MY ORDEAL IN THE HANDS OF FULANI BANDITS (II)

                

                                    By YINKA FABOWALE

Instantly, the inside of the bus became a bedlam as everyone scrambled to escape. The first few to get out ran into the bush, but were hotly pursued by the bandits who dragged them back dripping with blood from machete cuts and sword blows inflicted by their captors. A middle- aged man, a nursing mother a girl, about 12 years old, and I occupied the back seat and were the last to alight from the ill-fated bus. I stepped into the waiting hands of two of the hoodlums who repeatedly growled at each passenger as he disembarked: “Where’s the money, where’s the money?” 

By the time it was my turn, I was no longer afraid as I was when the terrible drama began. Waiting to disembark has afforded me a respite to come to terms with the reality of the situation and cure me of my terror. Nevertheless, I  was still a bit jittery and found myself stuttering before the robbers: “Yes, yes, I get am for money, I go give you money” emptying my pockets of the little cash  on me and silently praying that it satisfies them.

One of the brutes greedily snatched the money with his grubby paws and roughly shoved me aside to join those who went before me including the young girl and the nursing mother, where they were made to sit on the bare floor by the roadside. While in this position, I watched the gang ruthlessly beat up some of the caught male passengers who had attempted to escape. The men begged and cried like babies as their tormentors mercilessly and persistently hit them with cutlasses and ‘sanda’ (rods used by herdsmen), while dispossessing them of their money and valuables.

Respite came, only when there was nothing left to take from the victims.

Meanwhile, some of the robbers went for our luggage in the booth of the vehicle, threw them on the ground and busied themselves ransacking the bags and containers.

Where I sat watching the pillage, I could see from their looks, mode of dressing and discussions that our attackers were Fulani, some of whose less wild and itinerant kindred one frequently encountered in urban markets or roving the rural parts of Oke Ogun.

I silently prayed that I and other victims would not end getting killed or harmed by this rapacious horde.

Shortly, we heard the sound of a vehicle heading from the direction we came. Immediately, the robbers retreated into the bush, but only few steps inward close to the road enough to afforded them ample view of oncoming vehicles.

The vehicle drew in sight. It was a private car with about three men inside. The robbers allowed it to drive into the middle of the ambush before they struck. As was customary in these parts, the travellers in the car, seeing only us (dejected victims) beside the stationary bus, assumed it must have broken down and so slowed down to inquire what was amiss and if they could help.

It was one instance when playing the Good Samaritan could prove fatal! Like Coyotes, the savages leapt out from hiding and attacked their latest preys with ferocity. One of the men managed to escaped, but his two partners were not so lucky. The hoodlums pounced on them, dealing them machete cuts and severe blows with the rods, until they too ran in our direction to join us all the while shivering, crying and bemoaning their misfortune.

As they took their place beside those of us still whimpering and unsure of our next fate.

the flicker of hope that had begun to glow in me that their arrival might somehow alter the balance of power in this ‘detention camp’ in our favour died, giving way to gloom and despair. 

I resigned to the looming prospect spending a long, lonely and uncertain night with the armed robbers, who have in the meantime detailed some of their comrades-in-arms, to stand guard over us, captives.

Shortly after, we again heard in the distance an approaching scooter heading towards Saki. As before, the hoodlums tactically hopped back inside the bush strategically positioning themselves in such a way that foreclosed any chance of escape by their unwary targets. In spite of my sorry strait, I couldn’t help thinking what a horrendous waste these men were making of their skills and talents. These could surely have earned them honour if deployed for soldiery and defence of their fellow citizens instead of hunting them down like animals.

The motorbike rider and his passenger, oblivious of lurking danger, were having a lively chat as they rode towards the spot. They were already in the centre of the trap, when one of them realised they were in danger and shouted: “Ha! Wo n dana ni o (Ha! It’s highway robbery)”. But it was too late! Before he could finish speaking the robbers had encircled them.

However, the heartless bandits got what they did not bargain for. It so happened that one of the two men on the Okada was a police officer and had a gun. A quick report from his revolver shattered the stillness of the night forcing the hoodlums to scamper in various directions, shouting some undecipherable words in their language as they fled. The bullet hit one of the gangsters, who, staggered and fell, groaning like a coward, as the cop aimed again and tried to shoot a second time.  

Unfortunately, the gun failed to fire this time, making mere clicking sounds.

Noticing this, the mob returned and assaulted the hapless policeman and his mate, inflicting grievous bodily harm on them with their weapons. Some of the ruffians went to lift their wounded colleague from where he lay. Blood dripped from his hands and his crimson-drenched white robe as they gently led him towards the bush for care.

While this was going on, one of them walked up and ordered the little girl who sat next to me to get up and follow him. I’d noticed he had been leering at this budding flower of womanhood moments after he and a few others were detailed to monitor and prevent our escape.

The frightened girl, probably still a virgin, immediately went on her knees crying and pleading with the beast to perish his obviously evil intention. Even in the dim-lit night, I could see the part of his trousers about the groin bulging!

“Kam, kam here!” he impatiently and menacingly called to the girl. Still sobbing, the girl rose and obeyed as the robber led her a few distance away from us to defile her.

It was the most horrible part of my experience that night. Indignation filled me as I watched the rogue unzip, roughly pushed the girl down to the bare floor and tried to rape her right before us. I felt like taking on the bastard in a fight, which, even if I could not win, could at least frustrate his heinous plan. He was only slightly taller than me, although also much more muscular. However, looking at other gang members reminded me daring such chivalry would be suicidal. I sat, sullen and seething with impotent rage!

