₦airaland Forum

EternalTruths:
GOWON: Go On With One Nigeria

Northern Christians must Go On With One Nigeria.

Don't let peaceful Biafrans deceive you guys.

Christian Republic of Biafra is Evil.

Fulani Republic of Nigeria is the best thing after God and Sex.

Pls, I beg you guys to hold unto the principle of GOWON.

Let us put our emotions aside and examine raw facts.

One-Nigerianism did not really start with Northerners but with Azikiwe the political leader of Igbos.
Originally Northerners never believed in the Nigeria project because they could not comprehend how they would favorably compete with the far more educated, enlightened, liberal and dynamic South in a level playing field environment. In fact they never let any opportunity to demonstrate it slip by. However, they were forced into believing in Nigeria by no one other than Azikiwe who offered to have the atmosphere tilted in their favor provided such would make them stay.
Please read below the speech Zik made against the idea of disintegration of Nigeria the very first time it was formally proposed by Northerners.


In 1953 when Northern Nigerians were beginning to consider secession from the Nigerian colony that would soon be a nation, Nnamdi Azikiwe gave a speech before the caucus of his political party, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) in Yaba, Nigeria on May 12, 1953. That speech, while not disallowing secession, suggested that there would be grave consequences if the Northern region became an independent nation.
I have invited you to attend this caucus because I would like you to make clear our stand on the issue of secession. As a party, we would have preferred Nigeria to remain intact, but lest there be doubt as to our willingness to concede to any shade of political opinion the right to determine its policy, I am obliged to issue a solemn warning to those who are goading the North towards secession. If you agree with my views, then I hope that in course of our deliberations tonight, you will endorse them, to enable me to publicize them in the Press.
In my opinion, the Northerners are perfectly entitled to consider whether or not they should secede from the indissoluble union which nature has formed between it and the South, but it would be calamitous to the corporate existence of the North should the clamour for secession prevail. I, therefore, counsel Northern leaders to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of secession before embarking upon this dangerous course.
As one who was born in the North, I have a deep spiritual attachment to that part of the country, but it would be a capital political blunder if the North should break away from the South. The latter is in a better position to make rapid constitutional advance, so that if the North should become truncated from the South, it would benefit both Southerners and Northerners who are domiciled in the South more than their kith and kin who are domiciled in the North.
There are seven reasons for my holding to this view. Secession by the North may lead to internal political convulsion there when it is realized that militant nationalists and their organizations, like the NLPU, the Askianist Movement, and the Middle Zone League, have aspirations for self-government in 1956 identical with those of their Southern compatriots. It may lead to justifiable demands for the right of self-determination by non-Muslims, who form the majority of the population in the so-called ‘Pagan’ provinces, like Benue, Ilorin, Kabba, Niger and Plateau, not to mention the claims of non-Muslims who are domiciled in Adamawa and Bauchi Provinces.
It may lead to economic nationalism in the Eastern Region, which can pursue a policy of blockade of the North, by refusing it access to the sea, over and under the River Niger, except upon payment of tolls. It may lead to economic warfare between the North on the one hand, and the Eastern or Western regions on the other, should they decide to fix protective tariffs which will make the use of the ports of the Last and West uneconomic for the North.
The North may be rich in mineral resources and certain cash crops, but that is no guarantee that it would be capable of growing sufficient food crops to enable it to feed its teeming millions, unlike the East and the West. Secession may create hardship for Easterners and Westerners who are domiciled in the North, since the price of food crops to be imported into the North from the South is bound to be very high and to cause an increase in the cost of living. Lastly, it will endanger the relations with their neighbours of millions of Northerners who are domiciled in the East and West and Easterners and Westerners who reside in the North.
You may ask me whether there would be a prospect of civil war, if the North decided to secede? My answer would be that it is a hypothetical question which only time can answer. In any case, the plausible cause of a civil war might be a dispute as to the right of passage on the River Niger, or the right of flight over the territory of the Eastern or Western Region; but such disputes can be settled diplomatically, instead of by force.
Nevertheless, if civil war should become inevitable at this stage of our progress as a nation, then security considerations must be borne in mind by those who are charged with the responsibility of government of the North and the South. Military forces and installations are fairly distributed in all the three regions; if that is not the case, any of the regions can obtain military aid from certain interested Powers. It means that we cannot preclude the possibility of alliance with certain countries.
You may ask me to agree that if the British left Nigeria to its fate, the Northerners would continue their uninterrupted march to the sea, as was prophesied six years ago? My reply is that such an empty threat is devoid of historical substance and that so far as I know, the Eastern Region has never been subjugated by any indigenous African invader. At the price of being accused of overconfidence, I will risk a prophecy and say that, other things being equal, the Easterners will defend themselves gallantly, if and when they are invaded.
Let me take this opportunity to warn those who are making a mountain out of the molehill of the constitutional crisis to be more restrained and constructive. The dissemination of lies abroad; the publishing of flamboyant headlines about secessionist plans, and the goading of empty-headed careerists with gaseous ideas about their own importance in tile scheme of things in the North is being overdone in certain quarters. I feel that these quarters must be held responsible for any breach between the North and South, which nature had indissolubly united in a political, social and economic marriage of convenience. In my personal opinion, there is no sense in the North breaking away or the East or the West breaking away; it would be better if all the regions would address themselves to the task of crystallizing common nationality, irrespective of the extraneous influences at work. What history has joined together let no man put asunder. But history is a strange mistress which can cause strange things to happen!
Sources:
Nnamdi Azikiwe, Zik: A Selection from the Speeches of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Governor-General of the Federation of Nigeria formerly President of the Nigerian Senate formerly Premier of the Eastern Region of Nigeria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961).

Just migrated from Fidelity to Access few minutes ago cos Fidelity seems tired having been in motion all before this bullish breakout.

MAYOWAAK:
A coup d'état is not a conventional operation of the Army. Preparations for it could not at any time be done in the open or in plain language. Therefore, when we discussed with officers, unless an officer showed serious interest, we always sounded casual and the matter was generally left unspecified and inconclusive. Today, if one were to ask “When did the preparation for the revolution really begin?”, the most accurate answer would be, “from 1961” , because the three of us who formed the nucleus of the revolutionary group had met in that year. Although we had not there and then planned a revolution, we had seen eye to eye and we knew we had a common cause. These meetings were between Ifeajuna and me one hand and between Nzeogwu and me on the other. This pattern remained almost the same throughout. The preparation for the coup started to warm up by July 1965 because by that time, the matter was more seriously and urgently discussed. Moreover, active efforts were made to get in touch with more officers of the Army so as to ascertain their inclinations and loyalties. These contacts were made most quietly and surreptitiously. Moreover, while Nzeogwu and I were making concerted efforts in Kaduna, Ifeajuna was pre-occupied with making similar efforts in Lagos. And the two efforts were not brought together until October 1965.

SOURCE: WHY WE STRUCK: THE STORY OF THE FIRST NIGERIAN COUP BY ADEWALE ADEMOYEGA.

As at the 1961 which Ademoyega claims here was the remotest beginnings of plans for the coup, the reasons they themselves cited for the coup had not come into existence.

In fact the Coalition Government was sworn in just three months to the end of 1960. Let's assume that, give and take, the planning which Ademoyega refers to started in June of that year 1961, that will bring it to just 9 months into the life of the administration.
How can a nine-month old government which was yet to fully settle down be adjudged as having perpetrated monumental corruption so soon and needed to be removed with a coup?
That was an evidence that the plotters of the coup wanted power at all costs and so had to just give the Balewa government a bad name in order to hang it.

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Nowenuse:
Hmmm, It's been 4 years ago I made that comment. I had even forgotten that I ever made any comment like that. Had to go through the thread again to even understand what it was about. Lol

Thanks for the enlightenment anyway. I appreciate. You seem to have a vast knowledge of your people and I admire this.

But just for the records, the Akoko-edo boy (from Okpamheri precisely) who thought he was yoruba, never grew up in yoruba land. He grew up in Kano with his family. I think he even speaks Hausa better than yoruba.

Also, you are very correct, many of your Akoko edo people who grew up in yoruba land are almost as good as lost (permit me to put it that way). I had many of them as friends and neighbors in Uniben, and believe me, unless they open their mouths and tell you that they are Edos, you will never know or even manage to guess. Some of them even behave more yoruba than typical yorubas and to worsen this, you now see them with bold yoruba names (which seals the conclusion)...... Permit me to ask, why do your people seem to have so much fondness and affinity with yoruba land and culture than Benin?

