Tayo Fasuan, From Lagos (a Yoruba man) wrote:

I've wanted to stay away from this Igbo-Yoruba issue again, but I've been seeing some narratives that keep making my blood boils.

And the recent one has to do with how Igbos are 'taking over our lands'. And this is where I lost it.

Look, if you are of the opinion that Igbos are taking over your lands, whatever that means, I want to categorically call you a fool, and I don't care if your feelings are hurt.

I mean what the actual Bleep?!

One, whose lands exactly are they taking over? The ones you inherited or what? The ones you left undeveloped or another one? The ones you sold them at inflated rate or which one? Abeg shift base!

Instead of complaining about their encroachment, why not develop some balls and go and take over their lands as well? Why not offer them ludicrous amount of money for a plot of land and see if they won't sell? Why not leave your families and kin behind and go to a land you know absolutely nobody and settle their? Why not leave your comfort zone that you are not developing and not progressing in and settle down somewhere and grow?

I keep defending my race that we are not cowards, but when I look at this critically, we really are. We have no mind and balls to settle anywhere else because obviously, everyone is dangerous. We can't live in the North or the East because everyone except us is dangerous. I don't want to insult those who have lost lives and properties in intertribal wars in both areas of the country, but we need to peel our eyes back and see properly.

We are just scared. Yes, scared. Myself inclusive.

Scared of being adventurous. Scared of being away from our people. Scared of losing and starting again. Scared of competition. Scared of everything that other major tribes ain't scared of.

Two years ago, I went to a part of my state that I've never been to before. I never even knew the place existed. Guess who had the only mini market in that village? Yeah damn right. An Igbo boy. Not a man. A boy. He sells everything they want. I was amazed. I spent close to 30 minutes interrogating him. He was barely 20years old. Yes, I was scared for him.

And that's how it is in the whole country. The Igbos remain the only tribe in the country that are never afraid of going to new places to establish. If they fail in a business, they start another one. I keep seeing them everyday in my town, trying selling something new every time. Trying to make it despite the obvious hostility around them. Most of us who are complaining about them would rather buy from them than the Yorubas.

They keep going to places to create new things, and all we do is beef them. The first major supermarket in Ado-Ekiti, Okoli, was from an Igbo man. The current trending one, NAO Supermarket, is owned by an Igbo. The entire bank road of Ado-Ekiti was bought by an Igbo man in the late 80s and 90s, and he has been selling to all the banks in that areas since then.

And what are we busy doing? Shitting in our pants shouting "They are taking over our lands". Hehehehehehehehe!!! Fada Lawd! Our entire computer villages are littered with them. They move out and own shit! We...? We just sit our asses down and complain about how the money they use in buying all these are blood and ritual money! Hehehehehehehehe!!! Really?! A Yoruba man calling an Igbo man a ritualist! Fada Lawd!

Even the Northerners are setting up Shasha markets all around us, and where the heck are we and what are we doing in their own states? Nothing.

Let's grow some balls. No one will 'eat' us in Igbo lands. I served in the interiors of Anambra, precisely in Akpo in Aguata Local Government, in a community school inside the bush there. I trek daily inside that Bush for a whole bloody year, and no one ate me or used me for money. They gave me foods, they offered their daughters to me in marriage. They wanted me to settle among them. I know those who cried when I was leaving. I know those of my colleagues that settled there. I know of many Yorubas that established there and are making it, dammit!

#Sigh. I've never been angry like this in a long while, and now I'm exhausted. ����. Let's treat each others like humans first. Let's remove this tribal labelling. Rwandan has done it and is moving forward. Even Nigerians feel more at home in South Africa, the xenophobic country, more than they would feel with other tribes in Nigeria.

And if we feel all these aren't possible, then let's fucking part ways and establish our own separate kingdoms. But like my mum said "Take away the Igbos and see your community become empty".

Enough said! - @Hope For Nigeria

Aptly said! I've been wanting to write something like this for a while, I'm igbo by the way though.

A lot of yoruba people actually play the 'encroachment' card, which always keeps me baffled. There are a fuckton of igbos up north, but I have NEVER heard an hausa/fulani man for once play that card!!

Afonjas are not okay upstairs. Afonjas like they sold Yoruba to Islam and allowed Fulani to capture Kwara, will ultimately destroy the yoruba race. These people are agents!

Osu pigs creating fake names ... useless losers

My friend, whoever wrote that narrative you have there is either suffering from chronic inferiority complex or simply seeks attention for survival.

I am a Yoruba and I have never ever in my so many years alive heard people especially Yorubas complaining that igbos are encroaching on Yorubalands.

The pseudo-Yoruba-ness displayed in the narrative reeks of naivety and misinformation.

Yorubas are renowned for their hospitality and warmth. They are accomodating as much as witty as the case maybe. All of these in varying degrees.

We tend to easily involve people in our lives and relationships thats the reason it is easy for anybody to come to Yorubalands and under months find his/her feet and make friends.

Every geo-economic zone has its defining ideology. Hausas are basically into farming/herding, Igbos are entrepreneurs/trading/skilled/unskilled workers, Yorubas are academics/administrators/entertainers/consumers.

Only a fool will overlook a cash-in-hand teeming population who are ready to consume your services to do business in another zone.

The reason why the writer is misinformed is because he sums the integrity of a Yoruba man to his travels.

For your information, Indians and Chinese are one of the most industrious people on the planet, they are everywhere there is an oppurtunity. America, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, etc. They dominate the population of most of the regions they migrate to, after some time they make enough to invest in the real estate of these areas and become land owners which is a good thing but not one of these former land owners people are intimidated by their success because they know they contributed to their successes and yet Americans, British, Australians etc do not have to migrate to India or China to prove that they are hardworking and own the largest economies in the world,

Business, Economic and Trading oppurtunities abound bountifully in the Yorubalands which boasts of more than 25% of the Nigerian population.

If job oppurtunities abound in the South East like the case for business oppurtunities in South West, a typical Yoruba person will travel to go and dominate the industry. I grew up in Warri where Shell Nigeria staffs were predominantly Yoruba and Igbos. There were too many Yorubas and Igbos @ a ratio of 3:1 in Shell, Edjeba you could mistaken there for Lagos I dont know about now again o.

So the writer should start from what are the basic lifestyles of the people in each geo-economic zones and what do these people do when their lifestyles demands are not met, where do they go to fulfil their lifestyle ambitions.

Mr. Writer should take the issue of deep-rooted fear away from his narratives and substitute it with necessity.

Like Albert Einstein said 'if you judge a fish's ability to climb a tree you would dismiss it as a failure'.

Back to my first point, I still have never heard someone grumbled about Igbo's owning properties in Yorubaland.

In fact, we own some properties in Warri simply because that's where I grew up.