Omoluabi Socio- cultural Group Says "Southwest is Home to all But Sojourners must not take our tolerance for weakness."
In the last few days, the Nigerian state was busy with the general election which eventually produced a President - Elect who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The overall winner in the Presidential election being Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the former Governor of Lagos State and the architect of the new Lagos we are now all proud of as a people and Nigerians from all States of the Federation. That record being important to us as an achievement for the person of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other men of substance who are products of his school of politics and public administration are privileged to play their own part in the building of a prosperous city.
Omoluabi Team Alliance Socio-cultural Group watched with keen interest in the last few days the attitude of some Nigerians known to be our long time adopted brothers and sisters we voluntarily allowed to assimilate and get on well in the midst of common peace in our ancestral home and in Yoruba land. Post civil war that ended in 1970 as the battle between the Nigerian state and the Biafrans when the clamour for secession and declaration for the biafra republic occupied the media space both locally and internationally. However, it was defeated by the Nigerian government who deployed all arsenals at quenching such unripe ambition. The war was over and there was the need to quickly bring back our own brothers from the east and re- integrate them back into a society that was their home before the break out of the civil war.
To the easterners who saw and witnessed the havoc and wreck the almost three years war left behind in the affected region, their prayer now if asked will be 'never to see such again' before they pass on from the face of the earth. War is a monster and an evil never to wish even an enemy.
At this junction it is now ripe to set the record straight if their sons, daughters and even grandsons and grand daughters are either ignorant of these facts well documented in the book of history or they have deliberately refused to recognize the place and position of history they are not ignorant of. After the civil war, our brothers and sisters from the east where the rising sun is imminent were received and even transported voluntarily to come sojourn in communities in the defunct western region now southwest Nigeria. History told make us know that even a large population of this our brethren were assisted by our fathers bringing them home with the aim of providing comfort, succour, protection and even food to men , women and even children who have lost their homes. Some who were badly injured by the effect of the war told their children and those who cared to listen to their stories said they were not even hopeful of meeting or connecting with their ancestral homes again until when the government of Nigeria agreed to rebuild their villages to justify the pronouncement of ' No victor, No vanquished' as the war ended.
The civil war was indeed a living monster that rendered the ibos homeless in all circumspect. This magnanimity and love shown by our ancestors and fathers in Yoruba land today is gradually being taken for granted and probably seen to be a weakness for us as a people. It cannot be and should not be argued by any one that southwest states belong to the Yorubas and so every other person who is a non- Yoruba by birth is absolutely a sojourner. As a sojourner you are only living and residing within the Yoruba states temporarily because you are either working with government parastatal or doing a lawful business within our domain as a business man, woman or a common trader. Yes as a Nigerian you are permitted under the law of the country to reside in any part of the country to whom you are constitutionally regarded as a citizen. In the face of the legality of your residing in any part of the country, you are also mandated and expected to abide by the laws that seeks the harmonious co-existence of the original owners( landlord) of such communities by inheritance and the tenants( sojourners) who have a temporary right to resources bequeathed to the landowners by their fathers. The Ibos must come to know that all the states in the southwest cannot be negotiated between the Yorubas and other sojourners no matter how friendly and accommodating we may look. It becomes embarrassing to note that our brothers from the eastern part of Nigeria now boast that they jointly own Lagos with the original owners of Lagos. In recent times they claimed they have no home to go, they boasted of having equal rights in our own homes.This they have vowed to extend to Lagos and other parts of the southwest in no distant time. How does a landlord share same right over the ownership of his house with a tenant? It calls for immediate attention and reactions from well meaning Yoruba warlords, human right activists like the agbekoyas and other similar interest groups of the Yoruba extraction.
To our socio- cultural group it is a signal and invitation to ethnic anarchy that can be averted if our brothers from the east will yield to our warnings and advise on this crucial matter. It is getting clearer that the mission of rooting for a Peter Obi as President is targeted at causing civil anarchy as there are secret plans to grab our lands bequeathed to us by our ancestors forcefully under a Peter Obi who is well noted to be an ethnic bigot and a Biafran apologist to the core. Thanks to the supreme God for not approving such personality to preside over the affairs of Nigeria.We however deem it fit by our position as the emerging mouthpiece of the Yoruba people to immediately caution our brothers from the east( the Igbos) to have a rethink and allow us remain friends and brothers we are both noted for close to fifty(50) years and even more. Let us show mutual respect to ourselves as Nigerians and brothers from the southern part of Nigeria. Let us not allow a few elites from the east who may probably have nothing to loose absolutely if hell is let loose by the slightest provocation received by our sons and daughters in the southwest. This you are sure will do no good for those of you whose major and only source of living and investments are here with us in all the nooks and crannies of yoruba land.
Foregoing, we want to absolutely ask that we are allowed to dominate our politics, determine our fates, occupy available spaces and positions that wil better our lots as a people within our own territory, the Yoruba land. We are valiant and not weaklings. Peace and prosperity we ask for in Yoruba land.
Omoluabi Team Alliance is an emerging Socio-cultural Group from the Southwest with members across the six(6) southwestern states including Kogi and Kwara States.
