₦airaland Forum

It is amazing how one or two of the numerous nationalities that make up Nigeria secretly wish that they were yoruba and consistently lay claim to Lagos as being partly theirs. Have they forgotten where they came from? I have never heard of a yoruba wanting to give the impression to the world that he is an igbo, an ijaw, an efik or a hausa-fulani or claiming that he is a co-owner of Port Harcourt, Enugu, Calabar, Kano or Kaduna. Yet more often than not some of those that are not of yoruba extraction but that have lived in Lagos for some part of their lives have tried to claim that they are bona fide Lagosians and honorary members of the yoruba race. Clearly it is time for us to answer the nationality question. These matters have to be settled once and for all.

Lagos and the south west are the land and the patrimony of the yoruba and we will not allow anyone, no matter how fond of them we may be, to take it away from us or share it with us in the name of ”being nice”, ”patriotism”, ”one Nigeria” or anything else. The day that the yoruba are allowed to lay claim to exactly the same rights and privilages that the indegenous people in non-yoruba states and zones enjoy and the day they can operate freely and become commissioners and governors in the Niger Delta states, the north, the Middle Belt and the south-east we may reconsider our position. But up until then we shall not do so. Lagos is not a ”no-man’s land” but the land and heritage of the yoruba people. Others should not try to claim what is not theirs.

I am not involved in this debate for fun or for political gain and I am not participating in it to play politics but rather to speak the truth, to present the relevant historical facts to those that wish to learn and to educate the uninformed. That is why I write without fear or favour and that is why I intend to be thoroughly candid and brutally frank in this essay. And I am not too concerned or worried about what anyone may think or how they may feel about what I am about to say because I am a servant of truth and the truth must be told no matter how bitter it is and no matter whose ox is gored. That truth is as follows.

The yoruba, more than any other nationality in this country in the last 100 years, have been far too accomodating and tolerant when it comes to their relationship with other nationalities in this country and this is often done to their own detriment. That is why some of our igbo brothers and sisters can make some of the sort of asinine remarks and contributions that a few of them have been making in this debate both in the print media and in numerous social media portals and networks ever since Governor Fashola ”deported” 19 igbo destitutes back to Anambra state. In the last 80 years the igbo have been shown more generosity, accomodation, warmth and kindness and given more opportunities and leverage by the yoruba than they have been offered by ANY other ethnic group in Nigeria. This is a historical fact. The yoruba do not have any resentment for the igbo and we have allowed them to do in our land and our territory what they have never allowed us to do in theirs. This has been so for 80 long years and it is something that we are very proud of.

As I said elsewhere recently, to be accomodating and generous is a mark of civilisation and it comes easily to people that once had empires. The reason why many of our people take strong exception to the apparant outrage of the igbo over this ”deportation” issue and the provocative comments of my friend and brother Chief Orji Uzor Kalu when he described Lagos as being a ”no man’s land” is because the igbo have not only taken us for granted but they have also taken liberty for licence.

We cannot be expected to tolerate or accept that sort of irreverant and unintelligent rubbish simply because we still happen to believe in ”one Nigeria” and we will not sacrifice our rights or prostitute our principles on the alter of that ”one Nigeria”. Whether Nigeria is one or not, what is ours is ours and no-one should test our resolve or make any mistake about that. ”One Nigeria” yes but no-one should spit in our faces or covet our land, our treasure, our success, our history, our virtues, our being and our heritage and attempt to claim those for themselves simply because we took them in on a rainy day. It is that same attitude of ”we own everything”, ”we must have everything” and ”we must control everything” that the igbo settlers manifested in the northern region in the late 50’s and early and mid-60’s that got them into so much trouble up there with the hausa fulani and that eventually led to the terrible pogroms where almost one hundred thousand of them were killed in just a few days.

Again it is that same attitude that they manifested in Lagos and the Western Region in the late ’30’s and the early and mid-40’s that alienated the yoruba from them, that led to the establishment of the Action Group in April, 1951 and that resulted in the narrow defeat of Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe in the Western Regional elections of December, 1951. As a matter of fact they were the ones that FIRST introduced tribalism into southern politics in 1945 with the unsavoury comments of Mr. Charles Dadi Onyeama who was a member of the Central Legislative Council representing Enugu and who said at the Igbo State Union address that ”the domination of Nigeria and Africa by the igbo is only a matter of time”. This single comment made in that explosive and historic speech did more damage to southern Nigerian unity than any other in the entire history of our country and everything changed from that moment on.

