OUR MISSION
The Yorubas, wherever they are located within their dominion should be at peace within and without. Nobody from outsite their vicinity will threatened their life, livestock, farmland and resources. If federal government is acquiescing or facilating wrong doing from cattle herdsmen or kidnappers mostly from the north, rest asured we will not
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Our Vision
This endeavour is also coordinating efforts in forming an active response force with remit to launch a counter offensive wherever there is a threat from an external force - cattle herdsmen, kidnappers or otherwise. These peaceful and God-fearing people will not be molested, threatened, or trampled upon by vagabon bandits.
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IGBOHO
Government Brutality On Its Own People - This is Nigeria Today
If there is an immutable law in political doctrines, it's this - "do not underestimate the length human beings will go to, to exert or assert their freedom of choice, which for all intents and purposes is inherent". This has borne out repeatedly as history recalled.
Another poignant point to note in the undermentioned video, is how the running commentary on the video though in Yoruba somehow translate to your own language (speaking in tongues) and you become fully aware of what is going on. In essence, brutality clearly has no language barrier it is what it is - no compunction for the sanctity of human life.
Watch The Video
Also, see how Wole Soyinka the Nigerian world-renowned playwright and nobel prize winner, dismantled the government's argument as - disingenuous to the point of malfeasance in this video clip
Link
THE MAN WITH A MISSION
IGBOHO As A Freedom Fighter /Ethnic Liberation Agitator: – Adeola Soetan
How We Arrived Here
I smile when guys create impression that there was once a "perfect struggle" in the students movement or human rights struggle in Nigeria that anti-people government did not raise its finger against it, shoot, maim, arrest and at times, kill like army of occupation..Please tell me one example of that "perfect struggle" and its processes you or we had partipated in. I don't know of anyone because for over 3 decades I have been involved at various levels of movement. Pls tell me one to learn from. Since 1978 "Ali Must Go" mass student protest that I was involved as a secondary student to the anti-fuel price hike protest we did at Ojuelegba in 2020 and the recent ENDSARS protest that I partly addressed in 2020, the brutal state has always been crazy to suck blood at different levels of state terrorism. So, let the perfect activists or , the do-nothing revolutionaries, the egregious protests post-mortem "anatomist" , the automated Abobakus and the lousy voluntary idiots remind us of one. I beg and let's us debate it. Tyrants are bad, but supporters of tyranny are worse because in them, tyranny thrives and with them tyrants became monsters to devour all.
Beko, Gani, Aka Bashorun, Falana, Segun Sango, Odumakin, Arogundade, Aturu, Olorode, Awopetu, Jingo, Femi Aborisade, Joe, Biola Akiode, Sawaba, Balarabe Musa, Fela, Tony Fash, Aremson, Soweto, Sina Odugbemi, Sowore, MKO, Gani Adams, Ken Saro Wiwa etc were not Igboho, not roughnecks and never conducted the protests they organised and led in any "uncivilized" "illiterate" "warlords" versions.
They spoke good English, they never spoke "Yoruba Nasion" of your derision. We all know the hell they went through in the hands of tyranny, military & civilian dictatorship. Today, they are our heroes and part of our history of struggle for better and secure nation. Gani was never a secessionist but a detribalised freedom and human rights fighter, yet the tyrannical State invaded his house & office, arrested & detained him for over 30 times. Beko, a medical doctor from elite family like his blood brother, Fela, he's a dedicated human right activist only spoke for us before the State sent him to jail illegally after several detentions and physical attacks
Wetin Fela do? Fela only sang about Zombie soldiers beating civilians for streets, (which has increased now). Fela sang about corruption, commercial religionism, poverty in the midst of abundance, suffering & smiling, no much rally except analysis, interview, music & yabis, yet, Obasanjo regime burnt his house, Kalakuta Republic, killed his ideological mama, Mrs Funmilayo Kuti, raped his wives, torture Fela & his boys. Buhari regime jailed him and Babangida finished the job.
