₦airaland Forum

Ngodigha:
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-686223.32.html

You can read through how insulted a poster who has not done any thing wrong to him.

i can see u ve edited ur post smart one anit u

Ngodigha:
^^^ u must be an ideeiot, i even tought uve changed but i can see u are an ideeiot
This is a quote from Alh Harem. He insults people always and always calling moderators to ban posters.

ezeuche is playing the devils advocate and i do not want to join in because u would not like it if i start

i said that to stop him not for him to be banned ok

Onlytruth:
Posted by: alj harem
Quite refreshing to know you stand for these!  

Lets just say that item number 3 above is mute if you accept there are really 3 regions in Nigeria.
Nothing changes this fact.

Item number 1 above is not achievable without achieving 2 and 3 below it.  

ture talk

how is mumsi and my other brothers na ?

Onlytruth:
^

Stop changing colors!
Walahi if any of these moderators have brain at all, they would have banned you a long time ago.
You add nothing and contribute nothing to the Nigeria debate.

Everyone knows where I stand on Nigerian issues -solve the national question or divide. Simple.

Where do you stand?

chai!!!! see my blood brother angry at his older brother,

i guess where i stand on nigeria issues is very clear

1 arrest all corrupt office holders and stop corruption in nigeria

2 regional government where each region controls his region (3 regions)

3 nigeria should remain as 1 but if a particular section want to go, pls by all means go but dont invade or take with is not theirs

Onlytruth:
al harem,

Why are you still claiming to be anything other than a THOROUGHBRED Yoruland man (nothing to be ashamed of about that).

Please "come out"!
Nigeria is already too confusing as is; why add to the confusion.

If you are a friend of Nigeria in any way, please stop changing colors faster than a chameleon.

what are u chatting about

why are u forcing yoruba on me

why

[quote author=Ileke-IdI link=topic=686901.msg8488496#msg8488496 date=1307644757]Obviously the North and SS/SEastern Nigeria is not the best region for NYSC right now.

North - Human suya

SS/SEast - Human ransom[/quote]u forgot the oba raping corper in SW or am i wrong

adejoro we should be friends na

u can visit this site, quite interesting for igbo lovers

http://www.igbo.org/

sbeezy8:
BS she said OGD has governed ogun state well- when i read that i could have reached through the comp n slappd her myself dumb azz statement- maybe cause shes old n OGD n pdp always hang around her influencing her opninion

can u show me the articule where she said so

Eko Ile:
Leave the old woman alone, people are tolerating her because of her late husband. See what she did to the tribune, the Tribune is the PDP's mouthpiece in the SW. I know Awo dey role inside grave at what den turn the Tribune into.

u joking right!!!

Eko Ile:
lmao, every clown on NL have so much fear and respect for Asiwaju that they have to invoke his name to get attention.


God Bless Asiwaju Tinubu and Yorubaland and whatever Asiwaju is doing that's giving you endless heartburn and chronic blood pressure, may Asiwaju continue with vigor and vitality.

Amen

SMH delusional person

u must be beaf of yorubaland

sbeezy8:
Awo would be disappointed in his family

just because shes awo wife doesnt mean shes as smart or wise as him.

obj has said in many interviews he worked for the emergence of shagari over Awo-

i think awo would be more disappointed at u, eko ile and tinubu

jmaine:
Chameleon Alj Harem at his best . . . . . . . .Now you dey laff . You are a true breed of a typical Nigerian politician  . . Highly unstable individuals . .

ha
ha

no be me talk am ooooo

i dey laff because of folks like eko ile "tinubu born servant"

tinubu is a desperate get rich man, the sooner u wake up the better

I dey laff ooooooo


SW this tinubu go put u for casala one day, dey watch

silly people

tinubu has soled SW to the highest payer so long has they have money to enrich himself

The Yeye Oodua, Chief  H.I.D Awolowo yesterday condemned what she considered to be an attempt to demystify the Awolowo family through a publication in a national newspaper (not Vanguard) titled ‘Awo family without an Awo’.

Writing with obvious anger and displeasure over the publication, the Matriarch of the revered Awolowo family went to a great length to set the records straight especially on issues raised in the publication. Part of Chief Awolowo’s response is reproduced below with minimal editing:

Ordinarily, I do not join issues with uninformed individuals nor do I comment on articles written in uncouth and downright vile and violent language. Hypocrites that claim to be more catholic than the Pope or more Awoist than his family when they in fact hobnob with so-called pariahs when it suits them and their pockets certainly do not engage my attention, usually.

However, this piece, the latest in a long campaign of calumny against my person and family and which, if reports are to be believed, is the opening salvo of a fresh campaign apparently aimed at destroying and demystifying the Awolowo family, deserves an appropriate response, particularly since, we are informed, such campaign has been adopted as the preferred policy and strategy by a particular political party to consolidate its hold on its newly acquired political power base.

