The Yoruba people are angry. They are angry with the president, Muhammadu Buhari. And their anger is not only understandable but palpable as well. You could feel it raging through the length and breadth of the Yoruba communities across the South-West. The Yoruba are unhappy with the spate of banditry, killing, kidnapping, raping, and destruction of farmlands perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen within the Yoruba speaking communities and against the Yoruba people. And they have resolved to do something about it. They are only treading with caution. Let no one be deceived, Yoruba can protect and defend themselves. But they know that their self-help defense mechanism might conflict with the legal framework of the state’s security agencies. This means a large number of them may find themselves on the wrong side of the Law. The fear now is, the Yoruba are starting to care less about finding themselves on the wrong side of the Law, all they want to do is meet the Fulani killer herdsmen fire for fire. And this cannot be good for the country. This could trigger a major breakout of ethnic crises that may snowball into something that could take us to the precipice of absolute anarchy. And surely, that’s not what we desire as a nation at this time.
The Yoruba are not only angry with the government, they’re also displeased with their leaders as well. They expect much more than what their leaders are doing at the moment. They expect, for instance, their leaders to be brave enough to confront Mr. President and ask him certain questions. But for reasons many have alluded largely to their 2023 ambitions, Yoruba, most of them at least, are looking the other way. For them, mum is the word. They would rather pretend they are not aware that things have degenerated to an alarming point between the Yoruba and their Fulani counterparts than put their 2023 ambitions to jeopardy. And this, to say the very least, is extremely sad.
Lately, the Yoruba have been at the receiving end of a lot of mindless attacks carried out by the killer herdsmen. A lot of promising Yoruba sons have had their lives cut short by these evil men while many have been left physically maimed for life. Women and teenage girls have been mindlessly defiled and are left to carry that huge psychological scar for the rest of their days. Let us take a look at a few of the incidents that are still fresh in mind. Certain individuals were kidnapped along Erio-Aromoko road, Ekiti State. They were tortured and exposed to danger in the forest for upward of two weeks.
These victims included the Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikole Branch, Adeola Adebayo whose decomposing body was eventually found after a ransom price of four million Naira had been paid. Two officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps both Yoruba were picked up along Ilesa-Akure highway. In the process of this kidnap, an unnamed individual died.
Musibau Adetumbi, a legal practitioner based in Ibadan was going to attend an Appeal Court session in Akure when he was kidnapped along Ilesa-Akure highway. Professor Adegbehingbe, a surgeon at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife was abducted along Ibadan-Ile-Ife highway. Dr. Muslim Omoleke, the Administrative Secretary of the National Electoral Commission was kidnapped around Ilesa, Osun State.
Mr Ayo Oladele, an employee of Guinness Nigeria and an Old Student of Christ School, Ado-Ekiti was adopted and taken away and lately, Dayo Adewole, son of a member of Buhari’s 2015-2019 executive council and Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole was kidnapped on his farm at Iroko, a village along Ibadan-Oyo road.
There are many other instances of kidnapping, raids, rape and banditry not publicly known but which were reported to the Police and other law enforcement organizations.
As ugly as the picture above seems to be, the people of Yoruba land have remained generally peaceful and have resisted concerted efforts to push them into civil disobedience or adopting self-help mechanisms to protect themselves in their homeland. But, going by recent developments, it is becoming increasingly clear that people are fast running out of patience. They can no longer sit down and watch these criminals take over their farmlands, run them out of their community and take over their ancestral land. Now, the Sunday Igbohos are springing up. The Amotekuns are gearing up. The OPCs are battle-ready. And from what we hear, there are dozens of other Sunday Igbohos waiting in the wings, looking to emerge from the shadows when the drums of war begin to sound.
There is a lot the Yoruba are agitated about. There are lots of questions they would like Mr. President to answer. These are the same concerns their leaders are afraid to convey to the President. And this why many Yoruba indigenes are presently angry with most of their leaders.
To begin with, Yoruba would like to hear from Mr. President if there is any iota of truth in the newfound Islamization or Fulanization theory. This speculation is spreading like wildfire and truly, from the actions and inactions of the government, it is starting to look like something much stronger than ordinary speculation. It is indeed starting to look like the real thing. Could this be the key reason why there has been no arrest made ever since the menace of the killer herdsmen began? Is this the same reason why the presidency only reacts when there is a reprisal attack on these barbaric monsters because they also happen to be the president’s kinsmen? These are some of the hard truths Yoruba leaders are afraid to tell President Buhari.
The open grazing law the government has been trying in futility to establish, who does it benefit? Who does it put at a disadvantage? Is the whole idea not to allow and systematically enable the Fulani to acquire more and take ownership of more parts of the country? The national president of the Miyetti Allah hand a few of his cohorts have been making extremely reckless utterances capable of inciting people to go to war against one another. They claim they, Fulani, own the nation called Nigeria and that every other tribe is subservient to them. They threaten that they will continue to deal ruthlessly with anyone who tries to stand in their way. If such reckless statements had been made by someone from another tribe, such a person would be cooling off in jail as we speak. But no such thing has happened to the author of these statements. No arrest and not even a word of caution was sent his way. Is this because they are the kinsmen of the president? And when will Yoruba leaders have the liver to put their various political ambitions aside and speak the truth to Mr. President?
Credit must be given to the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, he sent a letter to the president, expressing his concerns over the state of insecurity in the South-West. The President has neither acknowledged the letter nor responded to it. But it must be said that the letter was well articulated and heavily worded as well. Whether Mr. President responded or not, Alaafin made his point and the presidency got the message – that we still have leaders who are courageous enough to tell him the truth, regardless of how offensive he might find the truth to be. Yoruba need more leaders like Alaafin of Oyo. We need leaders, political leaders, royal fathers, who can stand up for the Yoruba race and tell the president exactly what he does not wish to hear from the Yoruba, the tribe widely considered to be most educated and most intelligent in Nigeria.
The Alaafin wrote: “I am therefore writing to you, as a concerned stakeholder in your administration, to alert you and demonstrate to you, the urgency of the need to quickly respond to these and other issues concerning Yoruba land.” “There is a general impression among opposition group that you are not known to take decisive and proactive steps in many matters of national interest and that you are not usually too disturbed about the gale of insecurity in Yoruba land.”
“May I also share with you the outcome or product of my wide consultations in Yoruba land to let you know, beyond what official security reports will make available to you, that there is a growing feeling of frustration, disappointment and despondency among our people, which if not immediately addressed, could lead to other serious national catastrophes and security challenges.”
“The present state of insecurity is posing enormous challenges to people’s engagements in other economic activities. The incessant and increasing menace on our highways and farms in Yoruba land is making farming and other economic activities hazardous and dangerous,” Alaafin’s letter read in parts.
This is the sort of courageous and proactive move the Yoruba expects from their leaders. They need to rise to the occasion and approach it with the firmness and bravery that it deserves. Our royal fathers, political leaders, must put that personal aspirations and desires aside and face the common enemy that’s tearing the Yoruba apart, reducing us to mere servants in our own land. It is about time they tell Mr. President the truth and nothing but the truth. There is no more room for beating about the bush and hiding behind our shadows. They must speak up. And that time is now.
-WALE LAWAL
