Alaafin Adeyemi, the 3rd from the Alowodu Ruling House, died in the late hours of Friday at the Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti.
More details later.....
Alaafin Adeyemi, the 3rd from the Alowodu Ruling House, died in the late hours of Friday at the Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti.
More details later.....
To dominate a people, seize their wealth and enslave them, take full control of political power, get all arms under your control, deny all else of access to any form of weapons, take control of major income organs, deny all else of access to funds. Finally move in surreptitiously and take over physical space. This is what has been going on since 2015.
*PHASE 1
FULANI TAKE OVER ALL 3 ORGANS OF GOVERNMENT
Today, all three arms of Government; Executive, Legislative and Judicial have been appropriated by the Fulani Nation.
President, Chief of Staff, Senate president, Chief Justice of the Federation, Deputy Speaker House of representatives. It has always been said that he who controls political power controls everything in the Republic. That is what the Fulani have done.
*PHASE 2
FULANI TAKES OVER ALL ARMS BEARING ORGANS OF SECURITY
Next, they moved to put all arms under Fulani control. Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Navy Staff, Inspector General of police, Director general of Department of State Security (DSS), National Security Adviser, (NSA), Minister of Defense, Commander of NSCDC, Chairman of NDLEA, all Intelligence services military and civilian. Director NIA, Director Military Intelligence, Director Naval Intelligence, Director Air Force Intelligence, Immigration, Prisons and so on. These are the organs licensed to bear arms. And just like Aristotle observed centuries ago: “Those who have command of the arms in a Country are masters of the State, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please.”
*PHASE 3
NIGERIANS EXCEPT FULANI HEERDSMEN ORDERED TO SURRENDER ARMS
Still not fully comfortable with the capacity of other Nigerians to offer resistance, in February 2018, Nigeria Police Force which feigned ignorance of the uAK47 bearing Fulani terrorists and would not challenge them suddenly announced, through Police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, plans by the Inspector General of Police to order surrender of both licensed and unlicensed guns from the citizens of Nigeria within 21 days. This was targeted at Vigilante groups, Neighborhood watches and people who obtained licensed guns for personal protection. Evidently, the Fulani herdsmen were exempted from this order as they openly and brazenly carried AK47 weapons in full view of the Police unchallenged. Again, that Philosopher, Aristotle saw this before our time:
“Both Oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people and therefore deprive them of their arms.”
*PHASE 4
TAKE OVER ALL FUNDS AND DEPRIVE OTHERS OF ACCESS TO MONEY.
The four highest revenue earners of Government were put in the hands of Fulani Muslims from the North. NNPC accounts for 76% of federal revenue, 40% of overall gross Domestic Product and 98% of export earnings is put under Mele Kyari, Fulani from Borno. Federal Inland Revenue Service which generated, at a time, 5.3 trillion Naira under Babatunde Fowler, a Yoruba, was taken and handed over to Mohammed Nami in 2019, also Muslim from the North. Government was patient enough for Fowler to introduce the template and blueprint of the successful Lagos tax initiative. In addition, Fowler brought all the Tax payer register, their key information, their business secrets and customers to the Federal umbrella, thinking perhaps he would be there in forever. The Nigeria Ports Authority whose revenue in 2017 was about 1 trillion Naira and one of the highest 4 is domesticated under a young lady, Hadiza Bala Usman, also Muslim Fulani. The Nigeria Customs Service, yielded a revenue of 1.5 trillion naira was also given to Rtd. Col. Hameed Ali, Muslim Fulani. But that is not all. The big spenders are also Fulani controlled:
Defense, Finance, Education, Justice, FCT, Agriculture, Police Affairs, Aviation, Communication, Power, Water Resources, and Humanitarian Affairs.
Following key federal agencies too: EFCC, ICPC, NFIU, NNPC, PTDF, DPR, PPRA, PEF, NPA, NIMASA, NDIC, SEC, NAICOM, FMBN, FHA, NHIS, NPHDA, UBEC, TETFUND, SMEDAN, NYSC, BOA, DBN, BPE, NTA, NEDC, FERMA, PENCOM, NITDA, NCC, NEMA, FAAN, NAMA, NIMET, NIRSAL, NIMC and Sovereign Wealth Fund.
*PHASE 5
PHYSICAL OCCUPATION: OKADA LOCUSTS FROM THE NORTH
Importation of foreign Fulani into Southern and Middle Belt regions started rather surreptitiously. Thousands of Fulani youth, scrawny looking, scantily clothed invaded most State Capitals of the South and Middle belt, starting from Lagos. They came in trailers, loaded with brand new motorcycles called “Okada.” Some observant people wondered aloud, how they got these shiny brand-new motorbikes, who paid for them, who sent them down South and who received, camped, housed and fed them. They asked “Is this not be part of a grand Boko Haram agenda?”
Not a few suspected them as injected sleeper cells in our urban areas, ready and programmed to press their weapons into action to cause pandemonium, injure and kill in order to dominate and take over local space. Our Governors went about their activities in politics and stealing without distraction, yet the number of these invading troops kept swelling.
*PHASE 6
PHYSICAL OCCUPATION: INJECTION INTO FOREST RESERVES
Under the pretext of Cow herding, they started full scale occupation of forest reserves, importing their family from across all Fulani Nations of West Africa, building their signature straw huts all around and constructing their traditional organs of administration. They brought their wives, their children and their armory of AK47 and ammunition. Still Governors grumbled but wanted a second term and so, feigned ignorance.
GOOD STRATEGY, POOR TACTICS.
Those who conceived and implemented this ‘Take-Over’ strategy failed to take risk management into their project plan. They injected these peasants, equipped them with guns and forgot to sustain them with regular allowances. So, prematurely and before full implementation of mass space occupation, these warriors poured into highways, started to rob passengers for survival before graduating to kidnapping. Now they found this more lucrative than any allowance thus transformed into autonomous agents. They had now acquired enormous power, been introduced to lucrative human trade and become blackmail entrepreneurs. Some with the power of their guns also moved to seize ancestral land and since ‘body no be wood,’ added raping of farmers wives and daughters.
Finally people came alive, started to pay attention and now complained. Abuja ignored them, local Political leaders including Governors and legislators stayed mute, traditional rulers cringed and froze up, but some socio-political leaders raised alarms.
The Presidency, finally, through a Yoruba minion, Femi Adesina warned: “Ancestral attachment? You can only have ancestral attachment when you are alive. If you are dead, how does the attachment matter?” He warned farmers to give up their homeland to stay alive. Vanguard of July 15 2018 reported this along with many other newspapers.
TOO LITTLE TOO LATE.
You have to admire Chinua Achebe for his creative metaphors even when you don’t, his sentiments. Achebe captured our carelessness thus:
“People say that if you find water rising up to your ankle, that is the time to do something about it, not when it is around your neck.”
Well, the water had gone up beyond our neck before some of our leaders woke up to do something, it had gone up to our nostrils. I don’t know where it is now as we appear to be drowning.
OF 1,123 FULANI CELLS INSERTED DEEP INTO YORUBA FORESTS
On May 25 2019, Yoruba Council of Elders sounded a loud, disturbing and chilling beagle to the Yoruba Nation. 1,123 Fulani sleeper cells had been identified by a University of Ife investigation group commissioned sequel to the kidnap of Professor Yinka Adegbehingbe of the University of Ife by Fulani herdsmen. Security fault lines created by organized Fulani structures inserted into the Yoruba homeland by forces unidentified yet suspected to be highly structured, financed and organized at very high level. These Fulani cells are distributed in groups of at least 15 to 20 complete with women, arms, and other appurtenances of long-term occupation and are now strategically positioned in reserves created by Chief Obafemi Awolowo for Agricultural developments aka Western Nigeria Development Corporation (WNDC) now abandoned.
