THE HAUSA FULANI, THE YORUBA AND THE SLAUGHTER IN ILE-IFE
I used to love and respect Governor Aregbesola even though we belong to different political parties.
I
knew him to be a proud, strong, unrepentant and inspiring Yoruba
nationalist who knew the history of the Yoruba inside out and who was
ready to stand his ground and fight his corner with anybody at anytime
in defence of the Yoruba cause.
Yet
now it appears that all that has changed. Seven years in public office
as Governor has softened him and made him lose his nerve, his edge and
his fighting spirit.
One wonders what really happened to the fire-brand that we knew as "Ogbeni?" The old Ogbeni was strong but the new one is weak.
His
love for power and desperation to foster and maintain questionable and
futile political alliances at any cost and price has impaired his vision
and beclouded his better judgement.
The
old Ogbeni would never have compromised with the aggressors and
purveyers of violence in this way and he would have called a spade a
spade and been fair to all.
He would not have bent over backwards to appease the Hausa Fulani community and abandon his own people.
The
truth is that though I still love Aregbesola I find it difficult to
forgive him for refusing to rise up to the occasion and for not
defending and protecting the people of Ile Ife and Osun state from the
reckless adventurers that have humiliated, assaulted and afflicted them
in the last few days.
He
has refused to shelter and protect them from the evil scourge that
seeks to subjugate them and turn them into village idiots and second
class citizens in their own land.
We
needed to be consoled and comforted for the outrage and wickedness that
was visited on our people by the Hausa Fulani settlers but instead
Aregbesola betrayed his own people, went on his knees and begged the
aggressors and those that beat, raped and slaughtered them.
I
despise anyone that bows and trembles before tyranny and those that
take pleasure in killing the innocent in the name of faith, cows, cattle
or some strange and misguided notion of ethnic supremacy.
Chief
Obafemi Awolowo, the Leader of the Yoruba, once said, "Kaka ka dobale
fun Gambari ka kuku roju Ku" which means "instead of a Yorubaman
prostrating for a Hausa Fulani it is better to take courage and die".
Have our leaders in the south west forgotten these heroic words so soon? Has Aregbesola lost his memory?
Since
when have we had cowards as leaders in Yorubaland? Since when did we
start fearing our own shadows and since when did we start speaking in
hushed and muffled tones? Is political correctness more important than
the lives of our people?
The
truth is that Rauf Aregbesola has forfeited the right to lead Osun
state and I pray that the Lord forgives him for dancing on the blood of
the people of Ile Ife and wining and dining with the enemy.
Yet
sadly the stinking mess does not stop there. I have been reliably
informed by the spokesman of Afenifere, Oloye Yinka Odumakin, that up
until the time of writing this piece only the sons and daughters of
Ile-Ife, including notable traditional rulers, community leaders and
other prominent men and women, have been arrested by the police and put
in police cells in Osogbo, Ibadan and Abuja.
Not ONE person from the Hausa Fulani community in Ile ife has been detained by the police or security agencies up until now.
Given
this, one wonders whether the 30 sons and daughters of Ile-Ife that
lost their lives in the conflict commited suicide? One wonders whether
they committed what the Japanese call "hari-kari".
One
wonders whether they slit open their own stomachs with a long sharp
sword and spilled their own bowels all over the battle field.
I
say this because no-one seems to be interested in bringing those that
butchered them in the sanctity of their own homes and their own land to
heel.
Such
a selective application of justice can hardly be described as being
reasonable or fair and surely that is not the way to foster better
relations between the Hausa Fulani and the Yoruba in Ile Ife or
elsewhere.
A note that was sent to me captured the mood rather well when the author said the following:
"There
is no Yoruba person who has incited anything beyond putting our case
across. We cannot keep quite when our people are being harassed and
intimated. Barrister Gbenga Awosode,an Ife indigene has just been
summoned to Abuja yesterday. As we speak no member of the Arewa
community has been summoned. Our people have been killed on our land and
on Arewa land over the years with no arrest made in history. We will
not look for anybody's trouble but if anyone look for ours he will get
it double. Yoruba will not die on our knees. Any death that will kill us
will meet us on our feet. But before we die......".
The concern is clearly building-up and the anger is mounting.
Yet
despite that the impunity continues. I say this because in the last
seven days alone the Hausa Fulani have slaughtered scores of innocent
people in Ile-Ife (Osun state), Buruku (Benue state), Arochukwu (Abia
state), Malagum (Southern Kaduna) and Igbeti (Oyo State). Must we
continue like this?
Our
faith, identity and ethnic nationalities are under attack and are
threatened with annihilation and you want me to accept it in the name of
one Nigeria?
The
fundamental question that we must all answer either now or later is as
follows: if we cannot live together in peace and unity as one nation
must we stay together by force?
Is
the unity of Nigeria truly sacrosanct? And if the older generation
believes that this is so must the younger generation believe so as well?
Never in the history
of our country, other than during the civil war, has there been so much
ethnic and sectarian blood-letting as there is today?
And
it is the usual suspects and those that the late and great Chief Bola
Ige called "the Tutsis of Nigeria" that always spark it off and attack
others either in the name of their faith or in their quest to take over
and forcefully seize the land of others or in the name of herding cattle
and grazing cows.
When
one considers this one is constrained to ask the following question: is
it a crime to demand for the restructuring of our nation or for the
peaceful and equitable dissolution of our very unhappy union?
Can
we not at least attempt to be civilised and start learning from others?
Must we continue to ignore the voices of our fathers, elders and
reverred heroes like the great Pa Ayo Adebanjo and the gallant General
Alani Akinrinade who saw all this coming many years ago and who urged us
all to sit up and prepare for the worst?
Must
everything here be by compulsion and by force? Must some of us be
regarded and classified as field hands and slaves whilst others are
described as being "born to rule?"
Is
this not insulting to the majority? Is it not unacceptable? Is it wrong
for people to exercise their God-given right of self-determination? Is
that not the basis and the very essence of freedom and democracy?
The
wave of ethnic nationalism rising throughout the world, including
countries like Holland, the United Kingdom, France, the United States of
America, the Russian Federation, Israel, Germany, Turkey, Austria and,
increasingly, Nigeria cannot be resisted or played down.
And in Nigeria the more of our people that our collective ethnic oppressors kill, the more that wave will rise.
The right to take pride in our ethnicity and invoke the principle of self-determination cannot be denied.
We
reject the concept of globalisation and the enthronement of a new world
order. We reject the concept of an artificial, man-made,
multi-cultural, multi-religious, mongrel mega-nation that is made up of
ethnic and religious incompatibles.
We
reject the notion that we must bury our ethnicity, forget our
differences, arrest our development, discard our values and enthrone the
idea of a strange and complicated hybrid nation where we are expected
to live with and accomodate those that hate our faith, despise our
people, scorn our values and that rape, maim and kill our loved ones and
compatriots in the name of religion, conquest, land, cows and cattle.
The
truth is that no force in hell or on earth can stop the rise and
establishment of the sovereign state of Biafra, Oduduwa or any other
ethnic nation that will one day be carved out of what is presently known
as Nigeria.
This is
what the German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler once described as "Mein Kampf",
meaning "my struggle". This is my hope. This is my desire. This is my
dream.
In
conclusion I call for restraint from both sides in the Hausa Fulani and
Yoruba conflict in Ile-Ife. I call for the restoration of peace and I
pray that the souls of all those that were slaughtered rest in perfect
peace.
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