Dear Omo Yoruba,

Eku igba yi. Eledua a je ko yee wa. Please, let us reason together on a few pressing issues. As a way to admonish us to tell ourselves the truth at all times, our forebears told us that when two brothers/sisters resorted to honest conversation in their room, they usually emerged with ugly looks–indicating that they told each other the bitter truth. At the end of this talk, we might feel bad, but let us forget the messenger and concentrate on the message.

By way of introduction, my heritage of being born by a woman from the Osokumo family in Ogbomoso to a man from the Aworo-Esile royal family in Iresi affirm my claim as a true-born Yoruba man. As Yoruba, I am not just entitled to all the rights and privileges that come with my identity, but I am also responsible to my Yorubaness to the full extent of what the laws allow. So, this letter is not only my birthright, but also my responsibility to the community of Yoruba people both at home in Southwest Nigeria and worldwide. Without wasting time, let us dive right in.

In the last couple of years, Yoruba homeland in Southwest Nigeria has been a theater of rape and assassinations, kidnapping for ransom and invasions, armed robberies and destruction of farmlands, etc. As it is often the case, the culprits have been Fulani invaders, most especially the Bororos. A number of high-profile killings have occurred that made our stomach churn with revulsion. The tipping point, I reckon, was the gruesome assassination of our brother, Dr. Fatai Aborode, who met his untimely death in the hands of assassins on his way from his farm at Igangan, Oyo State.

Although many Yoruba people had been killed before Dr. Fatai, the fact that Dr. Fatai represented and stood for what the Yoruba people are known for across the world made his assassination extremely painful. Dr. Fatai Aborode who completed his secondary school education at Igboora High School in 1984, obtained his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Lagos in 1988, and his Master of Science in Chemistry from the University of Ibadan in 1991, before proceeding to the University of Aberdeen for his doctorate degree in Analytical Chemistry, a degree he bagged in 2011. Between June 5, 1995 and February 9, 2007, Dr. Fatai worked in the Quality Management System unit of Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria Plc, Sagamu, Ogun State, heading the unit before retiring to start his own business in October 2007.

As the Chairman and CEO of Kunfayakun Global Treasures, Dr. Fatai was supplying charcoal globally. He reinvested his earnings in commercial agribusiness, employing over 50 youths in the process. In 2015, he detoured into politics, contesting to represent Ibarapa North in the House of Representatives. Although he lost, he however remained active politically. He was about to declare his candidacy once again when he was gruesomely murdered. He was not just a quintessential Yoruba man who was proud of his ethnic identity and religion, he was also a people-person. His politics was one-of-a-kind. Without setting up a foundation, he empowered many youths across Ibarapa, introducing to them commercial farming and how to get into the export agribusiness. He empowered women and girls and encouraged youths, in general, to get an education. He was a friend to all, including the Fulani immigrant herders in the community.

Yoruba’s reaction to the assassination of Dr. Fatai was understandably instantaneous. Mr. Sunday Adeyemo (popularly known as Sunday Igboho) who made an infamous name for himself during the Ife-Modakeke conflict and as a political thug involved in all manner of nefarious activities for politicians, sprang into action. Besides accusing the Sarkin Fulani of Igangan of ordering the assassination, he also expelled the Sarkin and his people from Ibarapa. In the melee, Sunday and his group of youths burnt down Sarkin’s houses, fleet of cars, and other valuables. At least, two of Sarkin’s brothers were also killed.

Sunday Igboho, obviously basking in the success of his exploits at Igangan, has since taken his campaign to expel all Fulanis from Yorubaland to different states in Southwest Nigeria. In his characteristic garrulous manner, he heaped expletives on kings and chiefs, accusing many of them of conniving with Fulani immigrant settlers in their exploits across Yorubaland. With his newfound popularity, he has taken his agitation to a new height – demanding for Yoruba secession from Nigeria.