The report suggested options to begin preparations to strengthen the home base, evaluate scope, assess risks, design strategies and craft appropriate tactics to respond to this new security threat. Political leadership especially Governors of the South West States were given this report yet continued in their state of relaxed slumber in insulated dream of safety with security votes safe in their personal accounts in reliable Banks.
In a statement by Retired Col. Agbede, key leader of this assignment on behalf of the Council: “As Yoruba elders and leaders in our own rights, we owe it a duty to speak up.
There are 1,123 cells belonging to armed herdsmen located across Yoruba Nation. The cells are well organized and they appear to network with each other as the cells may not be known except that there has been increase in their organizational skills.”
When Governors ignored the peoples’ complaints and following consistent Fulani aggression, some communities consulted their age-old Pantheons and took local action.
SEPTEMBER 20, 2018- THUNDER AT IJARE- THE SANGO OLUKOSO ACTION
Within their limited capacity, and without support from the State or Local Governments, some communities tried to defend their territories. Thirty-six cows were reportedly struck dead late one Saturday by thunder bolt on top of a sacred hill at Ijare town in Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State. The dreadful hill known as ‘Oke Owa’ was located on the outskirts of the sleepy community. Speaking with reporters, the Olujare of Ijare, who spoke through his second in command, Chief Wemimo Olaniran, the Sapetu of Ijare, called it an act of God. The Sapetu said the herdsmen had been destroying their farmland for a very long time which had led to confrontation on many occasions. He told reporters it came as a surprise that the Gods came into the matter so suddenly. His words: ”We were there this morning and we saw about 36 cows dead apart from the one inside the bush. It has happened and there is nothing we can do, we regard it as the act of God which nobody can query.’ The Sapetu said triumphantly. The invaders ran away from Ijare, never to terrorise our community again.
All these were precursors to the establishment of AMOTEKUN, an outfit the Federal Government insisted must not operate without the Police and must never carry weapons. The question left to ask now is: Is AMOTEKUN up to this task? If not, what else? Surely the ijare model may not work universally across the huge landscape of Oduduwa especially against sophisticated weaponry. Or Will the ‘Igboho’ template hold for long?
Think about it.
-FRANCIS OJO
To dominate a people, seize their wealth and enslave them, take full control of political power, get all arms under your control, deny all else of access to any form of weapons, take control of major income organs, deny all else of access to funds. Finally move in surreptitiously and take over physical space. This is what has been going on since 2015.
*PHASE 1
FULANI TAKE OVER ALL 3 ORGANS OF GOVERNMENT
Today, all three arms of Government; Executive, Legislative and Judicial have been appropriated by the Fulani Nation.
President, Chief of Staff, Senate president, Chief Justice of the Federation, Deputy Speaker House of representatives. It has always been said that he who controls political power controls everything in the Republic. That is what the Fulani have done.
*PHASE 2
FULANI TAKES OVER ALL ARMS BEARING ORGANS OF SECURITY
Next, they moved to put all arms under Fulani control. Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Navy Staff, Inspector General of police, Director general of Department of State Security (DSS), National Security Adviser, (NSA), Minister of Defense, Commander of NSCDC, Chairman of NDLEA, all Intelligence services military and civilian. Director NIA, Director Military Intelligence, Director Naval Intelligence, Director Air Force Intelligence, Immigration, Prisons and so on. These are the organs licensed to bear arms. And just like Aristotle observed centuries ago: “Those who have command of the arms in a Country are masters of the State, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please.”
*PHASE 3
NIGERIANS EXCEPT FULANI HEERDSMEN ORDERED TO SURRENDER ARMS
Still not fully comfortable with the capacity of other Nigerians to offer resistance, in February 2018, Nigeria Police Force which feigned ignorance of the uAK47 bearing Fulani terrorists and would not challenge them suddenly announced, through Police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, plans by the Inspector General of Police to order surrender of both licensed and unlicensed guns from the citizens of Nigeria within 21 days. This was targeted at Vigilante groups, Neighborhood watches and people who obtained licensed guns for personal protection. Evidently, the Fulani herdsmen were exempted from this order as they openly and brazenly carried AK47 weapons in full view of the Police unchallenged. Again, that Philosopher, Aristotle saw this before our time:
“Both Oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people and therefore deprive them of their arms.”
*PHASE 4
TAKE OVER ALL FUNDS AND DEPRIVE OTHERS OF ACCESS TO MONEY.
The four highest revenue earners of Government were put in the hands of Fulani Muslims from the North. NNPC accounts for 76% of federal revenue, 40% of overall gross Domestic Product and 98% of export earnings is put under Mele Kyari, Fulani from Borno. Federal Inland Revenue Service which generated, at a time, 5.3 trillion Naira under Babatunde Fowler, a Yoruba, was taken and handed over to Mohammed Nami in 2019, also Muslim from the North. Government was patient enough for Fowler to introduce the template and blueprint of the successful Lagos tax initiative. In addition, Fowler brought all the Tax payer register, their key information, their business secrets and customers to the Federal umbrella, thinking perhaps he would be there in forever. The Nigeria Ports Authority whose revenue in 2017 was about 1 trillion Naira and one of the highest 4 is domesticated under a young lady, Hadiza Bala Usman, also Muslim Fulani. The Nigeria Customs Service, yielded a revenue of 1.5 trillion naira was also given to Rtd. Col. Hameed Ali, Muslim Fulani. But that is not all. The big spenders are also Fulani controlled:
Defense, Finance, Education, Justice, FCT, Agriculture, Police Affairs, Aviation, Communication, Power, Water Resources, and Humanitarian Affairs.
Following key federal agencies too: EFCC, ICPC, NFIU, NNPC, PTDF, DPR, PPRA, PEF, NPA, NIMASA, NDIC, SEC, NAICOM, FMBN, FHA, NHIS, NPHDA, UBEC, TETFUND, SMEDAN, NYSC, BOA, DBN, BPE, NTA, NEDC, FERMA, PENCOM, NITDA, NCC, NEMA, FAAN, NAMA, NIMET, NIRSAL, NIMC and Sovereign Wealth Fund.
*PHASE 5
PHYSICAL OCCUPATION: OKADA LOCUSTS FROM THE NORTH
Importation of foreign Fulani into Southern and Middle Belt regions started rather surreptitiously. Thousands of Fulani youth, scrawny looking, scantily clothed invaded most State Capitals of the South and Middle belt, starting from Lagos. They came in trailers, loaded with brand new motorcycles called “Okada.” Some observant people wondered aloud, how they got these shiny brand-new motorbikes, who paid for them, who sent them down South and who received, camped, housed and fed them. They asked “Is this not be part of a grand Boko Haram agenda?”
Not a few suspected them as injected sleeper cells in our urban areas, ready and programmed to press their weapons into action to cause pandemonium, injure and kill in order to dominate and take over local space. Our Governors went about their activities in politics and stealing without distraction, yet the number of these invading troops kept swelling.
*PHASE 6
PHYSICAL OCCUPATION: INJECTION INTO FOREST RESERVES
Under the pretext of Cow herding, they started full scale occupation of forest reserves, importing their family from across all Fulani Nations of West Africa, building their signature straw huts all around and constructing their traditional organs of administration. They brought their wives, their children and their armory of AK47 and ammunition. Still Governors grumbled but wanted a second term and so, feigned ignorance.
GOOD STRATEGY, POOR TACTICS.
Those who conceived and implemented this ‘Take-Over’ strategy failed to take risk management into their project plan. They injected these peasants, equipped them with guns and forgot to sustain them with regular allowances. So, prematurely and before full implementation of mass space occupation, these warriors poured into highways, started to rob passengers for survival before graduating to kidnapping. Now they found this more lucrative than any allowance thus transformed into autonomous agents. They had now acquired enormous power, been introduced to lucrative human trade and become blackmail entrepreneurs. Some with the power of their guns also moved to seize ancestral land and since ‘body no be wood,’ added raping of farmers wives and daughters.
