MUSLIM YORUBA-LED DESTRUCTION OF IGBO PROPERTY IN LAGOS STATE— A Destruction of Yoruba Fountain of Progress Founded on Ile-Ife which is Historically Igboland

 

MUSLIM YORUBA-LED DESTRUCTION OF IGBO PROPERTY IN LAGOS STATE— A Destruction of Yoruba Fountain of Progress Founded on Ile-Ife which is Historically Igboland

 

 

Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD, DD

Odogwu of Ibusa, Delta State

Leader, International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria (ICAC-GEN)

Website: https://icac-gen.org          Date: Nov 24, 2023            Email: [email protected]

 

The history of Igbo-Yoruba relations is like a whirlpool turning around in a tempestuous fuse yet immovably held together by the same source of water. Those who call the Igbo strangers and seemingly take delight in destructing their hard-earned investments and property today in Lagos do so because it is either they are ignorant of their forefathers’ history or they are ashamed of its cloudy and historically fraudulent origin.

They also forgot that history records that those who are heinously resented by their hosts because of their progressive achievements in business are likely to progress ten folds greater than at the stage of that destruction. No nation or people have been as resented as the Jews by their neighbors and hosts. Where are the Jews and Israel today? There had been numerous anti-Chinese riots in many Asian countries, particularly Indonesia. Where is China today?

The Bamileke of Western Region of Cameroon, who represent the most progressive people face the same ethnic resentment. The same resentment applies to the Kikuyu of Kenya and the Tutsi of Rwanda and Burundi. Zimbabwe divested all the White farmers and entrepreneurs of their land and investments on independence. What is the situation in Zimbabwe to day in comparison to South Africa where the White Farmers and entrepreneurs remained undisturbed? General Idi Amin confiscated all the businesses belonging to Asians. Where is Uganda today?

Nobody can speak of the development of Lagos State today without the Igbo; not even Ahmed Bola Tinubu who falsely claims to be the genius of Lagos development as Governor, yet had an Igbo as his Commissioner of Budget and Planning. Unfortunately for the Yoruba nation, those who are attempting to destroy the Igbo economic legacy in Lagos State today are not true Yoruba sons but a cacophony of Afonja spirited Tapa-Fulani Muslim coalition who have succeeded in overrunning Yoruba land in Usman dan Fodio jihad style.

Indeed no true Yoruba Christian will be opposed to Igbo progress in Yoruba land because the Yoruba Christians are themselves epitomes of progress in Yorubaland. Check out those Yoruba people infested with the political virus of anti-Igbo syndrome. They are either morally-bankrupt Yoruba Muslims or Judas Iscariot-spirited pitiable Christian political slaves to Yoruba Muslim political leaders.

If those who claim to be true Yoruba sons and daughters claim Ile-Ife as their cradle of origin, and the history of the same Ile-Ife says Ndigbo culturally and historically own Ile-Ife, who are then the true historical owners of Lagos State and Yorubaland in general; bearing in mind that, the current historically recognized indigenous owners of the heart of Lagos State are the Awori who in turn trace their origins to Ile-Ife? This is a simple incontrovertible logic of history.

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi cannot be controverted by his own words when he said:

“Lagos is part of Yoruba land, we are all one, we are all the same. The history is there, the facts are there, and we should actually put these facts out. Why are we fighting? This is your root. I said it recently, some of our Yoruba kinsmen with ignorance of our history came out with nugatory beratement of my position on the family ties between Yoruba and Igbo people. We have to say the truth and the truth must set us all free, we are blood brothers. We should be inseparable. Please feel at home in Yorubaland and respect your Yoruba brothers and sisters too. We still have House of Igbo right in this palace till date. We call it Ile Igbo up till now. Our ancestors are buried and transfigured there. That is where kolanut was first discovered and nurtured. The Igbos are still the biggest consumers and users of kolanut which is only planted in Yorubaland till date. Can the Igbos do without kolanut?  The ancient Igbo house is one of the most sacred places in this palace till date. One of my brother kings – Aka Arogundabi from Iremo quarters saw the mysteries of house of Igbo (Aka-ri-Igbo). Till date, Akarigbo of Remoland still sees house of Igbo as a common heritage of his forebears.”

 

To begin with the obvious, between the Igbo and Yoruba runs a strong force of mutual interactions at multifarious levels which are so deep and strong in socio-economic and religious circles that contest for political supremacy only represents a negligible fragment. For instance, it has remained a sustainable fact that the Igbo and Yoruba are more disposed to inter-ethnic marriages than both are respectively disposed to inter-marriage with the Fulani. Among the Igbo and Yoruba there is no culture of segregated settlement as in the case of the Fulani and their Northern Muslim counterparts.

