Ethnic Politics in Nigeria: The Self Destructiveness of APC Anti-Igbo Strategy in Lagos State as Led by Femi Fani-Kayode
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Cornelius Hamelberg
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,
As you may or may not have gathered from the posting about Things to avoid during Ramadan, calumny, backbiting, dissension, and civil strife, are some of the things that pious Muslims are advised to not engage in during the holy month of Ramadan.
In my humble opinion that should be the praxis for the rest of humanity too, including you and me, the year round.
I’m not equally sure about this measure: Lashon HaRa against the Wicked - or that we should desist from speaking out against evil and by default, thereby silently acquiesce and allow evil to triumph in our midst, in any of God’s kingdoms down here on mother earth.
Cosmopolitanism may be, where some of us are coming from and that probably explains why when I checked the latest news about this righteous soul Femi Fani-Kayode I could find none of the nonsense being attributed to him by his desperate adversaries in the post-election era in which instead of stoking new ethnic fires, we should all be promoting peace and unity, peace and love, beginning with peace and reconciliation between the winners and the losers in the just concluded presidential elections
In the Nigerian context, whatever extensions may be derived from Femi Fani-Kayode asserting that Nigeria’s former capital city, the still most cosmopolitan city in all of Nigeria and the undisputed economic hub of the nation “Lagos is NOT no-man's land.” - is juridically and legally speaking, correct ( just ask the Oba of Lagos) just as Enugu or Umuahia or indeed Jerusalem or Stockholm or Ground Zero, Greenwich Street in multiethnic New York, or Bangkok the capital of Thailand cannot be said to be a “ no man's land”
I suppose that the crux of the newfangled “no man's land” awareness is the wishful thinking that accompanied Peter Obi supposedly polling more votes than President-Elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Lagos, his own home turf. This of course could have made some of his Igbo supporters who voted for Obi there, giddy or delirious with their new national anthem “ No Man’s land”
Next stop in the name of Igbophobia, another no man's land, the Oyo Empire is really Igbo?
Resurrect the Sokoto Caliphate and baptize it Igbo?
You come tramping into my dining room and tell me, “This is no man’s Land”?
Surely, these are not genius philosophical or poetic questions?
Next stop another Final Solution ( like Hitler’s Jews telling him that Germany is “ No Man’s land” or Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich saying “there’s no such thing as Palestinian people
“To see the townsfolk suffer so, From vermin, was a pity.”
and, so, like the rats following the flute of the Pied Piper of Hamelin
they all get drowned in the Lagos Lagoon?
Listen up: Christopher Columbus
Cornelius Hamelberg
Tony Allen : Secret Agent
“No Man’s Land”?
Out of 40 seats, APC wins 38 seats, LP wins 2 in Lagos Assembly
Ahmed Deedat : Israel and the Palestinians
ARABS And ISRAEL Conflict Or Conciliation
Oyeniyi Bukola Adeyemi
A Spade or a Garden Fork?
It is trite knowledge that Yorubas were not the ones that described Lagos as a “no man’s land”, rather it was the Igbos. Is this an afront on the Yorubas? It depends on who you ask.
In 2010, I led a group of researchers to conduct fieldwork on the contributions of internal migrants to internal migration in Nigeria and, from Port Harcourt to Nnewi, we were either rebuffed, assaulted, mugged or totally denied access to government institutions, markets, and other places where we were to conduct interviews. We later resorted to using Igbo students, many of whom were contracted through a professor at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Our phones, cameras and other recording instruments were snatched from us in broad daylight, and no one came to our aid.
Any study on domestic terrorism in Nigeria would be incomplete unless it includes groups and individuals such as Odua Peoples Congress (OPC), Bakassi Boys, Anambra Vigilante Service (AVS), Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), MASSOB, Boko Haram, IPOB, ESN, etc. etc. These groups and their leaders were not only famous for hostage taking, kidnapping for ransom, pipeline vandalism, oil-theft, arson and ambush, they also terrorized Nigerians and foreigners as well as agitated for strictly parochial ideals.
I cited the above to illustrate one point: no society is devoid of elements such as those referred to as committing “a rapacious culture of thuggery in Lagos”.
Ingratitude, as they say, hurts. Among others, Alhaji Lateef Jakande – former governor of Lagos, would be turning in his grave looking helplessly at what his gesture turned out to be in today’s Lagos. During his time, he not only granted the Igbos free and exclusive access to land, but he also ensured their economic vitality in Lagos. Tinubu followed as the first sitting governor of Lagos to appoint Igbos into office in any state in Southwestern Nigeria.
While the argument that Lagos was Nigeria’s erstwhile national capital and, as such, the cynosure of all national investment prior to relocation of the national capital to Abuja suffices for the push-and-pull factor for internal migration to Lagos, it fails and continue to fail in supporting the claim that Lagos is a “no man’s land”. The claim is not only ahistorical, but also rude and disrespectful.
It is on account of this that many, including myself, viewed with some measure of support, the ethnic bent of the current politics in Lagos State. The unwholesome claim has also brought out another infantile claim – that Bini Kingdom owns Lagos.
At its height, the Soninke Empire controlled from part of modern-day Mauritania to parts of modern-day Mali. In the same way, the Mali Empire spread from the Atlantic Coast to what later became known as the Sokoto Caliphate. The Oyo Empire controlled from Oyo Ile to Accra and to Benin and Dahomey in much the same way as the British Empire knew no sunset at its height. The claim of Bini’s ownership of Lagos is akin to Britain claiming ownership of Nigeria, India, Egypt, etc. It is an advertisement of ignorance to assert that the Bini conquest of Eko should now be understood as ownership. Was Eko a tabula rasa as of the time of the Bini conquest? The term conquest in se reflects the ignorance of the claimants. The same could be said of the so-called “Lagos is a no man’s land” claim by the Igbo.
Regarding order of occurrence, I think I would require further education on why the crudity associated with the so-called “Lagos is a no man’s land” claim by the Igbo does not qualify for more than just “Ethnic politics in its inhuman baseness” but Yoruba’s reaction to the unwholesome claim should be so described.
On ENDSARS, opinions are many, but facts are few. Who killed whom remained in the air, even many years after the event. Don’t misunderstand me, people were killed in Ado-Ekiti and in Osogbo and Ilesha, the sitting governor of Osun State escaped assassination when protesters shot at his vehicle. At Lekki, claims were many, but bodies were few, if not non-existent.
Although the available facts are inadequate to either accuse or exonerate government, I am in possession of a radio broadcast by Nnamdi Kanu’s minute-by-minute directives to Igbo youths as regards where to burn, whose house or property to destroy, who to kill, etc. as the IPOB and ESN leader orchestrated the hijacking of the ENDSARS protest to feed Igbo agenda. Can anyone then blame the Buhari administration from descending on these sets of animals in human skin, preventing them from completely burning Lagos?
I would also like to seek clarification on why Yorubas that were tired of ethnic politics occasioned by events and politics in Lagos would elect to vote for a non-Yoruba and a non-Hausa in Lagos State during the Presidential Election but voted for a Yoruba man during the state election. Permit me to quote verbatim:
“Many people, including Yorubas, are tired of this kind of politics and voted against APC and PDP in the Presidential elections, a move that some APC short sighted people are struggling to paint as an effort to take Lagos from Yoruba people.”
The above turns logic on its head. If Yorubas are tired of ethnic politics in Lagos, why did they vote for a Yoruba man in Lagos State governorship election? If anything, voting for a Yoruba man at the governorship election clearly shows that Yorubas are ready to show that they are the owners of Lagos, a step that you branded 'ethnic politics', but it is actually ethnic response to ethnic insult in the most civilized manner.
