₦airaland Forum

shortgun:
Abeg stop embarrassing yourself. Quoting your small village in Osun as evidence of national demographics is laughable. Dry-season Hausa farmers in your backyard don’t translate into national population data. Nigeria’s statistical agencies and the last national census releases did not provide any official ethnic-breakdown.

Ethnicity counts are politically sensitive and have never been published as an official dataset. Every official estimate shows Yorubas and Igbos as nearly equal in Nigeria and Igbos clearly dominate in different parts of Nigeria and the diaspora worldwide. That’s why in Europe, America and Asia you meet Igbos in droves running businesses and excelling professionally. Your Northern university claim is pure fiction go and look at the staff and student rosters in the North, you’ll see Igbos everywhere. Facts are facts, your village gossip isn’t a census, it’s just noise

funshint:
The main point is you'll never hear a Yoruba disrespect his host or called their land "no man's land" or claim to be the one that "developed" it. Yorubas integrate and respects their hosts. They're grateful to the land of their host for whatever riches they are able to get there, not claiming to be better or denigrating their hosts.

Judolisco:
u can't twist the truth... We were all here.... Obi didn't get 90% in d east he got 99% of votes in d east.... Your people started abusing other tribes because they didn't vote for him.... His allies started threatening court judges families to the extent of posting their children pictures and businesses online...

When we asked you why u voted for your kinsman, you all said, you always vote for the right people... Like you voted okorocha, ikpeazu, uzor kalu, Peter obi, who all turn the east to dubai and China...

lawani:
I just used my village as a real life example of why your statement is wrong
Thern when a census of languages spoken at home was taken in the US Yoruba was almost double Igbo, in Ireland it was almost triple. Why do you think it will be any different in Jos Kano or Kaduna?. It is normal for Yoruba to outnumber Igbos in the North because even as indigenes Yoruba are the second largest group in the North after Hausa
The total number of Yoruba in Nigeria may be at least double of Igbo population. The SW is more than double the SE in population. These are facts so it is erroneous to say the Igbo population will be automatically more than the Yoruba population in any non Igbo city

https://www.nairaland.com/7934178/top-five-west-african-languages/3

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerians_in_Ireland

shortgun:
Your so-called ‘facts’ collapse under scrutiny again. Quoting diaspora language surveys in the US or Ireland doesn’t prove Yorubas are more than Igbos in Nigeria. If such surveys were taken in China, Malaysia, South Africa, India or even in Equatorial Guinea, Igbos would outnumber Yorubas 20 to 1. These surveys only show who migrated where and not actual population size.

And this nonsense about Yoruba being the second largest group in the North after Hausa is pure fiction. No census or credible demographic study backs that up. What is generally accepted though, is that almost all Northerners have at least encountered an Igbo person their lifetime.

Also, the South-West being larger than the South-East in land mass doesn’t mean Yorubas outnumber Igbos. Niger State alone is nearly the size of the entire South-West does that mean the Nupe people of Niger State are more than the Yorubas by population?

Every demographic estimate puts Yoruba and Igbo populations in the same bracket — roughly 42 to 50 million each. So stop dressing up village anecdotes and diaspora quirks as statistics. Until there’s an official census with ethnic breakdowns your sweeping claims remain propaganda and not facts.

shortgun:
I don’t know if you’re ignorant or just being deliberately mischievous. Peter Obi got 88% of South-East votes in the last election and that’s nothing unusual. Igbos have always voted massively for the most viable candidate and never voted based on tribe.
In 2003, Obasanjo a Yoruba man from the Southwest got 87% of South-East votes while Ojukwu an Igbo war hero managed only 25%.
In 2007, Yar’Adua, a Fulani man from the north received 72% of Southeast votes.
In 2011, Goodluck Jonathan, an Ijaw man from south south, got 98%. If Igbos were tribalistic, they wouldn’t have voted overwhelmingly for leaders from every corner of Nigeria. The facts completely shatters your lazy mischievous narrative.