Thank you for the other points. Also, the Ebira/Etuno point, never heard of that. If what you say about the Oshuku descent is true, how come the Ebira tao (Kogi central people) now outnumber the Etuno, Koto & panda ebiras even combined by far?
Also, only the Etunos do not have the Ebira tag. Koto & Panda people have always adressed themselves as Egbura. And I think these 3 groups apparently had a meeting some years ago and all agreed to start adressing themselves as EGBIRRA people collectively. I saw a news article on this.

As for the reason why your people answer yoruba names, pls link me to the thread (and exact page if necessary) where you thrashed the issue. Thanks again.

Thanks a lot for your reply.
You see, it is very easy for an Akoko-Edo child growing up in the North to quickly sense that he is not a Hausa man even if his parents never tutored him on that. The very large differences in morphology and phenotype between the Hausa-Fulanis and Southerners generally is enough evidence to an untutored child.
However, such an child would easily by logical considerations mistakenly assume he is Yoruba owing to the 'Akoko' root in the name of his local government which his parents must however reveal to him when he gets to the stages of his education at which he must enrol for WAEC and UME by filling forms in which he would be required to enter his LGA of origin.
Generally, it is difficult for any one who is not very close to or deeply knowledgeable about Akoko-Edo to assume that the 'Akoko' in the name connotes Yorubaness. For example both the Etisalat database and Facebook default settings place Akoko-Edo in Ondo State. You won't blame them because Akoko-Edo shares boundary with four LGAs in Ondo State all bearing the Akoko tag too. Such would naturally lead to the perception that they are all the same peoples in the mind of any innocent and yet to be informed observer.

Your assertion that most Akoko-Edo people who grew up in Yorubaland are as good as lost is the very bitter truth hence you need no permission to put it that way. As for the reason: you see it is a principle in Social Anthropology that members of a minority tribe who live among a majority tribe are likely to seek a kind of integration with the host tribe to make his coexistence with them easier hence such may end up in unconscious acculturation and assimilation which on the long run detaches him from his actual roots. This principle has a lot of Akoko-Edos as good examples. Even those who were brought up in the North somehow get acculturated into Northern value system and tradition so much that their own roots no longer appeal to them.
There is a Lampese man known to me who was born and brought up in Lampese but later got to settle in Kaduna for the past 40 years. He is now so much acculturated to Hausa-Fulani culture that the only things that differentiate him from Hausa-Fulanis as of now are his religion and Edo-accent of speech. Every other feature about him has metamorphosed into Hausa-Fulani.

The fondness with Yoruba than with their actual Bini roots was a trend that largely owes its beginning to the overwhelming Yoruba political influence in the Old Western Region where Yoruba had a very firm grip on political power and dictated who got what. In order to appear more related to Yorubas among all the minorities then Akoko-Edos had to de-emphasize their Bini roots and put on the rather false toga of Yorubaness since the struggle for extrication from the Western Region was being championed mostly by Binis who co-victims of Yoruba domination.
However, awareness has been created over time and that affinity for Yorubaism is now resented by the average Akoko-Edo man or woman. Beginning from roughly three decades ago, no one gives a new child a Yoruba name in Akoko-Edo any more. This I tell you with 100℅ certainty.

As for the exceedingly larger numerical strength of the Ebiras among the Oshuku people, here is the reason as gleaned from documented history which they all unanimously agree to:

The four Oshemi sons were Ozoko, Itaazi, Oduniya and Negedu from the eldest to the youngest. The first to go his separate way was Negedu who founded Panda. Very few supporters followed him because he left at a time when most Oshuku people still erroneously believed there was hope that the Attah of Igala would eventually turn a new leaf from his ill-treatment of them for being a totally different tribe from the Opoto (Igala) people.

Next to realize the futility of that hope was Oduniya who then moved to found Koton Karfi with more supporters than Negedu obviously due to increasing awareness with time.

The last to move were Ozoko and Itaazi who left simultaneously with the relatively far larger remaining supporters when it became totally doubtless that the Attah would never treat the Oshuku fairly. These two eldest sons moved away together northwards first, crossed the river Niger and began moving southwards to a destination (Etuno) which an advance party of hunters had already gone to survey and reported back as very inhabitable. However, on reaching Okere Une ( now compressed to Okene) Itaazi's wife gave birth to a baby boy. The superstitious mindset of almost every one in the crew back then led an overwhelming majority to believe that the birth of that baby (male for that matter) was a clear and undisputable signal from God that Okere Une was the destination divinely approved for them to settle down hence only the very few less superstitious ones mustered enough courage to accompany Ozoko to the originally intended destination of Etuno which is the compressed pronunciation of "Ete ono yi" meaning "this is the originally proposed land."

At this juncture it will be appropriate to explain that the recent attempt by Ebiras to substitute the Oshuku generic name with "Ebira" is borne out of the quest for more political relevance in the Nigerian scheme of things. Ebiras obviously want to use the rest Oshukus to arrogate large population figures to themselves to become more relevant since political patronage in Nigeria is largely based on numerical strength. No thanks to the unitary system which the military imposed on us.
To tell you how politically motivated this whole Ebira thing is; when an Ebira man - Onuka - was the military governor of Edo State, common sense should have dictated that his focus be on Igarra which had over the years suffered lack of infrastructural development and industrialization. But Onuka hardly visited Igarra let alone bother about their plight. There is no single project in Igarra that can be credited to Onuka. If he had cut 20℅ of Edo State budget just in a year for Igarra his supposed brothers, it would have been enough to rehabilitate all roads and freshly tar all the previously unsurfaced.
But while he neglected Igarra so brazenly and concentrated on other places, the Ebiras never remembered that Igarras are supposedly Ebiras like them. So they never cautioned Onuka to remember 'his' people. All this was because the Ebiras (Okenes) actually knew deep down in their hearts that Igarras are actually not Ebiras and so were less concerned.
When the same Onuka killed the working capital base of Okpella Cement Factory by diverting over 200,000 bags of cement from there to his home town of Okene where he sold them at N150 each against the about N350 it was really selling, the Ebiras (Okene) people rushed to buy it without asking him if he took some to also sell to Igarra people at the same price being their supposed fellow Ebiras.
However, this is not to imply that Igarra people buy stolen goods. In fact if he had brought some of those bags the Igarra people we know here in Akoko-Edo would have rejected them and placed a curse on those bags of cement. But when you call a people your brothers you at least try them with your booty of war to at least demonstrate your sincerity.
All these "Ebira" nation awareness creation was triggered by the domination and acute marginalization which the actual Ebiras (i.e. Okenes) have been suffering under Igalas ever since Kogi State was created. Imagine Igalas repeatedly producing Kogi State governors since 1999. Why would Ebiras not naturally react by seeking the support of other Oshukus to make a statement against that?
With an Ebira man as the Kogi governor now, haven't this Ebira generic name thing started dying a natural death?
Mind you that there are Oshukus in the Yala LGA of Cross River State and they have never ever been referred to as Ebiras by Okenes because they are too physically far away to be relevant in the numerical strength which the Okenes seek for more political prominence.

gregyboy:
you are bleeped up.
so you mean yoruba language is innate to all edos all what ...you have to be specific they are the people of akoko edo who migrated from ondo state who are in edo east i guess .those people speak yourba related language just like other diverse yoruba tribes .but on the aspect of yoruba not learning benin even if they had influence on Yoruba state can easily be proven because a benin man doesn't see the language as important as the Yoruba's see thiers .but as the rest edo i assure you non dont speak yoruba apart from the ones who based in yoruba town's

Enough has already been said in the previous comments about Akoko-Edos not being Yorubas by any means.
Akoko-Edo people are themselves an assortment of tribes who speak a total of 17 different languages, none of which shares any affinity with Yoruba, hence could not have migrated from Ondo or anywhere else in Yoruba land as you would have people believe.
The name "Akoko-Edo" is purely geographical and means "The Edo people who share boundary with and are physical neighbours to Akokos of Ondo State". It does not connote any linguistic or ancestral affinity with the Akokos any more than the name "Nigeria" could suggest that Southern Nigerians are related to the people of Niger Republic.