It is easy to claim, especially after Obi’s electoral defeat, that “some APC short sighted people are struggling to paint” claims of Lagos as a no man’s land “as an effort to take Lagos from Yoruba people”. However, such response should not be divorced from the Igbo’s claims and the orchestration of the second destruction of Lagos as witnessed during the ENDSARS protest. Here is a link to Nnamdi Kanu’s broadcast orchestrating the destruction of Lagos during the ENDSARS protest –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t80S6iHw8Mk
As the Yoruba puts it: “onilu ko ni je ki ilu o tu” – Indigenes won’t watch their homestead destroyed.
As Kanu himself stated, the criminals who are “insisting on threatening” Yoruba people “in the name of political power, stoking the murder of” Nigerians “as happened in the last election, are trying to start war” are the Igbos themselves. You are right about the “Igbos live in Lagos legitimately and earn their living legally as Nigerians”. How does the claim “Lagos is a no-man’s land” sound to you? Does it speak to a demonization or beatification of the Igbos? Does it make the Igbos ethnic bigots and political prostitutes or Femi Fani-Kayode?
To be honest, if Femi Fani-Kayode qualified as a “madman” that “should be stopped”, what should be done to the Igbos who destroyed Lagos during the ENDSARS? What should be done to those whose words and actions set the socio-economic and political fabric of Lagos on fire before, during, and after the elections? Is it because Igbo businesses at Computer Village would suffer if the Yoruba should unleash mayhem on them “as FFK and others like him” demanded? Why are you holding FKK and others to a standard and the Igbos to another standard?
Is it ethnic supremacy only when Yorubas asserted their ownership of Lagos and voted one of their own into office or is it also ethnic supremacy when Igbos claimed and described Lagos as a “no man’s land” and were burning Lagos? Is voting a Yoruba man into office in Yorubaland only “the most foolish things anyone can do” or when Igbos denigrated Yoruba people, called for the killing of Sanwo-Olu, his mother, the burning of Lagos Mass Transit Vehicles, police stations, hotels and businesses of Yoruba people? Does the calling for the killing of Yoruba people, including Tinubu, Sanwo-Olu and the destruction of their business interests qualify as “trying to destroy the central and perhaps only concentration of information technology and computing expertise in Nigeria in the name of ethnic supremacy”?
Let us call a spade a spade and not anything else: the Igbos who claimed that “Lagos is a no man’s land” are ethnic bigots and, if anything, they should be reined-in by other clear-eyed Igbos. Asking indigenes not to react to such stupid claim(s) is an advertisement of ethnic chauvinism, a lack of emotional intelligence, and class-act insensitivity.
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Bukola A. Oyeniyi
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Missouri State University
College of Humanities and Public Affairs
History Department
Room 440, Strong Hall,
901 S. National Avenue
Springfield, MO 65897
Email: oyen...@gmail.com
***********************************************************
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Salimonu Kadiri
Sent: 22 March 2023 15:00
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Ethnic Politics in Nigeria: The Self Destructiveness of APC Anti-Igbo Strategy in Lagos State as Led by Femi Fani-Kayode
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Before I respond to the rest of what you have written, could you please do two things?
1. Provide conclusive evidence of those Igbos that referred to Lagos as no mans land.
2. Provide conclusive evidence that that sentiment represents Igbo perspectives in Lagos generally.
I have been asking for this information from various people repeating the claim but I am yet to get it .
I'm eagerly waiting.
Toyin
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Great thanks for this:
''Since over 70% of the population of Lagos is Yoruba, Peter Obi could not have won if the electorates were tribally inclined, that is to say if Yoruba had voted for Yoruba and non-Yoruba had voted for Igbo.''
Going forward, could you please provide evidence that makes you give credence to these claims:
''Following the declaration of the result of presidential election in Lagos, non-indigenes of Lagos went out not only to celebrate Obi's victory over Tinubu but also triumphantly chanted "Lagos is no man's land." ''
''It was even reported that some flew and waved "IPOB flag' at Alausa, the seat of Lagos State Government to demonstrate that Lagos has been captured.''
I am eagerly waiting.
Toyin
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Obinna .
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2023 4:08 PM
Victor Okafor
I think that all parties need to be on a stock-taking mode at this time, carefully cataloging who said what, who incited who, and who did what because the situation at hand (that is, the organized and bloody electoral violence that compromised the governorship and state assembly election in Lagos state as an epicenter) might eventually get into the hands of the International Criminal Court (ICC). In fact, given the seeming impotence of the Nigerian state on this vexatious matter, an intervention of the International Criminal Court is warranted. I'm reminded of the fact that the International Criminal Court eventually waded into a bloody post-election violence in Kenya following the 2007-2008 General Elections there. As I have noticed, since then, ICC's intervention did appear to have exerted a salutary impact on the conduct of Kenya’s elite society on election matters: it seems to have significantly and perceptibly reduced what used to be Kenyan's elite class’s antecedent proclivity towards mob incitement for electoral gains or electoral vengeance. It appears that Kenya's ruling elite did learn a restraining lesson from ICC's intervention. As I read some comments that fall within a realm of reckless abandon (comments that sound like “I don’t care; I can do whatever I wish; no one can call me to order; no law can restrain me; I got all the power; we control the police, the army, etc.; you are powerless; and so, there’s nothing you can do about it”), I say to myself that Nigeria is overdue, long overdue for the intervention of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Some segments of Nigeria's ruling elite have lost it; they need help; they need a decisive ICC intervention in order to help Nigeria grow, in order that Nigeria can be assisted to learn to effectively police itself. So far, it has failed in this national duty.
Let us never forget or ignore the fact that ethnic communities have, for centuries, lived together in peace and harmony in Lagos. The eyesores that we witnessed with a sense of horror at given polling stations and on given streets of Lagos on March 18, 2023 were tantamount to what I call a manufactured conflict, a conflict manufactured by a group of desperate, self-centered and apathetic powers-that-be who engaged in a despicable act of turning the Obedient movement on its head, poisoning the minds of our kids, misleading our kids, arming our kids to march out onto the streets with matchets and other weapons in order to brutalize, kill or maim fellow citizens whose only crime was their desire to exercise a fundamental right of citizenship to cast their ballots for whomever they deemed fit. In this orgy, we seemed to forget who our real enemies are: the well-connected multi-ethnic cabal that has been bleeding Nigeria dry. At the very least, we all should rise up, rise above the fray and condemn those instigated centrifugal and unpatriotic acts of barbarism.
Defending the indefensible is never a worthy attribute of a person who considers himself or herself "learned." What really does it mean to be learned if we can’t demonstrate moral wisdom when an occasion warrants it? Does being learned also entail a capacity for moral wisdom? Does the acquisition of a Western Ph.D. or multiple Western PhDs, along with a library full of publications necessarily equip us with a capacity for moral wisdom? From time to time, I shake my head in frustration and pity when I notice how, sometimes, some of us who are so materially and academically accomplished can, in almost a twinkle of an eye, descend from that Olympian height to the bottom of primordial tribal and illogical reasoning. I can't help asking: when we attend our village or clan meetings, can we be counted upon to stand up and say, "wrong is wrong, and right is right?"
Look, neither election violence, nor ethnic slurs, nor ethnic bigotry is peculiar to Nigeria. But in societies where they have succeeded in containing those human frailties, it tends to be the case that such societies have built up a sufficient cadre of elite members who, by orientation and habit of mind, subscribe to a shared political culture, a shared set of political cultural values, that sets and upholds boundaries of acceptable or unacceptable political conduct, regardless of their racial, ethnic, linguistic or religious affiliations. They are able to rise up in defense of the national interest when threatened by centrifugal special interests. May God help us to eventually attain that level of political maturity! We may need the International Criminal Court to get us there—someday,
Let the silent majority rise up and speak up against an evil that has arisen in the land, in our shared common space, an evil that threatens our collective peace and wellbeing. Never defend the indefensible!