Dele Giwa was just a patriotic investigative fine journalist, he was bombed. Nigerian bourgeois state under military or civilian government is a criminal state of power bandits and hoodlums who will always resist protests, but like Reggie, protest can't stop because it's a right to resist tyranny. So, let the "perfect activists" the "Oluaye of struggle" and all the self acclaimed custodians of organised protests without government attack, that was massive, principled & uncompromising, that the State received with red carpet applause, come out and say it. . No event, no history and no heroes and no advancement to human race. Mistakes are bound to be made, corrected and learnt from them. But we must never justify State Terrorism and Gestapo - like invasion of citizens home to steal, raid, rape and kill at night.
What gave birth to the Igbohos?
Igboho is spontaneous situational leader created by the ineptitude & nepotism of Buhari regime to critically & timely address the violent Fulani herdsmen invasion of people's land, who kill, maim and do all that with impunity with Miyetti Allah openly claiming responsibilities & threatening to do more. What did government do? No Miyetti Allah leader who openly claimed responsibility for invasion of farmland and killings was ever invited by DSS or police for questioning. So, what message is government passing to the citizens and the victims? Fulani race superiority over others and all lands are grazing land with no ownership right?When 78 citizens were slaughtered in Benue state by herdsmen and less than 24 hours Miyetti Allah Kanti claimed responsibility, what did Buhari do and say when the bereaved visited him? His response was that "the Benue people should go and learn how to live peacefully with their neighbors".
Over 20 villages were sacked in Yewa by some violent Fulani herdsmen including the foreign Fulanis and the Oba of Isanlu and other kings cried out that soldiers also assisted some Fulani herdsmen to graze on their lands by force, what did Buhari and Gov. Abiodun do? Many villagers fled to neighboring Benin Republic as refugees. Buhari himself had declared that many of these herdsmen bandits are foreigners, what did his government do to save the natives and stop the foreign invaders? How many of these foreigners were arrested & jailed in their operation "Graze, Kill & Go"? Government's response has been more provocative & supportive of the criminal invasion. "Your ancestral land for Grazing or your life" - Femi Adesina (the presidency) "What do you want them to do when their grazing routes have been occupied due to developments" - NSA. Grazing routes in 2021? Is that not craziness?
Hundreds including infants are hacked to death regularly by hetdsmen. What's the response of many of us who can do "perfect struggle" to the daily human carnage happening in our rural areas which is daily & widely reported by the media? Golden silence because we are not affected in our comfort zone or we just watch the horror and pass mild comnent over bottles of wine.
Where's our humanity, have we been so callous and made bestial by our political partisanship, money, money, money, despite our kukukere kurukere to Mecca and Jerusalem to profess the faiths we do not truly believe in their teachings beyond false facade of abstract religionism? Have lost all our conscience to filty lucre, cheap money & contract from government and godfathers that we are now blind to social justice and talk truth to power as some of us used to do. Or we are just tired and overwhelmed by this regime of a crude, old stone age tyrant looking for grazing routes for his native herdsmen at all cost in the 21st century? Can we reamind Buhari and his grazing route co-searchers that cow businsees like poultry or piggery is a private business of individuals. Nigeria has not adopted cow rearing as the official business of the State, so, why this wahala of open grazing and killings by compulsion? Hundreds of private poultry /fishery farms have relocated or closed down due to development of their initial areas of location and complaints by other residents. Meran poultry farms estate in Lagos which is now a cluster of modern houses is an example. Nobodu was killed by displaced and evacuated poultry farmers. Buhari! O ma de ga o! E get as e be o.