The clamor for a Yoruba nationhood is not new. Dr. Adebanji S. Akitoye, formerly a History professor at the Obafemi Awolowo University, made a name for himself for his efforts in this regard. For the most part, this letter has nothing to do with that agitation and therefore would conserve space and time by not dwelling much on whether it is right or wrong. This letter, as the remaining parts would show, deals with the current Yoruba-Fulani intransigence.

Conflict between Yoruba and Fulani in Southwestern Nigeria is not a new phenomenon. Sir Hugh Clapperton and the Lander Brothers reported herder-farmer conflicts when they visited what later became known as Nigeria in the 19^th Century. As reported, increasing desertification and its impact on fodder and water for pastoralists from different parts of West Africa, especially areas bordering the Sahara Desert, had led to seasonal migration of Fulani pastoralists towards the Southwest coast of West Africa. The movement, which was and still is not limited to Nigeria, has pitched crop-producing farmers against their animal-herding farmers, with incessant violent conflicts recorded in the different areas lying along the coastal areas.

In some parts of Africa, creating grazing areas, which are separated from crop-production areas, is one of the means towards managing this problem. In Mali and Burkina Faso, for instance, this step has brought about better relationship and relative peace. Nigeria, especially in 1994, also attempted this measure, creating two exclusive grazing reserves, Gaa Salihu in Igangan (Ibarapa North LGA) and another one at Wasinmi Aiyedun, Iwajowa Local Government area, in Yorubaland, among other places in Nigeria.

At these two exclusive grazing zones, the Federal Government provided grazing land for pastoralist farmers. In these areas, schools and healthcare centers were built to provide education and healthcare services to these pastoralists. In 2009, while conducting fieldwork for a research on the Role of the Oodua Peoples’ Congress (OPC) in the Farmer-Herder Conflicts, I found buildings built for these schools and healthcare centers with not a single teacher and no healthcare service providers. During this fieldwork, I interacted with the Sarkin Fulani of Igbo Ora (Alhaji Idrissa Abubakar), Sarkin Fulani of Eruwa (Alhaji Suleiman Muhammadu), Sarkin Fulani of Iseyin (Alhaji R.O. Diga), Sarkin Fulani of Sagamu (Alhaji Inuwa Garba), Sarkin Fulani of Saki (Mallam Umaru Ali Garkwa), Sarkin Fulani of Eruwa (Alhaji Sule Bororo), Sarkin Fulani of Igangan (Alhaji Salihu Kadiri), and Sarkin Fulani of Ado-Awaye (Alhaji Abase) who confirmed that underlying the intransigence between Yoruba crop-farmers and Fulani pastoralist farmers were issues associated with land and water, farm encroachment and ethnicity, cattle rustling and police brutality.

Buttressing these claims, the Director of Prosecution, Ministry of Justice, Abeokuta, Ogun State in an interview conducted Friday 23 October 2009, noted that 23 cases involving 54 people on Fulani pastoralists and Yoruba farmers were brought to trial between 1999 and 2007. As records of these cases showed, accusations against Fulani herders by Yoruba farmers (and other Yoruba people) include claims of armed robbery and rape, animal invasion and destruction of farm crops, destruction of waterways and ponds, etc.

In turn, the Sarkins – from Sagamu to Iseyin and Ado-Awaye to Igangan – accused members of the OPC of being vigilantees during the day and armed robbers at night, invading their camps with guns and stealing their cattle, which were taken away in ‘Caster’ trucks. They also accused police officers of allegedly extorting the farmer-herder situation by embarking on stop-and-frisk on all Fulanis, accusing any of them found to be in possession of knives, swords, arrows, bows, guns, and even sticks (sanda), of being armed robbers. I witnessed a particular incidence at Maya Market in Eruwa. 29 Fulanis were arrested as armed robbers and were taken to Iseyin Police Station. As I later found out, each of them was charged 50,000.00 naira before they could be released. In another instance, the Sarkin Fulani of Eruwa – Alhaji Suleiman Mohammadu and his Deputy, Mallam Adamu Ahmadu noted that the Sarkin Fulani of Eruwa sent one Fulani to Ado-Awaye to negotiate dowry for an upcoming marriage, the man was arrested as an armed robber and, as they claimed, the Sarkins had to contribute 80, 000 naira to facilitate his release.