At 95, I have lived long enough to expect common civility from younger ones, assuming that they received and imbibed proper home training. Having just lost my daughter less than two months ago, I also expect that normal people would spare me the kind of vitriolic attack that was unleashed on my person and my family, particularly as such an attack was entirely unprovoked.

It is pertinent to mention here that, for all their protestations as the true children of Awo, the top hierarchy of the leadership of the ACN has not deemed it fit to offer me their condolences on the bereavement either by telephone, letter, or personal visit, up till now.

I should certainly not expect anyone in their right mind to, in the same article, rake up the old wounds of the previous tragic loss of my first son and then proceed to question and, indeed, dismiss the notion that he could possibly have been fit to carry his illustrious father’s mantle. All in a bid to situate the authour’s ‘piper’ as the anointed heir of a heritage that can never be purchased.

For the avoidance of doubt, my son Olusegun was a graduate of Cambridge University and he was called to the bar in the UK after a stint at the Inner Temple, where his father also studied. These are facts that are open for verification by anyone who wishes to do so.

Our expectations of Segun were tragically cut short and it is a cruel irony that a so—called Awoist has chosen to taunt me with this. With friends like this, who needs an enemy?

The writer claims that, ‘in all his tribulations, the family (Awo) had was not his flesh and blood’. One of the basic tenets of journalism is that facts are sacred but comments are free. Perhaps it should not be surprising that the writer  failed even in this. I would like to refer him to the dedication contained in Awo’s last book, first published in 1987 ‘The Travails of Democracy and the Rule of Law’. I quote:

‘To my children, Omotola, Oluwole, Ayodele, Olatokunbo. They also bravely weathered the fierce and howling storm from sixty-two to sixty-six; they suffered mental agony in silence; they provided besides sources of cheer for Papa and Mama, in the four-year—long journey through the dark and dreary tunnel’.

As for my personal role in my husband’s life before, during and after the crisis, I commend to the writer most of his publications, particularly ‘AWO’, ‘My March Through Prison’, and ‘The Travails of Democracy and the Rule of Law’.

It is surely to the utter shame of a so-called avowed Awoist that he has exposed his absolute lack of any knowledge of Awo’s life. I would not be surprised if the writer was unaware, as many of his. cohorts also appear to be, that I was the first person to use the broom as a party symbol when lied the party’s campaign for the Federal elections that were held during my husband’s incarceration.

The writer’s dishonest claim of respect for Awo’s thoughts and opinions is further debunked by his notion that Awo was unable to correctly assess his wife of 48 years (at the time of his transition).

The abject insult that was heaped on my person by the writer, for daring to rise above partisanship and pursue the common good has caused me the kind of pain that can only be dealt with by offering it to God, whose wheel of justice may grind slowly but is guaranteed to grind exceedingly fine.

I notice a reference to ‘dynastic curse’ in the article under reference. I totally reject that in my family, by the blood of Jesus and I decree, by His power, that any contrary pronouncement shall return to its sender.

Like her father before her, she has taken electoral defeat in her stride and has since returned to her profession as an Occupational Health Physician. In other words, she has moved on. It is about time that everyone else did too.

I recall that some so-called Awoists refused to support the initiative on the pretext that the support of the ‘wrong crowd’ had also been invited. Of course, this did not prevent the full participation of these ‘purists’ in the fund-raising ceremony for Sir Ahmadu

Bello’s centenary celebrations, an event that was organised by the then Governors of the Northern states, none of whom belonged to the party of ‘the perfect ones’.

For clarification, I applaud the way in which the Governors and all concerned rallied to the cause of celebrating Sir Ahmadu Bello, one of Nigeria’s founding fathers. I simply quote this example to highlight the breathtaking hypocrisy of these modern-day Pharisees.

I believed then, and I still believe now that Chief Awolowo’s right to be honoured and celebrated, particularly in the territory in which he held sway and in which he performed the feats for which he will be forever remembered, should not be predicated on political party affiliation.

As far as I am aware, Chief Awolowo has not founded any of the political parties existing in Nigeria today. His political associates, those who actually knew him personally and worked with him, can be found in several different parties. Let me remind the writer and others like him that Awo expounded the theory of dialectics in his last presidential address to the UPN at Abeokuta in 1983.

His thoughts and -ideas have been proved beyond any doubt to be the blueprint for Nigeria’s, even Africa’s, development and it remains a source of joy to me to see and hear people from all political parties, using him as their roadmap to success in governance. Talk about vindication!

I, and my family, refuse therefore to be hamstrung or blackmailed into going into the . bondage of exclusive association with people who clearly resent and despise us and have made no secret of that fact.

We applaud all those who have tried their best to approximate Chief Awolowo’s record of service and we extend our best wishes to those, including those in the writer’s list, who are just setting out on their journey of governance.

We pray that they may succeed, even as Awo did. To do so, however, they have to remain faithful to his ideals and work sacrificially, as he did, for the benefit of the people in whose trust they today they occupy high office and whose expectations have been raised that another Awo era has arrived.