Nowenuse:
PhysicsQED and Big Francis. The akoko-edo ppl hv so much closness with akoko ondo, pls no doubt. I am presently in benin, edo state now, I have an akoko edo hostel mate nd believe me he always believed that his ppl were ancestrally from Ondo precisely, in fact I was the one who challenged him to som researches before he discoverd that they were more bini (Edo) than yoruba ancestrally. Those ppl r just mixed up. The igarras among dem have ebira origin mixed with yoruba elements. I'm in Uniben area and have 3 other friends from same akoko edo area from difrent tribes there, and believe me, these ppl r just too fit to be yorubas, yoruba (oyo) is almost all they speak. Do you know that there was/is a demand for the creation of Akoko state of which the Akoko-edo ppl were to be merged with with those akoko of Ondo state? Though I must say that many akoko edo ppl r now havin a firmer grip of their edo roots and some stopped answering their yoruba names (especially those who are more edo than yoruba). The conclusion is that the ppl are mixed. Some more Edoid and some more yoruboid. It's more than a thing of boundary.

As a native of Akoko-Edo, I hereby acknowledge the 99.999999℅ accuracy of PhysicsQED's assertions about Akoko-Edo. I suspect that despite being a Bini guy, he has actually taken his time to visit and study Akoko-Edo people directly rather than reliance on hearsays and online articles as most other commentators here obviously guilty of.

As for your assertions about Akoko-Edo, I have decided to take the pain to supply you with details of all the nuances that relate directly to your claims:

1. The Akoko-Edo guy you encountered in Uniben was obviously born and brought up in Yorubaland with his parents never allowing or taking him home to stay long enough to familiarize with members of his extended family to learn his actual origin. Moreover, his parents might have before his eyes as a kid been capitalizing on their Akoko-Edo origin to describe themselves as Yorubas just to remain relevant and more acceptable to Yorubas among whom they live in Lagos or Ibadan. A lot of Akoko-Edos residing in Yorubaland do this deliberately and I personally discourage it as its benefit of attracting immediate gratification from Yorubas is nothing compared with the identity crisis it leads to in the end. But thank you for rescuing him from the jaws of such extreme ignorance.

2. Akoko-Edo people actually have no ancestral mix with Yorubas. It only appears so due to the quite heavy Yoruba influence cum identity crisis wrought on them politically as a result of being under the Yoruba majority's absolute control of the instruments of political power in the Old Western Region.
Before colonization, the people were not identified with the "Akoko" tag as it was totally alien to them. They only came to adopt it for political administrative purpose when their diversity could not be represented by any single name they might choose from among themselves.
In the pre-colonial era they had and still have towns and villages with names reflecting Edo in either spelling or meaning, e.g. Ekpe-Edo compressed to Ekpedo. There has however never been any of the 56 towns and villages with the "Akoko" tag in its name unlike it is with virtually all Ondo-Akoko towns, e.g. Oka-Akoko, Oba-Akoko, Isua-Akoko, Ikare-Akoko, Epinmi-Akoko, Ikeram-Akoko, etc.
The "Akoko" tag is therefore just an extraneous descriptive element hence the name "Akoko-Edo" means nothing other than "The Edos who are geographical neighbours with Akokos of Ondo State".


3. You are totally wrong about Igarras also referred to as Etuno people. The Ebira origin theory which you ascribe to Igarra is quite misleading because both Etuno (Igarra) and Ebira (Okene and environs) are actually distinct subsets of coordinate status under the Oshuku tribe. Neither came out of the other but both are equal descendants of Oshuku. That Ebiras have become numerically larger than Igarra does not subsume Igarra under them. The unanimously accepted Oshuku history has it that four brothers from the same father - Oshemi - each with his supporters (not necessarily descendants) founded the respective Oshuku towns of Panda, Koton Karfi, Okene (Ebira) and Igarra (Etuno). The eldest of them all confounded Igarra with a group of hunters, while the second eldest founded Okene (Ebira and environs). So how on earth can the name (i.e. Ebira) of the community founded by a younger sibling be adopted as generic name where that (i.e. Etuno) which describes the town founded by the eldest is? In the first ever Oshuku descendants national body meeting, all the representatives from the different subgroups, including Ebiras, unanimously conceded that the first ever president of the group should come from Igarra in acknowledgement of Igarra as their most senior. So if at all the generic name of the Oshuku tribe must change, it must be to Etuno on the basis of primogeniture right and never Ebira of the younger brother. Therefore it remains Oshuku till then.
Based on Oshuku documented history, no segment of their migrational trajectory from the extreme Northeastern axis of Africa to their present locations lie anywhere in Yorubaland hence Igarras never interacted with Yorubas from prehistoric times. So the Yoruba mix ancestry theory being hanged on Igarra is unfounded, indefensible and untenable.

4. The Akoko Stare agitation was to even include the Ebiras and Kaba-Bunu people of Kogi State. It was a brainchild of some Akoko-Edo people who once reasoned that such was the only way they could be part of a state where there is no single overwhelming majority tribe that will deploy its numerical strength to solely control and determine political trends as obtains with Igalas in Kogi and Binis in Edo. It was not an idea informed by any feelings of shared cultural identity or similarities among the prospective component tribes. But with the emergence of Oshiomhole from Edo North as governor largely with Bini votes, the Bini domination perception withered and the idea of Akoko State died among its Akoko-Edos advocates.

5. Your claim of a relative Edoid/Yoruba mix of Akoko-Edos as per ancestry is flawed. The most scientific evidence against this is the presence in all Akoko-Edo languages of the "v", "z", "'kp'" and "ch" in their alphabets, pronunciation and spelling systems whereas such are totally absent and unknown in Yoruba alphabets, spellings and pronunciations.
As for the issue of bearing Yoruba name in Akoko-Edo, I have trashed it extensively in other threads. A journey through all my posts will educate anyone who wants more information.
In conclusion the bearing of Yoruba names and speaking of Yoruba in Akoko-Edo does not make them Yorubas any more than the bearing of English names and speaking of English Language in Nigeria make Nigerians white men.

hmmph:
This whole thing is stupid because obviously the origin of edo ppl n language is the same as that of Yoruba. It is a fact that some Edo ppl in Edo speak Yoruba. I know itsekiri ppl who understand Yoruba n they never lived in Oyo. Latin n spanish have a number of similarities btw the two but they are not the exact same. Bantu languages are not the exact same either but they are all called Bantu ppl whether in the East of Africa or South n it is because of the ancestral link

As an Edo person, I don't share any origin with Yoruba.
The story of my progenitor has no part of it that says he fell from the sky like Oduduwa. What appears like the cultural closeness between Yorubas and Edos is not actually real but a fall out of political colonization of Edo and Delta through the instrumentality of the Yoruba domination thus absolute possession of political power over the minority non-Yoruba tribes in the then Western Region. The domination was so intense that the Western Region minorities could not put up any concrete resistance when the Yoruba controlled government imposed the learning of Yoruba in primary and post-primary institutions all over the region. Still, the quest for political correctness in the Yoruba dominated environment of the Western Region led Edos and Deltans of today to start importing and superimposing Yoruba culture, traditions and names on their own.
But with the creation of Midwest the trend reversed automatically and consequently the Yoruba influence has almost completely been shaken off.

mikeuz:
ZARKI BIAM AND ODI, NIGERIA AND ITS LEADERSHIP.......

IT is a story that breaks the heart: A group of soldiers arrives in town, asks everybody to assemble in an open field for an address by its military commander, encircles the gathering, and then opens fire.

Rat-tat-tat, the bullets keep flying. Ten minutes after, the firing stops. No one is left standing except the soldiers.

The waves blow the clothes of the victims hither and thither -- blood-soaked scarves and head gears of aged women, caps of elderly men, and toys of kids.

You are welcome to Odi, Bayelsa State. That was on November 20, 1999, not in the 14th Century, not in a Hobbessian state. That was a part of Nigeria’s recent history that former President Olusegun Obasanjo is still very proud of. It is a crisis management policy that the Army General who has had the rare opportunity to lead Nigeria as both military and civilian ruler, commends to the current national leadership.

A gang of militants had killed 12 Policemen near the town. When he deployed soldiers to apparently teach the militants a lesson, President Obasanjo reportedly told them not to "waste" bullets. In other words, every shot fired must hit target. Every building in the town, except a bank, an Anglican church and a health centre, was razed to the ground. Till today, the perpetrators have not been apprehended. It is in doubt if any effort has ever been made in that regard.