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Messrs Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju & Obinna,
This is serious.
Your queries - of such a tall order - addressed to Baba Kadiri may be a matter of National & Pan -African urgency, but let’s exercise a little patience, please.
Before Oyeniyi Bukola Adeyemi and Baba Kadiri's submissions are permitted to answer your inquiries and thereby satisfy/ not satisfy your curiosity, if possible we should like you to identify the miscreants behind these attempted perversion, subversion, and sabotage of the required ethical standards that should have governed the mother of all presidential elections in Nigeria:
Nigeria recorded 3.8 million Cyber attacks during gubernatorial, state assembly elections
There was also this interesting news item, “a number of persons have been Fingered in a Sting Operation for seeking to Manipulate the BVAS” forwarded by Dr. Siriku Eniola, followed by indignant rejoinders from Messrs Okey Iheduru and Chika Okeke-Agulu ( smile)
This is all speculation of course: None of us has to be as imaginative as the late John le Carré in order to say let’s look at it this way: That ideally some of the unidentified cyber criminals would have gladly loved to have succeeded in hacking the BVAS and substituting their own grossly inflated figures for the real ones - of the x number of valid votes - and then insisted that those were the real figures - as released by an unwary INEC.
Hence their frustration that this did not happen, and we need to look for no further explanations of the tears - not crocodile tears or tears of tribulation but real dear tears, costly tears of frustration, tears of the missed opportunity by the aforementioned miscreants.
But what else to expect of miscreants who were planning to dump counterfeit currency into the Central Bank when a change of currency was slated for 1984 - which but for the grace of God the Buhari- Idiagbon coup on New Year’s Eve 1983 aborted!
And of course, it’s not the miscreants but the long-suffering and no longer shmiling who are hungry for justice that say, “ God dae!”
Obinna .
Cornelius Hamelberg
All the mayhem that has been the daily scenario in Nigeria, Boko Haram, Cattle rustlers, the massacre of Shia Muslims, church arsons, ransom kidnappings, Operation Python Dance 1, 2, 3, 4, End SARS, the Lekki Massacre, a new Season of Anomy is upon us, fifty years later. Somehow, we have yet to hear Wole Soyinka weighing in on the current situation that’s slowly unfolding. You can be sure that he’s watching slowly from his hideout at Abeokuta. One thing we must not give in to is the danger of the uncorroborated single story and the big lie, in big grammar known as exaggeration or fake news, and here’s a bad example of that :
Elections: Alleged attacks on ‘Igbo traders’ in Lagos fake news – Police
It’s a serious, sane, humane clarion call from you and that’s why everybody concerned,
every Nigeria-lover and fellow human being lover and peace lover ought to heed the call. Especially because we don’t want “things'' to get out of hand, we certainly don’t want to return to the era of pogroms that once upon a time happened in the North to be orchestrated this time, in the West and Nigeria being Nigeria, long before any ICC police constable, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International etc is going to set foot in Abuja, the Nigerian Military would have long since been making their announcements over the radio and tv that they could simply not sit idly by in their barracks watching the country slide into further bloodletting and anarchy, without doing their national duty by stepping in - at least temporarily - a state of emergency until things calm down, considerably , possibly an extended period of military rule or an interim government of the kind that the losers would prefer - until fresh elections are held, a few years later - an election which Peter Obi would be unlikely to win by then,due to so much bad blood that would have flowed under the bridge in an even more divided and polarised country
But first, we must pray to and call upon the Almighty, before threatening to turn to the sinners sitting on the benches of the ICC. It’s surprising that the Christian religious leaders in Nigeria - my favourites, David Oyedepo, Enoch Adeboye, William Kumuyi, and the various bishops and cardinals are not using the available media that they use for proselytizing (radio, tv, and their pulpits) to call for more calm and tranquillity and “ the peace of God that passeth all understanding.”
For now, our Muslim brethren are calm. Femi Fai-Kayode does not have to worry about “Islamic Fundamentalism” during this Holy Month of Ramadan
Cornelius Hamelberg
Sir,
I get your drift
My understanding is that your rhetorical request that the less-than-omniscient Baba Kadiri should do the impossible is the equivalent of what I would say is “a tall order”
I was only - playfully - in the mode of Messrs Okey Iheduru and Chika Okeke-Agulu, giving you a dose of your own medicine by requesting that from that amorphous mega mass of nondescript cyber criminals ( 3.8 million cyber-terror attacks) as you say “without the proper details, context and comparisons.” so you too must furnish us with the names and the party affiliations, ethnicities, Lombroso features of the suspected cyber “miscreants”, with accuracy, precision, line up the suspects for an identification parade and point them out, that’s all, nothing more, nothing less. Don’t omit to provide the evidence, and no falsifiable hypotheses from you, please, Your Honour.
Otherwise, when it comes to meanings and definitions you can be
AS PEDANTIC AS YOU WANT TO BE
EVEN MORE PEDANTIC THAN WANNABE PETER OBI!
Dally Kimoko : Tobina
Rhymes with Obinna and Kobina
Oyeniyi Bukola Adeyemi
The claim that Lagos is a "no man’s land" is a controversial and contested topic. Lagos, a city located in southwestern Nigeria, started out as a fishing village, called Eko. Its inhabitants and settlers were the Yoruba people. Over time, the area grew and attracted traders from neighboring regions, including the Binis who conquered the area in the 16th century, and European explorers, leading to the establishment of a thriving port city.
The phrase, Lagos is a “no man’s land” was first used by the First Speaker of the House of Representatives and later Minister for Foreign Affairs, Honorable Jaja Anucha Nwachukwu, in 1947.
Hon. Nwachukwu used the term to describe Lagos as the Federal Capital of Nigeria. Then, and as now, he was wrong, as Lagos State was not Nigeria's capital, but a small part of Lagos was.
Until 1976 when the Justice Akinola Aguda Committee recommended the movement of Nigeria's capital to Abuja, Nigeria's capital was the land between Fadeyi and Victoria Island.
Other parts of Lagos and other lands in the entire Yorubaland were officially listed as Western Region.
Even at that, it must be remembered that the areas covered and named the ‘Federal Capital’, and the entire Lagos Island belongs to the Aromire family while Apapa belongs to the Oluwa family. Lagos Mainland belongs to the Oloto family while Tomaro to Onisiwo. Victoria Island belongs to the Oniru family while the Elegushi family owns Ikate. The whole of Ijora and Ajegunle belongs to the Ojora family. There was no part of Lagos that was an empty and ungoverned wasteland as the definition and the idea of a “no man’s land” connotes. To call Lagos “a no man’s land” then and now, as I noted in my earlier response, is ahistorical, insensitive, and irresponsible.
Hon. Nwachukwu's use of “no man’s land”, which applied only to the Federal Capital, gained traction since 1947 and was used essentially to denote the fact that due to a small section or part of Lagos being a Federal Capital, Lagos – whether as a whole or in part, belongs to nobody, but all Nigerians. As I already noted, this is not only wrong, but also ahistorical, insensitive, and irresponsible.
Lagos evolved over the years as a melting pot but that cannot and should not erase its history as Yorubaland and the small part that was Nigeria's capital was not an empty, ungoverned wasteland.
Since Hon. Nwachukwu's description of Lagos as a “no man’s land”, Igbos in Lagos have used the description to promote the idea that Lagos does not belong to any particular ethnic group or culture, and therefore, anyone can claim ownership of the city. Sadly, as we have been told, when the 33 years-old Odumegwu Ojukwu dragged the country into an avoidable Civil War, the Igbos knew their homelands and fled to there.
Asking me to give you figures of how many Igbos share in the idea is a classic act in playing to the gallery, a game I am not good at.