Finally people came alive, started to pay attention and now complained. Abuja ignored them, local Political leaders including Governors and legislators stayed mute, traditional rulers cringed and froze up, but some socio-political leaders raised alarms.
The Presidency, finally, through a Yoruba minion, Femi Adesina warned: “Ancestral attachment? You can only have ancestral attachment when you are alive. If you are dead, how does the attachment matter?” He warned farmers to give up their homeland to stay alive. Vanguard of July 15 2018 reported this along with many other newspapers.
TOO LITTLE TOO LATE.
You have to admire Chinua Achebe for his creative metaphors even when you don’t, his sentiments. Achebe captured our carelessness thus:
“People say that if you find water rising up to your ankle, that is the time to do something about it, not when it is around your neck.”
Well, the water had gone up beyond our neck before some of our leaders woke up to do something, it had gone up to our nostrils. I don’t know where it is now as we appear to be drowning.
OF 1,123 FULANI CELLS INSERTED DEEP INTO YORUBA FORESTS
On May 25 2019, Yoruba Council of Elders sounded a loud, disturbing and chilling beagle to the Yoruba Nation. 1,123 Fulani sleeper cells had been identified by a University of Ife investigation group commissioned sequel to the kidnap of Professor Yinka Adegbehingbe of the University of Ife by Fulani herdsmen. Security fault lines created by organized Fulani structures inserted into the Yoruba homeland by forces unidentified yet suspected to be highly structured, financed and organized at very high level. These Fulani cells are distributed in groups of at least 15 to 20 complete with women, arms, and other appurtenances of long-term occupation and are now strategically positioned in reserves created by Chief Obafemi Awolowo for Agricultural developments aka Western Nigeria Development Corporation (WNDC) now abandoned.
The report suggested options to begin preparations to strengthen the home base, evaluate scope, assess risks, design strategies and craft appropriate tactics to respond to this new security threat. Political leadership especially Governors of the South West States were given this report yet continued in their state of relaxed slumber in insulated dream of safety with security votes safe in their personal accounts in reliable Banks.
In a statement by Retired Col. Agbede, key leader of this assignment on behalf of the Council: “As Yoruba elders and leaders in our own rights, we owe it a duty to speak up.
There are 1,123 cells belonging to armed herdsmen located across Yoruba Nation. The cells are well organized and they appear to network with each other as the cells may not be known except that there has been increase in their organizational skills.”
When Governors ignored the peoples’ complaints and following consistent Fulani aggression, some communities consulted their age-old Pantheons and took local action.
SEPTEMBER 20, 2018- THUNDER AT IJARE- THE SANGO OLUKOSO ACTION
Within their limited capacity, and without support from the State or Local Governments, some communities tried to defend their territories. Thirty-six cows were reportedly struck dead late one Saturday by thunder bolt on top of a sacred hill at Ijare town in Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State. The dreadful hill known as ‘Oke Owa’ was located on the outskirts of the sleepy community. Speaking with reporters, the Olujare of Ijare, who spoke through his second in command, Chief Wemimo Olaniran, the Sapetu of Ijare, called it an act of God. The Sapetu said the herdsmen had been destroying their farmland for a very long time which had led to confrontation on many occasions. He told reporters it came as a surprise that the Gods came into the matter so suddenly. His words: ”We were there this morning and we saw about 36 cows dead apart from the one inside the bush. It has happened and there is nothing we can do, we regard it as the act of God which nobody can query.’ The Sapetu said triumphantly. The invaders ran away from Ijare, never to terrorise our community again.
All these were precursors to the establishment of AMOTEKUN, an outfit the Federal Government insisted must not operate without the Police and must never carry weapons. The question left to ask now is: Is AMOTEKUN up to this task? If not, what else? Surely the ijare model may not work universally across the huge landscape of Oduduwa especially against sophisticated weaponry. Or Will the ‘Igboho’ template hold for long?
Think about it.
-FRANCIS OJO
1) The Yorùbá are resolute in their determination not to stand idle and watch our space and land desecrated. Only an arsonist allows a fire to burn and destroy. We will not permit strangers to abuse our hospitality and desecrate our hallowed land and our sacred spaces. Indeed, we invoke the ancient maledictions reserved for such malefactors. Our forests need no permission to swallow them.
2) The Yorùbá, are confronted by the realization that we are living in a time of bad metaphors. A time when dogs do not hearken unto the whistle of the hunter and the rivers which have forgotten their sources, still continue to flow. The world is turned inside out and the socio-political fabric of Nigeria is ripped into shreds. Today in Buhari's Nigeria, the ship of state has veered dangerously off course, and heads almost irreversibly towards jagged rocks of destruction. Insecurity has reached such an abyss that hundreds of people are kidnapped in broad daylight with impunity.
3) The Yorùbá are convinced that Nigeria is on the verge of a catastrophic calamity, of potentially greater magnitude than either the internecine conflict of 1967 to 1970 or the brazen disenfranchisement of 1993! Nigeria as we know it, has embarked on uncharted seas, with nihilists as crewmen. We are a country divided along distrusting ethnic lines, exhausted by its failures, cynical about its own future, authoritarian by reflex and controlled as a personality cult by a section of the country. The relentless pursuit of power by a group of self servers, the ruthless cabal that respects neither Equity nor Equality, with an entrenched sense of entitlement, has taken away any sense of belonging to this union, by the Yorùbá. When injustice becomes law, resistance will be a duty!
4) The Yorùbá announce their exhaustion with this Government’s obsession with Lies and Denials of truths and facts. Farmers-Herders clashes are denied despite photographic evidence of massacres and eye-witness reports of mayhem. Terrorists roam the land in the garb of herdsmen, killing, raping, kidnapping and maiming, with little or no reaction from constituted authority. A high ranking Government official declares that bandits are not criminals.
5) The Yorùbá are perplexed by the fact that the Nigerian state is bombing the Eastern Security Network (ESN). Yet, the same Government is embracing and romancing terrorists. It is now safe to say this is a Government that panders to terrorists, protects terrorists, pays ransoms to terrorists, and prevaricates Terrorism, with absolutely no sanction by the Northern dominated security apparatus of Nigeria. How exactly can such a Government continue to seek the support of the Yorùbá going forward!?!
6) The Yorùbá hereby make known their opposition to Sheikh Gumi's interaction with these dreaded terrorists. A video circulating on social media that shows the Sheikh trying to divide the Nigerian Army along religious lines is an abominable wake-up call. The Sheikh is guilty of incitement, when he claims that it is Christian soldiers who attack bandits to sow religious tension. To encourage bandits to be selective in their reprisal attacks and avoid women and children is tantamount to aiding and abetting Terrorism and sabotage. The Sheikh has forgotten that thousands of Christian soldiers have lost their lives battling Boko Haram and other Terrorists. The Nigerian Military is one of the few institutions that have resisted division along religious lines. By condoning Sheikh Gumi’s felonious pronouncements, the Government is allowing him to fan the embers of crisis, while hiding under the cloak of mediation.
7) The Yorùbá are convinced that the North is already at war with itself. Rather than face that situation squarely, the Northern-controlled Federal Government keeps trying to divert attention by teasing out conflicts in some areas and exporting crisis to other locations. The Yorùbá call it, "da bi mo se da". It will not work. The Yorùbá will not swallow the bait and allow our hard-won inheritance to be consumed in the consequent conflagration.
Cognizant of the foregoing, It has become imperative that the territory that was known as Western Region under the 1963 Constitution, along with other peoples having affinities with the Yoruba Nation in Edo, Delta, Kogi and Kwara be organised in pursuit of our political identity and socio-economic welfare of all. Notwithstanding any politically correct labels, our quest is to think through and fashion out the pathway for the progress of our peoples at the homeland and across the world.
