Igboho, ACF And NEF: Is Anarchy The Solution?

By Bolanle BOLAWOLE
[email protected] 0705 262 1058

Someone accosted me recently and asked the question: Why are you Yoruba always the troublers of Nigeria? And my mind immediately went to the same question King Ahab had asked Prophet Elijah in the Bible! “And it came to pass, when (King) Ahab saw (Prophet) Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he (Elijah) answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim” (1 Kings 18: 17 & 18). So, you can guess the answer I gave my accuser who, incidentally, hails for the arch-conservative North.

But afterwards, I paused and reflected on the encounter. In every Nigerian epoch, you are bound to find an enigmatic Yoruba person; especially so to those who do not approve of their actions. In the First Republic, it was the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo; so much so that the self-styled evil genius and military dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, described Awo as “the issue” in Nigerian politics.

Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, who chose to die with the then Head of State, JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi, who was visiting Fajuyi’s domain when the counter-coupists of Northern extraction struck, was Yoruba. Ndigbo do not remember Fajuyi’s sacrifice. In the civil war that followed the truncation of democracy in 1966, Brigadier-General Benjamin Maja Adekunle aka Black Scorpion was an enigma; far more lionized than his compatriot, Olusegun Obasanjo. who took the surrender of the Biafrans.

On the civilian side, two prominent Nigerians who played unforgettable roles during the civil war were Professor Wole Soyinka and Dr. Tai Solarin, both of them Yoruba. Google described Solarin as “a fearless humanitarian, peace advocate, and protector of victims during the Nigerian Civil War (1967 – 1970)” as well as someone who “famously went on weeks-long hunger strike to protest the starvation of children in the war-torn Eastern region” and who also “used his Mayflower School in Ikenne (Ogun state) to shelter and educate displaced Igbo children.”

That was not all! Solarin “repeatedly travelled to the war zone with lorry loads of food and medical supplies, putting himself in harm’s way to assist the vulnerable.” He also “actively defended his (Mayflower School) campus and the innocent Igbo civilians working or studying there, shielding them from federal military troops seeking to abduct them.”

Solarin also “rescued and took orphaned or displaced children from the war front into Mayflower School, providing them with free room, board, and education through their university degrees.” It did not end there, after the war, Solarin “was appointed Chairman of the Public Service Commission for the defunct East Central State of Nigeria, playing a role in rebuilding the war-affected region.”

Whaaoh! How many Igbo remember that today, not to talk of acknowledging and appreciating it?

Many will excuse me if I conclude that everyone knows the bashing Soyinka took for Biafra! Google described Soyinka as someone who “played the role of a peace broker, political dissident, and prisoner of conscience during the Nigerian Civil war… As a prominent academic and intellectual, Soyinka actively sought to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the escalating crisis. He secretly visited and held meetings with Biafran leaders in an attempt to broker a cease-fire and prevent the impending bloodshed.”

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And the consequences: “Viewing (Soyinka’s ) peace-building efforts as a threat, the federal military government under Gen. Yakubu Gowon accused Soyinka of assisting the secessionist cause. He was arrested in 1967 and detained without trial.” For how long? “Soyinka spent 22 months in prison, a large portion of which was in harsh solitary confinement at the Kaduna prison.”

Notwithstanding “the harsh conditions and lack of writing materials, Soyinka defied his captors by secretly writing notes and poems criticizing the brutality of the government. He chronicled these harrowing experiences in his celebrated prison memoir, The Man Died: Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka.”

How, then, can anyone justify the expletives poured on the same Soyinka by Ndigbo supporters of Peter Obi simply because Soyinka did not root for their idol in the 2023 presidential election? It is not only in South Africa that they forget their own history and repay gratitude with ingratitude, it also happens right here under our own nose!

Many of the notable names that fought military dictatorship to a standstill were Yoruba. NADECO leader, Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin, Gani Fawehinmi, Beko, Frederick Fasehun, Femi Falana, among others. Before I am accused of trivializing the efforts of others, I do recognize and salute such efforts, only that my focus here today is to answer the question posed to me in the opening paragraph above.

Chief MKO Abiola, the man who gave up himself that we may have this democracy, is Yoruba. Justice Dolapo Akinsanya, who was bold enough to declare the Interim National Government (ING) illegal, is Yoruba. When others abandoned the June 12 struggle, the majority of those who did not jump ship were Yoruba. At any point in time, come rain, come shine, you will find Yoruba elements who are prepared to take up the government and stand for justice and the truth – regardless of the inconveniences.