But just in that moment a fully-loaded Peugeot 504 commercial station-wagon showed up on the scene. It had almost reached the robbery scene before the armed robbers, apparently distraught or distracted attending to their wounded colleague, could muster a coordinated and tactical response to the new opportunity.

However, with the full headlights of his ride on, the wagon driver was quick to survey the situation and apprehend the immediate danger. Judging that suffering possible damage to his car was better than the risk of being caught by the robbers, he pressed hard on the throttle, sending the Peugeot racing forward like a devil and in the process, dismantling the high stack of woods and stones used to block the road.

Another pall of gloom enveloped the ‘camp’ as the rear lights of the vehicle disappeared into the night. For us, victims, it was to mourn another chance of freedom slip, but for the Fulani rogues, it was a quit notice! The escape of the motorist and his passengers apparently upset their calculations and expectation of having a free rein on the road all-night. They rightly feared that the escapees would alert the town of their racket and mobilise a counter-attack.

In a jiffy the scoundrels started to peel off their masks, calling out to one another as they prepared to close shop. It was this unexpected development that interrupted and saved the poor little girl from the randy devil before he had a chance to satisfy his lust.

I didn’t know how many of them there were, but I must have counted about eight of the robbers as they hastily packed the loot and then congregated to plan their escape. Although I didn’t understand a jot of what they were saying, their movements and gestures, pointed at, to my great relief, an impending end to this horrific ordeal.

Then the nagging questions assaulted my peace: What would happen to us (the victims) now? Would the robbers risk having us point their trail to our expected saviours and security agents and suffer us watch as they go? The answers to the questions which I stridently fought off my mind were ominous.

But, my worries were soon addressed. Crowding towards us in a semi-circle formation, the robbers unleased fresh terror, which, I suspected, might be to scare and disperse or finish us off. I was the first to taste of this renewed cruelty and it came from the man with the unrequited libidinous urge. The ogre detached from the ring of his gang members, pulled his mask back on his face, raised a sturdy ‘sanda’ and landed a vicious blow on my skull. Instantly I saw millions of twinkling, twinkling little stars in a meteoric rush. Then, they suddenly disappeared into a dark void in a whirl!  Just as I imagined I detected their glows gradually making a come-back through a chink, the rod landed with a more devastating impact. Feeling my head must have cracked, I heard a quiet voice bid me get up on my feet. As I struggled to obey, I faintly saw the third blow rushing towards me like Mighty Thor’s hammer and barely managed to fend it off with my two arms.

The wailings of my fellow victims who had come under similar cruel treatment by other members of the syndicate told me to run.

I tried, but could not get too far. The sky and the earth surfaces both rushed at me at the same time, threatening to collapse into one and make me into a burger! Weak and dizzy, I collapsed right there in the middle of the road, a short distance from the armed robbers. But fearing that I would be killed by the bandits should they meet me lying on their path and in the open I feebly rolled and crawled out of the road a little inside the roadside bush, with my legs sticking out at the edge, such that any passer-by could easily have noticed them.

When moments later I heard the approaching footfalls of the hoodlums, it didn’t seem to matter if they saw and killed me, as I felt moving another inch would equally have achieved the same end.

But as luck would have it, they merely hastened past, engrossed in agitated discussion and oblivious of my “Judas’ feet”.

When they were out of earshot, I turned on my back and faced the night sky. Its vast grey sheet was puckered by some stars here and there. Many of their peers had, probably scandalized or afraid to witness the horrible happening of the night, withdrawn and hidden their faces. But some fireflies flitting or nestling on the plants around me provided a luscent glow amid an orchestra of shrieking crickets that intermittently broke the eerie silence of the night.

Again I felt as if my head was being ripped apart as excruciating pains coursed through the cranium to the neck region. I gingerly felt the centre and discovered there was a swollen gash. Blood oozed from it. The smell and sight of the crimson moistened fingers sent me into deep sentimental reflection.

I began to worry: Was this where and how I would end it all? Like a video clip, memories of my childhood, years of struggles to get educated up to post graduate level and arduous efforts to build a career and make impact, my other aspirations and beautiful promises of life, flashed before my gaze. Are all this going to be wasted by the greed and inhumanity of some scoundrels? How about my family, my mother, my wife? Would help ever come? Tears filled and glazed my eyes. I allowed them roll freely as time kept ticking heightening the sense of loneliness and abandonment in the middle of this jungle.

About 20 minutes in this state, I heard noises of people arriving in a convoy of vehicles from the Saki end of road. They were members of the town’s vigilante and National Union of Road and Transport Workers (NURTW), mobilised to confront the marauders! I could hear them dismantle the barricade erected by the raiders amid shouts of slogans and war songs. They called out to us victims to come out of hiding. Some of us did, including those who escaped into the bush and were never caught by the robbers. Our battle-ready ‘liberators’ obviously pining for a showdown were disappointed at being deprived the chance of a clash with the robbers on the spot. Some of them drove through the newly reopened road towards Ago Are in chase of the invaders, intermittently asking: “Where are they? Where did they go? Show us how they went?”

TO BE CONTINUED

MY ORDEAL IN THE HANDS OF FULANI BANDITS

                      

                                    By YINKA FABOWALE

Ago-Are!

A wave of relief swept over me as the small town, the last and only some kilometres before Saki, my destination, popped into view as our bus tore through the major highway linking the nexus of other roads and dispersed communities in the Oke-Ogun region of Oyo State.

My sense of relief that the almost three -hours journey from Ibadan was almost at an end mixed with a surge of excitement and anticipation of the culinary delights awaiting me at the home of my friend, Mr. Malik Gbemisola, that evening.