I was in Imeko sometimes ago to consult for a London based Agric & rural empowerment foundation and the media also reported recently the human tragedy in that Yewa axis. It was the tale of woes even more than Okeogun farmers by poor farmers of Imeko, Egua, Isanlu and other boarder villages from the account of their suffering from violent Fulani herdsmen particularly the Foreign Fulani herdsmen who kill, rape & take over their land with no one including government to help them. Their kings are made powerless to act by state apparatus . What do you want these people to do? I have produced farmers radio and other Agric related programmes, documentary, research work for agencies and at a time we were organizing Farmers - Media Forum to help out on this invasion of farms by herdsmen and other issues. This crisis had been an agelong one but Buhari who has a ranch as a good role model that these rich cow owners should emulate, decided to escalate the crisis by his incurable provincialism. Why did Buhari want to lead Nigeria into another Civil War because of ordinary cow? This not leadership but gangsterism and land grabbing.
Recently, a well educated hardworking lady who has over 500 acres farmland in Lanlate had her fiance shot dead while they were on their way to Ibadan after the day's work.. She invited her fiance from Lagos to join her and operate a processing farm. Their wedding scheduled for December last year became a nightmare. She was kidnapped for days until the family paid huge sum running into millions of Naira to these rural bandits. I called Edmund Obilo, the radio man, to commend him for professionally reporting the plight of the rural dwellers in Okeogun which has been on for decades but escalated during Buhari regime because of the regime's utterances and body language.
The lady identified them as the familiar bororo herdsmen in Lanlate (Edmund Obilo did a video documentary on it, you can watch) , A successful life is wrecked for ever. What did Seyi or Buhari do for this family and many more like that My wife & daughter, Empress, wept that evening we watched the documentary of the lady's agony together. It was a very sad moment that evening that I thought perhaps I should have watched it alone because Empress was asking brilliant but difficult questions for me to explain clearly.
Insecurity is a whirlwind, anywhere we are, we will get our own portion one day if it continues unabated. The lady went back after the period of mourning, all her farm hands have disappeared, by now, the farm would have closed down. Many more like that, losing their farms after collecting huge loans. The Defenders of tyranny don't address their minds to this type of regular tragedies in rural areas than to defend and lie to change the narratives and give excuses that they also condemned in the past failed regimes. Truly, "Ise Aje Le"
Just consider the lady or her dead fiance is /was your close relative, will you say No to Igboho:s little solidarity / confidence building to your village despite reservation for his methodology since government has abandoned you to your fate for many years? When government fails and the perfect activists" or emergency nationalists stand akimbo and only enjoy the video of human killings on social media to pass comments or write romantic "protest letter" to condemn it , the raw, rough, illiterate but courageous Igbohos will be the situational leaders because nature abhors a vacumm.
Who knew Igboho 2 yrs ago as a Yoruba activist or ethnic agitator beyond his publicized commercial political thuggery lordship? I met Igboho once at a birthday party in Germany, he was so colorless, so simple & highly respectful bowing for everyone on sight. . I didn't know him until my friends told me about him and his war expedition during Modakeke - Ife war, his acclaimed juju prowess and polical thuggery exploit (now politicians who patronize them call them "political enforcers"). I just ignored the "citation" and continued catching my fun that cold night as Igboho became the cynosure of all eyes including the DJ who was praising his name everytime.
Now years after, I have to start writing about Igboho, not the one introduced to me in Germany as a life loving, juju empowered "political enforcer", but now a raw, courageous, "illiterate" freedom fighter for Yoruba farmers and natives whose farmlands and villages are regularly sacked by some violent local and foreign Fulani herdsmen who take their land forcefully for open grazing of cows and their lives when resisted in the presence of a regime they voted to power.
Igboho suddenly became a Yoruba nation agitator with all his crude & civilised methods and according to his and his mass followers" understanding of the situation, when those educated "decent" political elites who campaigned on restructuring, power devolution, true federalism and revenue redistribution which could have address some of these issues that manufactured the Igbohos have abandoned their promises and have been captured by their dubious silence.