Finally, let me say this. When last I checked, there was no law in Nigeria that compelled anyone to go into partisan politics. Under a democratic dispensation, freedom of association is also guaranteed.

The writer would, no doubt, balk at any suggestion that he should forgo any of his rights as a bona fide citizen of Nigeria, including the above-mentioned rights and liberties, under any circumstances. As. my husband always used to say (and include in many of his writings), however, you must always concede the rights to others that you claim for yourself. This is an important lesson for the writer.

To the uninformed, Chief Awolowo’s legacies begin and end with partisan politics. Those who know better, however, recognise that his legacies as a thinker, visionary and administrator hold far wider and more profound implications for, and potential to impact, posterity. My children know this and remain free to choose, individually and collectively, which aspect of their paterfamilias’ legacy they wish to promote and progress.

My family fully recognizes, cherishes and welcomes the larger Awo family, regardless of status or location. But we will not be harassed into associating with anyone or group, no matter how loudly they proclaim their self-righteousness.
Let me end with one of Papa’s favourite quotes,

‘What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted!
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just,
And he but unclothed, though lock’d up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted’.

I hope this statement will be given the same prominence in The Nation newspaper as the offensive article.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/06/awolowo%E2%80%99s-dynasty-cannot-be-rubbished-h-i-d-awolowo/

aloy emeka

thank you

manny4life:
There you go, exhibiting your usual behavior, trust me I am not surprised. Like I maintain, I've recently studied your post, and you're not worth wasting time on. If you did not care, why are you responding?

yes, you people' comments are very annoying

am i ohaneze or am i ojukwu

why insult or blame alj harem for the title when the sun newspaper used the same title

Emmyk:
You made me interested in the CULTURE section. Gracias. And this is my dëbêu on CULTURE. Lol. And yeah, I'm okun.

i am glad i did

if u are an okun person from kogi then u are part of the yoruba ethnic group just like the egba, awori etc

can u tell us more about okun if u do not mind

thank you my imo brothers and sisters

the sooner we leave this york of bondage the better

the sooner imo people leave this so called "wider igbo" the better

imo people are know to be advance political just like anioma and ika + ikweerri have desociated themselves from this people

the sooner you follow the train the better it

i am from anambra myself and me and my people are getting ready to leave this so called wider igbo

u can see this poster kasiem is one of the wider igbo people

I and abagworo (imo) have join the train the sooner the better

poverty and suffering knows no ethnic group or tribe

enough said

afam4eva:
Pls tell us the story. I know there are Yoruboid groups in Kogi but some of them don't like being referred to as Yoruba. I think people from the Kabba area like being called yoruba.

i think this is very ignorant to say as you have not been to kogi before, either have you spoken to kabba okun people

this is from okun association website itself

http://okundevelopmentassociation.org/origin.html


Until quite late in their history, the ethnic groups known as Yoruba today, seemed not to have adopted a common name to describe themselves. According to Robin Law, the word Yoruba was used by the Hausa to refer to Oyo Kingdom or people of Oyo extraction.

Furthermore, it is believed to be a corruption of the Yerribawa, a Hausa term in, reference to the Oyo. By an intriguing inference, therefore, the word itself is probably not Yoruba origin.

But all theories, albeit all hypotheses are tentative as they are, in most cases, based on the assumptions of the moment, but propositions which could be dismissed later in their entirety as unrelated or realities by the discovery of new and compelling evidence.

In essence, the origin of any group of people could be slippery deductions and unreliable conclusions rather than being unalterable affirmations.

Today, the Yoruba people occupy the geographical west of Nigeria, South-Western part of North Central Zone, parts of the eastern corridor of Benin Republic, (formerly Dahmey) and sometimes an irredentist group in Western Togo.

More,
The sub-ethnic Yoruba nationalities in Nigeria are Oyo, Ife, Ijebu, Ijesa, Anago Awori, Egba, Egbado, Owu, Ekiti, Akoko, Ikale, [size=14pt]Ilaje[/size], Ilorin, Ibolo, Igbomina and Okun (Yagba, Ijumu, Owe, Abunu, Oworo).

According to John Ogunsola Igue, and O. J, Yai, both of the National University of Benin, in Cotonuon, the Yoruba speaking people of Benin Republic are Ketu, Isabe (Sabe or Save), Ohori and Idasa (Dassa) and in Togo, and Ife.

The Yoruba, as one of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria have played important roles in all the aspects of the national life of a country reputed to contain more than four hundred ethnic groups. Many of these entities number just hundreds of thousands of people while the major three are more than twenty million souls each.

Naturally by this type of disparity in number, and wide differences in geographical locations, and spread of their population, there have been variations in economic development, disproportion’s in educational advancement, discrepancies in industrial and commercial growths, all inevitably leading directly to what some prudes describe as socio-economic dislocations.

