₦airaland Forum

I will see if this will be moved to the front page or it will also suffer the same fate as Engineer Sikiru

By Farooq A. Kperogi


Amid the grief of the heartrendingly tragic collapse of the 21-storey luxury apartment building in Ikoyi, Lagos, a sadly familiar, barely acknowledged but nonetheless insidiously widespread anti-Muslim bigotry in Yoruba land came to light.

A Yoruba Muslim by the name of Adebowale Sikiru revealed in an interview with a YouTube news channel called AN 24 that he was rejected for a job at the Ikoyi construction site because of his Muslim faith. He applied for the position of a site engineer and was found qualified enough to deserve being invited for an interview by Femi Osibona, the MD of Fourscore Homes, the firm that managed the construction of the ill-fated multi-storey building.


After the interview, Sikiru said Osibona asked him what church he attended, and he responded that he was a Muslim. “Ah, I can’t work with a Muslim,” Sikiru quoted Osibona to have said. Osibona reportedly said in Yoruba that he couldn’t work with someone whose response to his chant of “Praise God!” would be “Alhamdulillah!”

When Sikiru told him of his struggles with getting gainfully employed after graduation, Osibona also reportedly said it was probably because of his Muslim faith that he was not “able to make a headway” in life. “He said that in front of even the bricklayers” and many others at the site, Sikiru said.

Sikiru left the site sad, humiliated, and deflated, but a friend of his who brought his attention to the job he had interviewed for called him while he was on his way back home. The friend wanted to find out if he was trapped in the building that had collapsed a few hours earlier. That was the time it dawned on Sikiru that his rejection and humiliation on account of his faith ironically saved him from death.

Unfortunately, Osibona died in the collapsed building, so we have no way of getting his own side of the story. Nonetheless, it doesn’t seem plausible that Sikiru, who didn’t even come across as a devout Muslim during his interview with AN 24, would just wake up and invent the encounter with Osibona. Plus, videos that have emerged of Osibona’s meretriciously outward displays of his Christianity and evangelical exhibitionism are consistent with Sikiru’s account of his encounter with him.



More than that, though, it merely instantiates the casual bigotry that Yoruba Muslims routinely contend with in their own natal region on account of their faith, which I’ve known for years.

I followed the social media conversations that Sikiru’s encounter with Osibona triggered among Yoruba Muslims and came away with the distinct impression that many Yoruba Muslims are seething with frustration and deep-seated inferiority complex on account of their faith-based systematic exclusion and demonization, but they are grinning and bearing their fate in smoldering silence out of social pressure, out of anxieties about social ostracism. We call this the spectacle of the spiral of silence in communication theory.

A Facebook friend of mine by the name of Ganiyu Oludare Lasisi who now lives and works in Scotland narrated how he was denied a job to teach high school geography in his hometown of Abeokuta because of his Muslim faith. He has an Upper Second-Class honors degree in Geography and a distinction in the subject in his “O” level. But “on the day of the interview,” Lasisi said, “the school owner/founder (also a pastor) rejected me because of my Muslim name (Ganiyu). I was so sad and angry then. He even suggested that I can convert to Christianity and change Ganiyu to Gabriel.”

In their safe spaces, multiple Yoruba Muslims shared similar such anecdotal encounters of causal bigotry. They say they are habitually ridiculed for their faith, sneered at for their Muslim sartorial choices, alienated and rhetorically marginalized, and outright denied opportunities by people with whom they share the same ethnicity. Several of them are forced to convert to Christianity or hide their faith to fit in.



Just the other day, on November 3, Premium Times published a story of the appointment of a 45-year-old professor of geo-technical engineering by the name of Afeez Bello as acting Vice Chancellor of the Osun State University in Osogbo. The photo of Bello that the paper used to illustrate the story was of a heavily bearded man with a Muslim felt hat.

Apparently, that sartorial symbol of male Muslim identity was like a red rag to a bull among Christian Facebook commenters, most of whom were Yoruba. The man was called “Boko Haram,” “Shekau’s reincarnation,” a “fanatic,” and all sorts of other cruel slanders and unwarrantedly unmentionable vituperations. I was emotionally distraught after reading a sample of the comments. I inflicted self-torture on myself.

