By Taju Tijani
Monday night in Cotonou, Republic of Benin, will remain a dark chapter in the fight for a Yoruba homeland. The silence of the graveyard was so loud that all Yoruba heard it loud and clear. That night will either remain a memory or a day of grander aspiration for all Yoruba worldwide. That was the night the enemy got him – Sunday Igboho was caught in the autocratic fork of the most hated demagogue in the world. His ‘kidnap’ was like a stab in the heart – in the heart of millions of freedom loving Yoruba who are now facing the ugly prospect of facing down the irrational autocracy of General Buhari by all means necessary.
General Buhari has trampled the waveless form of our democracy by building bonfire of lies and wicked framing against Nigerians who are raising their voices against the terrorism he is unleashing against Southern Nigerians. The pervasive effect of his authoritarian reflex and blind obduracy is exerting restraining voices to speak out by calling him out in the most unflattering and indelicate languages ever used for a sitting Nigerian leader.
Today, General Buhari is variously perceived as a bigot, bully, storm trooper, mad dog, autocrat, repressive, wicked, nepotistic, sectionalist, tribalist, divisive figure, stubborn, clueless, anti-democrat, spiteful, illiterate, unfit, Islamic fundamentalist, Jihadist, militaristic, shameless Fulani apologist, anti-Igbo, anti-Yoruba, anti-Benue, dangerous, war monger, one realm thinker, lawless, backward, tyrant and incompetent.
Right in the middle of the 21st century, Nigerians are witnessing the rise of a muscular form of democracy from a leader who is daily retreating into a dangerous cave of dictatorship. By his conduct and action General Buhari has brought democracy to disrepute by grounding it in injustice, repression, intolerance, and shame. Through his jaundiced and narrow vision of nation building, we are witnessing a resurgence of military diktat under the cover of democracy across Nigeria.
Both Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho are the brew from his distillery of nepotism and bad statesmanship. Sunday Igboho did not just crawl into our tribal consciousness just like that. What is unfolding speaks to the administration of General Buhari. He brought division into the polity through his stubborn and narrow spectrum Fulani hegemonic dream.
He emboldens and weaponises the Fulani nationalism through his policies of nepotism, capture, dominion, and the narrative from Allah that Nigeria is the property of the Fulani. The Fulani have continued to pose a threat and present danger to Yoruba social fabric. And getting our land back, though a matter of life and death, is nevertheless a future war we must fight. We remember the despoliation, savage killings, and kidnappings of Igangan. To Igboho, Igangan, Igbo Ora, Tapa and Ayete was momentous history that would never go without making a stand. He made a civilised stand and rallied the Yoruba to a just cause.
Of a truth, the Ibarapa local government area of Igangan is an unlikely place for the theatre of tribal insurrection. It is an unlikely place to commence a trench warfare to decide once and for all who owns the land? This is a sleepy, rustic, nondescript, and peaceful Oyo town. However, small as the town may be, it harbours Seriki Saliu Kadri, his family and a strong cohesion of Fulani jihadists who are ready to kill Yoruba in a dirty turf war. Igangan has turned into a stronghold of rapists, extortionists, kidnappers, killers, and land grabbers.
Igboho as a latter-day saviour came at the back of Igangan and we televised his velvet revolution live as he sailed across our cities in carnival-like rallies. With his courage, disarming smile, simplicity, and humility, he was able to mobilise a large circle of trust and solidarity with his Yoruba tribe at a defining moment when his people faced genocide from armed Fulani herdsmen. He gave us an elevated understanding of the auguries that lay ahead if the activities of Fulani invaders are not curtailed in South Western Nigeria.
He was able to contribute to a new social education through his seamless and peaceful awareness rallies that soon gained global respect, support and cult following. On the other hand, General Buhari has been able to foist on Nigerians a “bent” democracy that suits his autocratic temper to defend Fulani sectarian interest, curtail freedom, brutalise Nigerians, clamp down on protesters and hunt down self determination groups. His totalitarian impulse ferments in more oppression, tyranny, and irrational reactions to oppositional figures. He has droned rule of law in his insidious journey of evil legacy of pain and punishment against cowed and traumatised Nigerians.
In his bigoted and identitarian politics, he cuddles armed Fulani herdsmen, murderous bandits, merciless kidnappers, and millions of Northern terrorists while sending his gestapo police to hunt, maim and kill southern protesters and self determination agitators like Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and Igboho Oosha. With General Buhari, there is no swing away from the brutalising pendulum of militaristic fetishism.
The Beninois “kidnap” of Sunday Igboho has brought Yoruba to a place of existential tribal panic. That motor of progress for a Yoruba homeland may have gone quiet but we are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Igboho as he battles to free himself from the evil fork of Daura monster. We are evolving a more radical determination to win our freedom from the evil unity with Northern barbarians who have scant regard for human lives.
Pa Ayo Adebanjo has said that the Dauran tyrant has declared war on the Yoruba people by going after Sunday Igboho. Yoruba worldwide have now decided to crawl out from their insulated lives and defend the humanity of Igboho and his noble cause. The next few days pose a tough challenge for all Yoruba and we must show unflinching loyalty, solidarity, and readiness to fight should a pin singe Sunday Igboho. We all stand with Igboho. Yoruba Nation Now!!!
How much longer can we continue to bear Fulani conceit without a radical and major response in the language they too understand? Fulani are miserable cowards. They are bullies. They thrive with the politics of fear and intimidation. With the seizure of Sunday Igboho, are we therefore going to see the end of Fulani cavalier insolence in the South Western States? For years, it had become lazily orthodox to imbue the Fulani as the imperial, conquering and fighting force that could face any battle and retreat from none. They are seen as valorous die hard. The fear and terror they carefully succeeded in creating on our psyche has remained a scar across our collective soul. They were able to turn the Yoruba into wilting cowards in their own land. Also, the thunder of money and ambition have both drowned the conscientious voices of Southern politicians in the face of genocide on the people who voted them.
Today the Ndigbo and Yoruba are facing a common enemy that must be routed, driven back to the Sahel, and made to face justice for the crime perpetuated across Nigeria. The campaign by General Buhari to demoralise those agitating for their own homogenous republics has failed. The capture of Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho has turned a new page in the struggle for our dissolution. We, the Ndigbo and Yoruba now have a God-sent chance to collectively reshape our destinies on our own terms through our worldwide army of self-determinants in a blaze of independence, freedom, and victory. For everyday Sunday Igboho and Nnamdi Kanu are kept in Fulani chains, the Ndigbo and Yoruba must be prepared for war.
TT Soundings 