To make matters worse, in July 1948 Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe made his own openly tribal and incendiary speech, again at the Igbo State Union, in which he spoke about the ”god of the igbo” eventually giving them the leadership of Nigeria and Africa. These careless and provocative words cost him dearly and put a nail in the coffin of the NCNC in the Western Region from that moment on. This was despite the fact that that same NCNC, which was easily the largest and most powerful political party in Nigeria at the time, had been founded and established by a great and illustrious son of the yoruba by the name of Mr. Herbert Macauly. Macauly, like most of the yoruba in his day, saw no tribe and he happily handed the leadership of the party over to Azikiwe, an igbo man, in 1945 when he was on his dying bed. How much more can the yoruba do than that when it comes to being blind to tribe? Can there be any greater evidence of our total lack of racial prejudice and tribal sentiments than that? If the NCNC had been founded and established by an igbo man would he have handed the whole thing over to a yoruba on his death bed? I doubt it very much.

Again when northern military officers mutineed, effected their ”revenge coup” and went to kill the igbo military Head of State, General Aguiyi-Ironsi on July 29th 1966 in the old Western Region, his host, the yoruba Col. Fajuyi (who was military Governor of the Western Region at the time), insisted that they would have to kill him first before taking Aguiyi-Ironsi’s life and the northern officers (led by Major T.Y. Danjuma as he then was) promptly obliged him by slaughtering him before killing Aguiyi-Ironsi. How many igbos know about that and how many times in our history have they made such sacrifices for the yoruba? Would Aguiyi-Ironsi, or any other igbo officer, have stood for Fajuyi, or any other yoruba officer, and sacrificed his life for him in the same way that Fajuyi did had the roles been reversed? I doubt it very much.

Yet instead of being grateful the igbo continuously run us down, blame us for all their woes, envy our educational advantages and resent us deeply for our ability to excel in the professions and commerce. Unlike them we were never traders but we were (and still are) industrialists and when it comes to the professions we were producing lawyers, doctors, accountants and university graduates at least three generations before they ever did. That is the bitter truth and they have been trying to catch up with us ever since. For example the first yoruba lawyer Christopher Alexander Sapara Williams was called to the English Bar in 1879 whilst the first igbo lawyer, Sir Louis Mbanefo, was called to the English bar in 1937. Again the first yoruba medical practitioner, Dr. Nathaniel King, graduated in 1875 from the University of Edinburgh whilst the first igbo medical practitioner, Dr. Akannu Ibiam, graduated from another Scottish University in 1935.

Yet despite all this and all that they have been through over the years and despite their terrible experiences in the civil war we are witnessing that same attitude of ”we must control all”, ”we must own all” and ”we must have all” rearing its ugly head again today when it comes to their attitude to the issue of the deportations from Lagos state and when you consider the comments of the Orji Kalu’s of this world about the igbo supposedly ”owning Lagos” with the yoruba and supposedly ”generating 55 per cent of the state’s revenue”. It is most insulting. And I must say that it is wrong and unfair for anyone to lay the blame for the perenniel suspicion and underlying tensions that lie between the two nationalities on the yoruba because that is far from the truth.

We are not the problem, they are. Pray tell me, in the whole of Nigeria who treated the igbo better than the yoruba after the civil war and who gave them somewhere to run to where they could regain all their ”abandoned property” and feel at home again? Who encouraged them to return to Lagos and the west and who saved the jobs that they held before the civil war for them to come back to when the war ended? No other tribe or nationality did all that for them in the country- only the yoruba did so. And the people of the old Mid-West and the Eastern minorities (who make up the zone that is collectively known as the ”south-south’ today) have always viewed them with suspicion, have always feared them and have always resented them deeply.

From the foregoing any objective observer can tell that we the yoruba have always played our part when it comes to accomodating others. This is particularly so when it comes to the igbo who we have always had a soft spot for and who we have always regarded as brothers and sisters. It is time that those ”others” also play their part by acquiring a little more humility, by knowing and accepting their place in the scheme of things and by desisting from giving the impression that they own our territory or that they made us what we are.