lawani:
If Yoruba are almost double Igbo in population in the USA there is no reason to doubt it will be the same way in a country like South Africa which is the foremost immigrant worker destination in Africa. However it is expected that you will claim 20 to 1 in favor of Igbos until an actual census is taken

Are you arguing that the SW is not more than double the SE in population? I am not talking about size of any land now but the SW is more than double the SE in population. Registered voters in SE is like ten percent of national total while SW is like 23 percent. Over 12 million registered NIN in Lagos alone while the SE is just over 10 million.

Where are the Igbos living to make them more than around half of Yoruba population? If they are more than half it will just be by a little

shortgun:
Your logic is all over the place. First of all, diaspora headcounts don’t prove Yorubas are more than Igbos anywhere. Migration flows depend on work networks, visa policies, colonial ties and personal decisions not on Nigeria’s actual demographics. By your reasoning, because Igbos dominate in China, Malaysia, Equatorial Guinea and huge swathes of West Africa, that means they must outnumber Yorubas in Nigeria.

Stop twisting voter registration and NIN numbers like they are ethnic census. INEC doesn’t register people by tribe and the fact that Lagos has more NIN than the South-East is simply because Lagos is a federal city pulling migrants from everywhere....Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Edo,Ijaw you name it. So quoting Lagos NIN as Yoruba numbers is either ignorance or mischief.

This claim that the South-West is ‘more than double’ the South-East in population is a blatant lie. Check the official figures; in 2023 INEC register shows South-West with about 17.9m voters and South-East with about 10.9m and we when we remove non Yorubas from that of Southwest....
So where are you getting the double? let alone ‘more than double’. Voter rolls are never equal to population, millions of Igbo live outside the South-East and register in other regions, especially Lagos, Abuja, Kano kaduna, Port Harcourt and other Non Igbo states.

Every credible demographic estimate puts Yoruba and Igbo populations in the same broad bracket of 42 to 50 million each. So stop packaging propaganda as arithmetic. Until Nigeria conducts a proper ethnic census, all your ‘double this, half that’ claims remain beer-parlour statistics, nothing more.

Believeintruth:
Oga rest, show us one documented case where a yoruba man wanted to buy land in igboland and was denied because he is not igbo.

lawani:
There is no census in any Asian or west African country that show Igbo as more than Yoruba in those places. Can you provide the link? Censuses are only available for North America and Europe as far as I know and all show Yoruba to be more. We all know the bulk of Nigerian immigration are to North America and Europe
The SW is not more cosmopolitan than the SS or NC and the SE too is cosmopolitan. The leader of Yoruba in Enugu learnt Hausa in Enugu. There are so many Hausas there for that to be possible. The first mayor of Enugu was Hausa
There are Yoruba in other places in Nigeria therefore the population on Yoruba land is an indication of Yoruba population. If Nigeria breaks up today will that not be the case? The GDP of Yoruba land in the SW alone is around three times the SE and the population is more than double. However Lagos GDP is disproportionately high because of the high cost of living
Yoruba land in SW NC and SS contain more than seventy million people. If there are non Yorubas there, are there not Yoruba in other places? The same applies to Igbo land in SE SS and NC which definitely does not have up to forty million people. How then can we assume the population to be equal? It is a wrong assumption
In the case of Hausa, Hausa speakers are more because many non Hausas speak it but real Hausa people are not likely to be more than the Yoruba in population


Nin which everyone does is a fair estimate of one population relative to another. Not everybody does even voter registration


Nin registration by state
https://books.openedition.org/ifra/919?lang=en

GDP of Nigeria by zone

https://x.com/thecableindex/status/1787491467990085795

Staff list of a department in ABU with a few Yoruba and no Igbo. Just one random link online
https://managementsciences.abu.edu.ng/staff/

shortgun:
I think I now see where your confusion is coming from. There has never been any census conducted anywhere in the world including in Nigeria to determine the population of Yorubas or Igbos. What you people keep citing is the “language spoken at home” section of the 2011 Ireland census. That section simply recorded what language migrants spoke at their homes in Ireland.