Whenever I am in Saki town I have the choice to stay with this family or another friend, Mr. Bayo Akee, not only because of their warm hospitality, but also the sense of home I get in the lively family setting and conversations with my hosts. Besides easing the primary business that often takes me to the commercial town, one of the biggest in this large swath of the state, being this family’s guest has always assisted my job as a news man, as it provides me opportunity of picking information about local happenings, which often go unreported in the media, due to Saki’s remoteness from Ibadan where most media houses and correspondents in the state reside.

Lodging in a hotel only becomes a forced option, whenever I travelled in company with my other friends, in the past notably Mr. Kolawole Badaru, a former crop breeder with Cocoa Research Institute (CRIN) and Mr. Kunle Salman, who recently retired from the Oyo State public service as a Director, or at such times when my resident chums themselves are out of town.

Even when in others’ company, Saki has a way of making me salivate like Pavlov’s dogs, once on its fringes. The great attraction is ‘Banuso’, a popular local eating joint where we normally dined. ‘Banuso’, which in Yoruba parlance literally means – “Have a talk with your tummy” or more appropriately “Give your tummy a treat”, has a reputation for serving the best of Yoruba’s rich dishes and delicacies- pounded yam (Iyan), Amala, Fufu and Lafun with delicious vegetables soup, stew and sauce, (Ewedu, Ila, Egusi, Ogbono) garnished with spiced bush meat, goat meat (Ogufe), beef, ‘orisirisi’, cow tail, bokoto and assorted seafood ranging from roasted to fresh water fishes, crabs an, prawns and shrimps. Of course, the meals, served hot in china or aluminium plates don’t come cheap, but we loved gratefully paying for our addiction.

Despite Banuso’s allure, I won’t trade a bed and diner at the Gbemisolas for it! Mummy Folasade, Mr. Gbemisola’s wife, is one dammed good cook who knew how to work magic or miracles, producing hot and mouth-watering meals within minutes of my arrival, even when she had no prior notice of the visit.

On this occasion I was visiting Saki as one-man advance party to firm up arrangements for a public lecture being organised by a group to which I belong in the town. My brief included securing the venue, meeting critical stakeholders, distributing flyers and other logistics. I had had to leave Ibadan late on this fateful day because of the need to finish up my duties as a reporter, which involved monitoring at-least the 5’ O’clock bulletin of the main broadcast stations in the state before closing.

As it were, the commuter bus I boarded at the Sango bus terminus took time filling up, as the rush by passengers, usual in the mornings or on popular market days due to high traffic of traders going on business trips to Oke Ogun, has, as usual, dropped to trickles by late afternoon, thereby delaying take off by one or two hours and causing frustration and vexation among passengers first to board.

Our bus eventually pulled out of the motor park few minutes after 6pm and nosed its way northwards. It was a smooth and ‘swift’ journey as the vehicle, which appeared still relatively new and in good condition, whizzed through Iseyin, Okaka, Ipapo, and Alaga in just about two hours.

It was past 8 o’clock when we left Ago Are behind too and found ourselves approaching the dense forests and mountains heralding Saki. It has grown dark. But from my familiarity with the terrain owed to regular trips to this countryside, I could predict we would hit Saki in about eight or ten minutes, as the bus meandered through the treacherous turns and twists of the hilly road flanked on either side by mighty boulders and bushes.

Emerging from one of these bends, we were forced to an abrupt stop by a barricade of stumps and huge rocks heavily stacked across ours and oncoming lanes! The impact of the bus driver’s suddenly slamming on the break ignited panic and annoyance inside the bus.

Livid the passengers began to protest and hurl abuses at the driver, but their angry voices presently morphed into frightened shrieks and screams as armed men emerged from both sides of the surrounding bush flashing torch lights.

My initial thought that they were probably policemen at a checkpoint evaporated when, to my shock, I saw that the strangers wore masks and were armed with charms, cutlasses, swords, rods, bows and arrows.

Bang! bang!! bang!!! Our assailants started to hit the body of the vehicle with their weapons, harshly ordering us to open the door and come out. As they intensified their pounding of the bus, it dawned on me that we had just ran into an ambush of armed robbers!

Horror!

TO BE CONTINUED

STORM IN SOUTH WEST AS REGION LAUNCHES OPERATION ‘YORUBA KOYA’ (ENOUGH IS ENOUGH)

STORM IN SOUTH WEST AS REGION LAUNCHES OPERATION ‘YORUBA KOYA’ (ENOUGH IS ENOUGH)
SAYS NO RESTRUCTURING, NO ELECTION
SEEKS END TO BAD GOVERNANCE, INSECURITY, CORRUPTION, POVERTY
BY YINKA OLUDAYISI FABOWALE