I never imagined for once that an Igboho would be at the barricade, on the streets, not to rig & kill for "do or die" corrupt politicians, his genesis, but to take a raw courage to defend his Oke Ogun people and his Yoruba nation, against some violent Fulani land grabbers prodded by the State apparatus. I had never thought that a rich political roughneck would command such a huge followeship of helpless, angry, battered, poor, rich, anxious farmers and hungry citizens of Yoruba extractions looking forward to him, rightly or wrongly, to save them from forest bandits and from a failed government that told perplexed citizens to defend themselves from Ak47 armed Fulani herdsmen and bandits of varied ethnic stock. Such a huge crowd would have taken politicians millions with total mobilisation by inducement to organise. For me, such a movement can't be ignored with a wave of the hand as a socialist and experienced protester. Such a movement must be situated, critique and draw useful lessons for perspective development on multidimensional approaches the Nigeria struggle may break with or without our planning or intervention. I am not a rhapsodic arrogant elite, I am of the street, I learn from the low and the high, I live with the masses, mix, chat and learn from them as they also gain from me. We can't afford to fold our arms when tyranny and bad governance propels rural banditry against the poor farmers locally and nationally, we must speak up against land grabbing, your life or your land grazing body language of this regime. Ask them, after the months of RUGA noise, how many states in the north that have shown their reception to RUGA and ranching have commenced operation? Baba Agba is not really not interested bhe has shown his interest is open grazing, he's looking for 1963 cattle route gazette in 2021. Laughable!
Why would the Igbohos not seize the initiative when many ex-this, ex-that have become Abobakus defending all tyrannical actions of government, or we are battle weary, or now too rich & too decent to protest, arrogant as custodians of struggle, or old, weak, organizationally confused or just having a false sense of safety and security in our comfort zones, or gladly have "retired" after a long period of remarkable commendable leadership of struggle. How long Igboho's movement lasts like many struggles before it will not be determined by bloody tyranny but by the resolution of those issues that makes Igboho relevant to many people and the consciousness they put into it.
Igboho is an effect of a cause. So, when we deal, critique & condemn the effects, let's address the cause first, that's the way to go. Blame the nonchalant government that failed to secure its citizens first before blaming the effects.
If Igboho is killed today, as some voluntary idiots may wish, his has etched his name in our memory, not as a rich political thug of his genesis anymore, but as a controversial, hated and loved, popular, raw courageous, juju embellished freedom fighter for his Oke Ogun - Ibarapa and Yoruba poor farmers and the people feeling disenchanted by their state of helplessness in the face of terror and land grabbing by fully armed accredited and non-accredited bandits while government always tells the citizens to defend themselves. But, with what? Cow stick, brooms, catapult or Juju Igboho? This is the new Revelation of Igboho synthesis from Genesis as politicsl thugs to some of your political godfathers. Many of those who hate Igboho for fighting for poor Igangan farmers would have loved him if he had continued to play the political enforcer role with other rich thugs for your power desperate leaders.
We should condemn the midnight gestapo- like attack on his "juju" embellished mansion, we should condemn the extra- judicial killing without trial of citizens captured in his house and demand for the immediate release, or speedy trial of the arrested if found culpable.
We are human beings not animals in the jungle. Government cannot be crazy and be blood thirsty always.
AuthorAdeola Soetan
tel: 08037207856
THE CHANGE
The only thing that cannot change is change itself. Change is inevitable in life. It all started to change at a petrol garage in Ibadan. There was petrol scarcity and people had come to queue overnight to refuel their cars and motorbikes. At dawn, in the midst of hope, the convoy of the then governor of Oyo State, Alhaji Lam Adesina pulled into a petrol station, by-passing the queue – “ Injustice at play”! This is not fair - shouted Sunday. He stood out to challenge the governor’s convoy but the security aides, they are there to threaten and beat anybody for their “God” to have his way. .Today, a change must start. Sunday stood his ground and told them off, they threatened him and tried to rough handle him, it quickly developed into a scuffle as the bodyguards of the governor wanted to let him know “we are in power”. Not only did Sunday resisted the soldiers, but he also showed them wonders. They shot at him but to their astonishment, their bullet pellets were falling on the floor while Sunday was still there right in front of them, their guns and boot failed them, terribly.