The Yorùbá hereby resolve as follows:
i) The Yorùbá have decided to embark on a venture of massive resistance to the issue of insecurity. Àmòtékún and other support systems, fully incorporating both Traditional and Modern security measures and systems have been integrated to form the South West Security and Stakeholders Group (SWSSG) which is presented to the Yorùbá and the world today. The role of SWSSG is the protection of our patrimony, our physical and human assets, our forests and our intangible legacies which have been inviolate and inviolable for over a millennium.
ii) The forests of the Yorùbá are sacred, untouchable, and out-of-bounds to terrorists. May the curses of all our forefathers hold to account all who attempt to cede even one inch of our forests to any ranch or settlement for the use of foreigners, despoilers, ruiners, ravagers and desecraters of our forests. Our forests house our spirituality, our Essence. Our Egungun, our Oro, our spirit, our food security, our culture, our Being!
iii) The Yorùbá distance themselves from the oft-repeated untruth that "Nigeria's unity is non-negotiable". This is nothing but a falsehood. Be it known, now and ever — “The unity of Nigeria is highly negotiable!” If we cannot be happy together, then let us find peace and joy, apart. Nigeria can only remain Nigeria if all parties agree to deal equitably with each other.
iv) The Yorùbá are resolute in their fierce determination to pursue vigorously our own chosen destiny to be FREE men and women, and never to be 2nd class citizens in our own land and space.
Signed:
Mogaji Gboyega Adejumo
1) The Yorùbá are resolute in their determination not to stand idle and watch our space and land desecrated. Only an arsonist allows a fire to burn and destroy. We will not permit strangers to abuse our hospitality and desecrate our hallowed land and our sacred spaces. Indeed, we invoke the ancient maledictions reserved for such malefactors. Our forests need no permission to swallow them.
2) The Yorùbá, are confronted by the realization that we are living in a time of bad metaphors. A time when dogs do not hearken unto the whistle of the hunter and the rivers which have forgotten their sources, still continue to flow. The world is turned inside out and the socio-political fabric of Nigeria is ripped into shreds. Today in Buhari's Nigeria, the ship of state has veered dangerously off course, and heads almost irreversibly towards jagged rocks of destruction. Insecurity has reached such an abyss that hundreds of people are kidnapped in broad daylight with impunity.
3) The Yorùbá are convinced that Nigeria is on the verge of a catastrophic calamity, of potentially greater magnitude than either the internecine conflict of 1967 to 1970 or the brazen disenfranchisement of 1993! Nigeria as we know it, has embarked on uncharted seas, with nihilists as crewmen. We are a country divided along distrusting ethnic lines, exhausted by its failures, cynical about its own future, authoritarian by reflex and controlled as a personality cult by a section of the country. The relentless pursuit of power by a group of self servers, the ruthless cabal that respects neither Equity nor Equality, with an entrenched sense of entitlement, has taken away any sense of belonging to this union, by the Yorùbá. When injustice becomes law, resistance will be a duty!
4) The Yorùbá announce their exhaustion with this Government’s obsession with Lies and Denials of truths and facts. Farmers-Herders clashes are denied despite photographic evidence of massacres and eye-witness reports of mayhem. Terrorists roam the land in the garb of herdsmen, killing, raping, kidnapping and maiming, with little or no reaction from constituted authority. A high ranking Government official declares that bandits are not criminals.
5) The Yorùbá are perplexed by the fact that the Nigerian state is bombing the Eastern Security Network (ESN). Yet, the same Government is embracing and romancing terrorists. It is now safe to say this is a Government that panders to terrorists, protects terrorists, pays ransoms to terrorists, and prevaricates Terrorism, with absolutely no sanction by the Northern dominated security apparatus of Nigeria. How exactly can such a Government continue to seek the support of the Yorùbá going forward!?!
6) The Yorùbá hereby make known their opposition to Sheikh Gumi's interaction with these dreaded terrorists. A video circulating on social media that shows the Sheikh trying to divide the Nigerian Army along religious lines is an abominable wake-up call. The Sheikh is guilty of incitement, when he claims that it is Christian soldiers who attack bandits to sow religious tension. To encourage bandits to be selective in their reprisal attacks and avoid women and children is tantamount to aiding and abetting Terrorism and sabotage. The Sheikh has forgotten that thousands of Christian soldiers have lost their lives battling Boko Haram and other Terrorists. The Nigerian Military is one of the few institutions that have resisted division along religious lines. By condoning Sheikh Gumi’s felonious pronouncements, the Government is allowing him to fan the embers of crisis, while hiding under the cloak of mediation.
7) The Yorùbá are convinced that the North is already at war with itself. Rather than face that situation squarely, the Northern-controlled Federal Government keeps trying to divert attention by teasing out conflicts in some areas and exporting crisis to other locations. The Yorùbá call it, "da bi mo se da". It will not work. The Yorùbá will not swallow the bait and allow our hard-won inheritance to be consumed in the consequent conflagration.
Cognizant of the foregoing, It has become imperative that the territory that was known as Western Region under the 1963 Constitution, along with other peoples having affinities with the Yoruba Nation in Edo, Delta, Kogi and Kwara be organised in pursuit of our political identity and socio-economic welfare of all. Notwithstanding any politically correct labels, our quest is to think through and fashion out the pathway for the progress of our peoples at the homeland and across the world.
The Yorùbá hereby resolve as follows:
i) The Yorùbá have decided to embark on a venture of massive resistance to the issue of insecurity. Àmòtékún and other support systems, fully incorporating both Traditional and Modern security measures and systems have been integrated to form the South West Security and Stakeholders Group (SWSSG) which is presented to the Yorùbá and the world today. The role of SWSSG is the protection of our patrimony, our physical and human assets, our forests and our intangible legacies which have been inviolate and inviolable for over a millennium.
ii) The forests of the Yorùbá are sacred, untouchable, and out-of-bounds to terrorists. May the curses of all our forefathers hold to account all who attempt to cede even one inch of our forests to any ranch or settlement for the use of foreigners, despoilers, ruiners, ravagers and desecraters of our forests. Our forests house our spirituality, our Essence. Our Egungun, our Oro, our spirit, our food security, our culture, our Being!
iii) The Yorùbá distance themselves from the oft-repeated untruth that "Nigeria's unity is non-negotiable". This is nothing but a falsehood. Be it known, now and ever — “The unity of Nigeria is highly negotiable!” If we cannot be happy together, then let us find peace and joy, apart. Nigeria can only remain Nigeria if all parties agree to deal equitably with each other.
iv) The Yorùbá are resolute in their fierce determination to pursue vigorously our own chosen destiny to be FREE men and women, and never to be 2nd class citizens in our own land and space.
Signed:
Mogaji Gboyega Adejumo
In the days of old... any monarch that does not represent the interest of the people is removed... Ife was not an exception .... The ultimate decision in this battle is the movement of the people. Not movement of the elders, kings or politicians....
Ooni Gbanlare was murdered for going against the popular wish of his people. So was Ooni Gegbaaje
Wunmolaje was disposed as well because the people rejected his style of leadership.
At a point... everyone became scared to become Ooni because of how people turned against them... Ooni Adegule had to make the nobility at Ife swear not to disgrace him if he took office... He was also killed by poisoning.
How about Oyo,
Alaafin Ajaka was rejected because he was too weak... Shango rejected because he became very dictatorial....Ojigi was forced to commit suicide because of his son's tyranny ( and after him, crown princes were forced to die with their fathers as punishment)
Alaafin onisile was forced to commit suicide cause he loved to invoke the spirit of Sango and his people were uncomfortable.
In Ijebu, Awujale Afidipote was rejected because his policies caused recession in Ijebu.
