By The Time These Elections Are Over

By Jumoke Akindele 

By the time these elections are over on Saturday, Nigeria will be more divided and more in need of restructuring than ever. Yet I know the ones who placed themselves in power will say no. 

All these sabre rattling “Lagos is Yoruba land”  “roforofo” threats we’ve been having in Lagos since after the Presidential election is an ill-wind that will do us no good. 

I do not think that the Igbo man is contesting the traditional ownership of Lagos, he just wants to exercise his right to choose who governs the part of Nigeria where he resides.

The Igbo man is not freeloading in Lagos. He is a hard-working, tax-paying Nigerian who just happens to live in Lagos. To rob him of his choice just because he lives in a land to which the average Yoruba original owner has long lost all rights is not only ridiculous, it is provocative.

He is not even asking to be voted for as Governor which would be perfectly within his right, he is asking for his right to choose. To continue to threaten him with fire and brimstone is to be a bully and an oppressor.

Let all the emergency Lagosians, the “atounrinwas” be mindful of the danger inherent in this present stance of theirs. I am confident that the aboriginal Lagosians are not part of the nonsense playing out now.

It is the Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Ogun and possibly Ondo  immigrants who are chanting the songs and beating the drums of war.

Those of you who are joining them, let me warn you: they will not be here, their Oluremis, Dejis and Sades will be out of here when your Warsaw begins to see war.

Nigeria, as the APC government contrary to their express promise would like to say, is one indivisible whole. It cannot and must not be restructured.

Therefore, it means that we are all the same, wherever we find ourselves in Nigeria. It is either we are Nigerians or we are not. You cannot choose to be a Nigerian when it pleases you alone. 

On my part, I sincerely believe and I have often maintained that it is time we renegotiated the basis of our continued stay together. If we must stay together, then we must begin to acknowledge the rights of each Nigerian on the Nigerian soil. 

The Igbo man is asking for his right to choose between two Yoruba men. Surely, unless you are a member of the APC, particularly of the Tinubu hegemony, you should not have a problem with that.

Jumoke Akindele is a serving member of Ondo State House of Assembly and the first Female Speaker of the Assembly in the history of the State