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Yobe's Yoruba Community - Politics - Nairaland

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Yobe's Yoruba Community by Nobody: 6:59am On Jul 26, 2014
In Yobe State, there’s a vibrant Yoruba community that’s going from strength to strength. Some of them shared their stories, most good but some not so much. Weekly Trust reports.

A century after, traces of colonial influences in socio-economic activities of the North-Eastern part of Nigeria can still be found on the fringes of Lake Chad. Thanks to the historic railway line constructed then, which served as a major link between Southern Nigeria and Yobe, a thriving Yoruba community exists. Although no actual records exist regarding their beginnings in the state, many link it to the Nguru railway line which was flagged off in 1930, opening the interiors of South-Western Nigeria to commerce. The Yoruba settled in the town as workers of the railway station and have continued to do so peacefully.

Wazirin Gashua, Alhaji Duci Kura, 87, told Weekly Trust that apart from the Kanuri community that have been in Nguru for centuries, all others like the Hausa and Yoruba settled there after the railway came into being. “Some came as railway workers and others came because of auxiliary vocations, menial or skillful,” he said.

Kura said that as the town grew, other commercial activities started to emerge, providing basic necessities. “That’s the reason telegraph and postal services debuted earlier in Nguru and provided jobs for the educated Yoruba populace. The same happened in schools, where they became teachers,” the Waziri said.

Weekly Trust visited the Yoruba communities in the metropolitan towns of Nguru, Gashua and Gaidam and found out they have been living and interacting with neighbours without any conflict whatsoever.
The Yoruba communities have, remarkably, developed a political organization that is influenced by historical specifics and social forces operating in their host communities. Most of them interviewed in Nguru and Gashua said they have maintained identity and socio-cultural linkages with their areas of origin, and some agreed that they have become bona fide citizens of Yobe.

Sarkin Yarabawan Nguru, the traditional ruler of Yoruba in the Nguru Emirate is Alhaji Muhammadu Basiru and he is from the royal family of Jagoo Ogidigwa in Osogbo-Oroki, Osun State. He told Weekly Trust that their culture has survived, transformed and remained relevant, even outside the shores of their origins. “We have our children lecturing in Colleges of Education in Gashua and Gaidam, College of Legal Studies in Nguru, Federal Polytechnic in Damaturu and the state-owned university. In fact, the Vice Chancellor of the university is our son,” he said.
Basiru revealed that ties in trade with the host community consisting of beans, dry meat, hides and skin do not only stop at that.

“We’ve married into each other’s families and my son Badamasi is married to the daughter of a district head under Nguru Emirate and they’re very happy,” he said, adding that the most delightful part of it all is that they have been living with each other peacefully for years. “We celebrate together during festive periods because every tribe has unique ways, it’s very interesting.”

Basiru, 81, speaks Hausa with some difficulty, even though his late father brought him to Nguru many decades ago. “This house is where I’ve lived with my father until he died, and while we do visit our relatives in Osogbo, this is our permanent home.” He said both Muslims and Christians of Yoruba extraction are treated equally in the towns. “Within the premises of the Gashua Emir’s palace, we’ve built places of worship for both faiths and everyone is allowed freedom of worship,” he revealed.

When Weekly Trust visited Gashua, most of the Yoruba residents attested to the fact that they have freedom to practice their religion and culture.
Bakari Lawan, 68, also fondly called ‘Dan Yarabawa’ has over the years married eight wives from different tribes in the area. He said he was brought there by an aunt when he was 7 and he even declined to follow her when she relocated back to Osun State. “I’ve been in Gashua for 61 years now,” he said, adding that he was almost rejected by Osun relatives when he visited, because he seemed completely alien to them. He disclosed that all the eight wives he has married are indigenes of Yobe: “Hausa, Fulani, Bade, Kanuri, Karekare, and Bolawa,” he said. “My relatives pressured me to marry Yoruba women but those marriages didn’t last, unfortunately,” he said.

Malama Aisha is a middle-aged Yoruba woman married to an indigene and she told Weekly Trust that her marriage is a blissful one. Her first husband was a Yoruba man, but he died, so she married her current one. “We’re now happily married with three kids,” she said, describing Gashua as a wonderful place to live and raise kids.

Engineer Kamaludden Ojotuku, an indigene of Osun State who came to Nguru in 1987 described his years there as fruitful. “I learnt and specialized in electronics repairs and I married an indigene with whom I have 6 children,” he said, revealing that his marriage to his wife wasn’t an easy task. “It was difficult, as we faced resistance from my family and hers, but as God destined, they later gave us their blessings in 1994,” he said.

However, Ojotuku said his first son was denied a chance to write the annual Turkish International School qualifying examination sponsored by the state government because he doesn’t have an indigeneship letter. “I later took him to Osun where he became a best-graduating student and was sponsored to an aviation institution in Ghana,” he said. He said he has trained almost 37 indigenes on electronics repairs.
Kamaludeen told Weekly Trust that most tribes have left the area due to insecurity, while others have relocated for commercial reasons, leaving him concerned that the vacuum they have left might be difficult to fill.

However, a staff at Gashua Local Government Secretariat, who pleaded anonymity, revealed that the state government became strict on indigene letters after discovering that non-indigenes abuse the system even though they have never even visited Yobe.
The official observed that issue of citizenship and indigeneship within Nigeria needs to be reviewed. “The 1979 constitution has granted citizenship right to Nigerians in any part of the country but the right suffered retrogression in the 1999 constitution that was silent over the issue,” he said. According to him, this created friction between indigenes and so-called settlers across the country, in some cases spawning violence. According to some, there is a shared mythology of origin between Yoruba and Kanuri people, which claims the two are cousins. And that, perhaps, is why they continue to live together happily and hopefully ever after.

http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/weekly/index.php/features/17078-meeting-yobe-s-thriving-yoruba-citizens

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