In general, the Sarkins argued that they often suffered two forms of attack – from armed robbers, including members of the OPC, against whom the state offered no form of protection and when robbers attack the local Yoruba population, Yoruba communities and the police are quick to accuse Fulani pastoralists of being behind the robberies. A specific case that they were unanimous about was the brutal murder of a policeman between Wasinmi and Ado-Awaye in October 2009 by armed robbers. As the Sarkins noted, rather than going after the robbers, the police directed their anger at the Fulani pastoralists and when the arrest, extortion, and summary execution of Fulanis became so unbearable, they had to meet with the police who demanded and collected a heavy fine despite finding no evidence linking the fate of the late police officer to the Fulanis.

Just as Fulani pastoralists were unequivocal in their condemnation of the police, the Yorubas have also accused the police of almost always taking the side of Fulani pastoralists in conflict situation. Just recently, the Alaafin of Oyo, Iku Baba Yeye Lamidi Atanda Olayiwoola Adeyemi the Third, noted to the world recurring instances of police bias in handling Fulani pastoralists, many of whom were notorious for rape and armed robbery, killings and assassinations, caught in the act and handed over to the police. As the foremost king noted, the usual practice is for police higher hierarchy to order the release of such individuals who then return to the society to not only continue with their nefarious activities, but also to exact revenge on members of the communities for daring to arrest and hand them over to the police.

The above situation, as described by the foremost king, has led to a situation whereby members of the different communities across Yorubaland cultivated the culture of not wasting their time and resources to report cases to the police or identify any Fulani pastoralist criminal when called upon to do so. Just recently, a school teacher at Ota confided in me about a neighbor who suffered the indignity of being raped by a known Fulani pastoralist. The victim not only refused to participate in a police-arranged criminal identification parade, she also left the neighborhood to forestall revenge attack by the Fulani pastoralists.

Cases like the above are so common and, given these experiences, it is little wonder that none of the cases that went to trial resulted in conviction. How long would we continue to live like slaves in our own land? For how long would we continue to exist under this insidious and inhuman environment? Were we not raised to prefer death to slavery? Who can them blame us, if we resort to self-help to restore our dignity, as humans in our own land?

Notwithstanding the above, I think recent events have shown that there is a need to re-examine most of the claims being made against Fulani pastoralist farmers. Although the matter is still in court, police investigation into the murder of Dr. Aborode, so far, has pointed in another direction. The same could be said of the case of Sheikh Taofeek Akewugbagold, whose twins were kidnapped. In this case, the Fulani pastoralists were accused of being the perpetrators. Only recently, Akewugbagold approached Justice Moshood Abass of the Oyo State High Court, withdrawing all charges previously preferred against the supposed abductors, as Police investigations showed that these Fulani herdsmen had nothing to do with the abduction of his children. The real alleged abductors were Bashiru Mohammed (33), Olumide Ajala (36), Opeyemi Oyeleye (25) Miss Rafiu Modinat (29), Rafiu Mutiu (35), and Ridwan Taiwo (30). None of these boys and a girl was Fulani. They are all Yorubas.

Oko Oloyun – the ace herbs producer, was kidnapped and killed. His kidnapping and assassination were, like others, blamed on Fulani pastoralists. Police investigation however showed that no Fulani pastoralists was involved and that Oko Oloyun was kidnapped and killed by some Yoruba people.

The Yoruba people are not the only ones who have witnessed this spate of rape and armed robberies, kidnapping-for-ransom and assassination, others across Nigeria have witnessed these ugly trends. These and other nefarious activities have been witnessed in the Southeast, Middle Belt region and in the North. As it is common to many of these cases, Fulani pastoralists were accused and blamed for them all.