Fear ensued among the soldiers as the downtrodden started to mock them. The Governor, Lam Adesina was watching and being a Yoruba man, he knew that what he has just observed was extraordinary, to say the least. He knew that this man who has just been shot at by his guards was no ordinary man. The governor knew this could go terribly wrong if he failed to propose mediation. So, he asked an aide to go and speak kindly to the man to come and see him. Sunday went to meet the governor and after they had talk. Sunday explained to the governor that it is simply “injustice” to ignore the voters who have come to queue all night by an elected officer and that the governor should lead by example by joining the queue. He maintained that “people were born equal”.
That day, Sunday and the governor became friends. He was invited to the government house and the governor liked him for his courage. After Lam Adesina left office, he was replaced by Governor Rasheed Ladoja, who also made friend with Sunday and made him one of his most trusted aides. This in the opening of a new chapter in Sunday’s life; the journey into political career.
People generally study and reflect on their national situations and circumstances all over the world such that grievances and other obstacles hindering progress can be addressed in an atmosphere that brings the collective under one roof, so to speak, to ascertain solutions. Nigerians, albeit, highly educated and celebrated globally, are very much lacking in this sphere when their own nation is literally falling apart (Chinua Achebe we need you). Comparatively, Nigeria has a highly educated population with respect to other African countries. One is then forced to ask this question - how is education measured in Nigeria? Has the “Yard Stick” or measuring standard been calibrated and if so by what measures? It is time to have a more matured debate about religious influences in education in the north and its consequences to the masses? Boko Haram did not just emerge from thin air. Evidence of other subsidiaries emerging like cockroaches out from the woodwork abound (cattle herdsmen, Fulani highway robbers, school children kidnappers, etc with Kalashnikovs guns). Sure sign that the federal government is still failing in its responsibilities to the nation - may be, just may be is time for a recalibration of the status quo?
The most constructive (productive) nations in the world are also classified by regional or geographic traits and boundaries. These successful nations nurture their citizens through rules and norms that are considered by all and sundry to be fair and just. This fabric that encapsulates a nation is the medium that make sure adequate checks and balances are in place to correct errors and deviations from the norms. Human beings by their very nature, be it from God or genetically coded (DNA), will often thrive to better themselves. Thus, good governance fosters good citizenship. Good governance is an arrangement of the people and their leaders to work towards a common good.
There is leadership vacuum in the present-day Nigeria. The level of distrust amongst different tribes as currently constituted has never been this manifested. No leadership to bring together a process of healing. Farmers in the southern part of the country are having their farmlands and source of income destroyed, their women and daughters kidnaped, raped and then murdered, farmers are getting kidnapped and then murdered, despite payment of ransom by their families. The police force is weakened from within, promotions are denied to the most qualified and to describe the rot in simple words, “nepotism and tribalism” has eroded confidence from the hearts of everyone.
There is now, an extraordinarily strong urge to revisit the amalgamation treaty enacted in 1914 which has been the basis for Nigeria’s existence up to this juncture. A change is inevitable.
LATEST WORK
We have now set up a central committee that is responsible for coordination of all actions with regards to threat on farm lands and kidnapping of ordinary citizens form both cattle herdsmen and Fulani's bandits respectively. We still do need local volunteers to increase the man power and other resources
Please do join us in keeping these vagabonds at bay
OUR MISSION
The Yorubas, wherever they are located within their dominions should be at peace within and without. Nobody from outsite their vicinity will threaten their life, livestock, farmland and resources. If federal government is acquiescing or facilating wrong doing from cattle herdsmen or kidnappers mostly from the north, rest assured we will not
World News In Yoruba Read Now
Our Vision
This endeavour is also coordination efforts in forming an active response force with remit to launch a counter offensive wherever there is a threat from an external force - cattle herdsmen, kidnappers or otherwise. These peaceful and God-fearing people will not be molested, threatened, or trampled upon by vagabon bandits.
World Business News In English Read Now