According to Fulani – born Attahiru during his phone call a fortnight ago, no northerner reacted to my column the previous week (May 25), because it was clear to them that I was anti the people of their region and lied against them. As a result, they found it useless and unnecessary to do so. For him, the references I made in the June 1 article to my pro – Igbo pieces of July 29, August 5 and September 16, last year, in which I criticized Fulani – born President Muhammadu Buhari for his attitude against the people of the South – East, are enough proof that my including them among the tribes responsible for the country’s problems was a smokescreen.
For Attahiru I did this not to make it glaring that the Hausa and Fulani people were the sole object of my criticism. To buttress his viewpoint he said although my headline indicated that the Igbo, Hausa and Fulani are Nigeria’s problem, but in the article I only wrote about the two northern tribes without having anything on the Igbo.
He was so vitriolic that I had to switch him off five minutes and twenty – seven seconds into our discussion. In truth, the June 1 column ended with the Igbo issue, but that part of the script had to be deleted for lack of space, because I wrote on two topics. But since the tailpiece announcement had it that the story would continue the following week, Attahiru should have waited for the next edition to see whether or not I would write on the Igbo aspect of the problem.
If last year I wrote three columns to champion Igbo cause and in the current series I am making the point that they are partly Nigeria’s problem, does that not show that I am an objective and impartial analyst and commentator? Does it also stand to reason that if I did not have proof of this that I would have had them in the headline of my article? And how could I have them in the story’s caption and wouldn’t write about them?
Those who are familiar with my column know that I write to promote national interest and unity and that I am a crusader for social justice and non – discrimination against people for political, religious, gender or ethnic reasons. Such long – time readers would remember that I promoted northern cause in this column in 2010 and 2011 advising President Goodluck Jonathan not to seek re – election after serving out the last one year of the tenure of late President Umaru Yar’Adua on May 28, 2011.
In the article I titled: Jonathan, think twice, wait for 2015 I wrote that since Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who utilized the southern opportunity in the zoning and rotational policy of their Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had two tenures and spent a total of eight years in office (1999 – 2007), that it was incumbent the north too should have the presidency for eight years. A year and seven months before this column began on December 19, 2007, I had on Pages 18 and 19 of the Daily Sun of Monday, May 15, 2006, written to oppose Obasanjo’s third term ambition.
Although he is a Yoruba like myself, I described his action as one of gross ingratitude and the height of treachery in which he was trying to make a fool of northerners, whose leaders facilitated his becoming the candidate of the PDP in 1998 and provided the bulk of the billions of naira spent to make him win the 1999 presidential election. From these documented and verifiable accounts, Attahiru and those who think the same way as he does, can see that just as I did for the Igbo last year, that I had also promoted northern cause in 2006 and 2011.
More to come next week Wednesday.
Rounding off on Yoruba/Benin ancestry dispute (2)
I am using the stories of Ile – Ife, Akure, Ilesa, Oyo and Benin to show why it is necessary for historians to take a look at the accounts on the founding of these towns and the need to do further research to come up with more authentic books on them. One of the publications I read on Akure has it that the founder of the town, Prince Omoremi Ekun (Asodeboyede) and the person who established Benin left Ile – Ife at the same time. Akure is said to have been founded in 1150 with Asodeboyede, the pioneer monarch dying in 1180. This account gives the impression that Benin was founded by Oranmiyan because his son, Eweka I, the first king of the ruling house in the town since the 12th century, reigned from 1180 – 1246.
But it is obvious that Oranmiyan could not have established because it is common knowledge that before Eweka 1, Benin had been ruled by the Ogiso dynasty which produced 32 kings, the first of whom was Obagodo, who migrated from Ile – Ife. And who according to Benin – born Chief Jacob Egharevba in his book: A Short History of Benin published in 1953, was the son of Oduduwa.
To be continued next Wednesday