NeuroBoss:
[s]Since the Oba of Lagos uttered his controversial Lagoon jibe, Lagos has come under a certain attack. It is the foray called, “No Man’s Land.” By that the settlers say Lagos is Nigeria’s city and no ethnic group should lay claim to it as their own.
The position came into play in the just-concluded governor election. It also reared its insular head in the aftermath of the National Assembly and presidential polls in which non-indigenes scooped a haul of seats by besting indigenes.
This sort of attitude is not only arrogant, but. also inherently disrespectful. 
No one settles in a place and displays a proprietary disdain because the indigenes open their hearts and minds and money to them.
The point often made is that Lagos was Nigeria’s capital city, and because of that it soared into a special status in the country. On that score, they argue, the indigenes have lost the right to claim it. It is now Nigeria’s Jerusalem where every tribe and tongue and worshipper has as much right as the other.
This sort of thinking is defective on a number of points. One, it is historical revisionism. That Lagos was a capital city did not happen out of a whim. Where were the other ethnic groups when the indigenes fought wars, built the city, and turned it from a near wilderness into the mustard seed of city? Did they know when Kosoko and Akintoye duelled for the throne? In the colonial era, Lagos was not the only city they treasured. Others included Calabar, Port Harcourt, Lokoja, et al. The reason Lagos transcended others is rooted in the indigenous population’s attitudes to others, their cultural liberalism and economic expansiveness. The colonial authority focused on it, and developed it because it opened itself to such fertility of progress.
Lagos also allowed itself to flower during the fury days of nationalism, breeding names like Azikiwe, Ojike, Mbadiwe, Awolowo, Adelabu, etc. In fact, the dominant party was NCNC, and it was an umbrella for all tribes. The non-Yoruba politicians learned Yoruba, and that itself was homage to the indigenes. How do you learn the language of the indigenes and say it is no man’s land. Zik was fluent in Yoruba, and it helped him ascended the roof in the high noon of Nigerian nationalism. Lagos was not the only port city, and was it the only city that persons surged to make a new beginning? But Lagos exceeded others because of its indigenous people’s open arms.
What happened in the past few weeks with the Igbo against the Yoruba was unfortunate because both ethnic groups have lived together in Lagos for a generation without much rancour. In fact, many of the Igbo have resided in Lagos without a sense of alienation as the indigenes have given them free rein in commerce and culture.
But it was the last election that triggered this, and it was the shadow of President Goodluck Jonathan that we should blame. He came to town to incite the non-indigenes, including those in the Niger Delta, against the APC. By implication, he characterised the APC as a Yoruba and Hausa party. He even held meetings with them without decency and in one of such outings he said INEC was discriminating against them in the distribution of PVCs. Those who are quick to call him a statesman should note this.
Jimi Agbaje, the PDP governorship candidate, fuelled this by ratcheting up the emotions of the Igbo against the ruling party in the state. This ethnic card led to the vote pattern in the presidential poll. Southsouth and Southeast people decided to vote against the ruling party based essentially on ethnic as well as religious grounds. The factor of faith ossified the revulsion against the APC. Even though the APC prevailed, the pattern revealed ominous fault lines of faith and tribe.
The concept of no man’s land is a prostitution of the constitution that allows residency in Nigeria, and therefore allows any person of whatever tribe to contest elections anywhere as long as they are constitutionally accepted as residents. It is prostitution because few adhere although all should. If Lagos accepts and acts it, it is expected to be respected by all. But as far as I know, it is rare to see what happens in Lagos anywhere else in the country.
It is this lack of hostility to strangers that has now been taken to mean acquiescence. Only Lagos has grown to accept the spirit of residency requirement for election. Other parts of the country accept it, but only philosophically.
But before Jonathan, the indigenes have not openly challenged Lagos as Yoruba land. The last time it significantly caused rumpus was in the 1950’s when Zik wanted a Yoruba man, Prince Adedoyin, to step down from the legislative seat for him. He refused and Zik went to his father, and his father, an Oba, shunned him. Zik had earlier boasted about the role of the Igbo as the tribe of destiny in Africa, and that led to ethnic self-awareness among the Yoruba who had naively believed that the Igbo elite were playing politics without tribal fidelity.
The Yoruba, especially with the Ibadan People’s Party, scuttled Zik who was on his way to become the first premier of the Western Region. Zik cried foul, and lobbed a charge of tribal politics against the indigenes. He did not especially help himself when Eyo Ita, a minority in the East, was denied the chance to be premier of the East.
The Yoruba self-awareness in stopping Zik reflects Shakespeare’s words in Hamlet: “Beware of entrance into a quarrel; but being in, bear it that the opposed should beware of thee.” That self-awareness is palpable today in Lagos.
The bad blood in the past few weeks contradicts the feeling of mutual peace both ethnic groups have had for over a generation. Even during the civil war, the Yoruba did not only keep Igbo property, but kept their rents. It is unfortunate that it took the serpentine zeal of a Jonathan to rake up suppressed bad blood. It is the same Jonathan that did not fulfill any major promise to the Igbo and who only fattened its opportunistic elite with juicy contracts and appointments. In Lagos, all ethnic groups have enjoyed dividends of good government. It’s not perfect, but Lagos has remained the state of example.
The United States has always called itself a melting pot, and that means all who come from outside should not impose their will, but be part of the society. That is in contrast to Canada known as a mosaic. In a mosaic, outsiders maintain their full will but outside the mainstream.
The poet Walt Whitman noted this about America. “I am large/I contain multitudes.”
But we have to go back to healing now, and learn to live together. No group needs to be punished for how it voted. It is part of the beauty of democracy. But it means we should learn to understand that diversity calls for the acceptance of the other side in a bid to build a society not hampered by clannish virtues but riding on the wings of merit.[/s]
 