For the avoidance of doubt, Lagos has always been home to the Yoruba, and they have a rightful claim to the land.
The Bini conquest of the 16th century, to borrow from late Ade-Ajayi, is a phase, a chapter in the long continuum that was and still is a Lagos and Yoruba history.
If you desire to know the proportion of Igbos who shared in the view, you are at liberty to conduct a field survey.
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Bukola A. Oyeniyi
*****************************************************************************************************
Missouri State University
College of Humanities and Public Affairs
History Department
Room 440, Strong Hall,
901 S. National Avenue
Springfield, MO 65897
Email: oyen...@gmail.com
***********************************************************
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGBtzfMujfz_cx8z1pDM2kdhYv1_O_TSABh2mQsVk%3DX2djY8Xg%40mail.gmail.com.
Oyeniyi Bukola Adeyemi
I found it difficult to accept some of the claims being made on this thread. For example:
''Since over 70% of the population of Lagos is Yoruba, Peter Obi could not have won if the electorates were tribally inclined, that is to say if Yoruba had voted for Yoruba and non-Yoruba had voted for Igbo.''
This certainly is premised on the fact that only Obi and Tinubu contested the Presidential Elections in Lagos. How many Yoruba people voted for Atiku? How many Igbo people voted for Tinubu and Atiku?
Unless there is a way to determine what share of the votes was cast by Yoruba people and for which of the candidates - vide APC, PDP, LP, etc. What share of the votes was cast by people of other ethnic persuasions and for which of the candidates - vide APC, PDP, LP, etc.?
There are a few hypotheses that could be generated from the above.
(1) Had all Yoruba people in Lagos voted for Tinubu, Obi could not possibly win the remaining 30 percent of the population of Lagos, as not all the 30 percent were Igbos.
(2) Had all Igbos in Lagos voted for Obi, can Obi claim a foothold in Lagos let alone in the entire Yorubaland?
(3) Since not all Yoruba people, Igbo people, and non-Yoruba and non-Igbo peoples in Lagos voted for both Tinubu and Obi, it is disingenuous to assert that Obi is more popular and accepted in Lagos than Tinubu.
(4) Atiku won in Osun State in the same way Obi won in Lagos State; do these two examples reflect on the ethnic bias of the Yoruba?
It is when we disaggregated the votes in this way that one can see that the whole idea of Tinubu losing Lagos to Obi should be taken with care. The raw figures might give victory to Obi, the truth the raw figure showed and which we are yet to account for or consider is the fact that despite what many think of Lagos and Yoruba people, Yoruba people of Lagos are the most accommodating and the most democratic and not-given to ethnic bias.
When we drop ethnic-loyalty and partisanship, which have dominated discussions so far, we can begin to really address key issues. For example:
1. Is the failure of either BVAS or IREV a reason to cancel elections?
2. There have been numerous claims of multiple cyber-attacks on INEC’s infrastructure; to what extent is this important to the clamor for, on the one hand, cancellation of the election and, on the other hand, the claims of the election not being free and fair?
3. There are so many claims of voter marginalization and video evidence of these have surfaced in different parts of Nigeria, what explains this overt attention on incidences in Tinubu-held part of Lagos while similar situations in Igbo-dominated part of Lagos were either not raised at all or glibly treated?
4. Still on this: what magnitude of election violence are we talking about and what was the spread?
5. While not discounting the impact of election violence on voter’s rights, are these cases enough grounds to deny other Nigerians who participated at the election their rights?
6. The claim of widespread rigging is another issue; have we queried claims of widespread rigging and why is it that it was only where Tinubu won that such claims were made?
OBA
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Bukola A. Oyeniyi
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Missouri State University
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Victor Okafor
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Obinna .
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
You are a scholar.
Scholars ideally dont make serious claims, before the entire world, as on this open online forum, without substantiation.
What are your grounds for making the claim that the expression ''Lagos is a No Man's Land'' was first made by Nwachukwu?
You also need to demonstrate how the concept became adapted by Igbos to mean Lagos belongs to no one.
These are issues of life and death. People are described as having been killed by APC thugs on the basis of incitements inspired by these ideas as peddled by the likes of FFK and Bayo Ononuga.Neighbours are described as having pointed out their Igbo neighbours to APC thugs for attack on the basis of these incitements. Chika Okeke Agulu describes how his friend and family barely escaped with their lives when those thugs came for them. The general brutalisation of Igbos on the basis of those incitements is evident to everyone.
Facebook is on fire with some Yorubas canvassing how perceived Igbo economic strongholds in Lagos such as Alaba Market and Computer Village, central economic centres possibly unique in Nigeria, and perhaps Africa, should be destroyed, incitements inspired by such ideas as you are projecting.
Igbos on Facebook are agonizing over the disenfranchisement they suffered and the effort to bastardize their commitment to the Nigeria project on account of such incitements.
So, sir, from the depths of your scholarly training that has led to your academic career, tell the world how you are able to give credence to that claim which possibly came from a newspaper which anyone can see online and which I too have found in researching this subject.
I am waiting for your demonstration of the claim that
''The phrase, Lagos is a “no man’s land” was first used by the First Speaker of the House of Representatives and later Minister for Foreign Affairs, Honorable Jaja Anucha Nwachukwu, in 1947.''
Do you have access to any incontrovertible records that prove this? Do you have access to the official transcripts from the formal event or the platform where this declaration was made?
You also claim that
''Since Hon. Nwachukwu's description of Lagos as a “no man’s land”, Igbos in Lagos have used the description to promote the idea that Lagos does not belong to any particular ethnic group or culture, and therefore, anyone can claim ownership of the city.''
How did you come to this conclusion? Through research, since you are a field researcher, as you describe yourself? Through anecdotal inferences, developed from interacting with Igbos over decades?
How did you arrive at your temporal projection of 1947 as the point at which Igbos began to use this term to indicate Lagos belongs to no one?
You also need to demonstrate that your views, which is all these claims you are making have proved to be so far, are not also ''ahistorical, insensitive, and irresponsible'', a descent into the efforts of APC Lagos to divide the electorate that defeated them in the Presidential elections, doing this by inciting ethnic warfare.
Thanks
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Oyeniyi Bukola Adeyemi
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Obinna,
Your very latest demands are entirely reasonable, but not you & “ Mr Adepoju's questions asking for credible sources”, because, the truth of such occurrences - public spectacles. does not depend on “credible sources”. I can tell you significant truths which you cannot find in any history book or newspaper.
Back in the day in Umuahia
where I was baptised (August 1981)
FULL IMMERSION ( in the river)
It was Omeworom ya!
You make me laugh O, my brother, but not at you or yours.
It’s certainly never a laughing matter when it’s some ancient order of reality, back in the day when there were myths and legends alright, transmitted through the oral tradition, but there were no cameras and voice recorders or lie detectors, and today it’s other people's abiding truths that we’re called to reflect on, such as “You ever seen a ghost? no But you've heard of them”, such as “ faith comes through hearing “, such as questions about the Virgin Birth , a reasonable request for proof for the immaculate conception. And what are your credible sources for, Jesus fed 5, 000 people on five loaves of bread and two fish? Jesus’ resurrection and bodily ascension to"heaven ", the Holy Trinity…
More seriously, from the abstract to the concrete - and if we want to be extreme about it ( you know that we are all extremists in one way or another - in some conscious super-special nationalistic ethnic sense or the other) what immediately comes to mind is witness testimony, I’m talking about Holocaust Witness Testimony . photographs etc of the kind that you demand as proof of what could have happened just the other day in Lagos on even a very small scale - but happened on a much bigger and wider scale during Hitler’s rampage in Europe, and as we all know, in spite of all the evidence Holocaust Denial persists.