The Okun-Yoruba

The people known today as Okun Yoruba occupy a general area referred to, during the colonial era, as Kabba Division, in the old Kabba Province. As one of the thirteen provinces in the former Northern Region of Nigeria, it was once described by a colonial officer as ‘a dust bin province’ due in part probably to its remoteness from the regional capital of Kaduna and perhaps its location in the heart of the so called “pagan areas” during the heyday of the British Rule. What was described as Kabba Province is today Kogi State.
The Designation, Kabba Division, seemed to have been changed to Oyi Division, possibly after Oyi River, and in conformity with the general approval of the people. A popular decision, probably arrived at to give a clear identity to the various ethnic groups within the area who were sometimes called Kabba people or even Kabba tribal group. An oddity, resented by the majority of the people of the area, the name soon lost any luster it could have garnered before independence.

The military administration of the Kwara state later changed the name to Oyi Local Government Area. But its sprawling landmass resembled a state rather than a territorial unit designed to serve local administration. Soon it was slit by the government, in their wisdom, into smaller and manageable districts.

What has been accepted in our own time, as an authentic nomenclature or fitting appellation for our people, was a novel idea popularized through consistent usage by some university dons, and later accepted, with great aplomb by the generality of our people.

The name Okun was first suggested by Eva Kraft Askari during a field investigation in 1965, into Owe traditions in line with the manner of the greetings of the people. In the words of this researcher, “to eliminate confusion, the expression Okun or Okun-Yoruba be used for the group of five tribes formerly known as the Kabba-Yoruba”. But this fascinating suggestion, laden with rare historical perception was not without serious objectives.

John Onaiyekan )now Catholic Archbishop of Abuja) in particular frowned at the suggestion. In his doctoral thesis on Owe-Yoruba, he states, “we find it hard to see how this eliminates confusion when it only introduces [/b]a new and unheard of expression to replace a term that has already become widely acceptable, even though it may seem “loosely used” to a foreign ethnographic out for precision at all cost”.

[b]But the general acceptance of the term Okun-Yoruba by the Yagba, Ijumu, Abunu and even Owe people as a fitting replacement of their age old ethnic identities, most have convinced many of its popularity as a proper group label.

Its currency within Kogi State today is well known and while outside of the state it has established itself properly, as if it originated from some venerable antiquity.

H[b]owever, some other ethnic sub-groups namely, Akoko, Ekiti and even Ijesa have queried our present monopoly of the word “Odun” as they too greet in similar manner. However, by the tenacity of our historians, the name has since gained immense popularity and wide acceptance amongst our people. But amongst those who promoted this name vigorously through their writings and seminars, Ade Obayemi stands out as a colossus.
[/b]
In his rather erudite but aesthetic academic listing of Okun people, he suggested the following as those belonging to Okunland; Iyagba, Ijumu, Igbede, Owe, Abinu, Ikiri and Oworo. This particularly novel rendering of the names seems to have been an attempt at rejecting, ostensibly, a colonial orthography, and apparent angelicized spellings.

It would perhaps serve no useful purpose nor germane to the understanding of Okun history by devoting extra time here to prove that the Okun Yoruba are indeed of the same stock as the other Yoruba. There are sufficient proofs in their dialects, cultural and social life. Though being fringe or border people, some of their manners, attitudes, and general worldwide have been modified by their long years of close contacts and association with their non-Yoruba neighbours. This has led, in effect, to mutual and continuous borrowing from each other’s cultures and unabated intrusions in varied manners, into each other’s mode of living and ownership.

The pristine reference to the East, Saudi Arabia, Egypt of Sudan and the possible origin home of the Yoruba were favoured by early students of Yoruba history such as Samuel Johnson Olumide Lucas and even Biobaku. But in thesis of these eminent authors are today considered untenable in the face of overwhelming evidence contradicting the main thrust of their arguments.

They have been criticized as unacceptable for reasons of great distances between these countries and Yoruba land, the incongruent nature of the spoken languages, traditions, and the oral stories of the people themselves indicating local origins.

The worlds of men and women are often not closely governed by them nor controlled in absolute terms by their kind. Other forces at work, remote, sometimes alien and even unknown, often put beyond their immediate reach and use such important aspect of their persons.

Until recently, and probably by the stout academic protests by radical and diligent scholars and authors, the area known today as [size=15pt]Okun Yoruba was neglected by researchers in Yoruba history. References to the region were only in peripheral terms as part of Northern Yoruba. Okun was routinely omitted on maps delimiting the extent of Yoruba country. The main map in the autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, left Yoruba country. The main map in the autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo left out the area while the producer (of the map) clearly indicated that the Itsekiri were related to the Yoruba people! This seems to me to be an omission, which the sage himself would have corrected promptly, had he noticed it. H visited Okunland many times from the early 1950’s.[/size]

Now, having dismissed the earlier assumptions about the origins of the people, where is their primeval home located?