The truth is that the famed religious ecumenicalism and tolerance of the Yoruba people is often achieved at the expense of Yoruba Muslims. It is they, and not their Christian brothers and sisters, who must always perform religious tolerance. (In his interview with the YouTube news channel, even Sikiru felt compelled to say that 95 percent of his friends are Christians and that he hadn’t closed off the possibility that he could convert to Christianity at some point in his life.)


It is Yoruba Muslims who are required to downplay or hide their religious identity in the interest of an overarching Yoruba identity because, over the last few decades, Christianity has been rhetorically constituted in the popular imagination as a core constituent in the construction of Yoruba identity. That’s why prominent Yoruba Muslims almost always have to invoke their connection to Christianity to fit in.

The late Gani Fawehinmi always had a need to show that his wife was a Christian. Bola Ahmed Tinubu has a need to strategically let it be known that his wife isn’t only a Christian but a deacon. House of Representatives Speaker Olufemi Hakeem Gbajabiamila concealed his Muslim identity until he needed the support of the Muslim North to become Speaker. After the fact, his handlers played up the fact that his wife and his mother are Christians.

Prince Bola Ajibola, one of Africa’s finest jurists who happens to be a devout Muslim, doesn’t openly bear Abduljabar, his Muslim name—unlike his father who bore Abdulsalam as his first name—perhaps, not being married to a Christian, it was his only way to reassure his Christian Yoruba brothers and sisters that he is Yoruba. Yet, he is so strong in his Muslim faith that he established the Crescent University, one of Nigeria’s first private Islamic universities, in his hometown of Abeokuta.

Although Muslims constitute a numerical majority in Yoruba land, they are a symbolic minority and are perpetually put in a position to prove their “Yorubaness.” For instance, in the heat of the debate over the formation of Amotekun to ward off “Fulani bandits,” Bolaji Aluko, who was a professor here in the United States and who is now a prominent Ekiti State government official, used the moment to stealthily alienate Yoruba Muslims in his state.

In a January 25, 2021 article titled “Sunday Musings: On the Matter of Farmer-Herdsmen Clashes in Ekiti State,” he wrote, among other things, “Our Muslim Yoruba citizens must decide whether the Umma principle of brotherhood is greater that [sic] the collective security of our Yoruba citizenry." As I told him then, there are at least four ways in which he was wrong.

First, he exoticized, needlessly put Yoruba Muslims on the spot, and created a false binary between being Muslim and being Yoruba, even though (nominal) Muslims constitute the majority in Oyo, Osun, Ogun, and Lagos states. Islam has been in Yorubaland since at least the 1400s. The first mosque was built in Oyo-Ile, the ancient capital of the Oyo Empire, in 1550, that is, centuries before colonialism.

Second, Yoruba Muslims are themselves victims of the homicidal fury of Fulani brigands. If being Muslim hasn't immunized Yoruba Muslims against sanguinary clashes with Fulani people, why should they be singled out as people who are suspect, as people who might betray non-Muslim Yoruba people to the Fulani out of "the Umma principle of brotherhood," which, by the way, is nonsensical, meaningless verbiage?

Third, Aluko’s claim assumes that all Fulani brigands are Muslims (they are NOT) and that they are committing their crimes on behalf of Islam, which would predispose them spare Yoruba Muslims in the spirit of "the Umma principle of brotherhood." But nothing can be more ignorant and bigoted than that.

If "Umma principle of brotherhood" (whatever the heck that means) were a thing, Muslims in Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger, and elsewhere (who are also incidentally Fulani, Hausa, or "Hausa-Fulani" wouldn't be killed, kidnapped, and overawed by criminally bloodthirsty Fulani brigands. Mosques wouldn’t be invaded, and imams and worshipers kidnapped and murdered. That should tell anyone that this isn't about religion or even ethnicity.

Sadly, Yoruba Muslims have no voice and seem to have accepted their fate with listless resignation. Not being a Yoruba myself, I know I will be viciously attacked by the people who lubricate and enjoy the current hegemonic high ground that puts Yoruba Muslims at the lower end of the totem pole, but I am not one to shy away from telling the truth because of fear of attacks. I resist injustice no matter who the victims or the perpetrators are.


