Written by Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba
Monday, 26 December 2011 20:26




My name is Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba. I am Igbo but live in USA now, but I visit Nigeria many times when I am healthy and have money for my transport. Also I try to visit many parts of Nigeria. In the last two years I have visited Borno, Enugu, Osun, Lagos, Imo, Kaduna, Plateau, Rivers, Cross River, Edo, FCT, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, States. This is probably more visits to more states than an average Nigeria makes in two years. I am also a
Christian. I went to school in Nigeria and in America. I want us to learn a lesson that is being taught at home in Nigeria, in what we call the Yoruba nation.

This lesson is being taught in USA, but why will I call on you to learn it from America when the same lesson is taught just a few miles from where you live. I know that if I ask that we learn from America it probably would be more attractive since we love America so much. So if it is sexier to learn from America please do so but you can get the same lesson by merely looking down across the Niger.

I do not know what the Yoruba population is but I can comfortably predict that it is in millions. I do not know how many of them are Christians but I do know it must be in millions. I do not know how many of them are Muslims, but I know that the number is also in the millions. They have Muslim Governors and Christian Governors. Legislators, LG chairmen, traders, thieves, professors and people engaged in every aspect of human endeavor. Our President indicated that the ratio could be 50/50.

We all live in this country and we know that the West has often been a “Wild West.” They often do not agree on the time of the day. But their disagreement has never been over whose God is better. They have always left the Muslim to worship their Allah and the Christians to worship their Christ. Neither has tried to cleanse their nation of the other group. The reason they have never tried is probably because of the balance of power, but they also instinctively know that even if one is the minority no people have ever cleansed their nation of any religion. Germans tried to wipe out Judaism and after killing millions of Jews, they failed. Judaism is as strong now in Germany as it was in 1939.

You cannot wipe out Christianity from Northern Nigeria. Let us learn from the Yoruba. Today in Yoruba you have the practice of each religion in most homes among brothers, sisters, cousins and friends. That is the way it should be. If we learn just this one lesson we will be happy.

There is another reason why trying to wipe out a religion should not be attempted. There is really no one religion. There is no Muslim religion: we have Shiites, Sunnis and may sub sets in each of these groups. There is no one Christian religion. We have Catholics and Protestants and many sub groups within each. The divisions within is just as troubling as the divisions without. For an example see what is happening in Iraq or what was happening in UK in Northern Ireland.

When you drop a bomb in Niger in a Christian Church the dead include a good percentage of Northern Hausa, Fulani, Tiv, and yes, Igbo. Christian teaching has been accepted by all. So you are in effect killing your own. How much sense does it make to cut off your nose to spite your face? And for you Christian, who is thinking of a revenge attack on a mosque, the same lesson is there for you to learn. If you drop a bomb in a mosque you might kill a Dokumbo Asari the leader of MEND. He would not be a Hausa but your Ijaw brother. I know that there are Igbo, Efik, and Uhrobo Muslims now.

Nigeria is becoming a tossed salad. We are becoming too blended that what happens to one affects the other.

We have a way to make our voices heard without taking the lives of our innocent brethren. If you want to establish a Sharia rule, the place to take that fight is to Abuja and the state houses of assembly. You try to ELECT members that share this point of view. It will not do any good by killing Joseph Okonkwo who has no vote in the assembly. That is what politics is about. You must seek political solution. You might get it by getting the support of Okorie Uwechue who would want a Christian state in Enugu. So, at Abuja those who want a Christian State would get what they want while you get what you want. If, of course, you want a Nigerian state that is completely Muslim, you will have to learn from the German experience. After 5 years of hot war against a mere 1% of the population Judaism survived.

You may not be able to cleanse Christians from Nigeria. You will not cleanse then from Northern Nigeria and you would not be able to wipe them off Bornu or Yobe, of Sokoto. You will also not be able to get rid of them in Maiduguri city.

It is just that had.

Religion is in the heart.

The Yoruba have been teaching this lesson. Let us listen to them. That might be their only contribution to Nigeria.

Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba
Boston, Massachusetts
December 26, 2011

http://www.elombah.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9244:to-my-boko-haram-and-northern-brothers-let-us-learn-from-the-yoruba&catid=25:politics&Itemid=92

dayokanu:

Yorubas are much more advanced than most ethnic groups in Nigeria

Nchara:

This is about those whose zones are divided in religion. Igbo zone is not, so there is nothing to learn from the Igbos here. And yes, the Yoruba muslims are more advanced than the northern muslims. That has never been in doubt. We only hope it remains so, as sharia gradually moves SW.

The Igbo zone is 99% Christianity and we love it so. However, we have hundreds of thousands of northern/yoruba muslims living in our midst and we have not taken revenge on any despite the daily killings of our people up North. More than 50% of those killed in the North so far are Igbos.