It could be recalled that Fulani pastoralists were accused of perpetrating the mass shooting that led to the death of as many as 35 worshippers at the St Philip’s Catholic Church, Amakwa Ozubulu in Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State. As police investigations have since revealed, the ‘massacre’, as most Nigerian newspapers dubbed the shooting, was the handiwork of two brothers from Amakwa Ozubulu. They were actually fighting over business transactions that they had in faraway South Africa.

In Enugu, Enugu State, a Reverend Father was assassinated and, like the cases of both Oko Oloyun and Dr. Aborode, Fulani pastoralists were blamed for the assassination. As police investigations later revealed, the Catholic Clergy was killed by his Igbo kith and kin. We also saw the same with the Chief Ignatius Odunukwe, the CEO of Sumec-Firman Generator. The details of his death are important and deserve more than a passing mention.

Sometime in 2019, Chief Ignatius Odunukwe advertised his intention to sell one of his property at Katampe, Abuja. Bob Ibeaji, a 42-year-old medical doctor and a criminal head of a four-man gang, having obtained Chief Odunukwe’s phone number from his security guard, contacted him, offering to buy the property. Bob Ibeaji met with Chief Odunukwe at a social function in Abuja and another meeting was arranged for another date in Lagos. On December 1, 2019, Bob Ibeaji, assisted by 30-year-old Solomon Cletus, 30-year-old Arinze Igwe, and 35-year-old Israel Obigaremu, met with Chief Odunukwe at Artican Beach Resort, Ajah, Lagos State where they murdered him.

Chief Odunukwe’s assassination was originally blamed on Fulani pastoralists until police investigation and open confession of Bob Ibeaji and his gang to newsmen during police parade at the Zone 2 Command, Onikan, Lagos, proved otherwise. As Bob Ibeaji said to journalists on camera” “Unnecessary lust for money and my greed for immaterial things clouded my judgement and made me commit the crime.”

What about the Benue mass slaughter? Was this also not blamed on the Fulani pastoralists? What happened to Governor Samuel Ortom’s admission after the 2019 general election that the mass slaughter was actually the handiwork of the Jukuns and unknown bandits – all in Benue State.

Only last week, the same Governor Samuel Ortom was, as alleged, attacked by Fulani pastoralists on his farm at Tyo Mu in Markudi. Although the details are still pending, so far, police have arrested three Jukun fishermen, claiming that they were the major suspects in the attack on the incumbent Governor.

Given all of the above and the fact that in the 23 cases involving 54 people on Fulani pastoralists and Yoruba farmers that were brought to trial in Ogun State between 1999 and 2007, none resulted in a guilty verdict against any Fulani pastoralists, it begs the question if truly the Fulani pastoralists were actually responsible for the nefarious activities, they were being alleged to have committed these past years across Yorubaland.

While this open letter is not aimed at absolving any Fulani pastoralist of crimes and criminalities, it aims at showing the development of a clear and obvious pattern of bad passionate feeling of hatred, ethno-religious sentiments, and prejudices against the Fulani pastoralists not only among the Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria, but also across the entire Southern Nigeria in general. Collectively, it appears that we have successfully singled them out for blame and demonized them as the source and cause of Nigeria’s national insecurity problems.

Any objective analysis of how we have gone about this campaign would show a calculated and indubitable pattern that aimed at deliberately stoking passionate feeling of ethno-religious hatred, sentiments, and prejudices against the Fulani pastoralists. To use the case of Dr. Fatai Aborode to illustrate this, let us all recall the way it was presented to us.

We were told that he came home after spending 20 years studying and working in Germany to embark on commercial farming in Igangan, his hometown. His farm was invaded by Fulanis and, consequently, he went to lodge a complaint with the Sarkin Fulani of Igangan. Following his complaint, the Sarkin ordered his boys to tie Dr. Aborode to a tree and butchered him.

As already noted, Dr Aborode studied at the University of Aberdeen, a public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. While he supplied charcoal to various companies in Germany and have visited the country many times for conferences and workshops while with WAPCO, he never lived in Germany.