Medley:
Lagos is a south-west state and that simply means it's the yorubas. Though we should stop describing non-indigines in the state as immigrants,it those not portray that there is freedom to live in any part of the country.

ichidodo:
^^^^ Lagos remains no man's land as long as Nigeria remains one and it struggles to become an economic hub...Simply put,the indigenes lost their ancestral rights with the steady influx of yoriba immigrants and non-yoriba immigrants,infact-just like the Columbus effect on Red Indians,throwing the entire northern American continent into no man's land for European immigrants-the core Lagos indigene has become extinct therefore Lagos is no man's land......Omatseye writes for the Nation,do the maths.

pendicle:
Any one who think the indigenes of Lagos will overlook the stupidity and morbid mouth haemorrage of the chest beating but useless tribe is living in foolery.

When they turn blind eye and ethnic fighter to take on the most powerful king in their host abode for expressing a private wish to private guests in his private home and turn that into an avenue to abuse and insult their forefathers who they wake up with karate kicks then they know not who they deal with.

When the Hausa's in Sagamu took the quietness and loving nature of the Remo people for granted and felt they have the numbers to cause trouble, they were dwelt with extensively with multiple beheadings during Oro night curfews and outright and enough financial and physical pains they went to bring the sultan of sokoto and the late emir of kano to beg forgiveness.

Today an average Hausa man in sabo and other places in sagamu know his place.

The Igbos in Lagos and especially those on the Island will know the real powers of the OLOWO EKO, when you think you are something but not knowing you're nobody, only the experience after your foolishness will put it to you, the election should have proven to them who own Lagos by now and their numbers are so inconsequential that Hausa's are more useful than them in Lagos.

The politics and awareness of Lagos changed after the last election and it is now the igbos will know Lagos has been even before their forefathers learn to live like human beings and not animals.

We know how to treat fuckups like this, it is entrenched in our cultural and traditional ways long long ago, civilization made it go under but it will come out now. Oba Oyekan begged that Oro should be done very very late into the night cause of visitors and outsiders and should be confined to only indigenous part of Lagos but now we will do it everywhere in Lagos to prove the land is ours and we earned it from our forebears.

The Aworis will do gelede, the eguns will do zangbeto, the ikorodus will do agemo and eluku and then these bastards wil know the LAND OF LAGOS truly have owners.

Awon omo irankiran, ato ko wa ba leje.

9jacrip:
The relegation of traditional festivals to the background is killing Yoruba itself.

omazus:
Therefore, I was not suprised when a Yoruba child of 12 years who visited me, sat on my house and was served food declared to my own daughter with whom she was sharing the food that she hates all Igbo people. I was taken aback. At such a tender age. I sat back and asked her, so you hate me. She said no that I'm a good person but she hates all other Igbo persons. The message has been delevered and Igot it. Children get their worldviews from their parents and if a child could harbour such a thought then we are all done as a nation.

NeuroBoss:
Since the Oba of Lagos uttered his controversial Lagoon jibe, Lagos has come under a certain attack. It is the foray called, “No Man’s Land.” By that the settlers say Lagos is Nigeria’s city and no ethnic group should lay claim to it as their own.
The position came into play in the just-concluded governor election. It also reared its insular head in the aftermath of the National Assembly and presidential polls in which non-indigenes scooped a haul of seats by besting indigenes.
This sort of attitude is not only arrogant, but. also inherently disrespectful. 


