way of campaigning

I disagree with him on this article. ANY Nigeria who put Tribal interest above National interest is not fit to hold any national position. The great Zik as we knw put tribe aside and embress Nigeria first. OUR Dad PRESIDENT OBJ put tribe aside and put Nigeria first. ANY Nigeria who cannot put tribe aside and put Nigeria first is only fit for a tribal leader.

Femi_Fani_Kayode:

We ignore our differences at our own peril and this is not only naive but it is also exceptionally dangerous. They made the same mistake in Yugoslavia through the ’70s and 80s until the explosion came in the ’90s and all hell broke loose. No-one saw the war coming in that country except the more discerning and brilliant minds who had been shouting for decades before it came that their very own ‘’nationality question’’ had to be answered and that Colonel Broznin Tito’s dream of an eternal and everlasting old Yugoslavia was unsustainable. No-one listened to those discerning voices and consequently millions were killed in the most horrendous and vicious civil war that Europe has ever seen.

FFK should direct his frustration first at Gowon, Obasanjo, Adekunle and all the soldiers who fought for an indivisible and monolithic Nigeria against the shouts of many discerning and brilliant minds.

Like I have said in other threads, it is fraudulent to accept the UNITY of Nigeria when the odds are in your favour, only to outrightly reject the unity of Nigeria when the odds are not in your favour.

If FFK accepts one Nigeria, he should now be ready to accept the CONSEQUENCES of one Nigeria without feeling insecure and resorting to subtle plans for ethnic cleansing.

If Femi feels his whole family have been insulted along side his late Father, well! He asked for it! On †ђξ other part, he's not even a Lagosian! So why is he crying more than †ђξ bereaved? This man is Sick! His brain needs to be checked as soon as possible! So with all his enlightenment, he still believes ones tribe should come first before his Nationality? Very sad!! Like someone rightly opined in this thread, BIGOTS like Femi Fanikayode should be barred from holding any National Political Office

Orlando Owoh:
We can't be deceived, the moniker, Tundeolaniyi, is the handle of an Igbo. The same person as Nedu666 and all the monikers bearing alfa.

Tunde Olaniyi is also FSU, Igbobuigbo, Mr. Fire, Mr. Globe, freeglobe, atuoke, advocate66, AWKA MADE GUN ...........

Tundeolaniyi is one conman of ibo heritage.

mr_king: If Femi feels his whole family have been insulted along side his late Father, well! He asked for it! On †ђξ other part, he's not even a Lagosian! So why is he crying more than †ђξ bereaved? This man is Sick! His brain needs to be checked as soon as possible! So with all his enlightenment, he still believes ones tribe should come first before his Nationality? Very sad!! Like someone rightly opined in this thread, BIGOTS like Femi Fanikayode should be barred from holding any National Political Office

Agreed.
No one should be allowed to hold political office until he/she has demonstrated a deep grasp of the true meaning of one Nigeria.