As to the manner of his death, he was attacked by four masked and armed men while he was returning from his farm. He was carried on a motorcycle by his Farm Manager, Alfa Olanrewaju, who escaped a hail of bullets, as he fled the scene. Dr. Aborode was butchered but did not die on the spot, he died on the way to the hospital from the wounds inflicted on him by his assailants who refused his pleading and offer of whatever amount they could name. His assailants told him, as Alfa Olanrewaju recollected, that they were paid to assassinate him.

It must also be noted that many weeks before his assassination, Dr. Aborode had invited the Fulanis to bring their animals to his almost 20-acre corn field, a common practice among farmers. The idea is to allow the animals to eat out a poorly grown crop rather than spending resources to plough such poorly grown crops. As I found out both from Dr. Aborode’s family and the Sarkin Fulani, after asking that Fulanis should bring animals to devour the poorly grown corns, Dr. Aborode also sent money to the Sarkin to buy salt for his cows.

Why was the truth about Dr. Aborode’s life-journey, relationships with the Fulani pastoralist farmers, and circumstances of death twisted to suit a narrative that was capable of inciting violence? It should also be asked why were the Yorubas fed with lies and exaggerations? Were all these deliberate attempts aimed at stoking violence?

Without investigating and collecting evidence, Sunday Igboho and his men murdered Sarkin’s family and destroyed his properties. At the height of it all, they then chased him out of town.

While all of these were going on, Yorubas were urging him on, some describing him as a champion of the ethnic group. Despite his ugly past, especially with references to his role in the last iteration of the Ife-Modakeke conflicts where he was alleged to have freely murdered many people, the Yorubas, by supporting Sunday Igboho’s efforts at Igangan, not only validated him, but we urged him on. Obviously basking in all of these, Sunday Igboho has garrulously insulted almost all Yoruba leaders – elected, appointed, and traditional – with reckless abandon.

As if his exploit in muddling things up with respect to the details of Dr. Aborode’s life history and his gruesome murder was not bad enough, we also allowed the best part of our brains to go to sleep again at Sasa, where we went on a killing spree again.

As earlier noted, this open letter has no intention of absolving the Fulani pastoralists of crime and criminality, it aims primarily at asking the Yorubas to rethink the current situation and see things without emotional attachments.

During my fieldwork in 2009, two Sarkins (names withheld for security reasons) confirmed that Sarkin Fulani of Igangan – Alhaji Salihu Abubakar was profiting from crime and criminalities, a claim he denied. In Igangan, a few Fulanis and Yorubas also made the same allegation.

As police and court records also showed, Fulani pastoralists were not only guilty of farm encroachment and destructions, some of them have also been either killed or arrested during robbery operations. As Sarkin of Igangan noted, he was instrumental to the arrest and jailing of more fifteen Fulani pastoralists. As anyone who has suffered traumatic experience would confirm, a raped victim might not necessarily be able to recollect the identity of her assailant(s). So, the sheer fact that some of the crimes have not been substantiated with credible evidence to facilitate conviction, certainly does not mean that Fulani pastoralists were not guilty of accusations of rape. Same goes for other allegations.

While it would be stupid of me to expect Alhaji Salihu to admit that he was profiting from crime, he nevertheless confirmed that he, on a number of occasions facilitated ransom-collection. What other proofs do we need to ascertain Fulani pastoralists’ culpability? Besides attesting to Fulani pastoralist culpability, the fact that Alhaji Salihu did not deny serving at one time or the other, as intermediary and negotiator between ransom-demanding kidnappers and families of victims is enough evidence showing that even the Fulani pastoralist community was aware of their people’s involvement in crime and criminalities.

In addition to the awareness of existence of criminal elements among Fulani pastoralists, Alhaji Salihu’s assistance to kidnappers, undoubtedly, is a crime and, no matter how he explained his involvement, he is complicit in the commission of a crime. Yoruba people need not only allege him of being complicit, but must also press the police to investigate him, the kidnappers he rendered services to, and bring all of them to justice.