The Yoruba, especially with the Ibadan People’s Party, scuttled Zik who was on his way to become the first premier of the Western Region. Zik cried foul, and lobbed a charge of tribal politics against the indigenes. He did not especially help himself when Eyo Ita, a minority in the East, was denied the chance to be premier of the East..........

rit.But we have to go back to healing now, and learn to live together..........
 

MsTIQ:
One thing I have learnt from the Lagos saga is ; History! Now I have learnt different ones, and I dunno which one to believe ! The Oba was wrong, Yes! Let's forgive him Peace!

omazus:
Mr. Omatseye, I like reading you every Monday at the back of the Nation. Before now, as an undergraduate I read you in the Sun Newspapers. The truth is, I do not read you because of the wisdom and the truth contained in your write up but in your mastery and skillful use of the English language. It is a pity that that skill which made me to fall in love you is lacking in this write up.

Just yesterday, as Nigerians were killing themselves I was ensconsed in Thomas Friedman's book, "The Lexus and the Olive Tree." It is a book about globalisation and world development. In that book Friedman artfully exposed what I may call the problem of Nigeria. And it is this. "Half of the world seemed to be intent ... on building a better lexus, dedicated to modernising, streamlining and privatizing their economies in order to thrive in the system of globalisation. And half of the world - sometimes half the same country, sometimes half the same person - was still caught up in the fight over who owns which olive tree." That a writer should lend his trade to struggle about ownership of an olive tree, and to lie bardefacedly while doing so tells much about us as a country.

The truth is that the Yoruba person is is ingrained with an incurable hatred of the Igbo. I do not know why. But this is why I say so. A Yoruba friend told me how as a kid he read a book about the origin of the Igbo. It was a Yoruba book which he showed to me but since I couldn't raed the language I couldn't follow with the content. In that book, the Igbo was a product of a relationship between a Yoruba female outcast and a monkey. If I did not believe this many comments I have read from Yoruba nairalanders here have4 made allusion to this. Therefore, I was not suprised when a Yoruba child of 12 years who visited me, sat on my house and was served food declared to my own daughter with whom she was sharing the food that she hates all Igbo people. I was taken aback. At such a tender age. I sat back and asked her, so you hate me. She said no that I'm a good person but she hates all other Igbo persons. The message has been delevered and Igot it. Children get their worldviews from their parents and if a child could harbour such a thought then we are all done as a nation.

My point is this, the Igbo were agitated by Oba's comment because almost all of them in Lagos are aware of this feeling of hatred against them. And in the recent time we have heard of giving the Igbo in Lagos the Hausa treatment they received in Kano. Now it is becoming an official practice to hate the Igbo and stop him by all means the Igbo must have a rethink. As a tribe we must make a conscious decision that henceforth no further buying and developing of property in Lagos. If you have made money, take it down to the East and build there. Thank you.

9jacrip:


Very sweet write up Sir/Ma.

I wish these cultural festivals could be resuscitated on a larger scale. The relegation of traditional festivals to the background is killing Yoruba itself.

mapet:


Bros,

I'd rather you went straight to your points, but your retort and critique on skillful writing is ironic as you made blunders which you seemingly accused Omatseye of.

First off, I will not bother requesting for verification of the name of the Yoruba book you claimed you saw with a 12 year old on the history of Igbos. A simple check on all Yoruba literature used in schools and approved by state ministries of education will show that no such book exist. Will you rather now blame a nation for some printouts that was of no known academic background? I do not claim the mastery of the skill of writing, but I know simply logic does not permit these errors of generalization and quoting from on verified sources.

For me I think the lessons that should be learnt is hardly learnt and we keep making the same mistakes all over. Let me just say a few;
1. When we don't respect each other; or better still we outrightly ridicule each other's tribes, the embers of discord will keep growing. Considering the number of unsavory things I see on NL as reflective of some collective positions of the divide is scary
2. This feeling of "they hate me, so I hate them" will not make the problem go away
3. I think well meaning Igbos should tell their folks to back off the issue of "Lagos, a no man's land". It has not worked, neither will it. It will only incur more ill-feeling and I dare say it's senseless and disrespectful of Lagosians.
4. We have a collective responsibilities of passing the right values to our children.

On the Oba's comment's, well Igbos were obviously agitated, but wisdom at times tells us we are circumspect in our reaction and take paths that are expedient. If we're careful enough we should have handled it better collectively kill the matter quickly. We are probably going battle with dousing the smoke of this issue that will last another few more long years