Ooni Adesoji was nearly rejected by people of Ife because he mismanaged the common wealth of Ife kingdom with the proceeds from its forest timber.
Alake of Egba land was deposed by the great Egba women because of his tax policies.
Now... If any monarch stands in the way of Yoruba progress... or go against the determination of Yoruba people not to be turned into slaves in their ancestral home like the Hausa people... we owe it as a duty to reject and force them to be deposed.....
They sit on the throne to serve Yoruba interest and the desire of its people.... not the other way round....
We have made a decision. We dont want herdsmen in our bushes and region anymore.... we also want emancipation of Yorubaland. Any monarch that stands in our way is part of the problem... He is no different from the Fulani that is oppressing us, we need to be get rid of such people from our palace.
By:
Anonymous author
In the days of old... any monarch that does not represent the interest of the people is removed... Ife was not an exception .... The ultimate decision in this battle is the movement of the people. Not movement of the elders, kings or politicians....
Ooni Gbanlare was murdered for going against the popular wish of his people. So was Ooni Gegbaaje
Wunmolaje was disposed as well because the people rejected his style of leadership.
At a point... everyone became scared to become Ooni because of how people turned against them... Ooni Adegule had to make the nobility at Ife swear not to disgrace him if he took office... He was also killed by poisoning.
How about Oyo,
Alaafin Ajaka was rejected because he was too weak... Shango rejected because he became very dictatorial....Ojigi was forced to commit suicide because of his son's tyranny ( and after him, crown princes were forced to die with their fathers as punishment)
Alaafin onisile was forced to commit suicide cause he loved to invoke the spirit of Sango and his people were uncomfortable.
In Ijebu, Awujale Afidipote was rejected because his policies caused recession in Ijebu.
Ooni Adesoji was nearly rejected by people of Ife because he mismanaged the common wealth of Ife kingdom with the proceeds from its forest timber.
Alake of Egba land was deposed by the great Egba women because of his tax policies.
Now... If any monarch stands in the way of Yoruba progress... or go against the determination of Yoruba people not to be turned into slaves in their ancestral home like the Hausa people... we owe it as a duty to reject and force them to be deposed.....
They sit on the throne to serve Yoruba interest and the desire of its people.... not the other way round....
We have made a decision. We dont want herdsmen in our bushes and region anymore.... we also want emancipation of Yorubaland. Any monarch that stands in our way is part of the problem... He is no different from the Fulani that is oppressing us, we need to be get rid of such people from our palace.
By:
Anonymous author
It's fake news - palace statement
It's fake news - palace statement
Igboho and his supporters on Friday stormed the area of Oyo state to restate their determination to stem the illegal Fulanis activities and atrocities that have claimed many lives.
He had confronted the Seriki Fulani, Saliu Kadri while accusing Kadri’s subjects of killing Yoruba individuals.
Among the assassination listed is that of Oyo businessman, Fatai Aborode, Alhaja Serifat Adisa and her children, an Igangan prince, among others.
Igboho disclosed he acted on the request of traditional rulers who he reported to have protested their helplessness about the incessant killings and kidnappings.
Meanwhile, the Oyo State Government has condemned the quit notice.
Governor Seyi Makinde warned against the eviction of any ethnic group and vowed to deal with troublemakers.
Makinde, according to a daily post reports, has ordered the Police to arrest Sunday Igboho and others causing tension in the state just as the Fulanis Nationalist Movement issues threats statement to make Oyo and Ondo states and rest of the South West states ungovernable should they eject the Fulanis in the region.
The Fulanis have been accused of perpetrating murders and kidnappings in the region and many other parts of the the country including genocide in southern Kaduna.
Makinde declared that his government would not allow anyone hiding under the guise of protecting Yoruba interests to cause ethnic tension and perpetrate crisis.
He maintained that the war Oyo and security agencies need to wage is not against any particular ethnic group but against criminal elements, irrespective of their tribes, religions, or creed.
The governor added that his administration would not allow anyone to threaten the peace of the state by acting unlawfully and saying things that are alien to the Nigerian constitution.
Makinde told the new Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeko, that his administration would continue to synergise with law enforcement organs to fight criminals, hoodlums and bandits irrespective of their tribe or religion.
“For people stoking ethnic tension, they are criminals and once you get them, they should be arrested and treated like common criminals.
“I am sure that since you came in, you must have heard about some things happening at Ibarapa axis of the state. I will still say it here that we are not after Hausa-Fulani. We are after criminals”, he said.
Meanwhile, according to a threat statement issued on 18th January 2021 by the Fulani Nationalist Movement, (FUNAM), signed by one Baadu Salisu Ahmadu warned that ejecting Fulanis in the west will be met with total resistance.
Our attention has been drawn to a decree credited to one Rotimi Akeredolu asking Fulani people who have occupied some forests in Ondo State to quit.
We are also aware of another incidence in Oyo State where an illeterate political thug gave quit notice to Fulani people to leave the territories which are now their irreversible homes.
This is not only an irresponsible demand but a call to arms of the faithful who have been pursuing their legitimate business in these forests.
We have given a counter order. No Fulani will move an inch either in Oyo,Ondo or any part of the Western part of Nigeria.
On behalf of Fulani Nationalist Movement, (FUNAM) we hereby warn the governments Oyo and it's agent, one Sunday Igboho and the Ondo State Govt to rescind their orders or face serious consequences.
It is shocking that the said Igboho and Akeredolu who is a beneficiary of the system is giving a stupid order that he knows no one will respect. We didn't get the forests through him and how does he expect Fulani to obey his empty order? If he had been shot during attack on him, will he be alive to give orders? Humans have a short memory
The Fulani people in these forests acquired these lands legitimately the Fulani also operates under the ECOWAS protocol on free movement of persons. The people giving the orders should know they do not have the capacity to enforce such orders.
First they are not the Nigerian Police neither are they the Nigerian Army. The National Assembly has not given such not even the Houses of Assembly in the two states acquisce to such irresponsible demand.
The Fulani will resist by all means necessary, including armed resistance any attempt to forcefully eject them from these Forests that in reality does not belong to these States alone. Some are Federal Reserve Forests.
We want to ask Akeredolu whether those communities brought the lands from heaven.
We warn that any one Fulani blood that is shed further in the South West will automatically lead to upheaval in the six states of Lagos,Osun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti and Ogun State. We the Fulani are on red alert and waiting for the call and will never succumb to any threat or intimidation by ethnic bigots.I Baadu Salisu Ahmadu,given my new responsibility, will with other faithful NEVER fail the Fulani Nation in it's Allah chosen destiny
An undisputable truths and realities on ground are that Nigeria State and Nigerians under Major General Muhammadu Buhari led APC Federal Government have been facing more threats, insecurity, killings and kidnapping for ransom from Fulanis and other terrorist groups including Boko Haram and banditary more than any time in the history of the country.
Account to sources from Ibarapa, the Seriki Fulani Of Igangan has well-armed Fulani militias guarding him.
There were also three well fortified barricades on the way to his house and that barapa people cannot access his house unless with express permission.
Sunday Igboho scaled all those hurdles and took his followers there. The report has that the Seriki guards fired gunshot at him but he collected the guns without mounting a counterattack.
The Seriki of Fulanis in Oyo state Has collections of luxury cars in his compound including brand-new Toyota Venzas, Camry, each costing between 7million to 15 million Naira, totaling about 15, which the Seriki's herd of cattle cannot account for.
The people of the area have said it to Seriki's face that when people are kidnapped, the ransoms are usually brought to his palace to get it across to the kidnappers ( a kind of intermediary role in negotiations for their release). If Seriki is not part of the conspiracy, why has he not exposed the kidnappers on behalf of whom he collects ransom from time to time?
All the kings in Ibarapa became overwhelmed and invited Igboho as one of their sons to come and help them, while the federal and state governments have failed in their primary responsibilities of protecting lives and prosperity of the citizens.