Anny
November 6, 2021 at 9:29 AM
Prof Kperogi, i applaud your unbiased and purely professional insightful write-ups!
Must say i read a lot of social commentaries on FB but most times. I see a group of commentators struggling to push narratives either in favour or out of favour with the govt depending on thier affiliations to the govt of Nigeria, ethnicity,party or even business interest and NEVER to set out the facts out there and let the people decide based on the info presented!
Nigeria needs just 2 more of you,may be one in europe and 1 in Asia to keep throwing out the facts out there and we will be fine!
Please continue in your stride and do not relent----those that cannot stand you are those averse to the truth !kudos

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Unknown
November 6, 2021 at 11:43 AM
Well,Prof. Kperogi, there is no doubt, the problems of this country are our elites, from both divide, North and South. This reminds me of you good friend,late Professor Adesanmi(hope I remember the name correctly),who was always referring these elites, in his columns,as "the 2percenters."I always enjoyed reading his columns because of his candour, like you. But how do we challenge and defeat the 2percenters without people like you and the late Prof. Adesanmi, when illiteracy and poverty were deliberately created to be cloud our sense of reasoning? Each section of the country has its "weapon of mass dis-atraction". As for the North, we have the 'political Islamists', and the South West, we have the 'ethnic supremacist', while in the South East we have the 'secessionist,' who always cried against marginalisation.

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Ade
November 6, 2021 at 1:02 PM
While I agree with your position on widespread bigotry among Yorubas, your analogy is conveniently one-sided.

The derogatory term used for Christians in the southwest is 'Kiriyo'. A typical devout Muslim family in Ibadan will literally disown their children for associating with Kiriyo, some to the point of threatening fatal consequences.

How many born again Christians get employed in schools owned by Imams? In fact you won't bother to apply because you'll already know they're not looking for 'your type'

The subject of bigotry among Yorubas have to addressed holistically because it goes many ways.

Lasly, I think it is the height of unfairness to selectively site cases of bigotry against muslims, while subtly rejoicing that a supposed bigot got what they deserved in death (it's even crazy thinking about it). Your post showed zero respect for the souls of the departed

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Unknown
November 7, 2021 at 6:07 AM
With all due respect Ade, you sound to be guilty of what the Prof is saying here. Kariyo has never been used as derogatory term to describe Christians. Rather it is a common way the uneducated among us including my grand parents and probably yours too pronounce Christian. I am sure that you have heard the same people called Yoruba of Muslims faith 'Imale' and later twisted as 'Awon Elesin Lile.'

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ogupla
November 6, 2021 at 4:31 PM
This is a good literary write up though he could have given it some religious societal and moral balancing.

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Adetayo Hakeem
November 6, 2021 at 4:57 PM
It's a lie. Please don't bring division between us. We accept religious tolerance in this part of Nigeria

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Unknown
November 7, 2021 at 6:25 AM
That is not true Mr Adetayo as you may prefer to be called. Religious tolerance has disappeared into thin air in Yoruba land. It is true that Yoruba Muslims have been gradually facing persecution and extinction in Yoruba. It is fine if you never witnessed it but is just the reality. I witnessed it too first when I went for interview at NNPC JVD on Adetokunbo Ademola. Despite all the noise about Northerners occupying everywhere. A Yoruba NNPC Coordinator, who was head of that division at that time in 1990 or 1991, and who happens to be of Ijebu decent like me but a Christian and I believe, a Deacon told me to my face that I cannot work their because every one around him were Muslims. Only to discover he reserved the position for his son who just came back from England.

Or, is it the several battles I had fight with a private school I put my children only to remove their Muslims names from my children report card after several complaints, and to be asked why did I give my children such 'satanic' name.

Moderators: OAM4J, Mynd44 over to you. Or is the article unworthy of front page since it is about the plight of those who don't share your religion?

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TheSaint
November 6, 2021 at 5:14 PM
Prof I think you 'misfired' this one.
While bigotry of any nature is deplorable, I don't think what happened between late Osibona, if true, is worth the colouration of generalisation. And the premise of your argument; a few yoruba politicians unwilling to confidently bear their religious name does not emanate from fear of discrimition but political gimmickry. May the Almighty comfort the bereaved and grant eternal rest to the victims.