A similar treatment was given to the people of Zaki Biam in Benue State by the same Federal Government under Obasanjo about two years later. During a protest over the siting of a local government headquarters, some criminals killed 19 soldiers who were deployed to keep the peace. From October 22 to 24, 2001, on the authority of Obasanjo, soldiers killed anything and everything in sight. About 100 residents and passersby were recorded dead.

For the then president was not the need to sift the wheat from the chaff, investigate and identify the perpetrators. He simply gave an order to wipe out the community. Like in Odi, there is no record of any arrest of the culprits. It was enough for the Obasanjo government that the blood of entire villages was spilled in revenge!

It is quite easy for people to forget their pains and anguish of yesterday when faced with new challenges today. That explains why the people of Israel, as recorded in the Bible, had no difficulty thoroughly abusing Moses and accusing him of a genocide plot against them.

They were thirsty but there was no water in sight. So, they demanded why Moses bothered to free them from slavery in Egypt, where they had had at least had regular supply of water. These were people who were recorded to have only a little earlier witnessed the parting of the red sea and the annihilation of King Pharaoh and his army!

The Biblical story easily comes to mind whenever I hear Nigerians complain about the “cluelessness” of the Goodluck Jonathan administration in tackling the Boko Haram menace and wishing that they had a “strong leader” like Obasanjo who would have put an end to “the nonsense.”

That line of argument has gone on for long and, apparently, the retired but not tired Army General Obasanjo enjoys the adulation. He boasted of it recently at a public lecture and openly insinuated that President Jonathan is weak in tackling the menace.

He said: “My fear is that when you have a sore and you don’t attend to it early enough, it festers and becomes very bad. Don’t leave a problem that can be bad unattended. I attended to a problem that I saw; I sent soldiers.

They were killed, 19 of them (were) decapitated. If I had allowed that to continue, I would not have the authority to send security anywhere again. I attended to it. If you say you do not want a strong leader, who can have all the characteristics of a leader, including the fear of God, then, you have a weak leader and the rest of the problem is yours.”

Let us agree, for a moment, that the massacre of the elderly and kids of Odi and Zaki Biam worked in forcibly putting an end to terrorism in both the Niger Delta and Benue State as he claims. Did Obasanjo apply the same high handedness to the Northern part of the country as he is publicly upbraiding President Jonathan for not doing?

The imposition of Sharia rule in many parts of the North occurred during the administration of Obasanjo. A cow thief, Mallam Buba Bello Jangebe was amputated while the advocate of strong arm tactics was in office. What was his reaction? If the imposition of Sharia is for religious purpose, it will endure but if it is a political action, it will die out!
That was what President Obasanjo told the nation and the world. It was a smart way to avoid confrontation with the masterminds of the Sharia rule whose main intent then was crystal clear: To provoke the Federal Government into making any comment or taking any action that would stir a national crisis.

Obasanjo read the action of the Sharia proponents wisely and spoke wisely. Today, many of those who took Sharia implementation from civil and family law to the realm of criminal law have been cited for stealing public funds, denying the people they would have led to war basic necessities. They luxuriate in wealth beyond imagination, stolen from the people. Some of them are standing trial for raiding public treasury, while Mallam Jangebe and other victims continue in poverty.

Obasanjo knew their plot and gingerly walked the minefield. Why does he want Jonathan to apply the Odi and Zaki Biam treatment to states that are under the yoke of Boko Haram, when the group claims to be motivated by religion? Jonathan should deploy soldiers to communities in, say Bauchi or Borno State, gather the innocent old and young, and gun them down? Just like that? Would that not be an open invitation to Al Qaeda to permanently make Nigeria ungovernable?

As an elder, Obasanjo is expected to counsel the administration on the time-tested dictum that you exercise discretion in killing a fly that perches on your male member. That the people of Odi and Zaki Biam have not mustered enough political will and clout to bring those who masterminded the genocide on them in a world war crimes tribunal is no reason for the perpetrators to gloat.

Yes, the killing of Policemen by criminal activists in Odi and Zaki Biam should not have gone unpunished. But the duty of the state is to apprehend the killers, duly prosecute them and apply the maximum weight of law on them. A knee-jerk approach of rounding up everybody on sight and dispensing instant, jungle justice on them is not something to be proud of. It was, indeed, one of the saddest chapters of Nigeria’s recent history.

Foreman-Brown Idogho
Writes from warri, Nigeria.

I used to have sympathy for Odi people over the massacre, and hope that Obasanjo will be hanged one day for killing thousands of innocent Odis without apprehending let alone killing a single one of the real culprits.
But all that sympathy and wish for justice melted away from my heart when in the 2003 elections the whole of Bayelsa State including that very Odi voted massively for Obasanjo. It was then it dawned on me that you can't love a people more than they love themselves neither can you fight for a people who don't really care.
As an illustration, ever since you put up this post as a concerned non-Bayelsan from Deltan State, how many Bayelsans on Nairaland have even given likes to your post let alone give supporting comments?
Policeman and solders were later killed in Ota and Shagamu both in Obasanjo's home state of Ogun but he could not repeat the same response there because he knew he would forever become an outcast among his Yoruba people who would not tolerate any nonsense he does towards them in the name of preserving the military institution from further harassment.
If he had done it in a core Hausa-Fulani village up North, he would have been impeached and assassinated by the Militaristic Northern Oligarchy.
It is only in the SS that people rationalize and justify the evils a government does towards them and that explains why we are mostly the target for oppression by leaders and politicians from other regions. We the SS alone now preach "One Nigeria" despite the preponderance of evidence to the contrary.
As long as Obasanjo could later win overwhelmingly in the SS in an election which followed just 4 years after the Odi massacre, then Odi people don't deserve this pity you are trying to show to them.

scholes0:
I won’t be surprised if they send a delegation to this particular area of Edo state by next week, forcing the Kings there to start wearing skirts and circular beads to look loke their Benin Oba.
Yes, it is that serious- and they can do it.

Stop accusing others of your own attitude. That is actually a Yoruba trade mark.

Binis are not like Yorubas who abuse political power to impose their culture on others. It is on record that since the creation of Midwest and Edo State the Bini governors that have ruled did not at any time issue any policy that made it compulsory for all primary and secondary schools pupils in the state to offer Bini Language. Each village's schools have always been allowed to freely teach the indigenous language of its inhabitants to their pupils and students. This is clearly unlike under the Yoruba-controlled Western Region government which made it compulsory for Yoruba to be taught in schools located outside the non-Yoruba parts of the region. So stop making inverted accusations.
Our decision to join the Midwest Region was based on free will and not coercion from the Binis. We voted to go with them through an open plebiscite and we have never regretted it unlike we later regretted being lumped with Yorubas in the Western Region.
So if our traditional figures start wearing skirts or whatever you call it, then just know it is also a free will thing. Bini culture is too rich and alluring for them to force anyone to identify with it, rather other Edos spontaneously gravitate towards it because they are really offshoots of Benin coupled with the attractiveness of the culture.
So you can take your divide and rule tactics to Lagos to checkmate Igbos calling your Lagos State a no man's land which you prove right by voting them into the Lagos State House of Assembly and also to the National Assembly to represent Lagos constituencies.

scholes0:
I won’t be surprised if they send a delegation to this particular area of Edo state by next week, forcing the Kings there to start wearing skirts and circular beads to look loke their Benin Oba.
Yes, it is that serious- and they can do it.

Binis are not like Yorubas who abuse political power to impose their culture on others. It is on record that since the creation of Midwest and Edo State the Bini governors that have ruled did not at any time issue any policy that made it compulsory for all primary and secondary schools pupils in the state to offer Bini Language. Each village's schools have always been allowed to freely teach the indigenous language of its inhabitants to their pupils and students. This is clearly unlike under the Western Region government which made it compulsory for Yoruba to be offered in schools located outside the non-Yoruba parts of the region. So stop making inverted accusations.
Our decision to join the Midwest Region was out of free will and not coercion from the Binis. So if our traditional figures begin to put on skirts or whatever you call it, then just know it is also a free will thing. Bini culture is too rich and alluring for them to force anyone to identify with it, rather others Edos do so spontaneously because they are really offshoots of Benin coupled with the attractiveness of the culture.
So you can take your divide and rule tactics to the Igbos calling your Lagos State a no man's land which you prove right by voting them into the Lagos State House of Assembly and also to the National Assembly to represent Lagos constituencies.

