DAVID ADENEKAN LASHES OUT: The Many Nolstagic And Lamenting Stories Of Ibos Taking Over Yoruba Land Will End Us Nowhere In A Digital Age.

DAVID ADENEKAN LASHES OUT: The Many Nolstagic And Lamenting Stories Of Ibos Taking Over Yoruba Land Will End Us Nowhere In A Digital Age.



#Iroyinominira

April 26th,2023


To start with, this write up may recieve some knocks or backlash from my kinsmen but it will not stop the inspiration in me to sensitise or educate my people. Par adventure, it may open their inner eyes to today's world of realities.


A lot of bickering and unapologetic annoyance against the Igbos for the so-called potential threat to annihilate the Yorubas from their indegenous land, is presently trending in the news.


This kind of venom against the Igbos to stop a so-called zionist movement that is allegedly programmed to dislodge the Yorùbá of their land, is regrettably sad. What exactly did the Igbos do wrong to deserve all of these reckless attacks?


Also, why is it always during the election circle that the Yorùbá leaders in Lagos find the Ibos culpable of taking over Lagos? Ibos that live in Lagos must not have any electoral value during the election circle, because the likes of Tinubu and his acolytes have seen them as a threat to upstage them from political power. Even, when the candidate of the opposition party is a full fledged Yorùbá man, Jimi Agbaje of PDP in the 2015 governorship election. Are many of these Igbos not paying taxes and contributing to the development of Lagos state?


It is during this period that they will play the tribal card to disenfranchise the Igbos and embolden majority of Yorubas to vote for them in order for them to stay put in power. This is regardless of their failed score cards; an abysmal failure indeed!


Also, some of the Igbos out of arrogance and rascality fail to understand the political gimmick of the cabal in APC and will play into their hands with all kinds of negative rhetorics and, many Yorubas in Lagos, out of primordial sentiments and ethnic considerstion will fall hands to all the tribal cards dummies of the ruling oarty, APC in Lagos state.


However, these different nostalgic stories against the well being of many Igbos in Yorùbá land in a digital age, will take us nowhere.


Ọlọ́run má jẹ̀ẹ́ kí a dá ogun abẹ́lé míràn sílè. This is interpreted as God forbid another round of civil war in Nigeria.


Also, I looked into the history of mankind and no country in the world has survived two civil wars within the space of 100 years. I strongly doubt if the contraption called Nigeria can be an exception. The country has become so fragile under the current ruling party, APC that, to overheat the polity with tribal bigotry will amount to a great disaster.


However, at this juncture, there are some serious questions begging for answers:


1. Why is it that since the sixties when the Igbos have been clamoring for an independent sovereign nation and the country refused to let them go but instead, alienates them from the central corridor of power? Are they second class citizens?


2. Why do you still hate the Igbos because of a civil war that was not the fault of the current generation of Igbos? Also, why is it that you will not let them survive anywhere in the country as a people and the country will not let them go to have their own sovereign nation? Do they not have the right to self determination as enshrined in the United Nation Charter of 1948; which Nigeria subscribed to, as a bonafide member?


3. Are they second class citizens in a country that prescribed in its Constitution; equal rights for all citizens? Did El Rufai of Kaduna state not declare that an Igbo man cannot be the President of Nigeria in a country that is for everyone as enshrined in the preamble of the 1999 constitution, "We the people" (everyone)?


4. To some of my kinsmen in Yorùbá land, why are they lamenting that the Igbos are taking possession of their ancestral lands, ṣé wọ́n gbé ìbọn le yín lórí ni àbí ẹ kò gba owó lọ́wọ́ wọn kí ẹ tó yọ̀ǹda ilẹ̀ fún wọn? This is interpreted as did they put gun against your heads to dispose or dislodge you of your inheritance (land) or did they buy it from you with their money?


Though, I have read many arguments that they are using drugs money to hike the price of the land, so that, an average Yorùbá man will not be able to buy the land. The question is, what are the Yorùbá leaders in government doing to protect the right of Yorubas, because the state government still have to issue a Certificate of Occupancy, C of O for every land you buy in Nigeria. Land issue is under the residual list and only the state government can legislate on the residual list.


5. Are the governors not part and parcel of the land racketeering/land grabbers cartel in Yorùbá land? Are they not giving the land to highest bidder and their cronies for their own selfish gains? Do they really care if the prospective buyers are Igbos, Lebanese, Fulani or European?


Hmmm, it is all about their pockets.


6. Are we sure part of this violent onslaught against the Igbos is not borne out of envy for their exploit in economics and successes in Lagos and across Yorùbá land?


7. Are the Igbos an economic liability to Yorùbá land or a great economic asset?


Is the almost 30% of Internal Generated Revenue, the chief landlord of Lagos state is bragging about in the news not from the commercial activities of Igbo merchants in Lagos state? Are the Yorùbá ready to immediately fill up this vacuum if the Igbo merchants in Lagos decide to return back to Biafra land? Why can't the Yorubas develop healthy and competing commercial activities in Lagos to show their Igbo bothers and sisters that they can do better than them? Did the Yorubas, under the leadership of Pa Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, the late sage in the sixties, not have the best industrial business districts across western region in the entire Sub Sahara Africa?


Why can't we repeat the same feat? Methinks, with a purposeful and visionary leadership, it is doable.


Yes, we can.....


In the final analysis, it is a digital age and the new world has become a small village. Yes, live and let live is the new world living arrangement and stop blaming the Igbos for the stupidity, greediness, selfishness and wickedness of many of the so called Yorùbá leaders.


Hmmm, Yorùbá ronú!


Wake up my people and love your neighbors the way you love thy selff!!! Àwa ni wọ́n ń pè ni ẹgbẹ́ Afẹ́nifẹ́re (the indivisible big family of Afẹ́nifẹ́re in Yorùbá land) Ire gbàǹgbà (Blessings).


YORÙBÁ AND IGBO, STOP THE HATE SPEECH! WE ARE BROTHERS AND SISTERS WITH A LONG HISTORY OF SOME SIMILARITIES IN LANGUAGE, CUSTOM, TRADITION AND RELIGION.


WE CAN BOTH USE ALL OF THESE TIES AS A STRONG SYNERGY TO DRIVE A NEW AND BETTER SOCIETY!


VINTAGE DAVID ADENEKAN!!!


TIME WILL TELL.



David Adenekan Is The Editor Of Shekinah International Magazine And A Media Expert. He Writes From Chicago, Illinois.

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