By Ọmọlúwàbí Adéṣẹ́gun Olútáyò Òṣíbánjọ.
In the spirit and reason of the Easter season, I say to all those that did the Name calling, shot at me the first Online baptism of fire of my Life, attacked my Person and Christian-calling as an Evangelist of the Lord and Secretary of the Board of Trustees of an International Ministry, for daring to encourage the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to congratulate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu/Senator Kashim Shetimma, the President-Elect/Vice President-Elect and to caution Messrs. Peter Obi/Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed who are the perceived Presidential/Vice Presidential candidates of CAN be cautioned from further heating up the Polity and aggravating tension in the Country, Father forgive them for they know not what they have done.
It is instructive to hear a little bit of my Background to grant you some insights into of my thoughts.
I am a graduate Engineer of ABU, Zaria. In the course of my Working experience, I covered the Southeast and Port Harcourt. I was based in Aba and lived there for about 3 years. I have also worked in the South-south region and was almost having a Home in Yenagoa.
I have traversed through the three (3) major regions of Nigeria or better still, I have lived in, not just visit the major Ethnic nations that make up Nigeria. The Key take away is our Diversity factor: diverse Ethnic values, cultures, identity and heritage that are back-to-back, meaning completely different People mistakenly but divinely brought together to stay in one Country by the British Royal Niger Company which metamorphosed into the complete British take-over with the creation of Northern and Southern protectorates which was amalgamated to form Nigeria in 1914.
It will take you to live in the Southeast to really get to know the Igbos and discover that all other Ethnic nationals or non-indigenes do not have employment space in their Civil service, they even discriminate amongst themselves when States were newly created, same goes for participation in the Local politics to become a Political Officeholder not to mention becoming a Political appointee, there is no space for Commercial activities even in the Markets, Land acquisition is a no-go area for non-indigenes.
Meanwhile, the level playing ground created for Indigenes and Non-indigenes in Lagos state was taken to greater heights with the massive employment of Igbos and other Ethnic nationalities in the State Civil service (like Mr. Peter Obi will say: Go and verify with a visit to Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa), Ministerial and Commissionership appointment, running as Candidates in Elections and getting elected as Political Officeholders e.g. going as far as getting elected as members of the Lagos State House of Assembly, owning Lands and Markets etc. This does not exist anywhere else in Nigeria except Lagos and all due to the One-Nigeria spirit and benevolence of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
This level playing ground was taken for granted, abused and also taken further to the extremes when the battle shifted for the Soul of Lagos with some faithfuls of the Labour party planning the takeover of Lagos all the way from Isiala-Ngwa, Abia state, and the concurrent threats in the same direction from the resident Igbo Community to takeover Lagos by installing the Governor of their choice in the Elections, calling Lagos a No Man’s Land and it became a near War situation between the Yorubas and Igbos.
Non-indigenes do not have any major Business or Political endeavour and do not even own Lands not to talk of owning Houses and Estates in the Southeast and do not enjoy the privileges, freedom and accommodation that Lagos freely offers to the Igbos and other non-indigenes. The Igbos in Lagos will never sell Lands or Houses in Lagos back to Yorubas even at very exhorbitant costs but will rather sell cheaply to their Kinsmen to sustain the Igbo ownership so that the Land does not revert back for Yoruba ownership. I stand to be corrected with facts, documents and Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) of Properties owned by Non-indigenes from the Southeast.
Only non-indigenes who knows their limits and bounds will enjoy their stay in the Southeast to the fullest and may not get to see the Business and Political endeavours restriction. The hard fact which may be misunderstood and misinterpreted for Bigotry is that Igbos do not offer space for Business and Political endeavours neither do they trade Land ownership to non-indigenes in their own domain. In the parlance of Mr. Peter Obi, Go and verify by living in the Southeast for a period of time, and not by visiting, please.
In the words of a retired Colonel and a notable Christian leader, “I served in Onitsha and Enugu for a total of 10 years as a military officer. So, I can attest that this exposition is the truth and nothing but the truth”.
It is also mindboggling when we say the history of our diversity has no place or bearing in national building, development and advancement. Kindly permit me to ask those in this school of thought these following questions, please:
On what basis or premise are Short-, Medium- & Long-term planning done without historical Data?
How do we develop mitigating strategies & plans against a situation to prevent recurrence without the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) which is the history that brought about the occurrence of the situation at hand in the first place?
How will the Nigerian Diversity factor be fully addressed and resolved without recourse to the History of the Ethnic nationalities?
This treatise speaks only to objective minds, most particularly those that fully understand that Nigeria can only be ONE in true DIVERSITY. Our different values, cultures, thinking, and orientation, which forms the core of our diversity has got to be addressed fully so that all Ethnic nations and nationalities know and respect their Limits and Boundaries. We were meant to develop National Core-values from our Diversity to bond us together as a Country and become our Uniqueness, Strength and Strong selling point. This is what works for the United Kingdom which is a Sovereign Country made up of 4 Countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, same goes for France, United States of America and many other Countries which are called Federal Republics!!!
The Campaign deceit and propaganda of the Labour Party done using one Anthony Chinasa who was made to add Abiola to his name and was presented to Nigerians as a Yoruba man contesting for Umuahia Central Constituency of the Abia State House of Assembly in the just concluded 2023 Gubernatorial and State assemblies’ elections. Anthony Chinasa personally revealed the truth publicly after winning the Election that he is not of Yoruba decent, you need not go anywhere to verify, just hold down the Ctrl Key and Click on the link to verify: https://youtu.be/S7xpgloTttI. Propagandas of these sort will set us back and further drift us apart in our quest for the development of National core values.
The Diversity factor has brought to the fore, the need to protect the Identity and Heritage of every Ethnic nationality by making meaningful distinction between Host and Settler communities, Vis-à-vis Indigenes and Non-indigenes. The Constitution and Federal Government policies needs to be aligned in these regards to prevent avoidable Ethnic clashes in all the Cosmopolitan cities and by extension, Nigeria.