Igboho also secured the support of Alaafin of Oyo and called on other prominent Yoruba kings to lend their voice to the struggle to free the Yoruba land from wonton herdsmen kidnappers and terrorists.
Following the purported arrest order issued by both the state and federal governments, Conference of Yoruba lawyers have dares Major General Buhari to arrest Sunday Igbowo as the group said to have lined up 50 Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), to stand as his legal representatives.
The Legal group asks Buhari to go after his criminal Fulani terrorists and not Sunday Igbowo, the liberator of his people.
Updated on ²⁴th January 2021.
Igboho and his supporters on Friday stormed the area of Oyo state to restate their determination to stem the illegal Fulanis activities and atrocities that have claimed many lives.
He had confronted the Seriki Fulani, Saliu Kadri while accusing Kadri’s subjects of killing Yoruba individuals.
Among the assassination listed is that of Oyo businessman, Fatai Aborode, Alhaja Serifat Adisa and her children, an Igangan prince, among others.
Igboho disclosed he acted on the request of traditional rulers who he reported to have protested their helplessness about the incessant killings and kidnappings.
Meanwhile, the Oyo State Government has condemned the quit notice.
Governor Seyi Makinde warned against the eviction of any ethnic group and vowed to deal with troublemakers.
Makinde, according to a daily post reports, has ordered the Police to arrest Sunday Igboho and others causing tension in the state just as the Fulanis Nationalist Movement issues threats statement to make Oyo and Ondo states and rest of the South West states ungovernable should they eject the Fulanis in the region.
The Fulanis have been accused of perpetrating murders and kidnappings in the region and many other parts of the the country including genocide in southern Kaduna.
Makinde declared that his government would not allow anyone hiding under the guise of protecting Yoruba interests to cause ethnic tension and perpetrate crisis.
He maintained that the war Oyo and security agencies need to wage is not against any particular ethnic group but against criminal elements, irrespective of their tribes, religions, or creed.
The governor added that his administration would not allow anyone to threaten the peace of the state by acting unlawfully and saying things that are alien to the Nigerian constitution.
Makinde told the new Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeko, that his administration would continue to synergise with law enforcement organs to fight criminals, hoodlums and bandits irrespective of their tribe or religion.
“For people stoking ethnic tension, they are criminals and once you get them, they should be arrested and treated like common criminals.
“I am sure that since you came in, you must have heard about some things happening at Ibarapa axis of the state. I will still say it here that we are not after Hausa-Fulani. We are after criminals”, he said.
Meanwhile, according to a threat statement issued on 18th January 2021 by the Fulani Nationalist Movement, (FUNAM), signed by one Baadu Salisu Ahmadu warned that ejecting Fulanis in the west will be met with total resistance.
Our attention has been drawn to a decree credited to one Rotimi Akeredolu asking Fulani people who have occupied some forests in Ondo State to quit.
We are also aware of another incidence in Oyo State where an illeterate political thug gave quit notice to Fulani people to leave the territories which are now their irreversible homes.
This is not only an irresponsible demand but a call to arms of the faithful who have been pursuing their legitimate business in these forests.
We have given a counter order. No Fulani will move an inch either in Oyo,Ondo or any part of the Western part of Nigeria.
On behalf of Fulani Nationalist Movement, (FUNAM) we hereby warn the governments Oyo and it's agent, one Sunday Igboho and the Ondo State Govt to rescind their orders or face serious consequences.
It is shocking that the said Igboho and Akeredolu who is a beneficiary of the system is giving a stupid order that he knows no one will respect. We didn't get the forests through him and how does he expect Fulani to obey his empty order? If he had been shot during attack on him, will he be alive to give orders? Humans have a short memory
The Fulani people in these forests acquired these lands legitimately the Fulani also operates under the ECOWAS protocol on free movement of persons. The people giving the orders should know they do not have the capacity to enforce such orders.
First they are not the Nigerian Police neither are they the Nigerian Army. The National Assembly has not given such not even the Houses of Assembly in the two states acquisce to such irresponsible demand.
The Fulani will resist by all means necessary, including armed resistance any attempt to forcefully eject them from these Forests that in reality does not belong to these States alone. Some are Federal Reserve Forests.
We want to ask Akeredolu whether those communities brought the lands from heaven.
We warn that any one Fulani blood that is shed further in the South West will automatically lead to upheaval in the six states of Lagos,Osun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti and Ogun State. We the Fulani are on red alert and waiting for the call and will never succumb to any threat or intimidation by ethnic bigots.I Baadu Salisu Ahmadu,given my new responsibility, will with other faithful NEVER fail the Fulani Nation in it's Allah chosen destiny
An undisputable truths and realities on ground are that Nigeria State and Nigerians under Major General Muhammadu Buhari led APC Federal Government have been facing more threats, insecurity, killings and kidnapping for ransom from Fulanis and other terrorist groups including Boko Haram and banditary more than any time in the history of the country.
Account to sources from Ibarapa, the Seriki Fulani Of Igangan has well-armed Fulani militias guarding him.
There were also three well fortified barricades on the way to his house and that barapa people cannot access his house unless with express permission.
Sunday Igboho scaled all those hurdles and took his followers there. The report has that the Seriki guards fired gunshot at him but he collected the guns without mounting a counterattack.
The Seriki of Fulanis in Oyo state Has collections of luxury cars in his compound including brand-new Toyota Venzas, Camry, each costing between 7million to 15 million Naira, totaling about 15, which the Seriki's herd of cattle cannot account for.
The people of the area have said it to Seriki's face that when people are kidnapped, the ransoms are usually brought to his palace to get it across to the kidnappers ( a kind of intermediary role in negotiations for their release). If Seriki is not part of the conspiracy, why has he not exposed the kidnappers on behalf of whom he collects ransom from time to time?
All the kings in Ibarapa became overwhelmed and invited Igboho as one of their sons to come and help them, while the federal and state governments have failed in their primary responsibilities of protecting lives and prosperity of the citizens.
Igboho also secured the support of Alaafin of Oyo and called on other prominent Yoruba kings to lend their voice to the struggle to free the Yoruba land from wonton herdsmen kidnappers and terrorists.
Following the purported arrest order issued by both the state and federal governments, Conference of Yoruba lawyers have dares Major General Buhari to arrest Sunday Igbowo as the group said to have lined up 50 Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), to stand as his legal representatives.
The Legal group asks Buhari to go after his criminal Fulani terrorists and not Sunday Igbowo, the liberator of his people.
Updated on ²⁴th January 2021.
*Yoruba Question in Nigeria Conundrum*
Your Excellency,
I have never been timid or shy of my total support for the success of your administration to deliver the country to the Promised Land.
My confidence had always been based on Your Excellency’s ability, fitness and competence in leading the country to the Promised Land, where Law and Order prevail, individual liberty is guaranteed, economic well-being of the citizens is assured.
That my confidence in Your Excellency remains unshaken to date. In recent time however, I am worried about the security situation in the country, especially in the South West geo-political zone, nay the entire Yoruba-speaking area of the country including Kwara, Kogi and Edo states.
This has to do with the incessant and increasing menace of Fulani herdsmen that have laid siege in almost all the highways of Yoruba land. Whether in Owo, Akure, Ilesa/Ife-Ibadan road or Ibarapa zone and Ijebu area of Ogun state, the story is the same.
I have held series of consultations with opinion moulders and eminent Yoruba leaders across board about the menace of these cattle herdsmen with such assault like raping of our women and in some occasions, in the presence of their husbands. That is apart from massive destruction of our agricultural lands; which ultimately points to imminent starvation.
On top of it all is the menace of professional kidnappers usually in military uniforms. What is more worrisome about the kidnapping notoriety is what looks like impunity which these kidnappers enjoy their nefarious activities.
