The murderous activities of the Fulani in Yorubaland first came into prominence with the gruesome killing of Dr Fatai Aborode. On 11 December 2020, Dr Aborode was hacked to death with machetes and swords by a pack of Fulani savages. He had left his family in the UK to return to Nigeria to establish a 400-acre farm to make life better for his people. Dr Aborode’s murder led to the intervention of Sunday ‘Igboho” Adeyemo who asked the State government to evict the Fulani herders. Buhari’s Fulani government was quick to condemn Igboho’s eviction notice but ignored the gruesome murder of Dr Aborode.
On 6 June 2021, Fulani terrorists attacked Igangan, a town in Ọyọ State. They murdered 20 people in cold blood and burnt down the palace. Over the next 2 years, the Fulani periodically attacked Igangan without the perpetrators being apprehended. Sometimes, the Fulani lined up their trussed-up victims at the edge of a mass grave, beheaded them one by one and fell their bodies into the grave. The Fulani murderers were financed and supported by the Miyetti Allah, a Fulani herders’ organisation to which President Buhari belonged. Igboho’s subsequent involvement in mega rallies in State capitals, which was designed to mobilise the Yoruba Nation, rattled the Nigeria government. This led the Ọọni of Ifẹ, a Yoruba Ọba, in charge of the cradle of the Yoruba, to visit Buhari to who he described Igboho as his hothead ‘son’ that was easily dealt with. Buhari took the Ọọni’s cue and on 1 July 2021, Buhari sent his murder squad to assassinate Igboho who was fortunate to escape with his life to the neighbouring Benin Republic. Igboho’s exile ended the successful Yoruba self-determination mega rallies. Buhari pursued Igboho even in exile. Not one Ọba, not one governor, not one legislator visited Igangan or commiserated with Dr Aborode’s family.
On 5 June 2022, Fulani terrorists using gun fire and bombs attacked St Francis Xavier Church in Ọwọ́, near Akurẹ, capital of Ondo State. The Fulani savages murdered 80 unarmed worshippers including up to a dozen children, attending mass for the Pentecost on this ‘Ọwọ́ black Sunday’. Ondo State at that time had been suffering low level insurgency by the Fulani savages with increasing violence from Fulani herders. Shortly after the genocide, Buhari was seen partying with his political party (APC) members. Pope Francis prayed; Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) made statements and asked for worldwide condemnation. The Governor and the Ọlọ́wọ́ (Ọwọ́ Ọba) ‘intervened’ but only to prevent reprisal attacks and protect the Fulani perpetrators. The Yoruba Nation was shocked but Yoruba leaders did nothing. Despite some bogus claims, no perpetrators have paid for this heinous crime.
The farming communities of Ogun State, particularly Yewa, have for several years now suffered atrocities perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen killers intent on taking Yoruba communal land. The Fulani brutally murdered many, raped women and wantonly destroyed farms. The Fulani used their cows to pollute water resources. Villages lay in ruins with their souls ripped out as the inhabitants in their thousands upon thousands flee to the neighbouring Benin Republic, with no idea when it would be safe to return home or whether there would still be home to return to. The state government has done near nothing meaningful to address this problem despite endless loud and painful pleas from the Yoruba victims. To justify doing nothing, the cowardly state authorities sanitised and equivalenced the Fulani savagery by calling it farmer-herder clash.
Ọyọ State, then Ogun State, then Ekiti State; Yoruba people in each naked and exposed for Fulani savages to hunt as prey. Yet, there is no shortage of ‘leaders’ in the Yorubaland. The Ọba, self-styled ‘igba keji Oriṣa’ (second in command to the Oriṣa), was the Yoruba leader chosen for us by custom and tradition. It turns out that today’s Ọba is a hireling chosen for us, and paid for, by Nigeria’s governments. The Yoruba politician was a Yoruba leader chosen for us by a Yoruba political party once called the Action Group. It turns out that today’s Yoruba politician is a hireling chosen for us in accordance with the whims of the illegitimate Fulani constitution of 1999. The Oloriẹgbẹ was a Yoruba leader who formed an organisation for the specific purpose of liberating the Yoruba people Castro, Gandhi and/or Mandela style. It turns out that today’s Oloriẹgbẹ is a hireling chosen for us by his acolytes to go on a frolic of his own. The Reverend/Alufa was a Yoruba leader chosen for us by the God of Israel or the God of Mecca to gift us the beautiful life. It turns out that today’s Reverend/Alufa is a hireling chosen for us not by God but by the amount of offering the Reverend/Alufa could extort from the poor.