Ade Obayemi, once described by an academic colleague, of his Robin Horton, as the prince of the Iconoclasts for his widely known penchant for attacking most acceptable views on Yoruba history, worked tirelessly on Okun history. A thorough and indefatigable researcher, immersed in modern historical, methods, fine archaeological, and art historical processes, he employed these tools and techniques in his radical arguments and scientific approach, in arriving at unassailable conclusions. But as the Economist Magazine once suggested in reviewing a book on “Louis XIV and Europe” edited by R. Hatton, “once function of history is to undermine orthodoxy’s”.

Before we comment further, however on Obayemi’s position and the views of others with similar academic dissension and variance, it is perhaps proper and important to examine the oral traditions of Okun people from their own stories.

In most community of Okun, there are hints of aboriginal population sometimes designated as autochthons who claim they have been occupying their territories since the beginning of creation; and that they do not know where they came from nor their original homes. But the generality of the people often claim Oyo Ile and Ile-Ife and some other polities outside of Yorubaland.

Owe

Z. O. Apata, in his thesis on the old Kabba Province, indicates that OW people believe they are from Ile-Ife through their ancestors variously called Odide, Ereju and Aseda, probably three persons or the same personage who passed through Akure and such other places as Ayere, to found their settlement.

But traditional at Ayere indicate that their ancestor, Olu Orere had a sister called OWE who established a settlement at Oke Aba (Okaba or Kaba) and thus the land was named after her. Furthermore, Ayere claim OWE people are their offspring through their daughter OWE. But Apata intimates that the relationship between Ayere and OWE in which the former claims seniority is stoutly disputed by the latter.

However, there is a language spoken at Ayere beside Yoruba, which is not understood by its neighbours. Perhaps this is from the antiquity and a direct hint of autochthonous population.

Abinu (Abunu or Bunu

T[b]he Abinu people are said to have come from Oyo Ile by way of Iddo, perhaps, in Ekiti country. But Apata again infers, quoting II.S Brilano, Adulu and Iyearu. The eldest brother settled in Ike. But Ade Obayemi points to an Igala origin with their claims to Attaship title, though Apata argues that this is likely to be a remote possibility with the present knowledge of OKUN history, however, an Igala origin of any group is likely to be a rarity indeed.
[/b]
IJUMU

The general claim in Ijumu is either Ife or Oyo origin. But there is an oral tradition recorded in Iyah Gbede by a British officer named HB. James, in 1926 which indicates that Iyah Gbede, is the dispersal point of the princess who in turn established such politics as Yagba, Gbede, Bunu, Akoko, Aiyede and their homeland, Ijumu.

However, my interviews with Aderemi Adeleye, our well-known historian and scholar, in 1990, indicate that Iyanmoye is the dispersal point of the princes mentioned by HB. James. Adeleye further pointed out that Iyah Gbede itself claimed they came from the oldest settlement in the area.

The settlement in question, he indicated, was Iyamoye – “the point of dispersal of the princes”.

In his work on Gbedeland, “The Making of Gbede”, MK Ogidan claims “Gbede originated from Ile-Ife and their ancestral FATHER WAS CALLED Owa.

The story recorded by James and amplified by Adeleye together with the piece by Ogidan, point to some uniformity in the origin of Ijumu or Gbede people. The claim by Ijumu that most other Okun elements including Akoko and Aiyede descended from them, if anything, will seem to indicate internal migration. Although they are silent about this particular primacy they refer to other polities as their places of origin.

EAST YAGBA

Many communities in East Yagba, especially South East Yagba claim to be descendants of Iya Agba, an Oyo Princess who settled at Ilac or Awoyo somewhere between Ife – Olukotun and Ejuku. But the story of an ancestry traceable to Iya Agba seems not to be uniform in East Yagba. According to Apata, Bridel recorded an oral tradition also indicates that Isanu maintains regular contacts in their history to date, their primogenitor being an Ife prince called Isanlugbara.

Oba Atobatele of Ife Olukotun in 1977, informed me that the most potent proof of Ile-Ife origin of the community was its place name of Ife. But in his usually giddy and often unorthodox aggressive and academic prowess and academic prowess and forays into history and archaeology, Ade Obayemi dismissed this contention by indicating that similarities in names such as Ife, Ufe, Iffic, do not necessarily confer a primacy in antiquity of one place over the other. As with othergroups, the Nupe wars affected the history Amuro Group, Ponyan, Ilai, and Igbagun reflecting internal migrations and places of origin within Yagba land.

WEST YAGBA – Iya Agba is believed to be the primogenitor of most of the area. She is said to be a Princess from Oyo ile settled at Akata from where she sent her brothers or sons to establish new settlements in different parts of West Yagba

But the story appears to be a variance of the one told in Eat Yagba. Thus Iya Agba could have been the same person who settled at llac or Awoyo and at Akata or probably two different personalities.