An Igbo person who speaks English at home in Ireland will not be recorded under Igbo. A Hausa man who speaks Yoruba at home will be counted under Yoruba. Migrants from Benin Republic or Togo who speak Yoruba will also be recorded as Yoruba. This is why you cannot take that section and claim there are more Yorubas.The numbers only show which languages migrants happened to use abroad, not population sizes.

No census in Asia or West Africa has ever broken down Nigerians by tribe. Yet we all know Igbos dominate trade and settlement in Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Gabon even Malaysia and China. That’s visible presence. But even that can’t be used to make wild assumptions about Igbos being more than Yorubas.

Every serious demographic estimate from UN data to Nigerian projections puts both Yoruba Igbo populations in the same bracket roughly 42 to 50 million each. So stop recycling fairy tales. Until Nigeria conducts an ethnic census, your Yoruba double Igbo line remains propaganda and not fact. At best, both groups are roughly equal in size. Anything else is pure wishful thinking.

Don’t forget that it was the Northern leaders Ahmadu Bello and Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa alongside some South-West leaders like Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola and Chief Remi Fani-Kayode who opposed including ethnicity in Nigeria’s census.

When Festus Okotie-Eboh, the Finance Minister from Warri, suggested in 1962 that ethnicity should be included, he pushed for it to properly capture Nigeria’s ethnic composition — Igbo, Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and the many minority groups. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Eastern leaders supported the idea, believing it would show the Igbo’s true demographic spread across Nigeria. Chief Obafemi Awolowo also backed it, arguing that a genuine census must capture vital demographics like ethnicity, religion, and occupation for proper planning. He warned that omitting them was politically motivated to inflate numbers.

After enumeration, when it became clear the Igbo were gaining an upper hand in the population figures, accusations of inflated numbers, rigging, and bias started flying. The results were rejected and the 1962 census collapsed at the point of official announcement. It was cancelled and a fresh one was conducted in 1963 this time with no ethnicity. Since then Nigeria has deliberately avoided putting ethnicity in census questionnaires.

That is why today, nobody has an official ethnic population figure for Nigeria. Every Yoruba vs Igbo vs Hausa population you see is just beer parlor gossips

shortgun:
I don’t know if you’re ignorant or just being deliberately mischievous. Peter Obi got 88% of South-East votes in the last election and that’s nothing unusual. Igbos have always voted massively for the most viable candidate and never voted based on tribe.
In 2003, Obasanjo a Yoruba man from the Southwest got 87% of South-East votes while Ojukwu an Igbo war hero managed only 25%.
In 2007, Yar’Adua, a Fulani man from the north received 72% of Southeast votes.
In 2011, Goodluck Jonathan, an Ijaw man from south south, got 98%. If Igbos were tribalistic, they wouldn’t have voted overwhelmingly for leaders from every corner of Nigeria. The facts completely shatters your lazy mischievous narrative.

goslowgoslow:
I never knew they give documents if natives denied you land. Delulu.

Softmirror:
There are concrete evidence of impersonation in those countries by Igbos. So make you rest. Abeg!

Judolisco:
u can't twist the truth... We were all here.... Obi didn't get 90% in d east he got 99% of votes in d east.... Your people started abusing other tribes because they didn't vote for him.... His allies started threatening court judges families to the extent of posting their children pictures and businesses online...

When we asked you why u voted for your kinsman, you all said, you always vote for the right people... Like you voted okorocha, ikpeazu, uzor kalu, Peter obi, who all turn the east to dubai and China...

Believeintruth:
It is a lie. Check the list of Nigerians in prisons in Saudi they are all Yorubas. Haba you people should fear God.

goslowgoslow:
I never knew they give documents if natives denied you land. Delulu.

