This outing is coming at a time the relationship between Igbo and Yoruba in Lagos is a bit frosty. Not because there is a core issue to warrant conflict, but just middle age politicians in our midst must claw at anything, including primordial sentiments, to stay afloat. This development has become a crucial matter for the entire country because of the extensive capacity of its possible fallouts. Nevertheless, I did take liberty to begin this discourse with an account of my encounter with the Yoruba race.
I have had a daring soul from birth, so my life from childhood has been disposed to adventures. I desire to know the moving force behind everything within the sphere of my visibility and comprehension. The university training further added to my state of mind in a positive dimension. The classes were exceptional in terms of transformation of mind; teachers after teachers opened our hearts to the oneness of the Black Race irrespective of where they may be found. They told us of their exploits before the dominance of the White Race. Egypt that has turned Arabic today was totally black and it led in civilization in all spheres of human activity including education and invention. Many of the lecturers hammered on the universal brotherhood of the Black people. What a lecture and what an impact!
I must confirm it made so much sense to me and from what I know many others and this has regulated my attitude towards all Black people to the extent that when I see black-on-black resentment anywhere, a measure of revulsion runs through my mind and system. Get this very clear and I know it is very important in the kind of world we operate, I am not in any way a racist but I do have this fond feeling for people of my kind who from accounts of history were the leading contributors to world development but today have become the object of caricature and scorn for the world. The once thriving people are now at the bottom of the ladder. Pitiful situation. It should make anyone cry every minute of our lives and perhaps get us to resolve never to take retrogressive steps or actions that could hurt the more.
But we don›t cry, we are not remorseful of some of the actions our forebears took that landed us in a situation we live on earth just like others too but can›t see the sun rise daily. We have become accustomed to darkness and over time it began to look normal. Everywhere we find the black person there is hardly a good story about him. All we hear is social tension over nothing, hatred, conflict and wars. South Africa inherited a well developed country but nationhood has meant hatred, crime, mediocrity, instability and retardation. Zimbabwe fared worse. Angola, Congo, Ghana etc the story is the same, very ugly tales
Now, we are locked up in this country, Nigeria, which rich in resources, yet everyone can see what we have made of it. It was supposed to be the beacon of hope for the entire Black Race but over time it has turned round to become the shame of the Black world. There is no sense of history else we won›t repeat what has put the Black man down and nearly out. Black people should be one but we allow our self-centred leaders to take us on a vain journey round the mountain each era. Tribalism has dealt us inestimable damage yet incumbent Muhammad Buhari administration elevated ethnicity and nepotism to national policy.
It has been so before independence and unfortunately has continued with no sign of abating soon. When it was time for me to undertake the national youth service I was open to serve in a typical northern or western territory. My mind had been loaded with stereotypes and negative profiling so I had this desire to know the other ethnic groups in the country than I knew from stories and books.
Luckily, I was deployed to Oyo State and posted to Ibadan for the primary assignment but I rejected the posting. I wanted a rural setting and I told the officials which led to my being repost to Oyo Town, seat of the Alaafin of Oyo. My curiosity resulted in a unique encounter with the Alaafin who passed on recently. I will leave the great experience for another time. Before I had the opportunity to venture into Western Nigeria, the traditional home of the Yoruba, I had been fed with all kinds of negative profiling. I even felt a stranger couldn’t walk their roads late at night, same kind of stories persons of other tribes tell their children about other tribes.
My experience among rural Yoruba was beautiful. The ordinary people were ever willing to make the «stranger» a part of them. They wanted to know how comfortable we were and what else they could do to make us happy. For those we were very close to, their social outings wouldn›t be complete without us «stranger elements» in their entourage. In those outings food and drinks were served us in a manner anyone could think we were very special guests. Of course we were.
The welcoming was such some of us, including myself, mooted the idea of staying back the rest of our lives in the area. It was a positive experience no doubt. I returned to Lagos to begin my working life, meaning I had to live and within a population that was mainly Yoruba in composition. Yes, there were times we had divergent attitudinal responses to different situations but it was expected given the training and environmental peculiarities. Other than that there was nothing substantial or still very significant in terms of ethnic or religious differences or discrimination. We rolled together as human beings, just as fellow countrymen and women; life was very sweet and safe. Lagos was the place and I think it is still despite the ill-advised political misadventure of a few misguided people. Ethnic crisis in Lagos is no agenda of the entire Yoruba race and would never be. It is not in the nature of the race to discriminate. I know that.
Plain truth is Yoruba have been great hosts. They accommodate and give space for all to thrive. There may be minor irritations here and there but taken together those do not invalidate the fact that Yoruba are very accommodating. Forget the Civil War and all that may have happened leading to misinterpretation, even then there has never been conflict between Igbo and Yoruba and there has never been a cause.
Every threat to the friendly bond existing between the two has come from the reckless politicking of a few in the political class. It is not because the majority of the population feel something has happened to warrant a conflict. The current heat in Lagos between the two ethnic groups is not something widespread. Yoruba in their other states have not said they don’t want Igbo in their midst. The challenge is restricted to Lagos. Even then it is not a development supported by the majority. Many very prominent sons and daughters have risen to condemn any ethnic revulsion.
The truth is what we saw happen in Lagos is no Yoruba agenda, far from it. It is the survivalist antics of small political group, who disingenuously want to protect their hegemony over the state. It is a battle for power retention and control of the huge funds available to the state government. The source of the trouble is known and the actors very visible, they are the ones we should focus our attention on. It baffles that authorities have kept quiet because those involved have affinity to the ruling party. This shouldn›t be so. When it comes to nation building we ought to frown at anything that would hinder it and take strong state actions against it, especially when such negative acts have high possibility of resulting in open conflicts with attendant negative consequences for lives and property.
It is the height of aberration to see fellow countymen rise and ask others to leave their land. It can only happen where the basis for nationhood no longer obtains. If that is the case, then the federal government has a responsibility to so declare to your tents O Israel. That way it now behooves the people to move or face whatever they see. If we remain one, rights attached to citizenship should prevail. Those who started the Lagos ethnic should be identified and made to face relevant laws, those who stabbed persons and those responsible for outright murder should have their day in courts.
The truth is that the rest of us, outside those making political capital from the crisis in Lagos, must rally round and insist that Yoruba and Igbo must have a very cordial relationship.
A healthy relationship between both tribes will do Nigeria, Africa and the Black Race the greatest good.
The entire world is waiting for this cooperation to blossom to its full potential. This is the the real task and nothing more. Ndigbo are not territorial grabbers, they are immigrants very interested in their home land, they desire to develop wherever they are in partnership with their host and of course to return home at some point in their lives.
The issue of voting is a democratic right. It does not translate to intention to take over territory and cannot be given the peculiar grouping in Africa; huge voting strength is a development created by economic movement, Lagos having been once the federal capital. The potency of the Igbo group, will begin to decline as economic centres begin to open up in the Southeast including functional seaports in the region and in the South South. Igbo may be itinerant in nature but there is no doubt that closing of their economic space which is part of the fall-outs of the way the Civil War ended has contributed immensely to the Igbo migration rate. It is beginning to go down, but even then a Nigeria where all will choose where to live and do business is the ideal and that we should give our best attention. Let the Igbo and Yoruba create a handshake across the Niger. It will benefit them the most and Nigeria too as a country.