In his latest book, “The History of Yagba”, full of useful information but not properly organized, Bolaji Iyekolo claims that the whole of Yagba originated from Akata. But from the above, many historians, specially Hae centric Oral historians will dispute this claim.

At Egbe the story is slightly different as Oyo communities or clans there, claim they are descendants of Aremo Kelaye who was a Prince from Oyo ile. But Ife clans there claim Ife leaders were their scions. On the other hand there is a general hint of aboriginal groups, especially at Ododi. In addition there are those who believed Ido Egbe is a typical Nupe or Tapaclan. But this appears to be a general phenomenon in the whole of Okunland.

The oral tradition which attempts to link Eri, Ere, Egbe and Ogbe in reinforcing the Iya Agba connection between these communities, has been dismissed by Ade Obayemi as a probable play on words, although Ade Ijagbemi seems to disagree with him. In my interviews and examination of the local stories at Egba, indigenes find the story strange.

The places of origin and internal migrations are important in Okunland when related to the other fringe populations of the region. But of all border non-Yoruba peoples, the Nupe have influenced Okun more than the others beginning from the 16th century; their pre-colonial activities including their short lived hegemony during the colonial era are also significant in this. They left, if only irritating glimmers, permanent land marks on the cultural evaluation of the Okun.

Titles such as Osu or Esu (Etsu), Shiaba (Sha’aba or duty ruler) Kpotunor Potun, Saki 9Saki or Ruler by way of Hausa) and common names like Igunu, Bagudu, Jia are of Nupe origin. The red caps favour by the Okun chiefs would seem to be of Nupe origin.

Similarly by association and use, many words of Yoruba have crept into Nupe and Ebira language especially Ebira Tao.

Now the main thesis of Obayemi revolves around the people of the Niger-Benue Confluence Area as the forebears of Okun people.

We are informed by Horton, Obayemi and Akinkugbe that about the year 3000 BC there was a great dispersal of the peoples believed to be the ancestors of those known today as Yoruba, Igala, Igbo, Benin, Isin, Itshekiri, Nupe and others. Between 500 BC and 500 AD, the proto-Yoruba seemed to have separated from their Igala cousin, crossed the Niger and spread to the present day South East and South West Yorubaland; North West and North East to be present territory of Okun, establishing the early Yoruba politics.

From the estimates of these scholars, by about 1000 AD Ife emerged from these dispersals as a thriving military and commercial centre by AD 1650 the filial states of Oyo, Owu, Ijebu, Ondo, Ekiti, Ijesa, Benin, Ketu, Lagos (Eko,) Ede, Owo Benin and Ijesa commercial and military incursions were made into other parts of Yorubaland including Okun. Trade routes were also established with Bida, Kano and Gao (Mali) in the north, and the Delta in the South. References to Oyo Ile and Ile Ife origins by the Okun people are connected with these epochal developments. It should be pointed out that the hints of aboriginal populations in many parts of Okunland, especially at Egba and Ayere, were properly those migrants left by the Proto-Yoruba on their westward march away from their original homes in the Niger Benue Confluence region. As Obayemi, Horton, AKinkugbe seem to have convincingly proved, references to eastern origin of the Yoruba people would seem to mean this area not any other art of the world.

References to royal conflicts at Oyo and Ile Ife by migrants believed to have established most of Okun polities appear to be part of the commercial and military incursions by Ife and Oyo elements into these areas. The claim of Ife and Oyo origin common in many areas should be seen in this light inspite of the autochthonous population. But internal migrants seem to account for claims of origins of other group who believe they came from nearby communities, or non Yoruba areas such as Bupe or Igala. This may be in fact recent movements especially during the prolonged tribal wars and skirmishes in the region. This seemed to have started in about 1500 after the establishment of a powerful Nupe polity north of the Niger.

This expose is perhaps important for a range of reasons. It is essential for instance, for all Okun men and women to have adequate information on their antecedents. They should be able to locate their places in Yoruba History and the Nigerian State.

Okunland, left, as it were, in the backwoods of the Yoruba modules of mosaics, Albert, in the Nigerian heartland of variegated beings, as if the whole area belonged to a forbidding region. As it has turned out the people today are considered part of the Yoruba whole by sheer force of character, and the Nigerian project by visible contributions.

But even then some of the artifacts and antiquities known to exist in Okunland today predate those of the well recognized Yoruba Polities with better documented past and exposure to modern developments.

Yet those voracious readers and consummate researchers with rate intellectual tastes, and scientific perception in historical methods have now produced impressive works on Okun people.

As if votaries of Okun history, they tacked with relish the reduction of the oral traditions of the area into acceptable and respectable corpus of academic tomes worthy of intellectual examination and further scholarly critiques.