Softmirror:
I personally know a Igbo man who took Yoruba name as well as pretended to be a Muslim. He shared his experience in Saudi Arabia Prison with us.

Believeintruth:
You don't even know how to spread tall tales to deceive people. Oga stop all this and fear God.

Softmirror:
I swear to Almighty God. It is the truth.

Judolisco:
only u get two accounts wey by dey use defend obi.... Thanks for proving my point.... So because u voted for a Yoruba man in 2003 and for yaradua in 2007 other zones should vote for ur candidates in d last election... They didn't vote for your candidate and u started abusing them.... they won't vote again so get ready to do d same thing in d next election

Believeintruth:
Oga it is simple English documented case means a case that was recorded. Stop trying to be half clever.

shortgun:
I think I now see where your confusion is coming from. There has never been any census conducted anywhere in the world including in Nigeria to determine the population of Yorubas or Igbos. What you people keep citing is the “language spoken at home” section of the 2011 Ireland census. That section simply recorded what language migrants spoke at their homes in Ireland.

An Igbo person who speaks English at home in Ireland will not be recorded under Igbo. A Hausa man who speaks Yoruba at home will be counted under Yoruba. Migrants from Benin Republic or Togo who speak Yoruba will also be recorded as Yoruba. This is why you cannot take that section and claim there are more Yorubas.The numbers only show which languages migrants happened to use abroad, not population sizes.

No census in Asia or West Africa has ever broken down Nigerians by tribe. Yet we all know Igbos dominate trade and settlement in Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Gabon even Malaysia and China. That’s visible presence. But even that can’t be used to make wild assumptions about Igbos being more than Yorubas.

Every serious demographic estimate from UN data to Nigerian projections puts both Yoruba Igbo populations in the same bracket roughly 42 to 50 million each. So stop recycling fairy tales. Until Nigeria conducts an ethnic census, your Yoruba double Igbo line remains propaganda and not fact. At best, both groups are roughly equal in size. Anything else is pure wishful thinking.

Don’t forget that it was the Northern leaders Ahmadu Bello and Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa alongside some South-West leaders like Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola and Chief Remi Fani-Kayode who opposed including ethnicity in Nigeria’s census.

When Festus Okotie-Eboh, the Finance Minister from Warri, suggested in 1962 that ethnicity should be included, he pushed for it to properly capture Nigeria’s ethnic composition — Igbo, Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and the many minority groups. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Eastern leaders supported the idea, believing it would show the Igbo’s true demographic spread across Nigeria. Chief Obafemi Awolowo also backed it, arguing that a genuine census must capture vital demographics like ethnicity, religion, and occupation for proper planning. He warned that omitting them was politically motivated to inflate numbers.

After enumeration, when it became clear the Igbo were gaining an upper hand in the population figures, accusations of inflated numbers, rigging, and bias started flying. The results were rejected and the 1962 census collapsed at the point of official announcement. It was cancelled and a fresh one was conducted in 1963 this time with no ethnicity. Since then Nigeria has deliberately avoided putting ethnicity in census questionnaires.

That is why today, nobody has an official ethnic population figure for Nigeria. Every Yoruba vs Igbo vs Hausa population you see is just beer parlor gossips

goslowgoslow:
...Delulu! If you go asking to buy land from the locals they will now give you a document to show that they didn't send the land to you. I thought some schools are still very cheap in the country why not take that opportunity?

Softmirror:
I swear to Almighty God. It is the truth.

Believeintruth:
Haaaa education is very important. So you cannot understand what is meant by a documented case abi. You are the real delulu here ooooo, even those who went to Islamic schools under tree don't think this way you are thinking. You want to bait me to say something that will get me banned, I know your games bro.

goslowgoslow:
Gibberish! Blocked!

Believeintruth:
You have no idea what you are talking about.

Believeintruth:
You have no idea what you are talking about.