When I consider the aftermath of the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections and the attendant hostility in the Southwest, especially in the Lagos area, I shudder at the stupidity, stalking the Igbo and Yoruba. When I consider the mayhem and bickering the Yoruba visited on the Igbo, my heart is grieved by the amentia of two slaves, mocking each other. When I read the blather churned out by certain elements in favour or disfavour of either slave, I go numb, unable to fathom where common sense has gone.
Unfortunately, the likes of a reputable old Yoruba journalist have written scurrilously about the Igbo instead of mending fences. Some Igbo too have written inane things about their host instead of soothing seething nerves. While they are at it, the overlord is laughing up North, already planning how to share the cake baked in the Igbo-Yoruba blood but without either tribe near the kitchen.
Some joker likened the Igbo to Afonja, who conspired with the Fulani to take over Ilorin but was later killed by the nemesis he invited upon himself. He also referred to a hate speech allegedly by the Sardauna of Sokoto to justify the national hatred for the Igbo but forgot that the same Sardauna had also lumped the Yoruba and Igbo into the slave market they solely owned and still own.
Drivels against the Igbo are sponsored on the social media are either written by a Yoruba too ashamed to attach his name to the hokum and utter falsehood or a bastard former Igbo, who is among the long lost dregs or social outcasts seeking vengeance.
There is no part of Igbo land that the Yoruba or any tribe is forbidden to tread or acquire property.Let any Yoruba, who wants to buy land or build house even in my village, come forth and I will get land for him or take him to the Eze for that purpose. The problem with the Yoruba is fear or lack of interest to explore other lands. How many of them have traveled across River Niger or Benue, even if for sight seeing; did transport companies refuse to sell them tickets too? The Yoruba are too local and prefer to live within the confines of their land, too afraid to venture except to, at best, travel to Britain.
Of course, I admit the excesses of a few misguided Igbo, which is normal, as Yoruba have their turncoats too. Or have you not noticed how omonile and area boy syndrome is fast destroying the future of productive Yoruba, even roping in some Igbo youth?
The Igbo have consistently condemned the Ezeigbo nonsense. There’s no Igbo Eze outside Igbo land and those who so claim dare not bear the title at home. It is the Yoruba that tolerate them because of love of the stipends they hungrily snitch from them.
Who says any Yoruba that wants to answer Oba in Igbo land will be stopped? Is it Igbo business how Yoruba want to organise themselves offshore? The Hausa can have their Emir in Onitsha if they like; what has that got to do with the Igbo? Even at that, the Hausa have their Seriki everywhere, which is what the so-called Ezeigbo should be. The Igbo leader outside Igboland is called Onyendu, not Eze. If anyone takes Eze as alias and the Yoruba or Hausa humour that charade, that is their problem, not Igbo. What do the Yoruba call their leader outside Yoruba land? It won’t be surprising if there’s no need for that because only handful of Yoruba dare venture outside their locality.
The Yoruba (Nigerian) hatred for Igbo cannot stop the Igbo, instead, like the Jews, the more the hatred, the more the Igbo flourish. They are plainly jealous of the prosperity of the Igbo enterprising spirit. Why attack the Igbo for voting Peoples Democratic Party, PDP? Didn’t some Yoruba do so too just as some Igbo voted All Progressives Congress, APC? Is it the Igbo that failed APC in upscale Lagos areas and places shorn of Igbo residents or Ajimobi in Ibadan or the rout in Ondo?
Certainly, Lagos is evidently Yoruba land but the real owners of the land have been displaced by voracious strangers, who are now on the haunt for Igbo head. Ndigbo, however, do not need the ‘trust’ of fellow settlers to validate our being. Nevertheless, until the Yoruba and the Igbo stop this induced reciprocal distrust, we will continue to be slaves of the North, who ingeniously pitch their Yoruba and Igbo slaves against each other.
I am just sad and angry why the Igbo are targeted everywhere, even by their brothers in Yoruba land. Unfortunately, the Yoruba as educated as they are, have fallen cheaply to the manipulation of the overlord, gloating over the fatuous glee of a slave. Poor souls! As another round of meal is being shared, we will soon see how close or far the Yoruba will be to the caboose or how dainty the portion of the Yoruba in this ‘tough’ challenge.
THE YORUBA AND IGBO (AND ENTIRE SOUTH) MUST CLOSE RANKS AND FIGHT A MUTUAL BATTLE OF SURVIVAL. Fighting each other only serves the interest of the taskmaster. Deliberate distortions of of history and recourse to what Azikiwe or Awolowo did or didn’t breeds poisonous bile of hatred and tightens the manacles on our limbs. Drop them!
One pellucid truth is that Nigeria is only one and Nigerians are free to reside wherever they like only when the Igbo is at disadvantage. The Igbo inflate population of areas outside their land as a result of which the Igbo have paltry figures in demographics. Igbo taxes build up these areas but when the chips are down, they suddenly become settlers. And truly, that is what they are until Nigeria becomes better. Ndigbo, it is stupid to vie for political offices outside your land; and if you take advantage of your burgeoning population, you gain hatred in return, which is what is playing out now in Lagos. Know our limits and live in harmony with your host communities.
Surely, it is time the Igbo returned home. You cannot leave your own land bereft while you go to other places to buy up rivers and turn them into beautiful estates, with protuberance mansions up in the air. You buy up swamps and turn them into commercial hubs, feeding fat the states and yet deprived of the fruit of your sweat. Wake up, you beguiled Igbo man: Go home.
When will your wanderlust spirit find find rest; till you be dead? Who says there is no land in the East? What is this bland talk of seaport in the East? Why have they failed to develop Calabar and Portharcourt seaports or even dredge the River Niger if not to hold the Igbo on a leash of economic stranglehold? Break and drop those chains NOW! Go home anyhow; whatever the sacrifice. You have been the unwanted true Nigerian for far too long. Go home and build the Igbo nation until Nigeria becomes a nation. Ndigbo, say no to foolishness; say no to slavery.