Oba234:

lol, Yoruba Muslims aren't really taking serious by nobody in general. Yoruba Muslims aren't hardcore Muslims.  I know Yoruba Muslims that will even go to church with you, Marry Christians and some of them don't care what religion their children takes. You can't really compare Yoruba Muslims to northern Muslims. Northerners Muslims are hardcore. You won't see them step foot in a church or marry Christians. I think it boils down to the fact that Yoruba people have an identity outside of their various religion. This is why Yoruba get along with other Yoruba despite religion differences. We have a common basis, we are all Yoruba. I don't think you can separate Fulani or Hausa from Islam. I even heard somebody say one day to a Hausa christian that he can't be Christian and Hausa. If he is Christian, then he is not Hausa. lmao, so this are the kinda people you expect to mimic Yoruba?

Nchara:

Yes I forgot that SALIENT point that Yoruba muslims are inconsequential muslims in Nigeria. They have no choice than to be good boys lol.
The other day Aregbesola was dining with Adeboye. Fake muslims, really. I understand Tinubu's wife is christian. Any surprises why the northern muslims don't take them seriously?

Eko Ile:



You are basically indirectly affirming what the article is asserting. It means your societal, communal and religious maturity is yet to be tested and you have never responded to the same scenario simply because you don''t have the same diverse and complex mix.

Wait till you are confronted with the same 50/50 scenario and let the world see your level of maturity and communal sophistication before beating your chest over what you are yet to be confronted with.

Your own case is even worse, you don't have religion or any tribal issues dividing and troubling you, no outside interference, but you you still managed to slaughter and kidnap yourselves for money and petty greed, even your own school kids are fair game, it's called communal cannibalism, a great societal disorder.

You can cry about the North killing your people, but you yourselves have zero respect for your lives and your own community.

Nchara:

You chose your part: to be mixed religion. I respect you for that
We chose ours: to be mainly of one religion. Do you have a problem with that?
Despite that, we have uncountable muslims in our midst. We have not decimated them like your brothers do to christians up north.
What value do you have for your lives? Are you not hacking yourselves down everyday just for who runs the motor parks? You are shameless.

Nchara:

You chose your part: to be mixed religion. I respect you for that
We chose ours: to be mainly of one religion. Do you have a problem with that?
Despite that, we have uncountable muslims in our midst. We have not decimated them like your brothers do to christians up north.
What value do you have for your lives? Are you not hacking yourselves down everyday just for who runs the motor parks? You are shameless.

Eko Ile:


Making up silly stories because you can not stand on your own point is really absurd, it's a sign of intellectual weakness.

Eko Ile:


Making up silly stories because you can not stand on your own point is really absurd, it's a sign of intellectual weakness.

freecocoa:

That writer really doesn't know what he's talking about,the yoruba muslims are just too fake for the northern muslims and will not be taken seriously by them.

freecocoa:

Somebody is talking as if yoruba people have the balls to stand up to anything,bunch of lily livered noise makers,the only thing the ofenmanus are advanced in is FEAR and COWARDICE nothing else.

Negro_Ntns:

cocoa, take that grievance to your brother that authored the article.  He seems to disagree with you.

freecocoa:

Somebody is talking as if yoruba people have the balls to stand up to anything,bunch of lily livered noise makers,the only thing the ofenmanus are advanced in is FEAR and COWARDICE nothing else.

Aigbofa:

Are you Allah? Did he inform you Yoruba muslims are fake? If Allah is truly a God of peace, then Yoruba muslims should be be very close to what he would accept in my opinion! How can you say you are serving a God of peace and then randomly slaughter your neighbours? Is that what real islam about?

freecocoa:

allah ke,is that like the name of a toy or what? Please o,I'm not in anyway a part of any useless thing called allah,I just gave an opinion of what I observed,if you understand how a core northern muslim perceives islam then you'd know what I'm talking about,btw please never relate me with or to that evil name again abeg.

Negro_Ntns:

cocoa, start by eradicating osu caste.  that will be a good start. . . learn from Yoruba why a non-prejudiced marriage is good for building social inter-relations.  After that come and lean islam and re-learn christianity from us.

Aigbofa:

What a moro.n! I guess you will regard Yorubas as brave people if they regularly slaughter your people like they do up North.

freecocoa:


Hahaha,did you say slaughter?please its too early to start with jokes,slaughter a chicken first before coming to talk about slaughtering a human being. Hediot.

Aigbofa:

What is your own perception? Must you regularly butcher your neighbours to prove you are a better servant of Allah? I have no problem with anyone claiming to be more devoted, but when devotion turns to mass murder, that is a serious problem.