( Written by FEMI FANI KAYODE circa 2014)
WHO IS THIS MAN FOOLING?
Only my Igbo brothers and sisters!

COMING FROM a the guy that made the Guinness book of records as the ONLY Nigerian that took OVER A MONTH to write DAILY EDITORIALS spewing his HATRED for our Igbo ppl. NOW this bastard whom I know PERSONALLY is backtracking because (as God will have it) he NOW has half Igbo children and the fact that the Yorubae has politically banished his political future because of yoyo unstable moves.....Why are we igbos easily manipulated and thrown away later

While Deji was in jail for his activism, his Igbo partner( Charly Boy) was BUSY COLLECTING money from Deji's jailers..Fela, gani fawehinmi, even Obasanjo, and NOW sowore are the REAL Activists. They feared nobody and have suffered the consequences of their activism for OUR (ALL TRIBES)SAKE. BUT this Igbo albino is playing a smart one with our ppl. An activist who also pledge allegiance to our past enslavers ( British citizen) . He used his British passport to ESCAPE while his supporters were killed during python dance.....Same way OUR kinsman Ojukwu ran away. You CANNOT be an activist by PROXY. ...Come down to Naija and struggle with us INSTEAD of issuing statements from Europe. ......My Igbo ppl no get patience for struggle or activism, na to just open mouth ghuah ghuah and then RUN AWAY.....SAD!

ChiefkeefGB4:
They are helping raise the consciousness of Nigerian's that their fantastically corrupt leaders are not god's and can be held to account. If not at home, then they will be held to account abroad.

By BEATING their leaders in public? All these folks know is grab grab but life ain't like that. While the SW ppl in diapora are pressuring Western countries to consfiscate any funds looted by theirs leaders, SE is either threatening their host country, threatening to bomb Nigeria embassy in India or giving their host countries ultimatum....mind you ,most of these agitators are without papers in their host country o......igbos una too much, stop embarrassing yourselves!

They are NOW backtracking! Knowing NOW fully well the ramifications of his EARLIER statement that IF ANYTHING happens to ANY of the leaders he earlier called out, he will be HELD RESPONSIBLE.....this isn't Nigeria. This is what happens when you have uncouth and inexperienced leader. You just DON'T open your mouth Gbuah and talk out of your ass because u are leading ppl of varrying opinions.......a la Trump.

Nigerian men are UGLY....SORRY!

Nigeria of TODAY has totally DETOURED from the past......our sense of morality has gone to the dustbin....we want to be westernized soooo bad,look at what is showing on TV AND NO SANE mind see how we have morally degenerated?? PATHETIC!

Chai! Nigerian girl are getting too skinny.....See bones!

Husband of the Year!!!
This guy is correct! Only fools that beat and insult their Wives dislike him

candidtalk:
See why all other Nigerians, including those with ethnic group consisting of less than 10,000 people, now laugh at Igbos? A people so disunited, divisive, uruly, ruderless and egotistic that they are always going to fight themselves to a standstill and thus never achieve anything. Why does the Igbo man need enemies when he is his own biggest enemy?

Political factions, like 2,000. Secessionist groups like 200. Religious sworn enemies, even as they are all Christians, like 20. Why can't PMB and these old boys just give Igbos their Biafra and lock Nigeria's border so they cannot enter after they begin tearing themselves apart and majority will begin begging to be refugee in even Sambisa forest?

BEST comment EVER!

PhilipGallagher:
That jenna bourgeois dey somehow. I remember when he made some very demeaning remarks about employing Nigerians.

He should carry his company and go. Which dirty global firm. Firm wey be like one man business mtschew

SADLY,no matter how you attempt to rubbish the CEO,he revealed a VERY SALIENT truth that YOU and I know VERY WELL......This very embarrassing AND THOUGHT PROVOKING.

greggng:
This pastor thinks all Nigerians are gullible like his krest infested members. Is only when a matter has gone to court ...that Is when parties are ask to remain quiet pending court decision....I know he has not answered police let alone going to court....he just want the matter to die natural death but in our hearts we won't forget ....krest in a hurry

I soooo much dislike this guy because his activities with females in ilorin before he was removed was VERY WELL KNOWN. ONE DAY, Fowl yansh go open well we'll.....Sadly, ppl are very gullible with this charmer. Most of these guys are just charming motivational speakers just like Oyakhilome and Kris Okotie.....their ex wives accused them of infidelity and left them. ST£ILL the gullible ones still don't believe it. PEOPLE ,these scammers are JUST HUMAN BEINGS! You might EVEN be closer to Jehovah THAN THEM .

