Dear Sunday Adeyemo Igboho,
Before now I have heard about the myth surrounding your antecedents in the political history of the country. This has shaped many people's views about you, both negatively and positively. Maybe it's not outrightly my business that you and your supporters were seen with live ammunitions, and perhaps it concerns me less that you openly threatened to commit genocidal crimes on mere speculations that occupants of a particular settlements in Oke-Ogun are terrorists. What I am dearly concern about is Justice and Fairness!
Mr Sunday, I stumbled on a video where I saw you and your supporters in a tempestuous engagement with the leader of Fulani settlement in a place referred to as Kishi Forest, an area in Oke-Ogun, Oyo State. Seriki Salisu, as he was repeated called in the video which has gone viral.
While I would want to commend the level of consciousness that brought together a group of people who seem to be worried for the safety and security of the Oke-Ogun people and the Yoruba race at large, I would also say that your engagement with Seriki and the residents of that settlement lacks procedural merits and ideological basis. I don't know the motivation behind your sudden call and support for the secession of the Oduduwa nation and I sincerely have no problem with your ideological views because we are at a very critical moment, our nation is under siege and I understand everyone is looking for solutions and ways out of this quagmire. But, I will like to put it straight to you, that the security challenges facing SouthWest and the country at large are endemic and fundamental, and cannot be solved by attacking one tribe or burning down their houses. Without a total overhaul of our security architecture and unapologetic replacement of our political leaders and socio-economic structure of Nigerian states which will in return give birth to a pro-people democratic public institutions, we can chase dozens of Fulani out of the West, or a thousand more Hausa out of the East, and millions of Yoruba/Igbo out of the North, if we like, we will only be fetching water inside a basket and we will never gather enough to rinse a foot let alone to shower in millenia.
Come to think of it, how can we be sure, that the Fulani who are constantly attacking and kidnapping our people are even residing in that village you burnt down?? It gets really easy for us to tribalise our problem and let ourselves allow them continue to divide us across tribal lines. How does it sound to us if a Yoruba man commits a crime in Kaduna and all Yoruba residents in that state are punished and sent out of the State??
Mr Sunday, do you even worry about the legal implications of your engagement with Seriki at all?? I am afraid you have no right to chase any Nigerian away from any part of the country without minding the legal potency of their occupancy. Many of them have been settled in those areas for decades and possibly have every legal right to remain and go by their lawful businesses except proven otherwise. I know we'll say Fulanis are killing and kidnapping us and do not have right to be among us. Is Sunday Sodipe, a serial killer who was allegedly killing for Adedokun Ajani for just N500 in Akinyele Area of Oyo State a Fulani man?? The policemen who have been harrassing and killing young innocent Nigerians, are they Fulani men?? Or the military men that opened fire on the peaceful protesters at the #LekkiMassacre, are they Fulani men?? Why are we so hypocritical and emotional about the whole thing?? We of course know who the enemies of the people are and where they live. Perhaps it would have had a more revolutionary impact and historical relevance if you lead us in search of all the officers that killed peaceful protesters during the #EndSars protest and had them handpicked out for justice.
Some people have now become homeless because of your visit yesterday, even if they are initially not kidnappers, now that they're homeless under this useless government, and you think they won't easily switch from onion seller or herders that they are known for to what they're suspected of? After engaging in your extrajudicial adventure and you are successful in chasing the Fulanis away, who will be next?? Any other person who commits or purportedly commits crimes and isn't an indegene of Oyo State too can as well leave their legal abode because Sunday Igboho says so?? Is this how we want to build "our" Oduduwa Republic?? A nation who will see first, and take seriously the tribe of a criminal more than the crime is already a failed State. When a crime is committed, we seek justice, when justice cannot be given we seek revolution, otherwise we will only be rigmaroling on a spot, and history will continue to repeat itself century after century.
Take for instance, if a similar crime is committed in Oyo when you have your Oduduwa Republic, will you send the culprits out of Oyo because they're "Egba" or "Ijesa"?? No, that would obviously not solve it or curb a reoccurrence the same way your illegal adventures in Oke-Ogun yesterday would stop nothing. It would only claim more innocent lives and incite more violence in other parts of the country, hence setting oppressed Nigerians at one another instead of uniting in voice and strength, to fight the people who brought us here in the first place, and who are doing all they can to keep the Nigerian people disunited in order to allow them continuous access to our national wealth without challenges or organised revolutionary resistance.
I know Mr Sunday will not agree with me that while we are trading blame, hatred and unhealthy rivalry amongst ourselves, a Yoruba political thief will sneak into a Fulani man's house for political reasons and expediency. They will wine, dine, and even laugh together when it's time to deceive and steal from Nigerians, while we are here busy trading unneccessary hatred and rivalry. I know a Jagaban, who will help install or impose a Buhari on the people of Nigeria and will later threaten to secede only when things are not looking well for him. They want to mortgage innocent lives again for their dirty ambitions. Mr Sunday, the "Bullion Van Lord" is more of a problem in Nigeria than a Fulani man, except you are a beneficiary of such ill-gotten wealth, you should join Nigerians in ousting these predator that have kept the rank and file of the nation in perpetual poverty.
Lastly, I want to implore Mr Sunday, to join us in the revolutionary pursuit of fairness and justice, as the Nigerian political space is cloudy, and soon the rain of Revolution shall fall and the flood shall not spare any political thief, be it Yoruba, Igbo, Urobo, Hausa, or Fulani. Join the vast number of Nigerians calling for freedom across the federation and let's show the oppresor the way out together, rather than encouraging the oppressed to prey on one another by tribalising our common challenges. We can't generalise or define a whole race with the action or inaction of the few. Tinubu's kleptomaniac traits and legacy doesn't define the rest of us, just like all the Fulani many of us who grew up in the suburbs know to be very friendly those days, then suddenly turn dreaded creatures that symbolises fear and insecurity. This is where we should pause and reflect, something is obviously fundamentally wrong. This is neither an emotional battle, nor for the intellectually weak and gullible. The fact that a Yoruba man betrays you doesn't make all Yoruba people betrayers. The fact that an Urobo man cheats on you, doesn't make the rest of them infidels. The fact that an Igbo man defrauded you doesn't make the rest of them fraudsters. And the fact that some Fulani are constantly killing and kidnapping people doesn't define every Fulani you see on the streets of Nigeria. Our problem is already compounded and we should not make it any more complex by chasing or killing one another which will only make the very oppressor stronger. Rather, we unite and take Nigeria through a thorough, unapologetic, and surgical revolutionary process. Anything short, we will only be dancing around the problems and giving ourselves the illusion of solving them by creating bigger ones.
Olawale Adebayo Bakare (PKA Mandate)
POC, Amnesty International.
16 January, 2021.
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