I have been combating myself over the
weekend, my mind undertaking a marathon cum 100 meters race between,
anger, despair, desperation, disgust and others.
Over the years I have tried to convince myself about the viability
of Nigeria as one indissoluble country were all and sundry would
feel at home irrespective of were they originate from.
I have been putting my Yoruba
nationalism in the background and engaged more on National issues
whilst trying to unite different Yoruba self determination groups
quietly and also selling the idea of a Yoruba Nation within Nigeria,
with the right to self determination under a confederate unit.
The event in Jos is about to change that. Not the killings in Jos
alone as we all know killings based on ethnicity will keep recurring
in Nigeria until the day we all seat down on a round table under a
sovereign national conference and decide on how we want to live
together as brothers, sisters or otherwise.
Until we do that the blood to keep Nigeria together will flow more
than the blood required to take it back to the pre colonial days
when independent Nation-States lived and developed at there own
speed.
Back to the source of my anger. The Jos crisis occurred on my way to
Slovenia and as I kept pace with Jos I also tried to keep pace with
the events in Mumbai were terrorist were busy cutting down the lives
of innocent folks.
As I monitored the events in Jos I noticed conflicting figures on
the number of people killed. The Nigerian media kept moving from
figure’s ranging between 200 to 400 and the Nigerian government not
reputed to stating facts as it is kept the figure down to 120.
I tried putting a call trough to the presidents media man Olusegun
Adeniyi to confirm if figured being put out reflect the situation on
ground but I was not succesfull doing that.
I have very close and emotional ties to Jos. It was in Jos that I
got my social activism sharpend; I did not only live in Jos but also
had the privilege of being detained in the famous Jos Prison by the
Babangida government and felt the warmness of the people of Plateau
more in that colonial Prison.
I am a graduate of the university of Jos. The people of Plateau were
not only pleasant but very generous to me and I almost became their
in-law but for faith.
One of my benefactor Alahji Abdul Karrim Iyimogah a then
commissioner of finance in the old plateau state welcomed me to his
house from the streets of Lagos and encouraged me to study first in
the Federal Polythencinc Nassarawa and later the university of Jos.
And all trough my activism in Jos he never interfered, neither did
all those wonderful people I met in Jos tried to paint me as an
ethnic jingoist.
As students of the University of Jos and I fought on behalf of the
people of Jos we shared a common desire. Make Jos a land tolerant of
all race and the rocks on the Plateau a place of rescue for the
helpless.
I raised enough money in London sent home to Nigeria and
commissioned two-experienced researcher on the true death toll in
Jos and I am sorry the results they are giving me are worrisome. In
Lagos state alone they could locate 39 Yoruba families who lost not
only one but as many as 6 family members in the Jos crisis.
Till date all the southwest governors keep mum on the massacre. The
Lagos state governor whom I admire a lot but whom this days keep
himself away from any Yoruba event as if identifying yourself with
your race this days is a sin, was consulting with Nigerians in
London whilst his Yoruba kinsmen are mourning in Lagos and other
part of the South West.
I request governors in the southwest take a lead and start the
process of compensating victims of the Jos Massacre and resettle
returnees.
I am outraged by the silence befalling Yoruba self determination
groups, The ignoble way the Federal Government in Nigeria is
treating the incident in Jos.
I crave for unity not revenge and I beg we see this as a sign that
with all the in fighting and scheming in Yoruba Land over a
ludicrous “YORUBA LEADERSHIP” our people who are defenceless are
becoming victims of our blind ambition.
Those killed in Jos are more than 2000 (TWO THOUSAND) and I
challenge the Nigerian government to disprove that figure. Set up an
autonomous commission into the killings in Jos, what happened in Jos
is a GENOCIDE against defenceless Nigerians whose only sin was
living outside their state of origin.
If president Umaru Yaradua assume people are not outraged about the
killings in Jos he his making a mistake, the Niger Delta will be a
Childs play if Nigerians now start resorting to self help to protect
themselves.
I dropped the use of self-help as a means of protection 7 years ago
after taking the decision to step down as the secretary general of
the O’Dua Peoples Congress. It is now obvious Nigerians now have to
keep a “mad man” in the house to serve as a deterrent to the “mad
man” outside.
And to those shameless “leaders” in Afenifere whom rather than unite
and protect Yoruba are busy fighting themselves, A day will come we
would have no choice but visit you in your homes and knock some
sense into your head.
I am outraged.
Kayode Ogundamisi