A recent audio recording that must have been preserved for more than 57 years was sent to me by someone. It was the voice of Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola (SLA), the 13th Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland and the current Premier of the Western Region. His voice was distinctive, with an Ogbomosho accent. The following is a summary of what he said, which I have translated as accurately as I can from Yoruba to English:
“…. Let us the Yorubas meet up. This election should not be used to “disorganize” us by the Igbos. They must not be allowed to use this election to take our jobs, disrupt our trade, and destroy our land. They must not be permitted to prevent us from entering the government. This election must not be viewed as a matter between Awolowo and Akintola. Even if you don’t like Akintola, “They are taking your children’s food;” (inaudible). From their stores, they are looking for your wives. Our salvation depends on this election. Your children will become people of the future through this election.
We are closer to people from the north. This does not imply that we intend to sell you as their slaves. Indeed, even they (the northerners) are not keen on purchasing slaves. Has Lagos not remained at the same location since people have stated that they want to sell you as slaves to the north?
It has not yet been relocated to Meduguri (Maiduguri); Ibadan has not yet relocated to Bauchi. While they have been sitting with the Hausa to share the goodness (mudun-mudun) of this land, they will deceive you into thinking that Hausa people are bad.
“Idechukwu:, can be found in one location, at the point when you arrive at somewhere else, you will find “Nwachuku… ..”
Review that Boss Akintola kicked the bucket in January 1966, which would imply that frequency occurred at the latest then.
There has been a lot of talk since the presidential election on February 25, 2023. As the March 18, 2023 gubernatorial election in Lagos drew near, this audio must have been retrieved in order to rekindle animosity toward the Igbo. The genocidal war against the Igbo people that lasted from 1966 to 1970 was sparked in part by such venomous statements and rhetoric.
The bestiality that accompanied that episode is unknown to many. The Igbo people are still here today because of their sheer grit. For a better understanding of that period in our history, I recommend that readers purchase a copy of Frederick Forsyth’s “The Biafra Story.”
The majority of Yoruba, it would appear, are pleased with the outcome of the presidential election. However, I find it difficult to comprehend why Christians from Yoruba, who had previously joined Christians from other parts of the country to vehemently oppose a Muslim/Muslim ticket, appear to have given in. Strangely, it is no longer about who is best suited for the position or where religious balance should be on the tickets.
The temporary illusion of a “victory” may obscure a realization of the distinction between “winning the battle but losing the war” while still basking in the euphoria of Mahmoud’s announcement in what local and international observers have variously described as a shambolic “heist” of an election; and that it might still be, in essence, a victory of Pyrrhic.
While the competitor being referred to, himself has a corrupted foundation irritating on his lineage, instructive establishments, criminal conviction and problematic heath condition, the cycle that would have hurled him has likewise been polluted, troubled with barbarities of remarkable great extent. His personality is “cloaked in a baggage of character deficit,” and the procedure that would have produced him is full of fraud of an unimaginable scale. Imagine the national, regional, and global shame that will follow the public display of such credentials.
Nnamdi Kanu must have had a gift for clairvoyance when he foresaw that INEC would declare him “a winner” of the presidential election because of his flagrant disregard for the will of the people.
“In Nigeria, the results of elections are decided by INEC alone, not your PVC; That will be beneficial to you sooner rather than later. His statement has turned out to be “words on marble.” Your PVC is pointless.
Is anyone still in doubt about the necessity of separate nations for the tribes in light of what has transpired, as has been our experience over the years? The issue of separate nations for nationalities must be brought to the forefront in light of what has occurred and what may occur in the future.
We can no longer afford to play pretend with this reality. The triplet of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Boss Sunday Adeyemo (Igboho) and Teacher Banji Akintoye, every one of whom have pushed for the making of isolated autonomous Countries are not flighty nor hallucinating. Their calls arise from genuine concern regarding Nigeria’s fragility, whose collapse could have devastating consequences.
In the repercussions of situation which transpired in Lagos during the decisions, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed of the Northern Elderly folks Discussion posed an extremely notable inquiry:
“Will there ever be a Lagos like it was before the elections in 2023?”