A groundswell of agitation for regional autonomy, or, failing, self-determination by the Yoruba of the South West geo-political zone of Nigeria, will boil over this week across the six core states of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states.
The movement, which has grown like an avalanche and undergone fermentation since the historic Yoruba Summit held in Ibadan in September last year, effervesced last week with a series of action commenced by diverse organisations, youths, activists and other stakeholders within the ethnic nation, to press home the collective demand.
First was the surprise emergence of over 30 billboards and signposts at strategic locations in the capitals of the states that formerly made up the old Western Region including Kwara Kogi and Edo states. Residents of the state capital woke up on Tuesday, April 10, to behold the signages with the bold message: “This is Yorubaland”.
On Thursday, some pressure groups the Agbekoya revolutionary farmers, Oodua People’s Congress, Afenifere and others, addressed a world press conference at which they enunciated the goals of the struggle that, according to them was to safeguard the security of the people of the region and restore Yoruba onto the path of glory and socio-economic progress being undermined by bad governance, corruption and breakdown of law and order in Nigeria
With the rallying cry: “Yoruba Koya (Enough is Enough)”, the groups announced a three-point resolution, which it called the “Yoruba April Declaration”.
This, which is a mere affirmation and elaboration of the September 2017 Yoruba Summit, reads:
We give notice that unless our demands for a stronger more viral nation is accepted, Yorubas will pull out of the 1914 Amalgamation treaty that gave birth to Nigeria
We reject the present constitution of the Federal Government until so amended to fulfil our expectations in Yorubaland
We demand as a first step the restructuring of the country to give us a region in Yorubaland before any election is conducted in Yorubaland. Immediate notice is served on Ekiti and Osun states.
The groups, in the declaration, copies of which were distributed at the venue, urged: “All true sons and daughters of Yorubaland must immediately imbibe and adhere to this call for freedom and unity of Yorubaland in the spirit of the Yoruba Parapo treaty”, while also serving saboteurs and traitors warning that they would reap the retributions for their actions “in the land of Oduduwa”.
Veteran of the Agbekoya civil uprising which challenged the government of the defunct Western State in the 60s, 109 - year -old Ayalu Olalere, who was spokesman, threatened that the amalgam of the various Yoruba organisations would mobilise people of the region to pull out of the 1914 amalgamation that gave birth to Nigeria as a nation.
The groups also stated that it would do everything within the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the United Nations Charter to free the region from poverty and bad governance afflicting it.
The following day, scores of placard-bearing youths also took to the streets in the state capitals and some major towns including Lagos, Akure, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Ado Ekiti, Osogbo and Ore in Ondo State, on peaceful demonstrations, chanting slogans and echoing these demands. A chieftain in the group’s high command disclosed that the objective of the demonstration was to sensitize and mobilise the populace for the actualisation of the Yoruba agenda.
Main Page learnt that to demonstrate the seriousness of the Yoruba resolve, there is no let-up in the campaign, as the army of youths are expected to carry their message to each State House of Assembly this week. The aim is to extract the legislators’ support for and ratification of the declaration for onward transmission and action by the National Assembly.
This is to be followed by town hall meetings in each senatorial zones in the six core states by the Yoruba Koya Team led by Yoruba Council of Youths, OPC and other solidarity groups. The objective, sources explained is to make elected public office holders accountable for the remaining period of their tenure.
Like the feat achieved with the 2017 Summit, the renewed agitation/campaign is already being talked about for the massive solidarity and unity it enjoys among Yoruba leaders, as well as the disparate socio-political and interest groups down to the grassroots.
The movement, sources said, not only enjoyed the backing of retired members of the civil and military intelligentsia, but also local vigilante and security outfits. Of the involvement of groups such as OPC and Agbekoya, believed to have supernatural powers, one of the leaders said: “It is the first time that force and magic would be meeting to lend a hand to the struggle for freedom and defence of our common destiny”.
The time may have come for Nigeria to seriously pay heed and positively engage the people with a view to addressing their demands.

NIGERIA’S SKEWED FEDERALISM TIES DOWN YORUBA’S WORLD POWER POTENTIAL
(Interview with a chieftain of Yoruba Parapo)
YINKA OLUDAYISI FABOWALE

What is the current movement all about?
Well, some of us work for Yorubaland and what the general consensus of Yorubas, the organisations and various groups is, is we have to go self-searching on how can we free ourselves from bondage, not bondage necessarily from the Federal Government of Nigeria, but bondage of our souls and minds by the political class that we have created over the years. It’s obvious that most of us have abandoned the responsibility of ombudsman to a non-viral press, sorry to say… to an untrained class, to a decaying civil service structure and basic fabric of discipline, societal order lost in the mad rush for money. And we say enough is enough. That’s how Yoruba Koya is the theme message, and a prayer that “Oduduwa a gbe wa”
How long has this movement been on, which and how inclusive and representative of all shades of opinion?
Well I can say this group has been on for as long as the Yorubas. You remember so many years ago we signed the Yoruba Parapo Treaty. The treaty is what guides the philosophy behind Ekiti, Ijesha and Ijebu and Egba and all other tribes deciding to end the Yoruba wars and then come back as one unit. Unfortunately, it was a ploy by the British to take control of Yorubaland… and that is how you came about the 1914 amalgamation declaration, whereas what we signed up for was to end the war, and to start trading and always to bring something to the centre to develop our land. So, the British I’m sure recognized the strength in wanting to do that. So they turned against us. Ever since, we’ve always been the suspect, the suspicious character of intellectualism, and progressiveness, we’ve always been the victim and you find out that our Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, talks about this a lot, that we went into Whiteman colonization, back into black colonization... it’s worse than bad, when your fellow human sees you as nothing and you are of the same race, same country and when you are oppressed by a fellow country man, in your country, you are like a second class citizen, you have to sit down and re-examine that and see why is it that I’m regarded as a second hand in my own country. The struggle for Yoruba nation, or region is not fantasy but real. And the reason why it is real, unfortunately for Nigeria, is that we remember, for example, that you have Cocoa House, you have Liberty Stadium, you have Bodija Housing Estate , you have NTC, you have Ikeja Industrial Estate, you have Wema Board, you have quite a whole lot of things, which are legacies or proofs of our people’s capability set in the past by our forefathers, and yet continuing with the country called Nigeria, as currently constituted, we have not been able to move beyond setting up a super Wema Board or making UCH, which was number one as far back as 1963 in Africa, back to number one, UCH which was easily ranked first to five in the Commonwealth, so what are we talking about? Singapore was not even a country yet by that time, it was just coming up. Today you have like 10 UCHs in Singapore, so we have lost it, completely lost it and we are losing it every day, we are losing our values, we are losing our psyche and that’s the worst part of it, that a man can wake up in Nigeria and he has nothing to do and for a businessman to wake up and his business is all gone, like a market woman gets to the market and all her goods have been taken away and like you come to school and there is no school, no teachers, no classrooms, you keep building classrooms and you keep budgeting for new classrooms. What kind of country does that? You have a situation where we know somebody earns monthly millions of Naira able to finish the road in his senatorial district, for him to give N5 million out or N10million or N3million out of this on a monthly basis for 10 months so that they can tar the road in his area, yet, you can’t get him. We have to put a stop to all that.