Besides Fulani pastoralists, could there be criminal elements among Yoruba people who are deliberately using the raised specter of hatred for the Fulani pastoralists as cover for their nefarious activities? All evidence points to the existence, not only the possibility, of this.

As I found during my fieldwork in 2009 and since then, there is a raised specter of crime and criminalities across Yorubaland since 1999. Fulani pastoralists and members of the OPC, criminal elements among Yoruba people and officers of the Nigeria Police Force were said to be involved in these. Although they all denied these claims, victims of their nefarious activities abound everywhere you turn in Yorubaland today.

Why wont the Yoruba vent their anger in this way? For crying out loud, where was the government while cases of rape, assassination, and kidnapping-for-ransom pile up? Whatever was Sunday Igboho’s pedigree, he rose to defend his community when elected officials abdicated their duties. There is no doubting the fact that if the Buhari-led administration had been proactive and not being lukewarm, indecisive, and taciturn, there would have been no need for a Sunday Igboho or a Jimoh Ijesha to pursue any criminal elements out of their hiding places. No matter how crude and garrulous Sunday Igboho was and is, he stood up and filled the void created by a declining and perpetually failing Buhari-administration, especially in the areas of policing and provision of security.

The Yoruba would not have resorted to self-help in defending themselves if the state had been alive to its duties. The Yorubas are a proud people. They would not have submitted themselves to a character like Sunday Igboho had the likes of former Governors Babatunde Raji Fashola, Rauf Aregbesola, and a host of other elected and appointed leaders of Yoruba extraction not chickened out. It is because of external truants that the Yoruba tolerated and queued behind their domestic truants – Sunday Igboho and his men. The current and belated ‘noise’ of bringing non-state actors like Sunday Igboho to justice is a senseless talk and it reflected how far removed the Buhari-led government is about the parlous state of security in Nigeria.

As our fathers say: let us chase the wild dog away first and return home to warn the roosters. Omo Yoruba, as things stand, we have given in to a super-charged emotion and, in the process, we suspended some of the things we are known for – capacity to reason, even while others are losing their heads.

Omo Yoruba, it is time we changed course. We need to do better. Anyone with a modicum of knowledge of Nigerian history would attest to Yoruba’s unprecedented role in the birth and continued existence of contemporary Nigeria. Yoruba people, our forebears, working with other ethnic groups, sired contemporary Nigeria. Christianity, the harbinger of Western education, modern healthcare, government, business, etc. started in Southwest Nigeria. The agitation for independence did not start elsewhere other than in Southwest Nigeria. We led the way, not just in education and industry, but also in political sagacity and venture capital. Whichever area you look at – education and healthcare, telecommunication and oil and gas, banking and engineering, etc. we not only led the way, but we also carved-out the pathways for others to follow. As other ethnic groups in Nigeria know too well, the Yoruba owns Nigeria. In addition, the whole world knows too well that only the Yoruba can tear Nigeria apart.

Historically, there were three attempts at secession in the history of Nigeria. The first was attempted in 1953 by the North while the remain two were from the Niger-Delta and Southeast led by both Adaka Boro and Odumegwu Ojukwu respectively. Except for the aborted one in the North, Yoruba officers and men bled and died to keep Nigeria one. They did not die for nothing. They paid the ultimate price to ensure that the labors of our hero, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and the men he led and worked with, did not go in vain.

Omo Yoruba, I am not ignorant of our daughters, sisters, and mothers who have been raped and sexually molested. Truth be told, I, like their immediate family, cannot recover from both the knowledge of their violation and the associated trauma that they would carry to their graves. Ariwoola Adisa Akinwole – my bosom friend and confidant slept in the same room with young Fatai Aborode when they were writing the 1984 iteration of the West African Examination Council. For my not supporting Sunday Igboho, he disowned me, a fact that has brought me to tears until I confided in Adegoke Segun yesterday, and who would, in the coming days, restore my brother and friend back to me. How many such relationship has been destroyed over this issue?