There’s a word that I first heard first used in this forum by Biko Agozino , the word “denialism”, a very apt diagnosis of the psychosis
Permit me to be a little more long-winded here, a little more long-winded than usual, just for the record, because I’m in this for the long haul.
There’s surely a difference of opinion being recorded here and this is just another side of the dialogue that redeems us from the danger of the single story, the innocent or wilfully monomaniacal, self-centered, self-serving monologue, a few ad misericordiam here and there sometimes playing to the gallery of popular prejudice or to the already converted. This time I just want to be absolutely clear, so that we don’t misunderstand another opinion that may not be based on Gradgrindian facts or a lack of “negative capability” or a lack of empathy, sympathy, not the brutish human, brutish when he looks the other way, “pretending he just doesn't see”, lacks your human understanding that beyond the distinctions and divisions of ethnicity, nationality, religion, culture, common/ uncommon ancestors, twelve tribes of Israel and all that, so many more in China, Kenya, South Africa, Palestine, and Japan, we are of the same human family, known as humanity, we are all one. Earthlings.
I was not “choosing to deflect” nor was I “comparing apples to oranges.” Or bananas.
In your second to last / penultimate posting, you are the one who may have been oversimplifying an otherwise straightforward matter, and in that instance you remind me of the late great Professor Ogugua Anunoby who came up with a similar preposterous proposition, perhaps because he was not a professor of philosophy crunched out of the old Bertrand Russell - Irving Copi school of simple logic (and even for those who are, strange things can happen when logic gets overwhelmed by exalted Hebrew poetry) or perhaps it’s because with the tragic haunting shadow of Biafra as a permanent background, whenever Biafra is mentioned or the spectre of Biafra or a triumphant & triumphalist resurrection of Biafra Igbohood captures the imagination, say , in a moment of conflict in Nigeraia - such as the mayhem that is being or has been reported but not neceassrily photographed or filmed by eyewitnesses in Lagos, understandably, Igbos could recoil into the mode of victimhood and not unjustifiably, in the throes of violence the over-sensitive could recede into paranoid feelings of persecution or in living fear of igbophobia - and that’s my observation which you can’t take away from me, that - yes I’m talking about Igbos - that Igbos generally ( by which I mean some Igbos) get emotionally overheated and can lose their bearings believing that we are living in the Biblical last days when - according to the Prophet Yoel , “ Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions.”
Somewhere here I told Ogugua Anunoby that I lived in love and harmony among Igbos in Nigeria for close to four years and that when an Igbo says “Hausa “ or “ Hausaman” he means Northerner and Muslim. Ogugua then asked me if I had asked all Igbos if that’s what they mean!!! In the same vein, I suppose he would be asking me if I had asked all Israeli Jews, what they mean by “ Palestinians". No Sir, I have not asked “ All Igbos” and I’m sure that among the living and the dead, there are some who think that there’s no difference between oranges and bananas but even if I haven’t asked all of them, I’m sure all Igbos, especially the literary ones should agree with me that there is some difference between, toto, ikoto and Mother Idoto
Re - what you request:” if you say Igbos were waving IPOB flags in Alausa, can you show any pictures or videos that show this”
Your question should of course be directed at Baba Kadiri and the media that has made that claim about Igbos waving their IPOB flag in Lagos, signifying and signaling their conquest of Lagos, otherwise known as “ No Man’s Land “, now as liberated or annexed territory under their flag.
When I first heard this news - by oral transmission, I first thought that it was just a manner of speaking and only on second thoughts that it was possible that after Obi’s defeat of Tinubu in Lagos some foolhardy but nonetheless elated Igbos - not necessarily hungry for martyrdom or for the 72 Virgins of Paradise, could have nevertheless been brave enough to be formally waving Nnamdi Kanu’s flag in their newly conquered territory which was in the formerly “ No Man’s Land “ Lagos where they are vastly outnumbered by at least 7 to 1, but when it comes to survival true to their faith in Cromwell’s advice, “ Trust in God and keep your gunpowder dry” in the kickoff to the 2nd Biafran War of Liberation starting with # First we take Lagos #
There is of course this not-so-poetic equivalent: Israel's Ben Gvir orders police to take down Palestinian flags.
Since very long ago Cornelius Ignoramus crossed the Rubicon and came to his own conclusions: The answer my friend is Blowing in the wind
Cornelius Hamelberg
Correction: Not Yoel 2. 28 but Yoel 3: 1
Of relevance? “The LORD Spoke to Moses” – Does God Speak ?
Sun Tzu: Appear weak when you are strong.And strong, when you are weak
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
I hope you now understand better the gravity of this situation.
You call yourself a scholar, but feel free to repeat dangerous claims which you are not able to verify.
You sent a video of an Igbo woman praising Yoruba people for being accommodating, strenuously disavowing the claim attributed to Igbos that Lagos is no man's land, insisting instead on acknowledging Yoruba sovereignty over Lagos.
The lady referred to ''those of them that said that Lagos is no man's land'' and proceeds to vigorously reject that perspective.
Igbos have been struggling to throw off that cloak which ethnicists have been using in demonizing them.
Does the video help your argument of Igbo insensitivity or contradict it?
You could not find a video of Igbos affirming that claim?
The only existing record, the only verifiable reference, to Lagos as ''no mans land'' I have encountered comes from the esteemed Alhaji Lateef Jakande, the revered governor of Lagos State, in paragraph five of his 1979 inaugural address.
Please help us examine the implication of that fact.
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
''When I first heard this news - by oral transmission, I first thought that it was just a manner of speaking and only on second thoughts that it was possible that after Obi’s defeat of Tinubu in Lagos some foolhardy but nonetheless elated Igbos - not necessarily hungry for martyrdom or for the 72 Virgins of Paradise, could have nevertheless been brave enough to be formally waving Nnamdi Kanu’s flag in their newly conquered territory which was in the formerly “ No Man’s Land “ Lagos where they are vastly outnumbered by at least 7 to 1, but when it comes to survival true to their faith in Cromwell’s advice, “ Trust in God and keep your gunpowder dry” in the kickoff to the 2nd Biafran War of Liberation starting with # First we take Lagos # ''
Kadiri's claim about Igbos waving IPOB flag in Alausa, the seat of Lagos State government, is beyond ridiculous.
Alausa is in Ikeja, where I live.
The Alausa Government House is a heavily guarded fortress, with carefully manned gates, where heavily armed soldiers are permanently stationed. Entry into the place is carefully filtered.
Even the Alausa Secretariat, where the larger body of civil servants in the area are located, is accessible only through carefully guarded entrances. Military presence is everywhere in those places.
Even if some foolhardy person/s was able to unfurl the IPOB flag after entering, how would they escape? Alausa traffic is carefully managed, with functioning traffic lights, from what I recall, leading to at times slow movement of vehicles. The roads leading from there to the larger Ikeja axis are often rich with traffic, making speedy exit from the area challenging.
Would the daredevils escape by helicopter or would they be on a suicide mission of no return, forfeiting the need to escape?
Why was such a daring move not reported in the media for the senstional action it would represent?
The fact that Kadiri saw such an infantile claim as worth repeating, and on a public forum such as this one, suggests the level of penetration of APC propaganda, particularly among some Yoruba people, even among the Yoruba intelligentsia.
A tragic development.
Thanks
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Oyeniyi Bukola Adeyemi
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Folami Kolade
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,
This news has been flying around for some time now., and I heard about it on day one. In my view, it’s all symbolic. The flag is symbolic, and Obi’s victory in Yoruba Man's Land is symbolic, just as the Biafran Flag is also symbolic - that’s what flags are; symbols. So any talk about any of these symbols doesn’t have to produce a concrete representational symbol such as the flag or crown for that line of poetry to be true, as you can well gather from a statement such as that someone disgraced or dishonoured the crown or the flag cannot be understood to be only true if you can produce a photo of the miscreant actually defecating or urinating on aforementioned crown or flag
If it’s photos that you want as documentary evidence or “ proof” then you need to search no further, here’s one. The Last time I checked there was this photo of the IPOB flag fluttering over a prominent building in Lagos, although they or someone must have taken that flag down by now., if indeed the photo is not doctored with the flag imposed on it.