On the spiritual angle, between the Igbo and Yoruba there appears to be no record of schism in Christianity based on ethnic identity, as it appears to be the case between the Yoruba and Fulani in Islam, in which they run separate Islamic Orders and Mosques. Even the most “tribalistic” indigenous Yoruba Churches like Cherubim and Seraphim, and Celestial Church of Christ still have strong Igbo presence.

Beyond the prominent historic roles of the likes of Bishops Ajayi Crowther and James Johnson in the planting of Christianity in Igboland, contemporary evidence tend to show a strong Igbo presence in such Yoruba-founded high-profile Pentecostal Churches as Deeper Life Ministries, Redeemed Christian Church of God, Winners Chapel and M]ountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries. There is therefore a strong underlying spiritual unity between the Igbo and Yoruba which cannot be obliterated by the sinews of Muslim Yoruba hatred of the Igbo founded on Afonja political spirit and driven by the false sense of immutable Fulani jihad conquest.

In dealing with this remote root of unity between the Igbo and Yoruba, four episodes in history readily come to mind. The first is based on common ethno-historical origins, which goes beyond the myths of Oduduwa coming from Saudi Arabia and the Igbo migrating from Israel. The second has to do with pre-colonial interactions between the Igbo and Yoruba that saw the planting of some Yoruba towns in Igboland. The third points to the pioneering roles of early Yoruba missionaries in Igboland which has earlier been mentioned. While the fourth is one aspect which most Igbo people would not like to mention–the Yoruba achievements as impetus for Igbo rise to prominence in educational and political development in Nigeria.

The Igbo have three theories of origin–– autochthony theory, Niger-Benue Confluence theory and Jewish origin theory. Out of these three theories two–– the first and second are remotely connected Yoruba origin. The first theory points to the claim that the Igbo as a group have continuously inhabited their present habitat for thousands of years before Christ. In other words, they did not migrate from anywhere. This theory is supported by a plethora of evidence from archaeological and allied disciplines. Prof Adebisi Sowunmi in her research findings using palynology affirms that as far back as three thousand years ago, people had settled in this area called Igboland practicing agriculture.

Her position appears to have been strengthened by the appearance of supportive archaeological evidence from both Professors Thurstan Shaw and D. D. Hartle. Shaw’s monumental archaeological excavations at Igbo-Ukwu yielded in uncommon terms what could be described as the iconic evidence of Igbo cultural sophistication and antiquity of settlement.  On his part Hartle’s multiple excavations speak of human activities that go deeper into Stone Age period.  From the stated body of evidence above, it could therefore be assumed that the Igbo as a culture group might appear to be the oldest ethnic group to settle in the greater part of what is today defined as Southern Nigeria. This claim appears to be aptly supported by the traditions of Ife history–– the de facto citadel of the Yoruba cultural nation.

Prof J. A. Atanda in his opinion agrees with the evidence of pre-Oduduwa settlers of the present Ile-Ife and its environs who might not have been Yoruba-Speaking.  But it was indeed the work of Prof Isola Olomola that actually revealed the identity of the pre-Oduduwa inhabitants of Ile-Ife to be Igbo autochthones.  Basing his argument on Ife-Ikedu myth Olomola postulated that the present Ile-Ife was inhabited by a group of aborigines who had produced between 93 and 97 kings before the arrival of Oduduwa. He stated further that the original name of Ile-Ife was Igbo-Mokun and that the term ‘Ife’ came into currency during the reign of fourth Ooni of the Oduduwa dynasty–– Oranmiyan.

The term “Igbo-Mokun” no doubt goes further to reveal the Igbo character of the aborigines of Ife. But it was indeed in the third part of the Ikedu myth as explained by Olomola which is quoted at length that the fundamental elements of the evidence are embedded. As Olomola put it, ‘We are thus left with Igbo-mokun. This name has occurred in many folktales of the Eastern Yoruba and among the Ijesha and Ekiti.’ Quoting the Ikedu myth he went further to state, ‘The dawn is usually reserved for the most solemn assemblies because, as they say, the dawn belongs to the King of the Igbo.’

Prof Biodun Adeniran also tries in his own account to establish the Igbo character of Ife through the rituals of the economy of the aborigines basing his argument on the culture of palm-wine tapping, introduction of yam cultivation in Yorubaland and the presence of age-grade system among the people.