Olu317:
So Bini is a Portuguese word? So you don't know Bini was a corruption of ILÉ “UBINU" / “IBINU". It's a pity seeing this form of distortion beyond imagination. So, Eweka was a Bini name too or Portuguese's? Owo-mi-ka or its contraction known as Owoká turned to Eweka. Oranmiyan gave his first child this name.So, where did you get your info? No wonder, those names are sacred in Edo cum Bini people's memory. Perhaps you have your own Edo version..... Post it and let us all laugh over it because you seem accurately good with revisionism.

The original name of Benin is Igodomigodo and their Kings were from prehistoric times known as Ogisos. Could you please tell us what Igodomigodo and Ogiso mean in Yoruba Language?
Cross-cultural interaction with Yorubas brought about the "Ile Ibinu" thing which is an inconclusive account itself as it leaves more questions than answers. Same war cross-cultural interaction with Portuguese got Bini corrupted to Benin. If Binis came out of Ife, then how come Benin City went on to grow and become far larger than Ife in land area and population?
I recall that this was the same logic a Yoruba guy here once used to counter the claim of a Bini man who claimed that Yorubas came out of Binis. The Yoruba man specifically asked him to explain how possible for Yorubas to have come out of Binis and went ahead to so expand as to become a larger tribe than Bini.
Same applies here to the suggestion that Binis came out of Ife. So please answer.

macof:
You have given NO facts...sorry.

Yoruba language and culture remain in Akoko-edo! Let it pain you, not my business

I thought you said you would neither read nor reply my comments again? If you did not read the last one, how then could you decipher my claim to have given you facts which you denied in your reply above? Or are you endowed with ESP?
Yoruba culture is NOT indigenous to Akoko-Edo, and it's adoption in the Yoruba-dominated Western Region times was purely political hence with the collapse of the Western Region it just has to give way. Let that truth pain you.

macof:
i did not read any of this

I already told you. Everything I stated on this thread is established fact, if you do not like it, go and toss the 'akoko' name away and organize a media broadcast of akoko edo elders to denounce the popular perception

I am not wasting my time again with an intellectually deficient Bini man

I will keep punishing the intellectually empty Afonjas who believe that it takes only a Bini man to resist Yoruba neo-imperialism. You have been boxed away with unassailable facts. Next time don't speak authoritatively about others and then resort to crying "Bini" when you are disgraced with facts the way Igbos cry "Afonja" for any SS person that punctures their narratives.

God will deliver us the minorities from WAZOBIA. But we have to play our part which we are doing now.

macof:
the hatred Bini people have for yorubas on this forum still amazes me. Thankfully it is not a true reflection of what happens in real life. The guy has no problem with the Nupe and Egbira influences but see how he lies shamelessly with every new post inconsistent with the last to deny Yoruba influence in the Akoko-edo area

Mr. Man, the claim you started with was not Yoruba influence in Akoko-Edo but that there are Akoko-Edo towns founded by Yorubas. This was what led to the contention. So limiting your claim to Yoruba influence now is just an afterthought inspired by the stubborn facts which you have been given here proving wrong the Yoruba founding claim.
You again insisted that the Yoruba influence is getting more pronounced but with superior facts laid bare not even your brothers could deny any longer that the influence is actually waining due to current attempt at political relevance (if that is how it appears to him)
Be honest for once.

As you rightly observe, we don't have problem with Nupe and Ebira influences because Nupes and Ebiras don't capitalize on that to make erroneous claims of founding Akoko-Edo towns. When drawing the maps of their future breakaway republics from Nigeria neither the Nupes or Ebiras include Akoko-Edo territories. But the recent Oodua Republic map drawn by YOLICOM had Akoko-Edo smuggled into it. Why then do you think we should not have problems with Yoruba influence?

However I am shocked to discover on this thread that Yorubas are not actually different from some Igbos to whom whoever takes a stand against certain Igbo attitudes must be an Afonja irrespective of how obvious it is that he is actually not.
That you now believe that it takes only a Bini person to resent Yoruba incursion into Edo State is at best funny, unintellectual and disingenuous. I used to believe Yorubas rely entirely on intellectual submissions in debates and admire them for that, but I now know better from these resorts to anti-Bini innuendos which I can here in the face of being kissed with hard truths.
I am an Akoko-Edo person. No Bini person can actually be so accurately detailed in his knowledge about Akoko-Edo as Binis hardly come to settle down in Akoko-Edo permanently. They only visit, spend some time and return to Benin.

However, the reason why Binis and indeed all Edos don't demonstrate hatred to Yorubas in real life unlike they do in this forum is simply that neither Yorubas themselves harass Edos with claims of founding Edo towns in real life as they do on this forum.
The Yorubas resident in Benin and indeed every part of Edo are very mindful of their own business as they soon, from first hand experience, realize that they are actually not in Yorubaland. So it is all about GIGO.

scholes0:
How about ayanran the king is also known as Alayanran of Ayanran.
The issue here is that you lied that Ososo and Okpe were the only towns that had the -Oni and -Olo prefix for their rulers in the whole of Akoko Edo.
If I didn’t know better I wouldn’t have been able to cite you this Ibillo example (of which you are now talking something else)

Mind you, the Oba of Lampese is also called the Onilampese (Oba J.B Balogun). Want more examples?

You also categorically said those honorific terms had nothing to do with Yorubas but you are now saying that some Okpameris of Ibillo want it removed because it had Yoruba Origin. Confused much?

You even mentioned earlier that Akoko Edo has now been ridden of all Yoruba influences wbich is another OBVIOUS LIE from you. Since I still HEARD a Yoruba language commercial from OSOSO, YESTERDAY.

Then the funniest one about Akoko Edo not having Yotuba names anymore when newborn children are still sporting those beautiful names in Imoga, Somorika, Ugboshi E.tc. Face reality, Mr.
To the average Akoko Edo man, a Yoruba names has much more meaning and sentimental attachment than Benin names which they don’t even have knowledge of their meanings. Although I won’t deny the fact that some of them are taking some actions to look “politically correct” in their Edo state environment.

It is very obvious what you are trying to do- aspiring to be some kind of anti Yoruba ethnic purist or something- Yet you accuse Yorubas of being intolerant of other languages- lol.

It is equally funnier that you seem not to have any problems with the kingship title OTARU which is used in places like Igarra, Auchi etc and emmanates from the NUPES- but take some kind of aversion to the one of Yoruba origin. You got issues bro.

These are members from the Akoko Edo traditional council of Obas, and that sure don’t look like Bini kingdom to me.

Go and fight with reality and stop wasting your time here on nairaland.

https://www.itvradionigeria.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Akoko-Edo-Traditional-Council-Expresses-Support-For-Speaker-And-Members-Of-EDHA.jpg

My argument with that guy was specifically about the "Olo" tag and its spelling exactly in that form hence the mention of Ososo Okpe.
Is the spelling of "Olo" the same as "Ala" and "Oni" which you later brought in for Ibillo and now Lampese and Anyaran?
Even in Lampese there are currently ongoing consultations to cast off the tag just as with Ibillo and indeed every other town or village as it is daily being discovered that Yorubas have been citing it to substantiate their false narratives that they founded and are Aboriginal to those towns in Akoko-Edo.
My assertion still stands that only Ososo and Okpe have retained those tags as these remain the only two places where there are so far no palpable awareness creation has stated against the identity crisis the which the non-indigenous etymology tags in the names of their monarchs have caused.
A thing already rejected in the mind is as good as completely eradicated as human existence revolves around the mind.

Yes, In Ososo and Okpe their applications have nothing to do with Yoruba semantics any more than "Olu" in the Igbo name of Oluchi has anything to do with Yoruba despite it appears Yorubaish, and that explains why they remain the only two places where no palpable attempts have so far been made to create awareness against them even though Yorubas have been masturbating over them.

Yes, I insist that Akoko-Edo peoples consciousness has been ridden of all traces of Yorubaism because since the successful 1991 excision of the Imeris (the only actually Yoruba people that ever existed among us) into Ondo State where they rightly belong, the anti-Yorubaism awareness has successfully been created all over and steps have started being taken to formally effect it on paper. And of course as long as the human existence revolves mainly round the mind, anything eradicated from the human mind is as good as already eradicated from his society and community. Hence it is on that note I asserted that Akoko-Edo Edo has been rid of all Yorubaism.
There is no Radio or TV station in Ososo, so I wonder how you came about a Yoruba Language commercial from Ososo. That you have so lied about Ososo shamelessly is a further evidence that you are on an expansionism drive.
Like the Bini Language, the Ososo language alphabet system has alphabets v and z which are absent and unknown in Yoruba alphabet system. In Ososo Language "Come" is "vare" while it is "wa" in Yoruba. Is there any similarly therefore to warrant this fraudulent suggestion of yours that Ososo people delivered a commercial in Yoruba Language as their native language?