We are indeed grateful to these coteries of foreign and national commentators who have devoted much time to the establishment of the truth and the basic historical facts of Okunland. In their monumental tasks they seemed to have distilled and worked mountains of raw historical materials into acceptable academic products in readable prose. Thus the seemingly impregnable and towering skyscrapers created by the early authors of Yoruba history, crumbled under the crushing weight of historical evidence and facts verifiable by scientific investigations.

By direct implications, Okunland has a vital place in Yoruba history Okun people are in essence and by that qualification, integral part of the Nigerian State, for which we should work to sustain.

The unity of Nigerian should not be subjected to esoteric debates as some are wont to do today. Nigerian remains, by most counts the pride of Africa and the blue eye of the Black world. Okun ought to find its proper place in that peculiar jigsaw puzzle known as Nigerian, the diamond in the crown of the continent. But here is paradox of our time of one considers a person in my position, immersed in internationals affairs becoming deeply involved in the documentation of the local history of our people. Furthermore, I find myself unabashedly encouraging my compatriots to speak our dialects to retain their beauty. The general use of the written Yoruba, which in effect, is a modified Oyo dialect. By the way I have just been installed as the Grand Patron of the National Association of Teachers of Yoruba Language and Culture in Nigeria, while before then I was made the Gbokunniyi of Okunland by the Okun Traditional Council of Oba.

From my extensive research in Okun and Yoruba history, the whole regions seems to belong to a civilization which thrived as far back as 3000BC around the Niger Benue Confluence Area.

What Ade Ijagbemi described as the human hemorrhage” in our modern tale which began in the 19th Century has not ceased. Okun lost population largely to the southern part of Nigeria from the late 19th Century until about the 1950’s when this shifted to the far north. This acute problem was due in part to the location of the area far from the littoral regions of Nigeria, and population centres. The inevitability of mass migrants of men and women attracted by the existence of employment opportunities in these places became a veritable certainty.

If Okun remains underdeveloped, lacking in commercial and industrial centres, it is the fault of everyone. If Okun fails to be at par with others perhaps we should blame its leadership. But if Okun towns are not centres of glittering modernity’s and commercial activities, maybe we should blame our location.

Inspite of all the odds, problems and difficulties of socio economic developments it ought to be borne in mind that the level of development attained no matter how meager are the patriotic efforts of a few individuals of Okun origin. Large-scale industrial developments can be stimulated only by governments and those at the helms of national affairs. The truism here seems to be external.
There is a noticeable increase in population presently in semi-urban centres of Okunland. This would also appear to be in the interest of the local people in view of the latest demography demonstrable by the sudden appearances of sizable but non indigenes in some centres. But these are mostly workers of the local government councils, traders and in some cases a medley of ill-clad, ill mannered adventures who present themselves as cattle tenders, and others who turn to be nomadic miners. They should be watched with Hawkeyes. Incidentally, such ribald persons often turn the tide of development in favour of the natives. These are the uncanny ironies of historical changes and patterns.

From our brief outline, Okunland no doubt belongs to the great antiquity of the Yoruba story. It scions represent a portion of the front of that nation. Okun has been in the forefront of the national movement and evolution. She has been in the centre of the modern Nigerian economic growth. She has been in the midst of its passionate political emancipation. She has established herself, in spite of her diminutive size, as a formidable bulwark. She will remain a crucial connecting bride between the northern and southern perimeters of the Nation

afam4eva:
Pls tell us the story. I know there are Yoruboid groups in Kogi but some of them don't like being referred to as Yoruba. I think people from the Kabba area like being called yoruba.

[quote author=nwaigbo_mg link=topic=657912.msg8241260#msg8241260 date=1304279946]the kogi west senatorial zone led by senator smart adeyemi is a subgroup of yoruba nation
you can see them in LGAs like yagba east and west, kabba etc

but majority of them don't like to be called youbas, they said they are OKUN---distinct from their kinsmen in the west[/quote]God grant that not only the love of liberty but also a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: “This is my country.” – BenjaminFranklin.

THE Okun people, a fragment of Yoruba race, politically ceded to the Northern protectorate by visionless Lord Lugard, the Governor-General of Nigeria, constituted what was known as Kabba Division of Kabba Povince now Kogi State. This people now constitute six local government areas {namely Lokoja, Kabba/Bunu, Ijumu, Yagba East, and Yagba West} of Western Senatorial District of Kogi State.

The peope , like the Ekitis, are a fountain of knowledge producing the highest graduates, Phd holders and professors in Nigeria.

Based on their contributions to the development and progress of the Nigerian State, in spite of their apparent minority status in Kogi State, nay, in the North Central Zone of the country, their labour alongside other nationalities and ethnic groups that constitute the zone, their will to serve and live harmoniously anywhere in Nigeria, the sacrifice of their people during the civil war to keep Nigeria together, they stand firmly, wholly, committed and unequivocally in their support for the preservation and furtherance of Nigeria as one nation, they will therefore, never support the break-up of the country and will readily fight, if need be, once more, against the Balkanisation of Nigeria.

