I appeal to all well meaning Nigerians to go through this piece and treat it with the seriousness it deserves. I am aware that our great leader the Jagaban will have this on his table within the next 24 hours. Deep interest has pushed me to hand this over to the one who has daily access to our leader and I appeal that justice be done to my observation.
At a young age my grandpa used to say that the Landlord determines the limit of the tenants in a tenancy relationship. It is obviously the opposite as reflected in the devastating observation that describes my recent experience.
I want to briefly introduce myself to prove that I am more than competent to write as I do on this topic.
I served in Katsina as my NYSC responsibility for a year and I spent another eight years in and out as a mineral resource merchandise. This took me to Adudu, Nasarawa Eggon, Akiri, Rukuba, Awe, Anglo Jos Zurak in the demand of partnership with some Chinese miners.
I was on a mission to Osun state to gain some insight into the rumors of various miners from the North invading the Yoruba communities and the resultant effect of our forest degradation and the disorientation on our farmland.
My first discovery on the road to Itagunmodi was that the villages around this community namely (Sore, Alaba, Itagun, Iginla, Iyemogun and Iyere) have ratio of Northerners to the Indigenes at best 60:40. Put another way for every four indigene of the above villages you have minimum of six Northerners.
The invasion does not need any study as left and right side of average of two kilometers to the village, you will be shocked about the presence of the Hausas, their kiosk and the massive population who assemble every morning for hot tea.
• There are motorcycles everywhere blowing horn as if all ears must be blocked.
• The shed erected almost on the motorway with series of used and new products sold is unmistakable.
• Every house is occupied 60% by the Northerners either under rent or outright purchase.
• The regular meetings the Serikis call every Sunday record more population than the monthly meetings called by the Kabiyesi of the village.
• The villagers no longer farm or do any work. They are fed by the hausa visitors who mine their gold and pay them coins even as they invest the balance in improving their population in the village.
• They are the okada riders as the land owners have donated their heritage to the visitors.
• They supply their hot tea, fura de nunu, bend-down, colanut, bitter cola etc.
• They are more respected during election period as they have the power of population.
• For every largese distributed by government they get double what the land owners get as their Serikis are more connected and more recognized.
• Before any indigenee is invited to any meeting by the government the Serikis are told what the meeting is all about.
• Our Kabiyesis rely on the Serikis for information as they have become masters in the land they invaded yesterday.
I was pushed by this development to take a deep look and ask why must this continue and where are we going.
I found out that the popular music sang by the Ibos and Yorubas is for their children to migrate to lagos after finishing school in the village. Most villages in Iboland and yorubaland are full of old men and women who live basically on the money sent by their children from Lagos.
I discover that as the children get to Lagos they are willing to come to the village only once in a year. All the witches and bad people in the village who did not kill them when they were young are now their enemies that they must run away from. A lot more are moving from Lagos to America, London, Germany and all countries within and outside Africa. There is no street in the world that you don’t have an Iboman or a yorubaman.
The Hausa/Fulani do not go anywhere. You will never meet any Hausa/Fulani man abroad. They wont do any importation, load any container, you will not even see them in Lagos unless where dollars are being sold. They don’t sell cars, they don’t repair cars, they are not in any office in Lagos, they are not just going to touch what the Ibos & Yorubas continue to celebrate.
So the young ones from all over the North migrate to the Southwest and in the process of mining gold or farming obtain through rent all the houses abandoned by the Yoruba and Ibo youth as they look for their own green pasture in Lagos and Abroad.
The Hausas after renting a small room starts to invite their friends and families. The first to get to the village is the Seriki and he has invited so many others from across the North. Before you know it all the rooms abandoned by the children of the villagers who went to Lagos are fully occupied by the Northerners. The village is invaded finally and the strangers have become the land owners.
Now they consult the Seriki more than they talk to the Yoruba village head rightly so because the population of the Hausas is now overwhelming.
The root of all this stems from the orientation of two different citizens. The Hausas will remain in Nigeria no matter how hard. The Hausas are not interested in your philosophy of moderate birth control. Most below average Hausas and Fulanis have minimum of four wives and ten children. So as the Yorubas and Ibos continue to moderate, they continue to reproduce and dominate territories.
When you talk of good food, they don’t see it because they are not interested in your expensive a-la-carte. They are contended as long as their stomach is filled.
So where are we really going. The strength of population is not debatable anywhere in the world. The strength of occupation is strong as that on its own commands power of ownership. It is so bad that in the next ten years, I do not think any Yoruba man can defeat a fellow Huasa man in almost all elections in Yoruba community.
You will be wondering what then is the way forward and what is my recommendation.
➢ Make it difficult for us to migrate abroad.
➢ Develop our rural areas and make them attractive
➢ Issue out instruction to the Yoruba village head the circumstances under which visitors are allowed in their community.
➢ Pump money to the villages and make farming attractive
➢ Mining is not a birth right let the community owners mine their gold and employ indigenes. If they lack the wherewithal let us bring in foreigners that will educate them not the Hausas.
➢ As a miner I say to you with authority that the mineral resources in the North are more than what we have in southwest. Why are they draining our own and preserving theirs.
➢ Let there be electricity in the villages. Let us depopulate Lagos and shift attention.
➢ Conduct daily training to our youth and move them away from yahoo yahoo.
➢ Stop engaging youth during election and abandoning them after election.
My Summary
Let the six states (Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Lagos) making the South West agree to a fund strictly to ensure their villages are not invaded. I am talking about economic enablement and not Amotekun or force. The ants flow towards the sugar.
In conclusion very very soon if this is not taken seriously our case will be worse.
WRITER: PRINCE ADEKUNLE.