After due consultations with Yoruba leaders and as the pre-colonial head of the Yoruba nation, we are worried by the audacity of these lawless people in effecting their illegal acts in broad daylight on our usually bushy highways without any arm of security being able to do anything.
Worse still is the confidence with which they demand ransoms and collect such illegal levies atthem designated spots without any arm of security being able to lay siege on them as it was the practice in the recent past.
Now, we cannot even talk of parading suspects, when in actual sense, no major arrests have been made in this part of the country. Without arrests, we cannot talk of their facing of the law.
Unfortunately, and painfully indeed, in the face of the apparent helplessness of our security agencies, where do we go from here?
It is at the wake of this manifest frustration of our people that our people have found it unavoidable, even though reluctantly to resort to alternative measures to safeguard their lives and property.
Suffice to say that is most part of Yoruba land, their pre-colonial military structures have not been totally collapsed. Hence, such structures like Odua People’s Congress, Agbekoya and other vigilance groups.
Having stated the above, and having established my premise as a stakeholder in your administration in the firm belief that we all believe in the Nigeria project, kindly permit me, Mr President, to make the following points and submissions as the Alaafin of Oyo, the King and Head of all Yoruba at home and in the diaspora and the Chief Custodian of Yoruba culture and values.
The people of Yorubaland in the traditional six State of the South-West geo-political zone and extending to some parts of Kogi, Kwara and Edo State live in palpable fear because of new wave of insecurity of life and property they now witness on a daily basis and which is alien to them. This new uncomplimentary development is not unrelated to the new wave of criminal activities usually associated with banditry, armed robbery and lately, kidnapping and rape of genuinely innocent and law abiding citizens.
I remember when these nefarious activities were first noticed in Oyo/Oke Ogun area of Oyo State, I took proactive steps to stem the tide and to amicably normalize relations between farmers and herders. Our initiative succeeded because we were dealing with genuine farmers and herders who had a commitment to Nigeria and who were interested in promoting their economic activities in a peaceful, prosperous and united Nigeria.
However, it is becoming obvious that the nature and character of banditry and kidnapping today are different from what they used to be.
Today, it is not merely infraction in the course of doing business, but blatant and criminal violation of the constitutional right to life and liberty of innocent citizens of Yoruba land. A few publicly known instances will suffice.
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 adopted 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 your 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, raid, 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.
They have demonstrated confidence in you and in your ability to stem the tide of these criminal activities. Yoruba have been restrained from believing the new found Islamization or Fulanization theory.
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.
I recall with sadness that the Old Oyo Empire disintegrated because the slave trade introduced insecurity that made all other economic activities which had supported and enhanced the prosperity of Oyo to decline. It is never my wish that any part of Nigeria will ever go through this harrowing experience again.
Apart from massive destruction of farms and crops planted on them, the new wave of Fulani, pretending and disguising as herders have unleashed a reign of terror on Yoruba land.
They destroy crops, they kidnap men and women, violate and rape our women, right in the presence of their husbands. What this portends id definitely more than the simplistic interpretation of farmer/herder clash but the deliberate acts of hostility and criminality.
What makes it worrisome is the fact that for reasons best known to the Police establishment, they have not been apprehending or pretend to be in the defence of victims.
There is always a tendency to blame the victims and demonstrate helplessness in apprehending and bringing perpetrators to book to face the full wrath of the law.
It is even said, Mr President that these criminal pseudo herders go about their nefarious activities in broad daylight and many times in military uniform. They carry sophisticated weapons, the likes of which are only available to state actors.
There seems to be no doubt that the security apparatus of the country is both overstretched and rustic.
The philosophy of policing the State, protecting life and property and ensuring the existence of atmosphere that is conducive to life and living in Nigeria is lost on the security personnel. In Yoruba land, we are scared and worried about the outrageous audacity and effrontery of these criminal elements in carrying out their activities and without any challenge by security operatives.
In situation where money exchanged hands, the Police are adequately equipped to trace every paper money issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Intelligence gathering concerning money paid as ransom should lead, finally to these criminals since they would eventually make transactions with the proceeds of their illicit and criminal activities.
As no major arrest of Fulani pseudo herdsmen has been made till date in Yoruba land, suspects cannot be paraded, let alone arraigned.
Even threatened a sitting traditional ruler and asked him to comply with certain directives go about as if they are indeed above the law and beyond arrest. It is unheard of that the State could be seemingly helpless in the face of these criminal assaults on its integrity and capacity to carry out the most sacred of its mandate; preserving life and property.
Mr President, let me assure you that the Yoruba people traditionally have what it takes to defend themselves and interests against all enemy attacks. What is of immediate concern is the possibility of these traditional self-help mechanisms of defence to conflict with legal and constitutional framework of the security organizations.
This is indeed my greatest fear, recluse the situation is fast degenerating into what could trigger complete breakdown of law and order under a constitutional state arrangement. Thus latent frustration must be nipped in the bud to avert a breakdown of the state system in Yoruba land.
I am aware that members of the Odua People’s Congress scattered all over the world are already being mobilized to stand in the defence of their land and are ready, willing and able to raise an army of volunteers as was done in 1968 by the Agbekoya.
It is trite saying that a stitch in time saves nine. For me, and relying on ancient wisdom, the dilemma of a possible breakdown of state authority and power could still be manages and the slide to anarchy arrested.
Historically, and even now, ethnic relations between the Yoruba and the Fulani had been managed adroitly through excellent statesmanship and participatory administration of inter-ethnic group relations. I have had many instances of settling farmer/herder disagreements in my Palace to the extent of instituting workable modalities for inter communal conflict management and peace building.
What is strange is the new wave of criminally minded Fulani groups. What is again disappointing is the ease with which these criminals will leave our country should there be anarchy in the land.
They have other places to return to, but Nigerians don’t have another country apart from here.
This is a serious national emergency, when Fulani herdsmen are engaged in criminality all over the country and the sitting federal government seems helpless and generally unperturbed by what is going on in the security organizations. There is no doubt that some leaders of these security organizations are either incompetent or bankrupt of ideas. Some are even compromised to take any decisive actions against criminals.
What we are witnessing in Nigeria is an anomaly because it is inconceivable that in the 21st century, when the whole world is making appreciable progress in providing enhanced standard of living, Nigerians will be living under the fear of banditry, brigandage, rape, kidnapping and terrorism.
Insecurity is posing a direct threat and imminent danger to living in Nigeria. It is capable of de-robing the country in the comity of nations and passing it off as uncivilized and barbaric.
As more and more countries issue travel restrictions to Nigeria and parts thereof, it is just a matter of time for Nigeria to lose whatever gains it has made in repositioning itself for more decisive participation in the international system.
I trust that you will not allow this to happen and will quickly and decisively take immediate steps to re-established confidence in your government and demonstrate the capacity of the state to protect all legitimate interests.
I wish you God’s guidance, courage and wisdom to do what is right, appropriate and necessary to build the Nigeria of our dreams, where no ethnic group is oppressed or taken for granted.
While urging you to take out time to read and consider this letter as coming from a stakeholder in your administration, I wish to assure you of the warmest regards of the Royal stool.
Copied from Ayo Ojeniyi
*Yoruba Question in Nigeria Conundrum*
Your Excellency,
I have never been timid or shy of my total support for the success of your administration to deliver the country to the Promised Land.
My confidence had always been based on Your Excellency’s ability, fitness and competence in leading the country to the Promised Land, where Law and Order prevail, individual liberty is guaranteed, economic well-being of the citizens is assured.
That my confidence in Your Excellency remains unshaken to date. In recent time however, I am worried about the security situation in the country, especially in the South West geo-political zone, nay the entire Yoruba-speaking area of the country including Kwara, Kogi and Edo states.