“IPOB flag raised over Lagos”: More hysteria
It’s time we put this hysteria away for good, unless like Goebbels they ( whoever they are) want to practice The Big Lie , that “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it”
Obinna .
Cornelius Hamelberg
I'm not that daft. I’m more sceptical than you and furthermore, I don't have a dog in your fight so there's no reason for you to jump to insane conclusions or start talking about " image of a "person on the top of First Bank building" convinced you ( me) of "news that has been flying around for some time now" .
Sierra Leone, Ghana, South Africa, and Nigeria, I also have my contacts you know. On Day One - i.e. a few moments after it was announced that Obi had won I was told ( oral transmission) that your people were celebrating Obi's victory running around waving the IPOB flag all over Lagos, and I thought that it was amusing. To me, as amusing as when some time ago my friend Ted Belman ( a friend from long ago) was crying that the Palestinians had hacked ISRAPUNDIT and raised the Palestinian flag over it — or some such ridiculous thing.
It was ditto when I signed off “ Cornelius Adebayo”, Anunoby thought I was a militant Oduduwa advocate.
I was trained to have a keen ear not so much for what’s being said but for the little or much that is not said ( the liar always wants to convince you/ me that he’s telling the truth …
Interesting times: https://www.democracynow.org/shows
I wish you the best of luck in nipping this tribal conflict in the bud, in cooling down tensions and not exacerbating matters so that they get completely out of control
No more tittle-tattle, please. I’m not here to teach, I’ve got quite a bit to unlearn
Jimoh Oriyomi
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
That image of the IPOB flag raised over a First Bank skyscraper in Lagos can be taken seriously only in the context of total ignorance of IPOB, of the relationship between Igbos and IPOB, of how to use social media, of how to interpret images, of how to use media generally, of the relationship between news and propaganda and of the nature of Lagos.
A clearly doctored, photoshopped image, given the discrepancy between the edges of the picture of the IPOB flag and the building the image is superimposed on.
Scrolling down the thread to responses to the image, one is by a commentator showing the original image, without the photoshopped section, the commentator urging the person who posted the photoshopped image to stop spreading lies on Twitter.
The image claims that the IPOB flag was unfurled on top of a skyscraper housing offices of First Bank, one of the oldest, largest and most illustrious banks in Nigeria.
Is anyone taking the image seriously aware of what it takes to build such a bank, and the multi-ethnic compositions represented by its directors, investors and customers?
What has such a national economic entity got to do with IPOB, a SE separatist group struggling for identity between the physically non-violent but verbally contentious group originally founded by Nmandi Kanu and its description as subsequently devolving to the use of force on other Igbos to comply with its directives after Kanu was imprisoned for the second time?
Why would First Bank permit the use of its building for flying the IPOB flag, or a person who sees the picture as credible thinks a rogue security man or member of staff did it or the IPOB daredevils parachuted there and subsequently escaped through a helicopter lift off or they surrendered to their fate after the act, and if they did any of these, to what end?
Lagos is a deeply cosmopolitan environment, even though it demonstrates ethnic compositions.
IPOB is a separatist movement. It is not an expansionist movement. They have no interest in Nigeria. They want out of Nigeria.
In seeking Biafra, they are not employing Ojukwu's civil war strategy of occupying the Midwest and moving to control the West.
IPOB's approach is simply to compel the Nigerian govt to allow the SE to leave the country, demanding a referendum in the SE as a primary part of their strategy.
Being pro-Igbo does not necessarily mean being pro-IPOB.The most consistent critics of IPOB I know have been Igbos. Igbos are also among some of the most pro-Nigerian and non-ethnically centred people I have encountered online and offline. The recent tactics of APC, however, have placed some of these Igbos in a very difficult situation.
Thanks
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Jimoh Oriyomi
With such a scope of coverage, is it not more realistic to do one's own investigations instead of urging others to do it for one?
If after such an investigation, one cannot verify the claims, one can then present one's findings.
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On Mar 24, 2023, at 8:44 PM, Oyeniyi Bukola Adeyemi <oyen...@gmail.com> wrote:
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Obinna .
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
I see you did not add ""no Nigerian newspaper
Cornelius Hamelberg
May the Almighty save us all from contempt, racism, and tribalism!
I could easily ignore you, you know, but out of respect, I don’t.
When a racist asks me where I’m from, I tell him, “ The Planet of the Apes” - otherwise, I’m from the people’s planet.
Respect is a very important word in my vocabulary, so right now I’m a bit pressed for time, I have to catch up with Professor Falola’s Conversation with Beautiful Nubia because exactly when that show was going on we - my Better Half and my son and I were playing host to Professor Bernard Porter and his Better Half Kajsa who we had over to dinner as he was leaving for Merry England early the following Monday morning. We had been over to them for lunch the week before. Man, even primitive man, is a social animal.
You, Obinna are still flogging that dead horse here because you want to wring some nonexistent evidence & footage out of me and Baba Kadiri, in this your “ scholarly forum”
I am not privy to the kind of evidence that you seek - maybe the evidence you seek is not a cliche and is as difficult to find as a needle in a haystack or a snowball in hell.
Maybe you’ll find what you’re looking for, here :
The Onion | America's Finest News Source.
I don’t know you from Adam but I understand post-Fanon that this is what colonialism has done to some of us:
“primal instincts”?
What are they? Since you refer to them - as an act of recognition or contrition you must be familiar with them, and know what they are. I've heard of primordial and primitive, but “primal”? Do you mean as in “ primal scream"?
What are you talking about man? Speak - like him or Robinson Crusoe and teach me, so that in this scholarly forum you can boast with satisfaction like him, “ But to return to my new companion. I was greatly delighted with him, and made it my business to teach him everything that was proper to make him useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to make him speak, and understand me when I spoke; and he was the aptest scholar there ever was.
You may speak big or little, rich or poor English - some of which you obviously do not understand and that’s why you want to turn every petty squabble into a full-blown big grammar intellectual tittle-tattle, maybe with Ojogbon Aristotle or Professor Wittgenstein looking down from the skies as your referee. Me? I also read books for intellectual company.
I refer to “your people '' and you must surely know who they are, and for that, you want to inflate me with your unqualified diagnosis of “ microaggression”? I guess that macroaggression would be when in a fit of poetry someone attached one of those Russian hypersonic missiles to your donkey’s tail, pressed the send button, and dispatched both of you to the primal heaven.
I’m about to push the send button but before I push the start button you had better listen to this: Apocalypse
ogunlakaiye
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
The notion that ''Peter Obi supporters chanted 'Lagos is no man's land and waiving IPOB flag' after INEC had declared him winner of the Presidential election in Lagos'' is too ludicrous to be worthy of spending much time on except to remark on the fantastic gullibility of those people who have swallowed such awesome improbabilities of APC propaganda.
What was the fate of such foolish people as those reportedly waving the IPOB in Lagos? Where was such a sensational act reported?
With all your self declared intelligence, you fell for an absurdity trying to equate LP with IPOB, and LP with Igbos as if most Igbos are pro-IPOB, while in fact the people who have challenged IPOB most trenchantly are Igbos, who are questioning IPOB's strategy of non-engagement in Nigerian politics, are not impressed by Kanu, and wonder if IPOB is realistic in its El-Dorado vision of Biafra, as they see it.