In specific terms, what you’re demanding restructuring?
Well, in that area I do not have the mandate of the Yoruba Summit group to discuss anything. You caught me with restructuring handbills and posters and you are still asking me why and I am telling you I have been sent on an errand, I am an errand boy. To talk on restructuring, I think that people like Yinka Odumakin and others are there to tell the world, what Yorubas think about restructuring, but if you ask me what this is all about, first it is about restructuring Yorubaland.
How? You mean of the political mess and bad governance that you talked about?
(Chuckles)… Calling it a mess is a glorifying word to use, that thing is worse than mess, this mess didn’t start yesterday, it started so many years ago, like 36 years ago, when the military completely took over our minds and souls, and we have since been guided, goaded with guns and ammunition over the years, police became thieves, thieves became police, soldiers became thieves, thieves became soldiers and governors became thieves, thieves became governors, senator became thieves, thieves became senators and it’s been on and on like that. we also have the rot in some of our traditional institutions with the exception of a few, with due regard to our highnesses… I mean, I always say it, I am proud to be an Ijebu man, because my royal father, Oba S.K Adetona, is a shinning example of what royalty is about, yes he is a businessman, yes, he has tremendous wealth, but that is his role, but you can’t see him begging for contract or oil wealth and he’s never afraid to speak truth to power. If our fathers can return to that, then you can control the children.
So, what do you set out to achieve with this campaign?
Well on the long run, we’re talking about safety, security, good governance, we’re talking about probity and accountability.
What do you mean by security?
Well, you heard the President said that there are no Fulani herdsmen anymore, but Gadhafi trained foot soldiers in Nigeria. So, the President has told us our land has been invaded by foreigners, That’s what my President has told me, he said Nigerians beware, your land has been invaded by Gadhafi’s foot soldiers.  Also a while ago, General T.Y. Danjuma said be prepared to defend yourselves. You have to take a cue from the two military men who have access to power and who are in power, what they said is, be prepared to defend yourself.
But the problem of gunmen/herdsmen killings is not as serious or pronounced in Yoruba land as in the middle belt, I would think.
It’s because the press has kept quiet, there are killings in Oke-Ogun area, yes, Kogi, Kwara.
And a caution is on what the president has said, I think we should believe that someone has recruited this people and using them to cause havoc in Nigeria and indirectly they want to move into Yorubaland. let’s think about it, let’s rationalise, someone must have recruited this people that the government is talking about and who are so many in Nigeria and they are using the cows as the shield. That’s why what the Agbekoya said is very sacrosanct, they spoke yesterday, that was 12th, that from 12th of April, Yorubaland has become sacred, sacred in the sense that it abhors danger, it abhors incursion of any form, either man or animal, and any man or animal found disturbing the peace and tranquillity of Yorubaland, that’s what the old man said.
Are you engaging the state governments on this? Do you have their support?
The government is a loving friend, because it’s an Odua thing… I want to see the government that would say he is not in support of Yoruba Koya, I’m waiting to hear the governor that would say Yoruba are not suffering, I’m waiting to hear the governor that would say Yoruba suffering is not enough, waiting to see the governor that would say the shackle of corruption that has overtaken Yorubaland should not be broken, the governor that would say that Yorubas should be second rate citizens.
Your strategy seems to be that of peaceful resistance, but how far can you go, in real terms of achieving your goals, if there’s no direct linkage or engagement of the authorities?
Slow and steady, persistence, when you drum hard into the ears of the deaf, if he doesn’t hear the sound, he would at least see the people dancing, if you dance in front of a blind man, even if he doesn’t see you dance, he would hear the sweet beat.
Elections are here, how do you get public-office  seeking politicians to key into this Yoruba agenda
Well, when you suffer a lot, it gets to a time when God says your suffering is over, if you want to go biblical... you’d recall the story of the Israelites, if you want to go modern day and talk about heroism, you can say Mandela. Yoruba as a nation is supposed to be a world power, Yoruba has refused to be a world power because of the continuous suffering and marginalization we’re facing in Nigeria, our ability to grow to our aspirations is constantly bungled by fiddling and mincing with government that sees nothing in the value of humans, but what they have in their bank account, So the Yoruba Koya project is a God-driven project, blessed by royalty supported by the youth and promoted by the others.
So, this project is about the agitation across the federation for self-determination? Is there any understanding between you and other regions?
Well I can say this, I don’t want to hold brief, as you know everyone has their own duty that they are doing. The handshake across the east has been done, we were led by Afenifere into that, they came back home to give their response, the South-South has done their own rally, waiting for the South-East to conclude theirs, but, as Yoruba “A kin fi Ago alago sare”. We don’t copy others. Yorubas have their ways of doing their things, we didn’t tell anybody we didn’t beg anybody before we did the rally on  September 7th 2017, we were not involved in consultations with any region about why we want to say enough is enough, we have recognised our position, we have valued our future and the future of our youth, I feel we should not stop mortgaging these on the lap of  a nationhood, called Nigeria, this where some of us differ, this is where Yoruba Koya is in the mind of every Yoruba man or woman, it cannot be supressed by anybody aspiring to be A or anyone who wants to control B it, is not available. Yoruba land is not for sale you can go to political parties, you can talk to political elders, but we’ve had enough in Yorubaland and it’s not going to be party as usual.
So how inclusive is this movement, how grounded?
Day by day you’d magnify the work of God, Day by day you’d magnify the growth in the mind of Yorubas, day by day you’d see what God is doing in the lives of Yoruba nationwide as they begin their goals and aspiration of the walk to freedom, we are overripe to be a world power, and that is, if Nigeria can’t be a world power, allow Yoruba be a world power.

