The Yoruba Need to Peel Their Eyes & See Properly: Take Away the Igbo & Watch Your Community Become Empty

Tayo Fasuan writes from Lagos

I‘ve wanted to stay away from this Igbo-Yoruba issue again, but I’ve been seeing some narratives that keep making my blood to boil.

And the recent one has to do with how Igbo are ‘taking over our lands’. And this is where I lost it.

Look, if you are of the opinion that Igbo are taking over your lands, whatever that means, I want to categorically call you a fool, and I don’t care if your feelings are hurt.

I mean what the actual fuck?!

One, whose lands exactly are they taking over? The ones you inherited or what? The ones you left undeveloped or another one? The ones you sold them at an inflated rate or which one? Abeg shift base!

Instead of complaining about their encroachment, why not develop some balls and go and take over their lands as well? Why not offer them a ludicrous amount of money for a plot of land and see if they won’t sell? Why not leave your families and kin behind and go to land you know absolutely nobody and settle there? Why not leave your comfort zone that you are not developing and not progressing in and settle down somewhere and grow?

Everyday hectic economic activities that drive Nigeria’s consumption-driven economy in the Lagos megapolis. Igbo traders abound in these market scenes shown in the photo.

I keep defending my Yoruba race that we are not cowards, but when I look at this critically, we really are. We have no mind and balls to settle anywhere else because obviously, everyone is dangerous. We can’t live in the North or the East because everyone except us is dangerous. I don’t want to insult those who have lost lives and properties in intertribal wars in both areas of the country, but we need to peel our eyes back and see properly.

We are just scared. Yes, scared. Myself inclusive.

Scared of being adventurous. Scared of being away from our people. Scared of losing and starting again. Scared of competition. Scared of everything that other major tribes ain’t scared of.

Two years ago, I went to a part of my state that I’ve never been to before. I never even knew the place existed. Guess who had the only mini market in that village? Yeah damn right. An Igbo boy. Not a man. A boy. He sells everything they want. I was amazed. I spent close to 30 minutes interrogating him. He was barely 20years old. Yes, I was scared for him.

And that’s how it is in the whole country. The Igbo remain the only tribe in the country that are never afraid of going to new places to establish. If they fail in a business, they start another one. I keep seeing them every day in my town, trying to sell something new every time. Trying to make it despite the obvious hostility around them. Most of us who are complaining about them would rather buy from them than the Yoruba.

They keep going to places to create new things, and all we do is beef them. The first major supermarket in Ado-Ekiti, Okoli, was from an Igbo man. The current trending one, NAO Supermarket, is owned by an Igbo. The entire Bank Road of Ado-Ekiti was bought by an Igbo man in the late 80s and 90s, and he has been selling to all the banks in that area since then.

And what are we busy doing? Shitting in our pants shouting, “They are taking over our lands”. Hehehehehehehehe!!! Fada Lawd! Our entire computer villages are littered with them. They move out and own shit! We…? We just sit our asses down and complain about how the money they use in buying all these are blood and ritual money! Hehehehehehehehe!!! Really?! A Yoruba man calling an Igbo man a ritualist! Fada Lawd!

Even the Northerners are setting up Shasha markets all around us, and where the heck are we and what are we doing in their own states? Nothing.

Local youths display their readiness to enforce threat issued by Oba of Lagos against Igbo Lagosians who would dare to oppose the favorite candidate endorsed by the regent.

Let’s grow some balls. No one will ‘eat’ us in Igbo lands. I served in the interiors of Anambra, precisely in Akpo in Aguata Local Government, in a community school inside the bush there. I trek daily inside that Bush for a whole bloody year, and no one ate me or used me for money. They gave me foods; they offered their daughters to me in marriage. They wanted me to settle among them. I know those who cried when I was leaving. I know those of my colleagues that settled there. I know of many Yoruba that established there and are making it, dammit.

#Sigh. I’ve never been angry like this in a long while, and now I’m exhausted. Let’s treat each other like humans first. Let’s remove this tribal labeling. Rwandans have done it and are moving forward. Even Nigerians feel more at home in South Africa, the xenophobic country, more than they would feel with other tribes within Nigeria.

And if we feel all these aren’t possible, then let’s fucking part ways and establish our own separate kingdoms. But like my mum said, “Take away the Igbo and see your community become empty”.

Enough said! – @Hope for Nigeria