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Sulaak
November 7, 2021 at 3:49 AM
The SW has many problems, corruption,poverty and underdevelopment, let not allow religion to be another issues in the SW. We have seen how religion has turned the North into a basketcase.

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babajide
November 7, 2021 at 3:50 AM
Does it wonder any Christian what Jesus was trying to convey when he said he shall reject them that day? "many shall come to me and said lord, we have done many things in your name, and Jesus shall tell them that get ye away from me you workers of iniquity'. I had to say this with the mindset that every christian claimed to follow Jesus in act and saying, if Osibono, the owner of the ikoyi collapsed building and a representation of an average christian, then for sure, based on the above quote from Jesus, no christian will make heaven.

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Share your thoughts and opinions here. I read and appreciate all comments posted here. But I implore you to be respectful and professional. Trolls will be removed and toxic comments will be deleted.

Though, as a northerner, I find some of the statements of this man to be quite patronising, yet I must admit, he is saying the absolute, unalloyed, unadulterated, undiluted and pure truth.

He has to be an Uche and a follower of the religion of "love".

Man U= 0
Mam Citi= 6

Freedom of speech is a hoax. Yet it if he had insulted Jesus, Muhammad or any revered figure it would have been interpreted as freedom of speech.

madridguy:
Brother ADEBOWALE SIKIRU this is not necessary. You can't say no single Muslim have worked or make any supply in the building.
Let us join our voice to pray for the victims and their families.

ISLAM stand for peace, unity and love.

You are very stupid. So it is not necessary for a victim of "rape" to voice out! This is ur mentality, stupid Christians. If I was the other way round, you will have been talking nonsense

Yoruba Christians are the most intolerant folks i have ever come across. They would discriminate against Yoruba mulims in the night time but by day break they would claim that Yoruba are the most tolerant on religion. I blame the Yoruba muslims for trusting them in the first place.

hisexcellency34:
Fayemi/Zulum. Osinbajo is the same as Buhari

Fayemi is very coorruptt. Go and investigate his role in the consession agreements between the Global Nigeria Infrastructure Limited (GNIL) and the FGN over Ajaokuta.

There you will know the man is very unpatriotic, self serving and not the upright man the Lagos-Ibadan media portrays him to be. I have no regard for Fayemi for supporting an Indian company against the very country that made him who he is.

vanunu:
These are rogue soldiers. Shame on Nigeria.

Your gun men are not rogue, right?

Leverage2021:
child of mutha the joke is on you

If you can't bring a scripture where Jesus slaughtered his enemy

If you won't agree that the verse is spiritual warefare then bring the verse stating otherwise

If you won't believe Jesus condemned Peter for using physical sword then bring the verse stating otherwise

"Spiritual warfare"? Nigerian Christians are deaf, dumb and dull. May God guide u. U are pathetic.

Leverage2021:
Can't you see you have no brain cos if you can't attach the corresponding verse where you saw Jesus using sword it means you a fool

I don't blame you, son of mutah,

Sahih al-Bukhari 5119

Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)'s said, "If a man and a woman agree (to marry temporarily), their marriage should last for three nights, and if they like to continue, they can do so; and if they want to separate, they can do so."

If your father knew your mother beyond three nights you would have had sense

You should be worried about the external he'll Allah has prepared for black charcoal slaves like you

Mishkat al-Masabih 119

Abud Darda' reported God’s messenger as saying, “God created Adam when He created him and struck his right shoulder and brought forth his offspring white like small ants. And he struck his left shoulder and brought forth his offspring black as though they were charcoal. Then He said to the party on his right side, ‘To paradise, and I do not care’ and He said to the party in his left shoulder, ‘To hell, and I do not care’.”

Why change topic? Let us do it one by one. Jesus asked that his enemy be slaughtered and that he is come not bring peace but a sword. Attend to these violence in ur holy book first, then we move to other issues.

Leverage2021:
He is a Christian na not an headslammer

1. " Iam come not bring peace but a sword"

2. "But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’(Luke 19v27)


You god says this and you have the effrontery to call muslims names, idiot. You will never know peace in ur life from now henceforth.