Honestly, I felt the pain in much the same way as Alhaji Abdulahi Aborode and the younger Abdulahi Aborode, Dr. Fatai’s son who, while interviewing him, told me: “I hate the fact that they have politicized my father’s death. That is not how I want the world to know about my father”. I cried and agonized over thousands of Yoruba and other Nigerians whose lives have been lost to these egregious insecurity situations.

I am however a disciple of a higher course – the undying belief in the spirit of our ancestors who paid the ultimate sacrifice not only to preserve the sanctity of my Yorubaness, but also my Nigerian identity. Their dreams and aspirations cannot, shall not, and must not be truncated, raped, and held hostage for a ransom.

So far, we have presented zero evidence against the Fulanis and all evidence points to an attempt at “calling a dog a bad name”. Even if we have a warehouse that is full to the brim with evidence, we must not lose sight of our common heritage, our Yorubaness, our Nigerian identity, for which our forefathers and mothers fought, bled, and died. In the coming days, we must insist on evidence as bedrock of justice, not suspicion and allegations of wrongdoing.

Insecurity in any part of Nigeria is insecurity in Yorubaland. As the 2016 Presidential elections in the United States of America and the Brexit phenomenon in Great Britain have shown, it is possible that calamity mongers from afar are at work, playing us against one another in order to foster their parochial ends. If we do not pause and ponder, we would walk into an open pit.

In the coming days, Yorubas would have to walk backward, as a way to move Yorubaland and Nigeria forward. It is not in Yorubas’ character to do things without thinking. Late Major Adekunle Fajuyi, in one of the best examples of leadership, gave his life to preserve not just Nigeria at the most critical point, but also to preserve Yoruba’s integrity as a builder, not a destroyer. Let us think clearly and methodically before we rush into action.

In the coming days, we need to rethink our stance on a number of things, including the need to accept the designation of more exclusive grazing zones in Southwest Nigeria. It is a painful and, at the same time, gainful thing. We would, by example, show other ethnic groups one of our best attributes – openness (kiko eni mora). We need to do this on our own terms, which would include an exclusive baling and haying production system, which would translate our loss in land into an employment-generation system and a net producer of jobs for our teeming youths. A hay-baler is of greater use to Yoruba ethnic group (and Nigeria) than a jobless youth and a potential criminal. Give a Blackman lemon, he will give you lemonades! Yoruba Ronu!!!!!

In the coming days, I would like to see the Yorubas demanding justice not only for those whose lives were wasted in the phantom chase for non-existing enemy and reparations for both the dead, but also for those whose properties were destroyed in Mr. Sunday Igboho’s fight for Yoruba interests. As evidence have shown so far, we went on a wild goose chase on spurious allegations and circumstantial evidence. It is, therefore, not too much to pre-agree with government for a commutation of whatever sentence Sunday Igboho might get and an eventual state pardon. Why do we need to do this? Is this a capitulation?

If we want justice for our people, we should give justice to others too. If we do not do this, we cannot come to justice for our daughters and sons who were raped, assaulted, or killed in the different iterations of insecurity situations that we have witnessed so far. We need to show leadership on all fronts.

So far, Sunday Igboho is clinging to straws, as he has realized that he went too far, and a possible arrest and trial could be his lot. He would rather drag the entire Southwest into a needless and senseless civil war than being arrested and tried. He has built a core of generation Y2K and #Soro-Soke generation whose understanding of politics and history are too shallow to know, let alone understand, how far we have come as a member of the Nigerian family. We cannot fan the embers of secession to cover our shame. A nation evolves from roads taken and those not taken. We cannot afford to become too arrogant not to accept that the evidence stacks against him.

As our forebears taught us, Yoruba, let us think. “Aaboo oro la a so fun Omoluabi”.

I remain, yours sincerely and truly.

Oluwabukunolaami Adeyemi Alade Oyeniyi

Ile Aworo Esile, Iresi, Osun State.