It turns out sadly that the Yoruba are led by toothless tigers. The ‘toothless tiger’ is an expression used to describe a person who appears powerful like the tiger but is in reality powerless; an individual who claims to be strong but is in reality effete. In his domain, the tiger was a fearsome cat that used its teeth to bite, hold, slice and tear; to penetrate deeply into its prey. The tiger depended for survival on its teeth. So, for a tiger to have no teeth is a disaster of monumental proportions. Yoruba leaders show themselves to be toothless tigers when confronted with Fulani atrocities.
Surely there must be redemption, you pray; even a toothless tiger’ still had left some courage, and will, that he summoned to defend themselves. A ‘toothless tiger’ still had claws that he could use, you say. Suppose the Olubadan (Ibadan Ọba) were to declare a day of mourning for the Bodija bomb victims, and a funeral march from Mapo Hill to Bodija, that he himself would address in person, hundreds of thousands of the Yoruba people would attend. And the Fulani would take notice. Sadly, the Olubadan won’t do it. Contrast that with the 1800s when the Ibadan army defeated the Fulani and drove them out of Ilorin.
Suppose Professor Banji Akintoye, Oloriẹgbẹ of the Yoruba Self-determination Movement, himself Ekiti, were to declare a day of mourning for the Ekiti and Kwara Ọba recently murdered by Fulani savages, and a funeral march from government house to the Palace of the Ewi (Ekiti Ọba), that he himself would address in person, thousands upon thousands of the Yoruba people would attend. And the Fulani would take notice. Sadly, Professor Akintoye won’t do it. Contrast that with the 1950s/60s when Awolowo until his incarceration in 1963 successfully delivered the Yoruba from the clutches of the Fulani hegemony.
This current acephalous situation in Yorubaland is not tenable. Keeping your head down, living in the survival mode is not an option. The reality of Yoruba life is that if the Fulani don’t get you today, they will get you tomorrow. They got Dr Aborode. The Fulani bombed Bodija, the most affluent area of Ibadan, the Ọyọ State capital, and the political capital of Yorubaland. Yes, leaders give society purpose and vision. Yes, leaders guide. But a people led by toothless tigers struggle with direction like the proverbial headless chicken. A people without direction eventually become docile like we Yoruba have become in recent years. We Yoruba must accept that in the present climate, we have no leaders. Our salvation lies in doing it for ourselves as a mass of people.
There are two options: Option A: civil disobedience, Option B: people power. By ‘civil disobedience’ was meant the symbolic violation of the law. People have the right to resort to these tactics when there is substantial and clear injustice, when it is the last resort, and as long as they did not destabilise the entire system of law. An historic example is the refusal of Abeokuta market women to pay taxes during the colonial regime. The women were prepared to use any tactics to get their way particularly by setting up camps on the Alake palace grounds. Under Yoruba culture and tradition, the palace ground, just like a country’s embassy grounds, is the property of the people not the property of the incumbent Ọba. It would be lawful to set up protest camps within the grounds of palaces in the Yoruba state capitals. Another example is the Agbẹkọya (‘farmers reject ill treatment’) revolt of 1968. The organisers, led by Okikirungbo and others, went from village to village in Ibadan to whip up what may be called an agrarian populism. The current iteration of the Agbẹkọya movement could do the same, go from village to village organising farmers and villagers to prevent availability and purchase of farm produce imported into Yorubaland from the North.
In regard to ‘people power’, the Arab Spring has shown that crowds can wield as much power and influence as the leaders purporting to be in charge. By enthusing and empowering the Yoruba people, the ‘Igboho” mega rallies of 2021 petrified Nigeria’s leaders, temporal and spiritual. That’s the ‘people power’ that could lead us Yoruba out of Nigeria. That is the ‘people power’ to which we must return, immediately.