Who do you claim still gives Yoruba names to their children in Imoga, Somorika, Ugboshi, etc? These are all Okpameri towns and here are some native Okpameri names; Onyonnude, Uniamikugbo, Ashofor, Igbelazor, Asesho, Ogbor, Oshemi, Okondo, Aseriabo, Ojemu, Agbaunnukozi, etc which are given to children these days. Could you please tell us what they mean in Yoruba?
My friend stop this attaché. It is belittling for a majority tribe to seek relevance by attaching to a minority by all means even when all evidences point out they actually share no fundamental identity or cultural similarities.
Under normal circumstances it is minorities that seek relevance by trying to attach themselves to the majority.
But here we are with the opposite staring us in the face from Yorubas in the obviously abnormal circumstance of expansionism.
What appears to you as their quest for political correctness in their Edo State environment is actually a quest to restore their genuine identity which had over the years been vandalised by extraneous elements of Yorubaism which they adopted, albeit naively, in their attempt to be politically correct in the Yoruba-dominated Western Region environment into which they were previously dumped by colonial authority fiat.
If they are actually more Yoruba than Bini, then why did they, out of their own free, will vote to be carved into the Midwest in the 1963 plebiscite? If Akoko-Edos are actually Yorubas, then how come they decide to join the Midwestern Region being created for obviously non-Yoruba minorities who were smouldering in anger over what they perceived as domination by the Akoko-Edo s' supposedly Yoruba brothers? Shouldn't they have been afraid that those non-Yoruba minorities which would obviously become the majority in the new region would avenge on them the Yoruba domination which they at least felt they suffered in the Western Region? Why not be logical for once?
Yes, I insist that Yorubas are intolerant of other languages based on first hand experience. And come to think of it, is it not the same intolerance Yorubas have been showing here to Akoko-Edo people's quest to be who they actually are?

As for the Otaru title being used in Auchi, there is no contention because the chiefly Islamic religion of the Nupes is quite dominant among them. However that has not inspired the Nupes into an expansionism drive targeted at Etsako land unlike Yorubas are doing to Akoko-Edo for similar reasons.
The reason why there are strong campaigns against elements of Yorubaism in Akoko-Edo without a similar eradication attempts at the vestiges of Ebira and Nupe cultural elements is simply the Yoruba's arrogance and reliance on those vestiges to claim that Yorubas founded towns in Akoko-Edo. The Ebiras who have even actually founded farming camps like Aiyetoro and Aiyegunle don't claim they are indigenous to Akoko-Edo, neither do the Nupes, hence we don't feel threatened about them unlike with Yorubas.
As for the use of Otaru title in Igarra, it is indeed a shame on you to claim to know much about Akoko-Edo and all you can substantiate it with is a downloaded pictures of the traditional council. You are actually completely ignorant of the details as I have always insisted.
Here it is: For over 80 years now the majority of Igarra people do not accept the "Otaru" title as genuine for their monarchical stool. How would you know this when you rely more on the internet than taking the pain to seek information from the natives themselves? The actual name and title of Igarra king is "Oshinoyi" and not Otaru which origin you correctly ascribe to Nupes whom Igarra people however share no traces of origin or cultural affinity with.
There are 15 clans in Igarra and only five out of them decided to falsify and document that Otaru is the Igarra title for king. The remaining majority ten clans have been in court over it for since 1981 even though the struggle over this issue started as far back as 1930.
There have been bloody inter-clan wars within Igarra since 1983 over this issue. In fact Igarra is polarized into two factions still over the Otaru title falsehood. Why not visit Igarra and conduct a survey by yourself?
Mr. Yoruba man, other than the default appearance which the "Akoko" tag has wrecked on the people, you know NOTHING About Akoko-Edo. Akoko-Edo people are not Yorubas and will never be.
Your genuinely Yoruba brothers have always been wrongly placed Southern Kwara and Southern Kogi and have been crying out to you for help towards being re-united with their kit and kin in Ekiti and Ondo. One of such even created a post here on NL but you avoided it like a plague only to be chasing after a section of Edo people who you are not related with, and you keep denying you are not on an expansionism mission? It is all too obvious!

Awolowo, the greatest and most knowledgeable Yoruba man to ever live, spent most of his energy on irredentism targeted at Offa and Kaba Yorubas wrongly placed in the Northern Region. Awolowo with all his knowledge and clinical accuracy about the ethnic composition of Nigeria, never targeted his irredentist efforts at Akoko-Edo Edo because he, from his research work which was based on actual visits, knew the people genuinely had no links with Yorubas. How and why the ignorant Yoruba youths of today keep insulting the memory of Awolowo by claiming Akoko-Edo is what beats me silly.

scholes0:
This guy can evade truth ehhn! Lol

The ruler of Ibillo is also called the Onibillo is that also convergence?
Abi Ibilll isn’t in Akoko Edo again?

Lmaoo

You see, your problem is that you are not open minded to learn about details and nuances of issues. The Ibillo people have for long come to the conclusion that the "Oni" tag in the "Onibillo" title has no meaning in their own Okpameri Language and therefore is a source of identity crisis for them just like the Akoko tag is for the entire Akoko-Edo. Consequently they were just about to start sitting over changing it to a truly Okpameri title when the present King John Sule and the Son of the immediate past king began to have issues about the seat and took each other to court.
The Head of the Ibillo Unity Forum - Mr. H.T. Damisa will be convening a meeting on the 30th of this December, i.e. day after tomorrow for the different Ibillo clans to resume talks on the casting off of the "Oni" tag and replacing it with possibly the actual Okpameri word for king. If you doubt this you can make a trip to Ibillo on that 30th i.e. this Saturday and I will make sure you are allowed into the meeting to see and hear things for yourself. If you are really interested you can inbox me so that I tell you how you can locate me when you arrive Ibillo. However much you think you know a people, when a native however speaks you listen and learn as you can never know him more than himself.

macof:
smh. read again , where did i say yorubas founded okpe or ososo? is something wrong with this one?

Haven't you been claiming here that there are towns in Akoko-Edo founded by Yorubas? Why the volte face now?

9jakool:
By Edo speaker, I'm referring to the language spoken in Benin and its environs (AKA the language spoken in most of Edo South Senatorial zone) or Bini language as you put it. You are just trying to make the question more confusing than it needs to be. The native tongue spoken in Usen or Siluko is not mutually intelligible with Bini language. The Usen's throne is of Ife origin. The king wears the Yoruba crown and has a Yoruba title. I don't need to say more. Maybe you are referring to the fact that Bini is a common lingua franca among the people, but it's not their historic/native language.

All these are immaterial. There is cross-cultural influence. Siluko is just by the boundary between Edo and Ondo and thus its culture is more likely to have undergone hybridization with those of her Yoruba neighbours.
Do the Siluko person himself agrees he is Yoruba? Have they ever agitated that they be joined with their "kit and kin" just across the boundary in Ondo State? The Iyara, Kaba, and other truly Yoruba people in Kogi State have at one time or the other expressed dissatisfaction with being placed in Kogi State and have been demanding to join Ondo. Can same be said of Siluko people? What does the name "Siluko" mean in Yoruba?

macof:
That is the point, the Edoid languages do not follow that protocol
therefore 'Olokpe' and 'Olososo' are as a result of yoruba influence in the area

Goodnight!

And how does that now connote Yoruba origin of Ososo and Okpe people as according to you? How does it establish your claim that being Akoko-Edo town Ososo and Okpe were founded by Yorubas?

Well, the use of "Olo" by these two monarchs in their names is not in the sense of ownership of any kind. So no Yoruba influence. Sleep well.

scholes0:
Hahaha, Ijaw claims in Ovia SW is only the begining of Bini peoples’ problems.
lol

Unlike Yorubas, Binis are not claiming that those Ijaws are Binis. Binis are not in any way trying to tell Ijaws who they are. They know and acknowledge that Ijaws are Ijaws and not Binis. The issue in focus is that the Ijaws, much as they are not Binis, are however living on a Bini land. They have so far been able to adduce evidence to convince the courts which gave them victory. Yorubas on the other hand are claiming Edo lands and some of her people through online arguments. If you are sure of your claims then why not go to court as the Binis have done?

macof:
Hey i said "oni-okpe" not "ooni-okpe"

I said i wasnt going to explain more on this but before this deliberate slander continues ....