As for Fani-Kayode, for years one of the most trenchant critics of APC, now absorbed into that party to use his oratory in the lowest forms of vile speech, you may see his Twitter page , showing you his utterances challenged by even the Deputy British High Commisioner, wondering why his party does not distance itself from him, not realizing he is in accord with his party, another issue you can Google.
thanks
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
On the Side of Yorubas
The recurrent demonization of Igbos must stop. Threats against Igbos occurring in recurrent election cycles must cease. Such actions as the Oba of Lagos threatening to drown Igbos in the Lagoon if they did not vote his then governorship candidate Ambode must stop.
Bayo Onanuga, spokesman of the President elect Bola Tinubu, recently describing Igbos as a threat to Yorubas in Lagos, NURTW leader threatening Igbos who do not want to vote APC and APC politician Femi Fani-Kayode and others highlighting threats to destroy Igbo businesses in Lagos must stop.
Destruction of Igbo properties and business interests, such as the recent killing of a supposed security man and the burning of the Akere Motor Parts and Allied Dealers Market must cease.
Intimidation of Igbo voters, reported in 2019 and even more widespread in 2023, as reported in various mainstream and social media, must stop.
Trying to demonize Igbos by linking them with IPOB or making Igbo relations anathema for a Lagos politician, as was done to Lagos gubernatorial elections candidate Rhodes-Vivour must stop.
Lagos is in Yorubaland but is Nigeria's most dynamic melting pot, Nigeria's best chance of moving towards First World status. That status requires multi-ethnic collaboration.
For Yorubas and Igbos
The claim that Igbos see Lagos as no man's land in terms of belonging to no one should be put to rest, as various Igbos and Igbo groups have strongly disavowed it and perhaps the only readily verifiable record of that statement comes from the esteemed Yoruba governor of Lagos, Lateef Jakande, in his 1979 inaugural address.
For Igbos
Various reasonable critiques of Igbos as going outside their legitimate rights should be looked into. Igbos have every right to vote and be voted for in Lagos according to their own wills.
Reasonable claims of ethnic triumphalism, however, need to be addressed. I was struck by some of the responses justifying the claim that the constitution of Alaba International Market limits chairmanship and exco membership of the market to people from some Igbo states, excluding those from other Igbo states and other parts of Nigeria.
I dont know if its true, but I am disturbed by some commentators justifying such a policy on the grounds of the numerical presence of traders from those states in that market.
Need for Rapprochement Between Igbos, Yorubas and Other Ethnicities Within LagosOluwatoyin Vincent AdepojuLagos is one of the most dynamic cities in the world, a dynamism made possible by multi-ethnic drive and mutual accommodation. Its creativity must not be diluted or destroyed through ethnic tensions. APC and PDP might not exist in 50 years time but Lagos will remain. What kind of Lagos will that be?
On the Side of Yorubas
The recurrent demonization of Igbos must stop. Threats against Igbos occurring in recurrent election cycles must cease. Such actions as the Oba of Lagos threatening to drown Igbos in the Lagoon if they did not vote his then governorship candidate Ambode must stop.
Bayo Onanuga, spokesman of the President elect Bola Tinubu, recently describing Igbos as a threat to Yorubas in Lagos, NURTW leader threatening Igbos who do not want to vote APC and APC politician Femi Fani-Kayode and others highlighting threats to destroy Igbo businesses in Lagos must stop.
Destruction of Igbo properties and business interests, such as the recent killing of a supposed security man and the burning of the Akere Motor Parts and Allied Dealers Market must cease.
Intimidation of Igbo voters, reported in 2019 and even more widespread in 2023, as reported in various mainstream and social media, must stop.
Trying to demonize Igbos by linking them with IPOB or making Igbo relations anathema for a Lagos politician, as was done to Lagos gubernatorial elections candidate Rhodes-Vivour must stop.
Lagos is in Yorubaland but is Nigeria's most dynamic melting pot, Nigeria's best chance of moving towards First World status. That status requires multi-ethnic collaboration.
For Yorubas and Igbos
The claim that Igbos see Lagos as no man's land in terms of belonging to no one should be put to rest, as various Igbos and Igbo groups have strongly disavowed it and perhaps the only readily verifiable record of that statement comes from the esteemed Yoruba governor of Lagos, Lateef Jakande, in his 1979 inaugural address.
For Igbos
Various reasonable critiques of Igbos as going outside their legitimate rights should be looked into. Igbos have every right to vote and be voted for in Lagos according to their own wills.
Reasonable claims of ethnic triumphalism, however, need to be addressed. I was struck by some of the responses justifying the claim that the constitution of Alaba International Market limits chairmanship and exco membership of the market to people from some Igbo states, excluding those from other Igbo states and other parts of Nigeria.
I dont know if its true, but I am disturbed by some commentators justifying such a policy on the grounds of the numerical presence of traders from those states in that market.
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
On the Side of Yorubas
The recurrent demonization of Igbos must stop. Threats against Igbos occurring in recurrent election cycles must cease. Such actions as the Oba of Lagos threatening to drown Igbos in the Lagoon if they did not vote his then governorship candidate Ambode must stop.
Bayo Onanuga, spokesman of the President elect Bola Tinubu, recently describing Igbos as a threat to Yorubas in Lagos, NURTW leader threatening Igbos who do not want to vote APC and APC politician Femi Fani-Kayode and others highlighting threats to destroy Igbo businesses in Lagos must stop.
Destruction of Igbo properties and business interests, such as the recent killing of a supposed security man and the burning of the Akere Motor Parts and Allied Dealers Market must cease.
Intimidation of Igbo voters, reported in 2019 and even more widespread in 2023, as reported in various mainstream and social media, must stop.
Trying to demonize Igbos by linking them with IPOB or making Igbo relations anathema for a Lagos politician, as was done to Lagos gubernatorial elections candidate Rhodes-Vivour must stop.
Lagos is in Yorubaland but is Nigeria's most dynamic melting pot, Nigeria's best chance of moving towards First World status. That status requires multi-ethnic collaboration.
For Yorubas and Igbos
The claim that Igbos see Lagos as no man's land in terms of belonging to no one should be put to rest, as various Igbos and Igbo groups have strongly disavowed it and perhaps the only readily verifiable record of that statement comes from the esteemed Yoruba governor of Lagos, Lateef Jakande, in his 1979 inaugural address.
For Igbos
Various reasonable critiques of Igbos as going outside their legitimate rights should be looked into. Igbos have every right to vote and be voted for in Lagos according to their own wills.
Reasonable claims of ethnic triumphalism, however, need to be addressed. I was struck by some of the responses justifying the claim that the constitution of Alaba International Market limits chairmanship and exco membership of the market to people from some Igbo states, excluding those from other Igbo states and other parts of Nigeria.
I dont know if its true, but I am disturbed by some commentators justifying such a policy on the grounds of the numerical presence of traders from those states in that market.
Harrow, Kenneth
Sent: Monday, March 27, 2023 9:04:55 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
segun...@gmail.com
On Mar 27, 2023, at 8:10 AM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGBtzfPbKXjDgL8abbJ5-iJbOSPCqOa%3DueROaZ_ANbDqNZuYgg%40mail.gmail.com.
ogunlakaiye
Cornelius Hamelberg
Baba Kadiri,
There are those who would like to see photographic evidence such as these , just substitute IPOB flags being waved by triumphant ragtag IPOB mobs in downtown Lagos after their peaceful conquest of Lagos by ballot, not bullet - exactly as I was told ( smile) ”running around waving the IPOB flag all over Lagos”, just like here but different colours, Lagos, like London - as in London is The Place for Me according to Ambrose Adekoya Campbell - just as Stockholm is the place for Baba Kadiri…
There are no two ways about it; the vile things that OVA says about Femi Fani-Kayode are totally out of order, another base example of lashon hara as hate speech at its lowest form, libellous and reprehensible. In my view, OVA could do the honourable simple thing: retract or amend what he said, and apologise.