Thus given the ritualized status of yam cultivation, the institutionalization of the age-grade system and the fundamental spiritual roles of the Priest-king (Eze-Ana) among the Igbo, it becomes historically convincing to agree with Olomola that the original settlers of not just Ile-Ife and its environs but much of the eastern Yorubaland were aboriginal Igbo by remote ethnic extraction. This may further explain why the average Igbo feels more at home in any part of Yoruba land than among any other ethnic group in Nigeria. This also explains why Igbo-Yoruba conflicts has never degenerated to the level of senseless spilling of innocent blood as it has always been the case with the Hausa and Fulani.

Again, does this Igbo connection not explain why it is among the Ijebu sub-group of the Yoruba–the closest Yoruba sub -group to the Igbo in orientation that its ancestral city is Known as ‘Igbo’ bearing in mind that the addition of Ijebu as in the cases of Ijebu Ode and Ijebu Remo was a colonial creation? Although some scholars might attempt to disagree with this logic of history perching on the logic of the Yoruba word ‘Igbo’ to mean forest. But then if we decide to come to term with this logic of forest to mean Igbo, how do we then explain the fact that the title of the Oba of Ijebu Remo, one of the many Ijebu towns that trace their origins to Ile-Ife is Akari-Igbo?

This may therefore explain why Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo never agreed in political terms. For it could not have been as much the case of ethnic rivalry as it could indeed have been a case of two ‘Igbo’ captains not agreeing to be in the same political ship. The fact is that within a given time and space, to other Yoruba sub-groups, the Ijebu represents the Igbo mind and spirit in Yoruba body. In other words, what the other wider Yoruba subgroups accuse the Igbo of today represents the same reason why the Ijebu are resented by the same Yoruba–– shrewdness in commerce and business with profound intelligence. Indeed what the Igbo did was to inherit this pre-Igbo stigmatization of the Ijebu.

Prof A.O. Adesoji clearly explains the pivotal nature of Oduduwa’s role in Yoruba history. According to him, the arrival of Oduduwa in Ile-Ife did not mean the beginning of Yoruba history or nation but simply means the beginning of a new dynasty which succeeded the aboriginal pre-Oduduwa Igbo dynasty. Based on the foregoing revelations, particularly in the light of the incontrovertible aboriginal Ife thesis, could it not therefore be right to say that in every legitimate Yoruba son or daughter today run substantial pints of Igbo blood?

That the Igbo and Yoruba arising from their common remote ancestral roots are amenable to mutual tolerance is further expressed by evidence of pre-colonial interactions between them. Both the integrating forces of the imperial reaches of the old Benin Empire and the artery of commercial communications provided by the River Niger through the Igbo commercial links with the Igala, Igbira and Nupe particularly with the proximity of Yorubaland to the present Confluence town of Lokoja, were the linking forces of pre-colonial contacts between the Igbo and Yoruba.

But of most profound interest in this pre-Nigeria contact is the presence of six Yoruba towns among the Igbo of the West Niger collectively known as Odiani Clan or Olukwumi, whose indigenous language has remained for centuries Yoruba. These towns include Ukwunzu, Ugbodu, Ugboba, Ubulubu, Idumuogo and Ogodo, all belonging to Aniocha North Local Government Area of the present Delta State.

Thus the commonplace notion that the Igbo and Yoruba only came into contact with the advent of colonialism therefore fails in this argument. Talking of large-scale contact yes, as it was equally the case between the various Igbo and Yoruba communities, but not necessarily the case of a concrete wall of separation.

One is wont to state in a quite theoretical parlance that the Igbo and Yoruba by virtue of their inherent primordial soothing balm of historical connectivity stand out as the most functional vehicle of national integration. Without prejudice to the present seemingly faltering political marriage between the Hausa and Fulani ethnic coalition and Yoruba, the facts speak for themselves, that any political matrimony between the Yoruba and Fulani ethnic coalition is a relationship that is not built on a strong foundation of mutual historical conviviality, and thus only rests on a shifting sand of time.

In other words, the Yoruba political sojourn in the present APC is like the saying among the Igbo, to use the West Niger Igbo dialect, O ji azu baa oshia e jetaho aka (a person who enters the bush with his back does not often go far). Indeed the Yoruba in APC is like one who enters the bush with his back and thus did not go far. It will not therefore be long before they realize the                                 fortuitous character of their sojourn. And when they eventually come out, the thesis will then stand that, the worst Yoruba enemy to the Igbo or the worst Igbo enemy to the Yoruba is better in the long run than their best Fulani friend

 

 

MUSLIM YORUBA-LED DESTRUCTION OF IGBO PROPERTY IN LAGOS STATE— A