By Olusegun Olanrewaju
In the parlance of ethnic ‘nationalism’, a different player is playing it hard on the field. His mission, he says, is to fight for the redemption of the Yoruba and he may be going about it the way he knows better. But, at least, not in the approach adopted by the late Yoruba sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
Sunday Adeyemo, named after his community Igboho, a fringe town in the heart of Oyo State, now trades his art in the state capital, Ibadan, after he had relocated from the theatre of the Ife/Modakeke war following communal differences. His latest project, he says, is to ‘expel’ the Fulani from Igangan in Oyo State.
Little was known about Igangan before the January 22, 2021 deadline given by the local activist to the Fulani to quit. Igboho had unilaterally given the herders one week ‘order’ to comply.
His supporters say he was only reacting to the alleged excesses of the herdsmen occupying the Oke-Ogun axis, hitherto considered a less developed but politically significant area of the state.
Igangan is a community in Ibarapa North Local Government Area and that is where Igboho stormed with his supporters to confront the Seriki Fulani, Saliu Kadri, and his kinsmen accusing them of killing an Oyo businessman, Fatai Aborode; Alhaja Serifat Adisa and her children, as well as a community prince, among others.
The fire
After the expiration of the quit order on January 22, Igboho mobilised some of his supporters and marched to the Fulani settlement and drove the herders out. This deed attracted commendations from the natives, especially youths, who sang and danced when he marched into the town.
Ighoho, who later addressed his people, vowed that Fulani herdsmen would be chased away, not only from the community, but also from Yorubaland. Their ‘sin’, he alleged was that they were promoting insecurity in the neighbourhood.
He declared, “What is happening will not be limited to this place. We will drive out Fulani herders from the entire Yorubaland. They are killing us. We will not accept this.”
He particularly ordered Kadiri to leave the community because, according to him, the Seriki has been identified as a security threat.
How I lost properties worth N50m to inferno – Sunday Igboho
Responding to Igboho’s directive, the state governor, Seyi Makinde, asked the police to arrest him and others causing tension in the state.
The governor, while briefing the new state Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeko, said his administration would continue to synergise with law enforcement agencies to fight criminals, hoodlums and bandits irrespective of their tribe or religion.
The governor said, “For people stoking ethnic tension, they are criminals and once you get them, they should be arrested and treated like common criminals. I am sure that since you came in, you must have heard about some things happening at Ibarapa axis of the state. I will still say it here that we are not after Hausa-Fulani. We are after criminals.”
However, in a video that went viral, Igboho dared the governor to arrest him. Igboho, who has a history of working with some governors, also claimed he worked for Makinde during the 2019 governorship election, before their relationship cracked.
The Fulani response
In an online article ‘How Igboho’s ultimatum, actions electrified the polity’, a group, The Fulani Nationalist Movement, said that herdsmen would not leave their respective settlements in the country. The group added that any attempt to evict them from the South-West as threatened by Igboho and Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State would lead to war.
The group’s statement signed by its West African Regional Coordinator, Baadu Salisu Ahmadu, was sequel to the eviction order on the Fulani.
The FNM response, however, did not deter Igboho from redeeming his promise. Like a gallant warrior on a conquering mission, he, alongside some youths, arrived in a convoy on January 22 to Igangan to carry out the eviction order.
“Shortly after Igboho left Igangan, the house of the Seriki Fulani of Oyo State, Alhaji Saliu Abdulkadir, was set ablaze. Abdulkadir, confirmed the incident, saying his house and all his vehicles had been burnt.
Abdulkadir said, “As we speak, we are in the bush. Our cars numbering 11 have been burnt. Some of my children sustained injuries and we are finding a way to take them to the hospital.
“My children have left their houses for the bush. We need the government to help us. Police, Operation Burst and other security agencies were there when they set my house ablaze”.
The Chairman of Miyetti Allah in the state, Alhaji Ibrahim Jiji, described the incident as unfortunate, urging the government to find a lasting solution to the Fulani/farmers unrest in the state.
“As we usually say, not all Fulani’s are evil; good people are among us. What can we call this now? The man is a gentleman and see how he was chased out of his house. We need the government to act now,” he said.
The Yoruba backing
Yoruba leaders and groups, in the heat of the crisis, backed Igboho. Even the Oodua Peoples Congress threw its weight behind the warlord, further widening his base.
The Yoruba, apart from supporting Igboho, also cautioned the government against actions that could destabilise the country.
The Agbekoya Farmers’ Society kicked against the Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Adamu’s order to arrest and bring Igboho to Abuja. The ethnic security outfit described the order as biased “because the armed Fulani herdsmen and kidnappers who have been abducting and killing innocent sons and daughters of Yoruba land have never been arrested and prosecuted since the inception of this administration.”
Lending his voice, a former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, warned President Muhammadu Buhari not to arrest or kill Igboho, saying such would be ‘dangerous, reckless and counter-productive’.
An Eastern link
Igboho dares everybody, including the authorities. But maybe because every ethnic warlord in the country is subtly busy doing the same thing, Igboho proclamation might not be considered strange.
Perhaps, Igboho has a lightening support from the South-East flank where Nnamdi Kanu’s activities have driven his Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) onto the official terror list.
The leader of IPOB instantly discovered a co-traveller in the journey to ethnic platforms to ‘redeem our people’.
