Have you wondered why upon all the moves by the Fulani to kick start a protest against Tinubu, Yoruba people are not calling out Fulani people? They are simply calling out Ndị Igbo, threatening them and accusing them of leading the protest.
The Yoruba are simply playing their usual games which for the last 60 years haven’t failed them. They betray the South and with it make a path with the Fulani. This path has always given the Yoruba lots of edge over others in the south.
In 1966, after the coup that ought to have favoured the Yoruba, because it did not only stop the unrest in the West, it was also executed to make Chief Obafemi Awolowo the president right from the prison the Northern head of State Abubakar Tafawa Balewa put him. But in turn, the Yoruba will later make a U-turn to embrace the same North that caused the political unrest that resulted in the murder of many Yoruba people. They joined the North to fight the East. That was after the kị́lling of more than 700 thousand Easterners butchered in the streets of Northern Nigeria and Lagos. Certainly, the civil war wouldn’t have happened had it been Yoruba did not yield to the war. But they did and the war happened.
Yoruba gained a lot from the war. They became the second after the Fulani, gaining seaports and monopolizing it.
In 2015, Yoruba led by Tinubu ganged up against Goodluck Jonathan, a SOUTHERNER in favour of Mohamadu Buhari, a Northern Fulani man. This betrayal of the South gave Yoruba the vice president of Nigeria for 8 years. Today, it has become certain that Yoruba did not rise against Goodluck Jonathan because they hăte corruption, but because they have betrayal and hypocrisy running in their veins.
In 2019, the Yoruba orchestrated a fake handshake across the Niger. They pretended they wanted to amend their ways and make peace with the entire South against the North. They recruited Femi Fani Kayode for this project and he executed it well. The man will quickly rejoin APC after fooling some Easterners including Ọhaneze with a fake handshake. They played the East perfectly well.
In 2020, during the endsars, after the protest led by Nigerians against the government, Yoruba later accused Ndị Igbo of destroying Lagos. Same thing Britain did after the 1966 coup. Those who will always say that Okpanam is not an Igbo land will call a coup led by Okpanam man an Igbo coup. The treachery and hypocrisy of these people can’t be quantified.
2023 was the epic of it all. Tinubu stole the mandate belonging to Peter Obi, another Southerner. It was a daylight robbery. Yoruba people have always used the interest of the entire South to bargain power from the North. But today, I foresee their chronic betrayal working against them.
The Yoruba people have refused to tackle the Fulani even when they are the ones pushing seriously for the protest. It will reach a moment when they will realise that Fulani people are dammed serious and ready to pursue Tinubu out of office. Then Yoruba will face the North. They will shamelessly try to woo the East to help them stand against the Fulani and fail. They will have no other option than to declare that instead of Tinubu losing the seat to Fulani let Nigeria divide. This will be the Yoruba’s last card.
This might frighten the Fulani, but the crack on Nigeria’s unity must have cut too deep that nothing will pacify the people until Nigeria divides.
Is the Yoruba game about to fail them? The future will tell.
Elochukwu Ohagi, Philosopher, Teacher and Activist, 2024.
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