If u had developed Nigeria before in the 16 yrs u ruled what then are u coming back to do? Unserious people.

People of the religion of love always never disappoint . Do u blame them? Someone had died for the sins they have committed and are yet to commit.

All I am seeing are burukutu-drinking and do-eating yeastners dilating their eyeballs like cats on hot bricks.

CANDYDADDY:
.






remove the Northern area from Nigeria's map, you just solved 98.9999% of her problems

The north that supplies tomato to u?


The North that supplies pepper to u?


The North that supplies onions to u?


The North that supplies garden egg to u?


The North that supplies protein (cow, goat, etc) to you?

The north that supplies cereals (maize, millet, sorghum etc ) to the south?


The North that supplies cotton to ur textile companies (e.g the Lagos-based sun flag and woolen & synthetics)?

The North that provides markets to the southern food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and iron & steel companies?

Go and get educated on the political economy of Nigeria, Kiddo. The North is the heart of Nigeria!

In any spheres of economic, social and political lives northerners are no pushovers. Northerners are the most hard working Nigerians, the most honest, the most tolerant and peaceful. Ask your father and mother their honest views on the North and northerners, mumu.

May God bless Tinubu.

Yarabawa basu da kunya wallahi.

Nigeria is the most independent to make decisions out of its own volition without any bullying from America under Buhari. Other past presents won't dare buy military hardware from out side the West.

MashaAllah. Let me comment b4 people of the religion of love flood the comment section spreading their "love", very deceitful set of people who preach what they don't practice.

Proud to be a Muslim. Thank you Allah for if you had wished I would haveen among those who believed in the irrationality that 1+1+1=1. Those who toil to grease the palms of Pastopreneurs.

G450:
[/s] ur word is rubbish and will always remain rubbish because u ar not God nor His assistant

So u could wish a whole president death and saw it as nothing?

DoggoneDogg:
[s][/s]

Fake Afonja prophet

You will soon confirm what I said about u. Just tell ur next of kin that someone here said u will die b4 the Buhari u wished death for.

G450:
Head slammers always praying for peace piss and still causing havock around the world...

From this day on, you will never know peace in your life. Just mark my word.

Simdyofficial:
why e no blow

Write it down, you will die b4 Buhari dies. Just mark this comment and keep it with ur next of kin who will see a miracle of u dying b4 buhari. I said this with no iota of doubt in my mind. Jus be prepared to die b4 Buhari that u wished death for.

They are worried because unlike you, they don't consider things from sentimental perspective. They are realist and pragmatic while, as a southern Nig xtian u are sentimental.

MangekyoAlt:
I don't even know why the USA are worrying about anything here.

Hypersonic nuclear missiles are toys compared to the high caliber secret weapons in their arsenal. As Superpower, They have the capability to raid and decimate China, Russia and every other countries all in the space of 24 hours.
That's according to some inhabitants of Katsina state ofcourse

Really there's no cause for alarm

This is why the upper and middle class folks hate marrying children of peasant class like you. You think typical of the child of the peasantry that you are. Haba, have some dignity to forget anything in the past. We're u a virgin when u married her?

Religion of Love.

How did you know that when he was young he did not do things? If truly he didn't, he will not have been doing it now. Once a man passed his impressionable age, he picks no fither bad habits. He only carry those habits he learnt within his impressionable age (14-25) stop making claims on what you have no fact to substantiate. Just pray for your old man and if he persists allow him and your mum to their issue out. This is no go area for una his children. This is between him, God and your mum.

Aufbauh:
All I want to advice is that Prof. Osinbajo shouldn't be underrated by any political actor for the 2023 presidential election.

He's no longer the' mere commissioner' they knew way back. He stands a better chance than anyone else.
Tinubu might outwit him within the party structure, but before the masses that matters in election Osinbajo will dust him.

So the masses matter in Nigerian elections? Have you been living in Jupiter, bro. The masses do not at all at al matter.

PrinceOfLagos:
Religion of piss people

Religion of Love spreading Love in th SE, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc through its adherents GW bush, Tony Blair, Kanu, etc.

If u disown these war criminals u are a bastard

I am supposed to believe this coming from the enemies of the Taliban (USA, UK and Nairaland)?