What of Professor Ayodele Awojobi and Fela? Soyinka, the first African Nobel Laureate, is Yoruba. Rashidi Yekinni, the scorer of Nigeria’s first goal in the World Cup, is Yoruba. Sowore, the entrant terrible of the moment, is Yoruba. We can go on and on!

The North has its Sharia. It also has its Hisbah which, to all intents and purposes, functions as State police. But when something akin to that was proposed in the South and Northern conservative elements kicked against it, it was Gov. Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu of Ondo state who led the battle and won it for the south-west.

As terrorists and bandits of Northern extraction invade the south, threatening to conquer it in a jiffy, the man standing up to them is Yoruba. His name is Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho. It appears the Yoruba have always been – and still remain – the potent stumbling block to the actualization of conservative Northern hegemony’s evil design against the entirety of Nigeria. Is that why the Yoruba are seen by such reactionary elements as the trouble with Nigeria? And as irritants? What they really mean is that the Yoruba stand in the way of actualizing their agenda against Nigeria and its diverse peoples.

It is in the light of the above that we must see the efforts of Igboho to checkmate the advance of Fulani terrorists into the south-west. This is Igboho’s second coming in that way. During the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari, Igboho was run out of town, barely escaping with his life. He was in protective custody in neighbouring Benin Republic for a long time (July 2021 – October 2023). As our people would say, for as long as there are lice in the hair on one’s head, there will always be blood on one’s fingers. The insecurity threat that led to Igboho’s first coming has not receded but has intensified. And the government appears helpless about doing the needful.

In the recent case, Igboho issued an ultimatum to the Fulani leaders in the affected community where incessant kidnapping had taken place and, on the strength of that ultimatum, the kidnapped persons were promptly released. The questions that must be asked are: Who released the victims? Those who released them must have had a hand in their kidnapping. The Fulani leaders who were threatened by Igboho – what role did they play in securing the release? If they played any role, then, they knew the kidnappers and also knew something about (or had a hand) in the kidnapping. The only thing that can exonerate them is, if it can be proved that Igboho’s threat to them did not play any role in the release of the kidnapped persons. So far, the police or any government agency has not come forward to say they secured or effected the release of the kidnapped. So we are left with believing that it is Igboho’s ultimatum to the Fulani leaders that did the magic.

Now, can anyone convince the victims who secured their freedom after Igboho’s threat – or their families – that Igboho has done anything wrong? Why, then, should anyone order Igboho’s arrest? What for? What offence has he committed? Acting where the government and its agencies failed to act?

I find the reactions of both the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) to the abduction and release not only appalling but also suggestive that they knew more about the kidnapping than they have volunteered to the public. To start with, ACF and NEF said nothing about the abduction. They did not condemn it. That a pregnant woman was involved did not bother them. That her child was also involved made no news to them. That someone who was sent to deliver ransom payment to the kidnappers was killed after the ransom money was collected from him meant nothing to the ACF and NEF. They did not sympathize with the families of the victims. The travails of the entire community were sport to them! Haba! All the ACF and NEF fussed about was awhat they called “ethnic profiling”!

Were they just learning that grammar? Otherwise, they ought to have known that it is no longer ethnic profiling to say that the bulk of the terrorism activities taking place all over Nigeria is being perpetrated by Fulani terrorists. It is a fact already known by all – and to all. So, Fulani leaders have no hiding place as far as this fact is concerned. It is already in the open.

And the response of the likes of ACF and NEF to the activities of terrorists all over the country has also proven beyond any reasonable doubt that they are complicit – in their deafening silence over the atrocities as well as the ingenious, nay, scantily-concealed defence of the terrorists all the time. They deceive no one any more; if the government is yet to summon the courage to call their bluff, they should stop thinking that the generality of Nigerians are not aware of their invidious agenda.

Each time we speak, these Northern elements are quick to threaten anarchy! They must think they alone have a monopoly of violence! What they are yet to realise is that the stealthiness of the leopard is not as a result of cowardice. If civilized conduct restrains the South-west from joining issues with these elements, they need be told that it is the person that is yet to visit the farm of someone else’s father that thinks his own father has the largest farm in the entire universe. No, the North does not have a monopoly of violence! They are not the only ones who can threaten anarchy or unleash it. If and when push becomes shoving, these elements will bow!

And to the government and its agenvies: Those who cannot defend us must not stop those who can! By coming to the rescue of the helpless members of his own community, Sunday Igboho has done nothing wrong. He was not armed. He caused no mayhem. He only issued an ultimatum – and it worked. And if it’s an ultimatum from Igboho that can do the magic (where the government has failed woefully), then, let’s have more of it!

* Former editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/Editor-in-chief of The Westerner news magazine. He writes the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday Tribune and TREASURES column in New Telegraph newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.