Nigeria’s open sore in Soyinka’s Aba Alapata... Oyo ANA/Oracles Repertory honour Nobel laureate with a parody of the nation's ills

From YINKA OLUDAYISI FABOWALE, Ibadan

The unenviable state of the Nigerian nation was again theatrically laid bare in Aba Alapata, Prof. Wole Soyinka’s latest play staged at the Arts Theatre, University of Ibadan to commemorate the literary giant’s 80th birthday on Sunday, July 13, 2014.

The production, put up by Oracles Repertory Theatre Company in collaboration with the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Oyo State chapter, is a dynamic, satirical comedy of errors that brought out the open wound of the nation in so many tropes and symbolisms, depicting the rape and “butchering” of the nation, struggles for power-sharing, mis-governance, the evil of godfatherism and the insensitivity of the political elite towards the toiling masses among others.

 •A scene from the play: Seni Pinhero as Alaba and chiefs from the traditional council.

I WAS ALMOST CONSUMED BY TRIBULATIONS -BLACK HERO, PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED MUSICIAN

.As debut album rekindles hope in Nigeria
By Yinka Oludayisi Fabowale 

 KEEP HOPE ALIVE. That is the title of the wave -making hit song by Lagos–based musician and comedian, Black Hero (Okoro Emmanuel Izukamma).

The hit single released on audio CDs and currently enjoying generous airplay on some radio stations in the nation's former capital and Abuja, comes in three popular musical genres- reggae, gyration and hip hop, obviously to cater for the tastes of the diverse segments of music loving Nigerians.

Black Hero

Copyright war 'll be better served with public education- Gbenro Adegbola, First Veritas boss

Adegbola

By YINKA OLUDAYISI FABOWALE
Mr. Gbenro Adegbola is the CEO/MD of First Veritas,  a digital publishing firm he went to set up after quitting Evans Publishers Ltd, where he was the Managing Director  some years back.
Adegbola's crossover to digital publishing was an expression of a cumulative experience he garnered in a tripartite career spanning decades- broadcasting, publishing and ICT. From his stint with Spectrum Books, through co-founding his own publishing outfit, Book Craft and his switch to Evans, which he not only helped in reviving from comatose, but put on an even business keel, Adegbola has always striven to push the frontiers of the industry.

WHO OWNS THE LAND?

Amid political undercurrents, Ibadan cosmopolitanism sparks controversy between natives and residents claiming indigeneship rights by virtue of birth, statutory residency

By YINKA OLUDAYISI FABOWALE

Who is an Ibadan person?

Ordinarily, a casual visit to the densely populated inner ring of the Oyo State capital such as Beere, Idi arere, Idi ose, Foko, Inalende, Oniyanrin, Ita merin, or the clusters of farmsteads/villages that make up its suburbs will readily yield up a kindred population often perceived as “sons and daughters of the soil”.
They are the tribe of locals with faces scarred with tribal marks and a  funny Yoruba dialect that has made them the butt of  comic jokes for its phonetic defect in pronouncing some English words. For instance, an average Ibadan man substitutes the English consonants, [ch and sh] for [s] and vice versa, such that he pronounces ‘chiken’ as ‘sikin’, ‘show’ as ‘so’ and ‘sure’ as ‘suo’.
But, that concept of the identity of an Ibadan indigene is being challenged, amid modernization, social changes and contest for power for the control of political levers in the megalopolis itself, reputed to be the largest south of the Sahara and the larger Oyo political landscape of which it is the headquarters.
Advocates of a redefinition of who an Ibadan native is argue their position not only on the Nigerian Constitution, but, by the very nature of the Oyo capital as a settler city!
Ibadan has been in existence for only  a little over 200 years, formed by refugees fleeing their homesteads during the Yoruba inter-tribal wars as well as Fulani Jihadists after the sack of Old Oyo, headquarters of the famous Oyo Empire.
It became a formidable community because of its hilly and mountainous topography, which made it impregnable for enemies, as well as the presence of a conglomeration  of mighty war generals and men of valour who trooped from various Yoruba kingdoms-Oyo, Iwo, Ife, Ijebu, Egba, Ejigbo, Efon Alaye, Ibadan, etc to make it a military camp. The invincibility of the Ibadan Imperial Army attracted more migrants from these and other parts of Yorubaland seeking protection from the bloody internecine conflicts ravaging the entire landscape, thus swelling the population of the city to its present size!
Although traditions had it that the area grew from a small community earlier founded in the 16th century by a small band of migrants led by Lagelu, a prince from Ile Ife, the cradle of the Yoruba people and was known as Eba Odan (An area by the Savannah), this history is hardly reckoned with in the emergence of the present Ibadan for two main reasons. The early settlers were said to have lived on the mountain and shifted location at least twice.
In fact, descendants of  Lagelu lost out in the power play following the incursion of  military men into the fast growing city, which established for itself a republican system of government, with a unique system of political succession and power sharing between the nobles and the military corps.
Today, members of the original lineage complain against what they called exclusion from the Olubadan royal stool.
Their head, the Aboke, however, serves as chief priest of the deity believed to protect and prosper the city.
The new view

