We, Oodua Foundation, comprising Yoruba intellectuals, professionals, business leaders, government officials, and military officers, in countries across the world, are constrained to make our position absolutely clear about the noise now surrounding the Igbo immigrant resident community in the Yoruba kingdom of Lagos in Southwestern Nigeria.
Whatever we say now, or at any other time or place, has nothing to do with partisan politics. We do not support or oppose any Nigerian political party. Our sole and only concern at all times is to protect, defend and promote the interest of the Yoruba nation.
As all other peoples of Nigeria abundantly know by now, the Yoruba nation are no strangers to democracy. Nearly one thousand years before the British introduced democratic politics and elections to Nigeria, the Yoruba had been practicing a sound and stable culture of democratic politics. In our system, we respected the sovereignty of the people, strongly upheld freedom of expression and association, and democratically selected our kings and chiefs.
Consequently, more than most of other peoples today, Yoruba people cherish the system whereby people freely elect public officials of their choice.
However, our attention from all over the globe has been drawn to the loud and disturbing noise now going on in Lagos concerning the coming election of a governor for Lagos State.
As has happened often in the past, the Igbo resident refugees in Lagos, in their characteristic disrespect of their hosts in all parts of Nigeria, have chosen to turn the election situation in Lagos into a contest between themselves and the Yoruba nation. We need to warn them very seriously that they are unfortunately making their position in the Yoruba kingdom of Lagos very precarious.
As all Nigerians would testify, we Yoruba love to welcome and include foreigners into our land. For this reason, most folks fleeing from various difficult conditions in all parts of Nigeria choose our homeland in Southwestern Nigeria as their destination. Apart from the Igbo people, large numbers of other Nigerian nationals now reside in the Yoruba Southwest, with strong concentrations in Lagos.
With the exception of the Igbo, all the rest are civil and respectful in their relationships with other nationals and with their Yoruba hosts. Though most Igbo people in Lagos do settle down peacefully to raise their children and pursue their businesses, certain so-called leaders in the Igbo resident community attach a lot of value to being noisy, obstreperous and disruptive in society.
Refusing to be grateful for what they and their people are benefiting from Yorubaland, these ones choose to constitute themselves into constant pain and trouble. The Yoruba people of Lagos, and other Lagos residents from other parts of Nigeria, are becoming tired of having these prickly characters around us.
In the current bubble in the usual Igbo mayhem in Lagos, we are being inundated with strange and ridiculous claims about the history of Lagos and of the Yoruba nation – and of the Igbo.
We are far above arguing points of history with the caliber of people who are engaging in these exercises. Out of respect for the majority of Igbo people who respect others and deserve to be respected, we will say no more than this: Very many Nigerians know the precolonial history of Igboland. No amount of panel-beating and polishing can change that.
Almost all Nigerians, and most informed people in the world, know the history of the Yoruba nation. No amount of distortion can change that.
When some thieves or fools see a beautiful and attractive thing belonging to someone else, all they can think of is to grab or steal it. The beautiful and attractive kingdom of Lagos is ours; it belongs to us the Yoruba nation. No people on earth can steal or grab it. You who claim to be Igbo leaders in Lagos set the world laughing when you parade yourselves as “Ezes” in Lagos. Lagos has its legitimate king and chiefs. Towns, cities, kingdoms and stable institutions take time to build – yes, a lot of time, stretching to centuries. Ask your Yoruba hosts.
Our king, the Oba of Lagos, has spoken as it occurred to him to speak, liberally employing powerful Yoruba metaphors in the process. His subjects understand him. But it is not surprising to us if some foreigners resident in Lagos cannot understand him. However, we need to inform those foreigners that there are prescribed and acceptable ways in which we Yoruba people speak with or to our kings – ways that evolved during hundreds of years of our living in our cities and kingdoms.
Disrespecting our kings, as the Igbo “leaders” have disrespected the Oba of Lagos in the past few days, is repugnant to our culture. Were such to happen again, it will be an affront that we Yoruba people all over the world will find it difficult to forgive.
We remind those Igbo who love to cause noise and tension in Lagos that you chose to come on your own, and that the Oba and people of Lagos did not invite you to come. The roads by which you came are still open. You are free to return home. We Yoruba are not causing disruption in your homeland; you have no right to continue to cause disruption in our homeland.
As to the amount of Igbo participation in the government of Lagos, that is something that can only happen through love and friendship. None of our Lagos politicians has a right to use underhand means to give any part of Lagos, or any portion of the institutions of Lagos State, to any group of foreigners.