Creation of Kogi State
Some Okun indigenes, particularly the writer, rose against the move to create a Kogi State in 1987 and 1991 all because I had my secondary education in Dekina in the eastern axis of the state. When an Igala tells you ‘Omi na kaye, ma joje ma mu du’, he is telling you he would consume whatever is available in his surrounding. And true to type, happenings at state creation shows that the Igalas remain the consumers of all the goodies meant for the state, marginalising other ethnic groups, capitalising on so-called high population.

History of Kabba Province
Kabba Province embraced Akoko and Owo Districts until Chief Obafemi Awolowo fought for their harnessing with the southwest. There were three native authorities, namely, Kabba, Yagba and Kotonkarfe in Western Senatorial District, leaving Igala and Igbirra Divisions with one each till the mid-sixties. It is surprising the manipulation of the Igalas’ population to have overshadowed the other two senatorial districts’ in the 1991 population census. And progression in population figure in ten years is said to be five percent.

Position of the Okun People
The Okun people as of February, 2005 at a meeting at Kabba found their position as part of Kogi State and belonging to the North-Central Zone as anomalous. As of then they constituted about 20 percent of the state population. They belong to a major ethnic group in Nigeria and with whose territories they are contiguous – the Yoruba.

It is, therefore, anomalous that they should, in the circumstances sojourn as a disadvantaged minority in any state for that matter. The fear of marginalisation is not imagined but real.

The Igalas have, in the interim, carted away all the tertiary institutions of learning like Federal Polytechnic, Idah, College of Education, Ankpa and Kogi State University, Anyigba to their territory.

However, the current Chief Executive of the State, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, had deemed it expedient considering the Okun land for the siting of a College of Education{technical.}This is a segment of the state that is highly educationally endowed.

The first satellite campus of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, College of Agriculture, Kabba has not been transformed to a full-fledge university like its junior sisters – the Uthman Danfodio University, Sokoto, Bayero University, Kano, and the University of Maiduguri. This is part of the marginalisation.

Rotational Governorship
The chances of an Okun man/woman emerging as governor of Kogi State are very slim. If the ‘majority’ does not want it, it can never be.

The Okun people might be the only people in Nigeria compelled to join a state, which they had protested vehemently and formally that they did not want. And so, the people are making it clear, as a fact of history that they are not in Kogi voluntarily. It is unjust and unfair to treat them as has been done. There must, in justice, be a necessary adjustment.

The people want to be constituted into a state and should fall under a zone that shall be homogenously or predominantly Yoruba.

They will prefer any boundary adjustment which returns them to their kith and kin as an act of fair play and justice.

The Chief Emmanuel Olorunyomi Otitoju-led National Executive Committee gave it all it demands to pursue a separate Okun State.

A[b]jagun is outgoing National Secretary of Okun Development Association in Kogi State (1999 – 2010).[/b]

http://www.tribune.com.ng/index.php/opinion/10022-marginalising-okun-people

pleep:
Ali harem sounds like a north Nigerian name yet your an Igbo, ndu chucks sounds like a Igbo name yet he's a northerner?
Damn, you tribalists are so confusing.

i believe I and ndu chuks have never made any tribal remarks on issues

we are not tribalist

Eko Ile:
Looks like your usual rubbish so I'll gladly not waste my breath on such nonsensical post

so why do u keep insulting igbo

why do u call them ibo instead of igbo

why do u use the slogan "it sucks to be ibo" when your SW people are not better anyway

leave them alone so that you may have peace in your life

have they not suffered enough from all the insult and taunting you given them daily

abeg carry go everything igbo this, igbo that

leave them alone and stand for the truth and mind ur business if u have nothing better to contribute other than to insult igbos

[quote author=EzeUche_ link=topic=658836.msg8249028#msg8249028 date=1304394908]All is well with the Ndigbo. [/quote]i agree, all is well with Ndigbo and SS +NC

what do u think about sure alliance

Eko Ile:
See wetin ibo people are reduced to. Jostling for for crumbs must be the cool in ibo land

can u STFU and get out

igbo this igbo that, leave them alone and go face ur SW rascals

or is there something else u would like to tell us about ([s]_{are u having a hard on for igbos)}[/s]

ChinenyeN:
You don't know what you're talking about Alj Harem. Igbo empire? Of course.

ChinenyeN, I think i know what i am talking about clearly

the old eastern region give the igbos power over other groups thus the deintergration of the old east was a disaster for the igbos just like an empire when it falls.

Now it is just reclaiming back the empire and i see nothing wrong in that. i mean they use to rule it before so what is stoping them now

i think we all should be happy for the SS and SE

ChinenyeN:
No.

why

SS and SE was part of the igbo empire, so why no

see bigotry SMH

Eko Ile:
Sometimes I Wonder why ibo people rejoice over the silliest, petty and irrelevant things

and is it your business if they rejoice over anything

wetin concern you

face your SW people