Oni - means owner or possessor
And it is typical of Yoruba language to reconstruct the word "oni" to fit the first vowel of the word that is being possessed
E.g.. oni Akara is reconstructed to fit as "alakara"
Oni Owo "owner of money" or rich man = Olowo
This law of Yoruba language is used to style kings as well e.g..
Oni Oyo = Oloyo or Oni Afin = Alafin
Oni Okpe = Olokpe

However, in the language spoken in Okpe, ownership is not denoted by either Oni or Olo. So your explanation does not cut it still. The King of Ososo is also called Olososo. Just like that of Okpe is called Olokpe. But Ososo and Okpe don't speak the same language, and neither language uses Oni or Olo to mean ownership.
The use of Olo by these two towns therefore does not connote any affinity with Yoruba semantics but just a convergence. In fact the other 54 settlements in Akoko-Edo don't use Olo as prefix for their monarchs.

9jakool:
Yes.
Sure there are traces of loan words borrowed from Edo due to close proximity, but the language by all means is a Yoruba tongue. It's the same way an Ilaje can understand Itsekiri far better than an Edo speaker can. If you speak Yoruba, you can have at the very least a basic understanding of any Yoruba dialect or Yoruboid language for that matter. You can understand Usen or Siluko speech better if you speak an archaic Yoruba, or a nearby dialect, like those in Ondo. Now I'm going to direct the same question to you. Can you understand the native Usen speech as an Edo speaker?

When you say "Edo speaker" you are referring to the different languages spoken in Edo all together including that very Usen and Siluko. I guess you are trying to mean a Bini speaker who of course understands Usen.
Do Usen and Siluko people claim they are Yorubas or Edos?
For example the people of Ika speak a language which is an admixture of Igbo and Bini. But the Ika person would tell you and substantiate it that his origin is rooted in Benin and not in Igbo land. Do you question his knowledge of his own self just because his language is not purely Bini?

scholes0:
I guess as an edo person feeling more connection to Igbos or “Kogi people” kinda depends on the part of the state you or the supposed people in question come from.
You are actually very correct, because come to think about it, Edo is a multiethnic state comprising of extensionf of the various ethnic groups that surround it- including Yoruba, Ika (Igbo), Ijaw, Ebira, Igala, Itsekiri, even some Urhobo all having land stakes in the highly artificial “Edo state” - So yeeea- obviously different parts of Edo state feel more connections to certain entities than others.

Btw:Yorubas never called Akoko-Edo “Kobo-kobo”
Awolowo even wanted the Akoko -Edo and Itsekiri sections of the old Western region to remain.

You are off track here. The issue in contention is Akoko-Edo and not the generality of Edo State about which your claims above are still largely wrong and highly uninformed.

I guess it was Hausas and Igbos that called us Kobokobo in the Western Regional House, right?
Denial can only soothe your ego but can't change the truth. We have not forgotten how your chiefs in the Western Regional House would, in observing protocols, greet the Ooni, Alaafin, Awujale and other Yoruba Monarchs and then follow it with the declaration that their greeting of Yoruba Monarchs was completed. They would not recognize any Monarch from the present Edo and Delta among the Yoruba ones deserving of protocols greetings, and those ones would always accept it without questioning as they knew they were actually not Yoruba monarchs.
Why then are the younger Yorubas of today trying to reverse what their elders established?
Awolowo, in protest to Zik's and Ahnadu Bello's hypocrisy of forcefully keeping their own regions intact while seeking a dismemberment of the Western Region, actually did not even initially want any part of the present Edo/Delta to be excised from the Western Region. It was Akintola that allowed it as a trade off to consolidate his illegitimately acquired premiership. All the different districts of the Midwest voted freely to be included.
Awolowo was no expansionist as he had as far back as in the late forties written that Nigerian is a mere geographical expression where there are no Nigerians in the same sense as there are Germans, English, etc, and warned that each ethnic group however tiny must be allowed to be themselves.
However, the Yoruba majority in the Western House referred to Edo/Delta members as Kobokobo and that accentuated the quest by them to break off.

scholes0:
Nothing like Uselu LG maybe you meant Egor, which is basically a section of Benin itself.

How does that now confer veracity on your brother's claim that there are 6 LGAs in Bini land?

9jakool:
I beg to differ. I was blown away upon discovering that the native Usen speech is more related to Yoruba than Edo. Let me ask you this. Can an Edo person understand people from Usen when they are conversing in their native tongue? (Not Edo language)

Igarra people are just a cut off Ebira group in Akoko Edo. I'm not here to argue that Akoko Edo people are Yoruba. I'm aware of the convergence evolution of languages in Akoko Edo and Nigeria at large, but I'm not talking about that. I'm simply referring to the existence of Yoruba cross-cultural communities in Ovia.

Point of correction! There is nothing like Ebira group from which Igarra people are cut. Both Ebiras and Igarras belonge to the Oshuku descendants with coordinate status. Igarra are therefore not a subset of Ebiras as most people erroneously think. Both Igarras and Ebiras are different subsets of the Oshuku tribe.
Oshuku is the generic name and not Ebira.
On the Usen issue; Could you, as a Yoruba, understand and interprete what the Usen person was saying?

scholes0:
Stop being ignorant those places are Yoruba. lol
This isn’t simply about a convergence of tongues.
The title of the King in Usen is Olu Ogbe and Elawure (Olu Awure) and their oral history traces rightfully back to Ife- not Benin.

Edo state is more complex than just your little corner of it.

Stop your expansionist drive. They are not Yorubas. They don't speak Yoruba but Bini. How does the mere title of a king determine a people's tribe? Binis have substantially proven wrong the theory that they originated from Ife. If Yorubas themselves could claim that their progenitor dropped from the sky then which sensible person should believe whatever other account they give about themselves let alone others?
Yorubas can twist any foreign lands title to make it sound like it's origin is rooted in Yoruba Language. So who takes them seriously on the Elawure twist to Olu-Awure?
Didn't a fellow expansionist of yours just attempt to twist Olokpe to Ooni-Okpe? When did Yoruba start having 'kp' in their spelling system?

Yes, Edo State is complex, but an alien will definitely not understand it better than the native.

macof:
I've already told you I'm not engaging in any further back and forths with you.

Established descriptions are there and well known by Nigerians....deal with it

Unless Akoko edos make a bold act like cast the "akoko" name off or come out in a committee to denounce the pre-colonial Yoruba factors to challenge the established demographic description...Akoko-Edos will continue to be described as an Akoko people with some Yoruba heritage

P.s that bold part tho You lack comprehension and knowledge I swear, what's wrong with Bini people(I choose to believe you are Bini) these days?? So much intellectual deficiency. And I'm not even going to bother explaining it to you

Even if they come out through a committee to make the necessary clarifications will your expansionist drive allow you see such for what it is?
Only expansionist Yorubas will continue describing Akoko-Edo people as descendants of Akokos of Ondo. No other tribe in Nigeria does that and will ever do.
You lack honesty and comprehension combined to assume that a Bini person could be so knowledgeable of the finest details about Akoko-Edo individual towns and villages. It is indeed shameful that rather than try to counter or acknowledge the details I have provided you about your posers, you decided to take the escapist route by claiming you suspect I am Bini. If I were Bini and my submissions about Akoko-Edo are false, then why has no other Akoko-Edo person here come out to refute my claims all this while? A brother of mine here has actually said it all here that it is more useful debating with a donkey than with a Yoruba.

macof:
For someone who denies already established facts to call me a bigot

And questioning my education...really? I question yours and your sanity too because you first posted on this thread about specifically Igarra ...now you found a way to drag all Akoko-edo towns

You lack consistency

what is absurd and moronic is this assertion that study and research is irrelevant. Like being of an ethnicity automatically gives one the divine knowledge of the history and culture without being properly educated on the issue

basic facts are already established, research have been carried out

And my point is simple:

Akoko-edo is multi cultural and multi lingual with migrants from different places, with Bini and Yorubaland being just two of such places
But in modern times the Yoruba factor is being reinforced

Simple basic point that no sane person doesn't already know



Oh Geez... Akoko-Edos on this thread since page 1 never denied the Yoruba factors in the area, so how are Yorubas forcing a concoction on them?
I believe the op of the thread is not less Akoko Edo than you are...
Then again this is a faceless forum anybody can claim to be anything but why should anybody take your word over that of the op and others?