Because they came in succession over time, champions of the new idea of an Ibadan indigene, are saying the concept of indigeneship must necessarily cover even latter generations of migrants and people born in the city.
An Ibadan socialite and businessman, Mr. Femi Bablola, remarks that Ibadan is composed of people from virtually every part of Yorubaland, who flocked to the city because of commerce or to avoid wars at one time or the other. “My question is, who drew the cut off line, that you came in 1960 and as such, you can’t claim Ibadan? That’s what I keep asking people. Who ruled the line and when was it ruled?, ” querries Babalola, one of the propellers of the economy of the city, born and bred there, although with roots in Fiditi, near Oyo, in Afijio Local Government area of the state.
But, an Ibadan High Chief, Oloye Lekan Alabi, the Aare Alasa Olubadan, disagrees with Babalola. The former General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Odua Investments Company says: “There’s no controversy at all. An Ibadan indigene, by the qualification of indigeneship is a woman or man, whose ancestry dates back to the founding of Ibadan, just as it affects a Bangladeshi, a Mexican, a Briton or any other race in the world.”
According to him, anyone who cannot trace his roots to the fourth generation (of the city), cannot claim to be an Ibadan indigene, “because we’re a people with distinct culture, philosophy, language and customs.”
Alabi explains further: “Anybody who says his ancestor came during or after (national) independence, even if it were to serve in the civil service or work with the Railways, is missing the point, if he imagines that makes him an indigene. He will be told a story of his life. Mr. Fayed, owner of Harrods and Fulham City FC in England, does not have a British citizenship. Britain still renews his visa. In Britain, there are classes of citizens. You have the likes of Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister, who are full-bred and others granted citizenship if they fulfilled some immigration laws and conditions.”
Oloye Alabi says given the greatness and cosmopolitan nature of Ibadan as well as its position as the de facto political capital of the South West, it is understandable that people would wish to identify with it. “Ibadan is a magnet that attracts, like the USA”, he remarks. What more, the people, he notes, are hospitable and accommodating of strangers, irrespective of tribe or ethnic backgrounds, a situation, he says, explains why it keeps attracting Nigerians from different parts of the country to settle and flourish within the conurbation.
Yet, he waxes proverbial: “Oko ko le je ti omo, ti baba, ko ma ni ala” (Even there are boundaries in a family farm holding), implying that stakeholders must recognize limits.
The position of the law

However, a constitutional lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Dr. Akin Onigbinde, believes that the law would seem to back the claim of those insisting on non-discriminatory definition of the Ibadan person. According to him,  provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and the Electoral Act confer the rights of indigeneship of a town or state on the citizen who was born or has resided there for a period of at least 10 years, especially with respect to participation in the political/electoral process.
The former Speaker of the state House of Assembly submits: "Every Nigerian is free to live in any part of the federation without fear of discrimination on the basis of tribe, ethnicity, religion or gender."
Oloye Alabi agrees, but at the same time differs with this legal clause. He says: “That’s the law and the constitution, not only in Nigeria, but everywhere. Or else, there won’t be a Nigerian in the British Parliament. But, there’s the law and there’s culture… and it’s not peculiar to Ibadan, or Benin, or Enugu.
‘There’s something that makes people unique and have special bond to their homeland. The best example of this nationalism is reflected in the Jews. They are homogenous and impregnable both in their homeland and abroad. You meet their girls for relationship, it can’t go beyond friendship, because their tradition would not allow it. The same applies to some other cultures and popular towns even in Nigeria.
“This special bond is why some people, despite the fame and fortune they made in foreign lands, put it in their WILLS or instruct their families not to bury them outside their family roots. They insist they must be brought home."
A come one, come all city

However, the Otun Olubadan, the second in command to the paramount ruler of the city, High Chief Lekan Balogun, describes the dispute as unnecessary and contrived by the proponents and antagonists for selfish pursuits. His words: "The controversy is man-made. It is unreal. People are only overreacting to the political maneuvering of others, who sometimes seek to overexploit the indigeneship issue in their favour. Which city in the world is not a settler city? Every city has the same status as Ibadan. It's just that Ibadan is a more recent discovery of just about 200/300 years. Because of its historical context, it's assumed it had no founder. But, this doesn't deprive the Ibadan man of his indigeneship than Nigerians today who are British or American citizens. A non-Ibadan man who acquires citizenship also becomes an Ibadan man by law and constitutionally.
"I'm an Ali Iwo man in Ibadan. Up till about 300 years ago, I was Aremo of Ogbomoso. In the interval of 200-300 years, I became Balogun (Chief of Army Staff) of Iwo. In the course of prosecuting wars, we co-founded Ibadan, in 1863, we formally moved to Ibadan and we have produced an Olubadan, Mehmudu Ali Iwo I (1952). Now, I'm Otun Olubadan. What I have said here applies to everyone in the world."
Balogun is right. Indeed, Saturday Sun learnt that the origins of many of Ibadan prominent personalities are traceable to other Yoruba town. For instance, the forebears of the late strongman of Ibadan politics, Chief Lamidi Adedibu are said to come from Oyo, multi-billionaire, late Alhaji AbdulAzeez Arisekola Alao's from Efon Alaye and Second Republic Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Richard Akinjide's from Ogbomoso!
In fact, the immediate past Olubadan, the city;s paramount ruler, Oba Odulana Odugade hailed from Ijebuland in Ogun State!
Chief Balogun observes that: "The controversy is this great in Ibadan because of its status as the political capital of the West. The pressure is not as much, say in Ekiti, or any other part of Yorubaland. Those who want to claim Ibadan are perching from the perspective of disadvantage of not being from Ibadan. And those trying to preserve the sanctity of indigeneship from the perspective of depriving them…. Or you might as well expect an Ibo person to become an Olubadan. I think what those who make claim to origins fight for is that as the ones who can lay claim to family relationships that go beyond immediacy, to greet grandfathers and so forth in the city, they qualify to be called Ibadan persons, more so since they can't claim those places where they'd left again, unlike the newcomers, who still maintain a cord of relationship with and like to claim their hometowns when it is advantageous to them. "A disadvantage would be entrenched thereby," notes Chief Balogun, a Senator of the Federal Republic and former Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Planning.
But, Balogun says both parties are merely being selfish, stressing: "It's like saying you 're not part of humanity."
A game for political fortune seekers