Islamically speaking, a man is judged by his intentions. So, in this Holy month of Ramadan, we could be generous enough (sadaqah) by giving OVA the benefit of the doubt with regard to what could have originally been his best of intentions, based on “ scandalous ignorance” about the whole situation. There is surely no inherent evil per se in OVA calling for some peace & love ( one love) & unity among the contending ethnicities in Lagos about which issue this Igbo Lady got down on her knees to plead with her beloved Igbo people. In addition to Professor Segun Ogungbemi’s clarification here, listening to what she says in that video could considerably diminish OVA’s ignorance about his city, Lagos.
In giving him the benefit of the doubt about his original intentions when he issued the petition appealing for ”Rapprochement Between Igbos, Yorubas and Other Ethnicities Within Lagos”
let us be gracious enough to concede that with the best of intentions, OVA could have clothed himself in the robes/ garments of a self-proclaimed peace-maker, mindful of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount in which he said; “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God”
But not to worry, Devarim 18:20 is absolutely clear about this “ But any prophet who presumes to speak in My name an oracle that I did not command to be uttered, or who speaks in the name of other gods—that prophet shall die.”
It’s not easy - on Sunday night I read the section on morality ( sections 10 - 43 ) in Salih’s advice, a compendium of general instructions written by my Pir’s illustrious father and everything in that section has to be manifest not only internally but externally too!
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
I'm not quoting Jakande out of context.
I provided a link to the complete speech and noted the paragraph where the expression is made.
Here it is:
In 1886, Lagos was again set up as a separate colony in response to a petition by the people of Lagos who resented being governed from the Gold Coast. It was administered by a Governor of the Colony of Lagos under Letters Patent dated 13th January, 1886. This was the first time that the territory now known as Lagos State came under one administration. The administration continued under various constitution until 1954, when Lagos was separated from the rest of the Colony and constituted Federal Territory, that is to say a No-Man’s Land.
What did he mean by it?
He did not elaborate.
Further compunding the issue, you seem to be arguing that Lagos was rightly understood as no man's land when it was the capital of Nigeria.
But the ongoing counterargument is that Lagos has always had indigenes, well before the the Benin invasion and the much later colonial creation of Nigeria and the creation of Lagos as the capital.
Even then, Igbos are strenously and publicly disavowng the ''Lagos is No Man's Land'' idea.
We can see that the most prominent user of that expression, and perhaps the only person whose public use of the expression is readily verifiable, is none other than the revered Yoruba former governor of Lagos, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, however one inteprets Jakande's words.
Should Igbos not be freed of the claim that they hold a sentiment they are repeatedly and publicly disavowing?
On the contrary, APC is described as invoking these ethnic embers every four years as an election winning strategy.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/5A51FB73-7EFC-4B94-86E9-58083E10A302%40gmail.com.
Victor Okafor
Dear All:
There is one fact that I wish to add, emphasize, and place on record for posterity. In the country known as Nigeria, there is NO dynamic conflict between an ethnic group known as the Yoruba and another one known as the Igbo. Throughout recorded time, ethnic communities have lived together in relative peace and harmony in Lagos. All the bloody violence and associated brouhaha that immediately preceded and occurred during both the presidential election of February 25, 2023 and particularly, the governorship and state assembly election of March 18, 2023 are, as I see it, the handiwork of a segment of the ruling elite who intentionally, desperately, callously, unlawfully and irresponsibly deployed a tribal trump card (in much the same way that similarly-minded politicians tend to deploy a racial trump card in places like the USA, Italy, France, Britain and what have you, when and where it suits them) for political gains. Period!
Instead of this string of mis-directed, distracting, energy-sapping and time-wasting analysis of paralysis, our focus ought to be on how to unmask, identify, zero-in on, call to order, turn-in, and eventually bring to justice, specific members of the self-centered cabal that seems not only willing to divide the people along tribal/ethnic lines, but also spill innocent blood along the way, for the sake of the acquisition or retention of political power. This is an instance of a manufactured conflict! This cabal seems to forget that ultimate power resides with God Almighty. Its members also seem to forget that no condition is permanent, not even life itself, let alone political power.
Within the last 48 hours, an aspect of emerging news stories from Nigeria claimed that the police have arrested seven hundred plus "thugs/"suspects" for electoral violence/electoral offences committed around the country. However, it does not appear that the real instigators, the cabal to which I referred in the foregoing, are among them. It does not appear that the assigned authorities who looked the other way when the particularly grievous and gruesome mayhem of Saturday, March 18, 2023 was unfolding in real time on television and social media screens around the world, were among the arrested "suspects." In the past, we have seen this pattern of class-biased, selective justice, whereby only the poverty-stricken foot soldiers end up being apprehended, tried and jailed, whereas the powerfully placed instigators, financiers, their co-conspirators within law-enforcement and political beneficiaries of the mayhem are usually conspicuously absent from the list of "apprehended suspects."
A Call to Action
If we are going to help prevent another troubled March 18, 2023 from happening again in our lifetime, if we were ashamed by what we saw unfold on March 18, 2023 (regardless of what maybe our ethnic orientations), let us, in our various ways, through any and all lawful tools at our disposal, including our critical internal and external connections, put hands together to help bring to book specific members of the cabal (which demonstrably thinks of itself as being above the law) that is really responsible for that blight on the political-historical map of Nigeria. As the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously stated in one of his books, Strength to Love, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others” (1963, p. 26).
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGBtzfPrJoe9eNBBy0Q-j5EoQOhTm7jhRU10NFkQToCC4Q2Ffg%40mail.gmail.com.
Cornelius Hamelberg
Baba Kadiri,
On 21 Aug 2013, I wrote to Mighty Biko in this forum. “ In light of the recent fallout from Fani-Kayode’s thoughts about the Igbo claims to some alleged “ no man’s land” in Lagos ( Yoruba’s Judea and Samaria) we should take a closer look at “Tribalism: A Pragmatic Instrument for National Unity”
I hope that President Tinubu will see to it that the miscreants among big and little entrepreneurs in Lagos all pay their due share in taxes - rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and the Zakat, plus the tithes to the Pentecostal pastors, to Olodumare, and to Chukwu, etc as the case may be
Here's the correct link for “about which issue this Igbo Lady (God bless her) got down on her knees to plead with her beloved Igbo people “ 👍
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBYRQ_4CFQI
Always interesting news: Nigeria World
BTW, I wonder how Michael Crowder ( a non-indigene) would have been weighing in on the “ No man’s Land “ palaver. Just imagine if at some later date, some people were to rise up and tell yesterday's Lagosians that once upon a time Lagos used to be their land alright, but that according to their Bible, their God had decided to give it to THEM - using the same rationale that we find in The Stone Edition Chumash introduction to Genesis, the first book in the Hebrew Bible :
“We begin the study of the Torah with the realisation that the Torah is not a history book, but the charter of Man’s mission in the universe. Thus, in his first comment, Rashi cites Rav Yitzchak who says that since the Torah is primarily a book of laws, it should have begun with the commandment of the new moon (Exodus 12.2), the first law that was addressed to all Jewry as a nation. He explains that the reason for the Torah’s narrative of Creation is to establish that God is the Sovereign of the universe: He declared to His people the power of His works in order to give them the heritage of the nations (Psalm 111.6). If the nations accuse Israel of banditry for seizing the lands of the seven nations of Canaan, Israel can respond, “The entire universe belongs to God. He created it and He granted it to whomever He deemed fit. It was His desire to give it to them and then it was His desire to take it from them and give it to us.”
More palaver!