I anticipate that Igbos and other non-Igbo residents of the South East and Niger Delta will begin to reconsider their future investments in Lagos while the path to separate nations is being charted. I could not discern any connection between what transpired in Lagos over the past few weeks and the treatment of non-Ukrainians by Ukraine during the evacuations that preceded the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, even for those who were born in Ukraine or had lived there for decades. The entire world was appalled by this treatment. What we refer to as xenophobia against Nigerians in South Africa and Ghana is identical to what was revealed in Lagos.
Since Igbos and other non-Yoruba ethnic groups were denied voting rights in these elections in Lagos, what other evidence exists to suggest that various nations are grouped together? I have yet to read or hear of any counterargument suggesting that Nigeria must remain a single entity. When you put a hyena, a lion, and a tiger in a cage, throw a piece of meat in their midst, and expect them not to fight for it, who exactly is served? The outcome will be chaos, which perfectly exemplifies Nigeria.
Africa will experience peace if each of the presidential candidates, each individually regarded as qualified by their ethnic groups, governs their respective nations. Tinubu can run Oduduwa (if he is good enough to be Nigeria’s president, he must be good enough to be the first president of the new Oduduwa Nation), Atiku can run Arewa and do what he wanted to do for Nigeria, and Peter Obi can run Biafra. That’s all there is to it!
It was said that the former leader of South Africa’s apartheid regime, Pieter Willem Botha, once said in jest, “Black People cannot rule themselves because they don’t have the brain and mental capacity to govern a Society.” Do we have to wait for a white man to come and sit us down at a table and tell us how to solve our intractable problem of decades? We choose to ignore the solution even though we can clearly see it in front of us.
Is it not regrettable that, despite the fact that Nigerians hold the record for having the most PhDs, Professors, and Doctors in the world, we are unable to organize ourselves and implement the one solution that we can all see? The majority of advanced nations, including China, Russia, Brazil, India, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, South Korea, and Japan, are united by a shared language and culture. Do we have to wait for another conflict with racial undertones to break out before we do the right thing? We ought to gain knowledge from the lessons of history—from Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and the USSR. We can even see what is going on in Ukraine right now, where ethnic Russians in the Donbass region want to leave the country! Could it be said that we are holding back to tow that way? For what reason might we at any point do a round-postpone conversation, show up at commonly pleasing terms of separation, in this way setting a commendable model for other people who may be in comparable situation to copy? We must not continue to wallow in that pitiful state when we can see that it is detrimental to our collective wellbeing because some white men arrived, discovered a completely different group of people, and decided to group them together for the convenience of the white man. Do we have to accept the fact that we will always live in conflict? It baffles me that we would actually commit suicide for something that was not our own creation. No wonder Nnamdi Kanu said, “Something is wrong with the brain of a black man” so frequently?
The veiled divide that exists between Yorubas and Igbos has been brought to light by the Labour Party’s victory in the Lagos presidential election. Igbos will undoubtedly be on Tinubu’s receiving end if the courts declare him the winner. This would be even worse given that Tinubu’s Muslim/Muslim vice, Shettima, is an open enemy of Igbos. Think back to the phone conversation that was leaked between him and Ibikunle Amosun a few years ago, shortly after Buhari “won” his first term in 2015; how he promised to treat Igbos, as he claimed. We all witnessed the treatment of Igbos under this administration, as he boasted. I speculate that strategically targeted policies will jeopardize Igbo interests in Lagos and Abuja. Regardless of your perspective, massive, potentially irreparable cracks have appeared.
I’ve always known that Igbos and Yorubas don’t exactly like each other very much. Although it is difficult to express, this is the truth. I anticipate receiving criticism for this “disclosure,” but I am willing to pay it because it is the truth. Everyone can see through that “glass wall,” but no one wants to break it because it conceals a fact. Because I’m an outsider, it’s convenient for me to “spill that beans.” Despite the fact that I am neither of the two, I have lived with and collaborated with them in numerous organizations and locations. I am aware of the remarks that each party makes about the other because I am a neutral party.