The intrigues to exploit the indigeneship question become even more intense and complex when there are political competitions or when prospects of material advantage are involved. For instance, during the Second Republic, the now famous slogan, "Omo wa ni, e je o se" (He is our own, vote him), became the rallying cry with which the Ibadan political elites led by the former National Chairman of the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN, Chief Meredith Adisa Akinloye, Chief Akinjide (SAN) and Chief Adedibu, mobilized people of the city, with one of the highest electoral population to support Dr. Victor Omololu Olunloyo, an Ibadan man against Chief Bola Ige in the 1983 governorship election in the old Oyo State. Ige, the incumbent governor, lost the poll, although in controversial circumstances.
During the 1999 elections into the Fourth Republic, former governor of the state, Alhaji Lam Adesina of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, also had to fight vicious propaganda disclaiming him as an indigene of the city by opponents. In a desperate bid to stop him, the firebrand pro-democracy activist, who was set to win the ballot, was  said to be a descendant of an itinerant Ibira man from Kogi State that worked as a labourer for Ibadan farmers in Oluyole Local Government area, a suburb of Ibadan.
Lam, as he was popularly called, was forced to unearth details of his pedigree and origin from his family compound in Kudeti area of Ibadan South East Local Government, as well as Ikija village in Oluyole  to counter the cheap falsehood.
The Ibadans, observers allege, have also been using their numerical voting population, which amounts to 52 per cent of that of the entire state, to politically dominate other zones including Oyo, Ogbomoso, Ibarapa, and Oke Ogun, especially in the governance.
Since the Third Republic, Ibadan alone has produced all the governors, who ruled the state, except for Otunba Adebayo Alao Akala (2007-2011) from Ogbomoso, who was elected with the massive backing of Ibadans. Among governors produced by Ibadan are: Dr. Olunloyo, Kolapo Ishola, Adesina, Senator Rashidi Ladoja and Senator Abiola Ajimobi.
The apparent stranglehold of Ibadan on the rest of the state has been ascribed to the more than passing interest its establishment has taken in the affairs and governance of the state. Apart from surreptitious meetings by indigenous clubs and associations all organized under the umbrella of the Central Council of Ibadan indigenes, leaders of thought in the city including eminent professionals, retired bureaucrats, diplomats, traditional chiefs and industrialists take positions on candidates to back and dictate the direction of votes. An example of this was when the Ambassador Olu Saanu-led group openly endorsed Senator Ajimobi for the 2007 governorship election, when the ambivalence of Ladoja, who initially refused entreaties to withdraw from the race for his kinsman threatened to give the trophy to Alao Akala. The latter, however, clinched the votes.
But, critics say it would be uncharitable to cast Ibadan people in the cloak of Xenophobes. The natives, they insist, have always been very accommodating and tolerant of strangers and had even demonstrated  maturity and sophistication in  the evolution of political marriage with other tribes to whom they conceded leadership in the past. They cited the case of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, (from Ijebu Remo in the present Ogun State) who ruled the old Western Region, with Ibadan as capital, and later, Ige, an Ijesa man (Osun State), who was governor of the old Oyo, carved out of the erstwhile political behemoth.
"You must, in fact, recall that the Ibadan Peoples Party led by Chief Akinloye, made Awo Premier, when its members, having won all its constituencies in the elections in the early 50s, cross carpeted overnight, thus, giving the Action Group the edge to form government instead of Zik's (Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe's NCNC," remarks erudite historian, Prof. Charles Olutayo Adesina, although he notes that, that move in itself could have stemmed from primordial, paternalistic sentiments of solidarity for a fellow Yoruba, as has been alleged in some quarters.
Yet, non Ibadan natives have continued to enjoy the freedom and backing of people of the city to realize their political aspirations. One of such is Hon. Babatunde Oduyoye, who hails from Ijebu, Ogun State, but elected to represent Ibadan North West/South West Federal Constituency in the National Assembly and a former Chairman of Ibadan North Local Government, Beckley from Ogun State.
Also, observers note that although there exist some groups such as Ibadan Descendants  Union (IDU) in public institutions in the metropolis suspected to have been formed to defend and promote the interests of members, these are hardly known to exploit the advantage, even when members are at the headship to achieve their goals, or gain undue advantage during recruitment, promotion or disciplinary exercises. A top official of The Polytechnic, Ibadan told Saturday Sun of  how he and a colleague, who is a fellow Ibadan man felt let down by the association when they had some issues with the polytechnic management some years ago.
 A professor at the University of Ibadan also hinted that although there was a burgeoning movement and attempt by a few Ibadan elements angling for positions to use such "parapo" (communal solidarity) attitude to gain political advantage on the campus, it did not succeed and soon fizzled out.
As 2019 draws closer and political aspirants file out again, observers note that the indigeneship question may turn out the trump card that will spell the success or doom of many in the quest for power.
But, the former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Onigbinde, has an advice. "In this matter, our people should be guided in their choices by electing only people that are competent and committed to the rescue and development of our geopolitical space, wherever they come from," he enjoins.

This article was first written for and published in Saturday Sun.