I don't deny the Bini factors, even there are also Nupe factors

I'll also add that
1. there are towns with Yoruba names like Aiyegunle, Aiyetoro, Ikiran-ile, Ikiran-oke

Anyone can recognize these as Yoruba naming patterns
Unless you want to deny these towns don't exist

2. Many Akoko-Edos have Yoruba names
3. The Yoruba clothing style is worn by even monarchs
4. The monarchs like Olokpe of Okpe are styled using Yoruba pattern of styling royal titles
Oni-okpe = olokpe
How can you deny even a little Yoruba influence?



You lack comprehension.. I never stated Igarra are the largest group...

My words I believe were "ibillo and igarra are the largest towns "



Smh. I never said these people are originally Yoruba...get the point!

I said, Yoruba factors exist among them and it has been growing in post-colonial times

It was not called Igarra-Edo but Akoko-igarra


The name 'Akoko' has always been there
The "Edo" is the part of description that was most recently added due to administration changes

You are just deliberating trying to force an Edo on Akoko-Edos

I am not going to do another back and forth with you, these are simple information that only insanity can deny

.
"Established" facts? By which authority? Establishment of "facts" could be imaginary but does not and cannot be substituted for truth which does not need to be established by anyone as it has always been.

I first posted about Igarra in response to an attempt by another expansionist to tag Igarra as Yorubas and impose Yoruba identity on them. It would not have made sense for me to have involved the whole Akoko-Edo in my response to his false assertions which focused only on Igarra. That you expect me to have brought the entire Akoko-Edo into my response over an issue that was specifically focused on Igarra puts your education and sanity to question once more.

If you think being born and brought up and still living in a place and being from the place is does not naturally endow the person with education and accurate knowledge about that place, then I don't expect you to know how moronic and absurd it is for an alien to believe that mere academic research is more reliable than being a native. By the way who first ever gave information to the authors of those academic works other than the natives themselves?
In order of superiority the factors that determine accuracy of knowledge about a given people are as follows
1. Being a native born and brought up in the area.
2. Having travelled to the place to see and feel those people on first hand basis
3. Reliance on academic research and hearsay.
Unfortunately the third category is where you belong and assume it takes position number 1.

There are no Akoko-Edo people who originated from anywhere in Yoruba land. You have continued to make this false assertion unsubstantiated.
Your claim that Akoko-Edos on this thread have earlier on asserted their Yorubaness smacks of lack of comprehension typical of a bigoted alien on an expansionist drive.
In fact the OP's post asserts that Ibillo people are Edo-speaking and not Yoruba-speaking. A truly Yoruba people are too conservative to have become Edo-speaking on arrival and settling in another land. In fact Yorubas have this assumption that their language is superior to all others thus an average Yoruba person not only resents learning the language of any Nigeria minority tribe but feels offended if spoken around him. I remember how, in my office in Lagos, once an Akoko-Edo colleague of mine and I begin to communicate in our mother tongue the Yorubas who formed the majority there would start protesting and demanding that we stopped speaking in a language they could not comprehend as if we could comprehend them each time they spoke to themselves in their own Yoruba language. A people who are so averse to and loathsome of other languages could never have migrated to a new land and adopt the language of the locality to the abandonment of their own.

You actually are guilty of the inconsistency you accuse me of as you now claim you never said these people are Yorubas but only possess Yoruba influence. You started by claiming that there are towns founded by Yorubas. How better than that can one claim that a people are originally Yorubas? Your education is doubtful with these self reversals.

I never denied certain Yoruba influence but I explained the reason for those influence as being purely political and administrative strategies to acquire relevance within the Yoruba dominated Western Region in which the people found themselves by default. All such Yoruba influence started post colonization as an indication of the underlying political necessity which later got accentuated by their inclusion in the newly created Western Region. Even in Igarra, the two main quarters which make up the town used to be originally called Ubobo and Eba (i.e Utah and Ufah combined) but with inclusion in the Western Region these quarters became renamed as Igarra-Oke and Igarra-Sale. A similar thing happened about Ikiran-ile and Ikiran-Oke. Does that now suggest that Igarra people were ever actually Yorubas? However, with our inclusion in the Midwest the Igarra-Oke and Igarra-Sale nomenclature got discarded and the Original Ubobo and Eba were restored till today.
The towns Aiyetoro and Aiyegunle started as farming camps established by Ebiras but named by the Yorubas who however first came to patronize them of the produce. Aiyegunle and Aiyetoro have no monarchs as they are not really fully fledged towns or villages.
We also have such Ebira farming settlement along the Ishua-Idoani-Ipele Expressway of Ondo State. Does that suggest that there are Ebiras indigenous to Ondo State or that there are Yoruba towns founded by Ebiras?

Many Akoko-Edos actually gave Yoruba names to their children in the past in pursuit of strategic relevance under the Yoruba dominated Western Region. However all that became unnecessary in the wake of our rightful inclusion in the Midwestern Region, hence the trend started getting reversed. It is impossible now for any Akoko-Edo person to give a Yoruba name to his newly born child. It is either religious or native names.
Your claim that "Akoko" has always been part of their name is another evidence that you are just desperate to force Yorubaism on them. By using always you suggest that they were referred to as Akoko even before colonization. That is a fraudulent claim. They were from the beginning autonomous settlements which related minimally with one another. All this collective nomenclature necessity arose in the colonial era and due to language barrier then they were not much consulted by the colonial officers about administrative decisions about them. They never knew anything "Akoko" from their remotest beginnings. But they had from time immemorial always had the "Edo" tag. There is a village called Ekpedo i.e. Ekpe - Edo before colonization, they bore names which had "Edo" prefix, but not Akoko.
How does Oni-Okpe equate to Olokpe?
Okpe is not a Yoruba word. Olo is totally different from the Yoruba word Ooni. We have Olokpe of Okpe and not Ooni of Okpe, so cut that crap. Do Okpe people speak Yoruba or Bini?
What gives dressing uniqueness to Edo monarchs is not the dress style but the circular beads. You are again ignorant of that. Pay a visit to Okpe and see things at a very close range and you'll be blown out of your socks.
As for the Nupe influence you alluded to; Yes due to Nupe invasion between 1875 and 1900 some Nupe names like Damisa, Saiki, Idaudu, etc got adopted and children got given them. But have you seen any Nupe person on this thread capitalizing on that to claim that Akoko-Edos are Nupes?
You are rather trying to force Yorubaism on Akoko-Edos. However by the time we cast off the Akoko tag in our name you'll understand better

AxxeMan:
Nice to see my Akoko Edo brothers actually coming out to Skool this Yoruba bigots!!.... Excellent write up bro backed with Intellectual facts not even Satan can dispute

Nice to have you around my Akoko-Edo brother.
You see I am currently leading the creation of awareness at home the need for us to cast off the "Akoko" root in our name as all it has given us is unnecessary identity crisis over the years.
We currently agitate for a hybrid name derived by combination of initials of all the various ethnic groups of the area.

fiizznation:
Who the hell is OBJ? Is he a demigod or what? I don't even think Atiku will ever become the president of Nigeria for some reasons, but obj or whatever you people call him is no determination factor in Atiku's presidential ambition.

The way and manner some of you glorify obj usually makes me think you have finished 10 goblets of alcohol before making your comments.

Obj is no freaking demigod please

You took the words out of my mouth.
While I don't subscribe to Atiku presidency and don't see any evidence that majority of Nigerian believe in his desperate ambition, it however beats me funny that some folks keep trying in vain to accord relevance to OBJ as a determining factor of Atiku's success. They have forgotten that it even partly took Atiku to bring Obasanjo back to relevance after Abacha had successfully confined him to the dustbin of history through imprisonment.

historyworld031:
Take a look at the pre-colonial maps which I provided.
You see yoruba insult two of your brothers and compliment you and then you say thank you to them.
SMH. Remember the strategy of devide and conquer.

I only thanked him for being more logical in his approach. At least he acknowledged the superior argument and the fact that as an Akoko-Edo person he can't know me more than I know myself and my people. This is unlike the other guy who by his arrogant tone has been implying that he, despite being an alien, knows Akoko-Edo people better than they know themselves.