Neymessi:
If you shun pfn, u can't shun God on judgement day

EXACTLY!!!! Let him keep lying to HUMAN BEINGS but FORGETTING that he will face the Almighty Jehovah ONE DAY.. His foolish following will not be there to cheer him on that day. God have mercy on us ALL.

All Biafrans.......losers of life, attempting to DEVELOP America about? Smh

Nigerians and expectations......... Being medical students doesn't mean that bush can't be cleared by the Students. Abeg get your Cutlass and clear it or put very little money together and hire a couple of guys To clear that area I see in the pic.....waiting on govt is a no no in this clime

Sharming95:
Hw will dis guy head a whole ministry...sumone if given a company might not b able to run it well...abeg even if day said not too young to rule...no b to day ridicule and misuse it...just look at is appearance and hairstyle...he many experience him get...dis governor no try on dis...dis guy is not mature enuff for dat job

do you know his accomplishments so far? For him to be appointed by someone like Making, this young dude's look might fool you

These ANIMALS have brought their greediness to Southwest oooo! Everyone MUST now watch their Igbo neighbors very well!

BafanaBafana:
The letter actually looks fake. How is it the job of the chief of staff to the president to monitor FIRS. The revenue body is under the ministry of finance and not the presidency

ONLY Ipob is gullible to believe fake news

MEANWHILE ....He has no papers in Turkey.

An American citizen but this clown need psychological evaluation. Hitler started like this. It

The govt need to START licencing VETTED Nigerians to allow them to carry guns. Hard working Nigerians are tooooo defenseless against these criminals. The criminals operate with impunity because they know that resistance is almost ZERO.

Does this STUPID show have ANY message AT ALL

Awoleesu:
They sleazed our commonwealth and send their kids to foreign schools, where the latter display much affluence instead of studying...

The result?

A 24 year old, student, illegally 'married', drunk or under the influence of some substance, and behind the wheels of some prestigious car that his contemporaries hardly can afford... Hereby WASTED!

HOW did you knowMay God forgive your soul! This is someone's child, brother etc

Bring back police checkpoints! The IG that stopped it had absolutely no alternative to replace it with.its a free reign on the road without any checkpoints.

Ciaos:
Some news suppose dey open oooo.we for no no say this man dey struggle at all. Nollywood no dey favour men at all,unless the man join bad gang eg gayrism . God bless you more sir for helping the helpless

He is talking bout Sulaiman and not the actor.. When you give, its supposed to be in secret, then Jehovah will bless you.

MOVIC6:
My problem with her is shes jus fat, anyone coming for her now is cos of her money
.

MANY men enjoy bbw's wirhout apology...... Even drake and Anthony Joshua are self acclaimed Bbw lovers as myself and friends too. You think everyone likes all these Sardines littering the place? Only problem is this girl looks like a Lesbian to me. She wont reveal it now for obvious reasons but she will once her career is over. Reminds of that MC girl years ago.

Biafrans no dey there? This news no complete abeg!

babzo:
Hmm. When i hear police apprehending criminals through all these stop and search, like the one last week, where they caught the guy with AK47 hidden in the car door; one begins to believe that maybe all those check points are not just for bribery collection.

tho the police TOOK ADVANTAGE of stop and search but I can tell you that their inoperation made crime to spike especially KIDNAPPING.

VERY CHILDISH!

Xisnin:
Jobless illiterates who takes Buhari's word for a fact.

Is it so hard to check the money disbursed by the previous governments
and determine who received the payments?

The 6th house of rep wasted hundreds of millions investigating this same nonexistent $16 billion dollars
when the combined spending from 1999 to 2015 is about $2 billion.

You JUST CAN'T satisfy Nigerians.... THEY MUST SAY SOMETHING SHA NI!

ichidodo:
[color=#1980BC] He's too lean for a striker...He needs to bulk up.. [/color]

YET he scored 14 out of 30 app Then messi is too short as well abi Shut up!

Being BLEACHED doesnt AUTOMATICALLY mean beauty.... MYOPIC AFRICANS!