This has to do with the incessant and increasing menace of Fulani herdsmen that have laid siege in almost all the highways of Yoruba land. Whether in Owo, Akure, Ilesa/Ife-Ibadan road or Ibarapa zone and Ijebu area of Ogun state, the story is the same.
I have held series of consultations with opinion moulders and eminent Yoruba leaders across board about the menace of these cattle herdsmen with such assault like raping of our women and in some occasions, in the presence of their husbands. That is apart from massive destruction of our agricultural lands; which ultimately points to imminent starvation.
On top of it all is the menace of professional kidnappers usually in military uniforms. What is more worrisome about the kidnapping notoriety is what looks like impunity which these kidnappers enjoy their nefarious activities.
After due consultations with Yoruba leaders and as the pre-colonial head of the Yoruba nation, we are worried by the audacity of these lawless people in effecting their illegal acts in broad daylight on our usually bushy highways without any arm of security being able to do anything.
Worse still is the confidence with which they demand ransoms and collect such illegal levies atthem designated spots without any arm of security being able to lay siege on them as it was the practice in the recent past.
Now, we cannot even talk of parading suspects, when in actual sense, no major arrests have been made in this part of the country. Without arrests, we cannot talk of their facing of the law.
Unfortunately, and painfully indeed, in the face of the apparent helplessness of our security agencies, where do we go from here?
It is at the wake of this manifest frustration of our people that our people have found it unavoidable, even though reluctantly to resort to alternative measures to safeguard their lives and property.
Suffice to say that is most part of Yoruba land, their pre-colonial military structures have not been totally collapsed. Hence, such structures like Odua People’s Congress, Agbekoya and other vigilance groups.
Having stated the above, and having established my premise as a stakeholder in your administration in the firm belief that we all believe in the Nigeria project, kindly permit me, Mr President, to make the following points and submissions as the Alaafin of Oyo, the King and Head of all Yoruba at home and in the diaspora and the Chief Custodian of Yoruba culture and values.
The people of Yorubaland in the traditional six State of the South-West geo-political zone and extending to some parts of Kogi, Kwara and Edo State live in palpable fear because of new wave of insecurity of life and property they now witness on a daily basis and which is alien to them. This new uncomplimentary development is not unrelated to the new wave of criminal activities usually associated with banditry, armed robbery and lately, kidnapping and rape of genuinely innocent and law abiding citizens.
I remember when these nefarious activities were first noticed in Oyo/Oke Ogun area of Oyo State, I took proactive steps to stem the tide and to amicably normalize relations between farmers and herders. Our initiative succeeded because we were dealing with genuine farmers and herders who had a commitment to Nigeria and who were interested in promoting their economic activities in a peaceful, prosperous and united Nigeria.
However, it is becoming obvious that the nature and character of banditry and kidnapping today are different from what they used to be.
Today, it is not merely infraction in the course of doing business, but blatant and criminal violation of the constitutional right to life and liberty of innocent citizens of Yoruba land. A few publicly known instances will suffice.
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 adopted 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 your 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, raid, 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.
They have demonstrated confidence in you and in your ability to stem the tide of these criminal activities. Yoruba have been restrained from believing the new found Islamization or Fulanization theory.
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.
I recall with sadness that the Old Oyo Empire disintegrated because the slave trade introduced insecurity that made all other economic activities which had supported and enhanced the prosperity of Oyo to decline. It is never my wish that any part of Nigeria will ever go through this harrowing experience again.
Apart from massive destruction of farms and crops planted on them, the new wave of Fulani, pretending and disguising as herders have unleashed a reign of terror on Yoruba land.
They destroy crops, they kidnap men and women, violate and rape our women, right in the presence of their husbands. What this portends id definitely more than the simplistic interpretation of farmer/herder clash but the deliberate acts of hostility and criminality.
What makes it worrisome is the fact that for reasons best known to the Police establishment, they have not been apprehending or pretend to be in the defence of victims.
There is always a tendency to blame the victims and demonstrate helplessness in apprehending and bringing perpetrators to book to face the full wrath of the law.
It is even said, Mr President that these criminal pseudo herders go about their nefarious activities in broad daylight and many times in military uniform. They carry sophisticated weapons, the likes of which are only available to state actors.
There seems to be no doubt that the security apparatus of the country is both overstretched and rustic.
The philosophy of policing the State, protecting life and property and ensuring the existence of atmosphere that is conducive to life and living in Nigeria is lost on the security personnel. In Yoruba land, we are scared and worried about the outrageous audacity and effrontery of these criminal elements in carrying out their activities and without any challenge by security operatives.
In situation where money exchanged hands, the Police are adequately equipped to trace every paper money issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Intelligence gathering concerning money paid as ransom should lead, finally to these criminals since they would eventually make transactions with the proceeds of their illicit and criminal activities.
As no major arrest of Fulani pseudo herdsmen has been made till date in Yoruba land, suspects cannot be paraded, let alone arraigned.
Even threatened a sitting traditional ruler and asked him to comply with certain directives go about as if they are indeed above the law and beyond arrest. It is unheard of that the State could be seemingly helpless in the face of these criminal assaults on its integrity and capacity to carry out the most sacred of its mandate; preserving life and property.
Mr President, let me assure you that the Yoruba people traditionally have what it takes to defend themselves and interests against all enemy attacks. What is of immediate concern is the possibility of these traditional self-help mechanisms of defence to conflict with legal and constitutional framework of the security organizations.
This is indeed my greatest fear, recluse the situation is fast degenerating into what could trigger complete breakdown of law and order under a constitutional state arrangement. Thus latent frustration must be nipped in the bud to avert a breakdown of the state system in Yoruba land.
I am aware that members of the Odua People’s Congress scattered all over the world are already being mobilized to stand in the defence of their land and are ready, willing and able to raise an army of volunteers as was done in 1968 by the Agbekoya.
It is trite saying that a stitch in time saves nine. For me, and relying on ancient wisdom, the dilemma of a possible breakdown of state authority and power could still be manages and the slide to anarchy arrested.
Historically, and even now, ethnic relations between the Yoruba and the Fulani had been managed adroitly through excellent statesmanship and participatory administration of inter-ethnic group relations. I have had many instances of settling farmer/herder disagreements in my Palace to the extent of instituting workable modalities for inter communal conflict management and peace building.
What is strange is the new wave of criminally minded Fulani groups. What is again disappointing is the ease with which these criminals will leave our country should there be anarchy in the land.
They have other places to return to, but Nigerians don’t have another country apart from here.
This is a serious national emergency, when Fulani herdsmen are engaged in criminality all over the country and the sitting federal government seems helpless and generally unperturbed by what is going on in the security organizations. There is no doubt that some leaders of these security organizations are either incompetent or bankrupt of ideas. Some are even compromised to take any decisive actions against criminals.
What we are witnessing in Nigeria is an anomaly because it is inconceivable that in the 21st century, when the whole world is making appreciable progress in providing enhanced standard of living, Nigerians will be living under the fear of banditry, brigandage, rape, kidnapping and terrorism.
Insecurity is posing a direct threat and imminent danger to living in Nigeria. It is capable of de-robing the country in the comity of nations and passing it off as uncivilized and barbaric.
As more and more countries issue travel restrictions to Nigeria and parts thereof, it is just a matter of time for Nigeria to lose whatever gains it has made in repositioning itself for more decisive participation in the international system.
I trust that you will not allow this to happen and will quickly and decisively take immediate steps to re-established confidence in your government and demonstrate the capacity of the state to protect all legitimate interests.
I wish you God’s guidance, courage and wisdom to do what is right, appropriate and necessary to build the Nigeria of our dreams, where no ethnic group is oppressed or taken for granted.
While urging you to take out time to read and consider this letter as coming from a stakeholder in your administration, I wish to assure you of the warmest regards of the Royal stool.
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