However, they share a common interest. I dare say that when they arrive in their respective nations, Oduduwa and Biafra, the egalitarianism they each seek will be easier to achieve. They all want a nation that is productive and prosperous. Their only point of convergence is that. Whatever you thought was harmonious between Yoruba and Igbo was a façade masking the reality of unhealthy competition, as you would have seen in the conflict between Nnamdi Azikiwe and Obafemi Awolowo, as evident in Chief Akintola’s words, and as has transpired in the ongoing elections.
Each of them can pursue this interest in their respective nations. The separate nations’ institutional stability would be improved by cultural, linguistic, and tribal homogeneity. There are times in life when people need to be pragmatic and throw away all pretenses; Time, in my opinion, is now.
Could you at any point envision the encroachment on the freedoms and freedom of a whole clan when the Oba of Lagos, a top notch conventional ruler in Yorubaland takes steps to flush Igbos down the tidal pond in the event that they dare vote against the competitor of his kin’s decision!! 2015 was the year. Is there anything more “xenophobic” than that? Similar threats have been made by MC Oluomo and his gang of area boys, and the “Iya Chukudi” video from a few days ago is still fresh in our minds. What other pretenses of being one nation persist?
Nothing catches the feeling of vulnerability and dissatisfaction of Ndigbo inside the Nigerian endeavor than the public statement by a previous government serve, Straight to the point Nweke (Jnr) when he said:
Today, Igbos in Nigeria face an existential threat; If we do not politically organize ourselves, if we do not mobilize, and if we do not chart our own political course, nobody will save us or assist us.
Let it be known that, for myself and my family, I am completely, completely, and totally obedient, completely, completely, and totally…without ever apologizing to anyone. So, anyone is free to hold any views they want, but I, for myself, say that my political, personal, and extended families are completely and completely Obidient.
For Igbos, as for any other ethnic group, leaving Nigeria is the most practical option. I have no idea when the other two major ethnic groups will stop banding together against the Igbo. The north views itself as the tripod’s male component; believes that the Yorubas are malleable and happy to play a subservient role to them, and that the Igbos are too stubborn. I don’t express this to reduce the Yoruba. It is my interpretation of the power balance in Nigeria over the past four decades. As a result, the Yoruba people’s light, which should normally shine brightly to show Africa the way to progress, has been dimmed.
Therefore, I dare say that the Igbo man has no future in Nigeria, and the Igbo were never intended to assume leadership roles. IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu, whose followers affectionately refer to him as “Ohamadike,” are looking for a way out of that slavish state. Is it possible to deny the state of anarchy? Can we deny the desolation and misery of the land? If the response is no, then who’s interest is a united Nigeria serving, and why should it be maintained?
Once more it is fairly sad that, the Fulani prevailed with regards to walking the Igbos against the Yorubas which I censured in one of my past articles, “Southern Nigeria and the Hallucination of 2023 Administration”.
They have now been pitted against each other rather than working together to find a way out of their slavery. Instead of each nation of Biafra and Oduduwa raising their own cows to provide their citizens with fresh, unadulterated milk, both are battling to consume the expired, sour milk that comes from Nigeria, which is a failed state.
I hope that the events of the past few weeks have awakened those Igbos who were previously ambivalent about Biafra and considered the agitator to be unrealistic maniacs.
The one and only solution that will grant the Igbo race and all of the other nations imprisoned in Nigeria’s “jail house” lasting peace is the establishment of separate, independent nations. As the title of this essay suggests, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has been found not guilty. I’m sure he’ll be thinking, “I did warn you guys, but you did not listen,” no matter where he is right now.
In conclusion, I will repeat what South African politician and Member of Parliament Julius Malema said following the Nigerian 2023 election. He stated,
“Even after watching the Nigerian election in 2023, I am still perplexed as to why Nigeria continues to exist as a single nation.
Nigerians hate themselves so much that it’s hard for them to separate peacefully.
Please do not send us to Rwanda before we act responsibly.
Written by Officer of the Canadian Armed Forces Peter Omonua, who lives in Ontario, Canada;
Family Writers Press International is the publisher.