It is no longer news that there is an unprecedented upsurge in the migration of southern Nigerian professionals over the last 5 years. The best brains in Southern Nigeria are leaving in droves. Many of those that have not left are making all necessary arrangements to follow suit. Some people may argue this is not uniquely Nigerian, that people have always migrated around the world.
Some people argued that the children of Israel migrated from Egypt to the promised land. They failed to realize the difference; that the children of Israel migrated from a foreign land to the land which God promised to them. In our case, southern Nigerians are migrating into foreign lands, at a scale that outstrips the ‘natural rate of migration’. We are witnessing situations where gainfully employed professionals, pack up, sell off every asset, and just leave with their families to ‘unknown’ lands.
About 2 years ago, (October 13, 2019, precisely), I wrote an article for Thisday Newspaper, titled “Vanquishing the South to Elevate the North”. I never imagined the destruction of the southern economy and the lives of its people would come as soon as it has.
Even now, some people do not realize that the decimation of their fortunes was a well-orchestrated and executed project; concocted at the highest level of the northern oligarch. The conception, lifted from the Turkish Ottoman Caliphate playbook was programmed to use monetary and fiscal constraints to impoverish the Southern population. The migration of southern professionals is a direct result of the careful implementation of the “Turkish Model”, with the goal of ‘Islamization by conquest’.
It is bewildering to see politicians from southern Nigeria feign ignorance and be preoccupied with the 2023 election. Can they not see the manoeuvring, intent to seize ancestral lands and hand them over to Fulani from all over Africa?
The trio of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Chief Sunday Igboho and Dr Obadiah Mailafia (of blessed memory) saw these coming. By calling it out, Dr Mailafia, a fine gentleman, paid with his life.
It was for the same reason Chief Sunday Igboho’s house was invaded and his associates murdered. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu shouted himself hoarse for years, warning against what is now at our doorsteps. He was maligned, demonised and labelled a warmonger.
Some may have thought Retired Navy Commodore (Kunle Olawunmi), who made that startling revelation was being flippant when he told us they are planning to ‘Talibanize’ Nigeria; he should know; he was in the military for 35 years, in key strategic positions.
So, while Southern Nigerian Professionals exercise the activation of “Plan B” (borrowing the phraseology of Pastor Paul Adefarasin), it is wise to give some thoughts on the duration of your odyssey. Do you hope to someday return to your ancestral lands? Would you still have your ancestral lands to return to?
I can imagine South-Nigerians muttering: “GOD FORBID, IT IS NOT OUR PORTION”. They forget it is the same God which allowed us to experience Buhari and his manipulative replacement of all service Chiefs by Fulani. It is the same God that allowed the slaughtering of Christian in Southern Kaduna, Benue and Plateau; that the Christians and moderate Muslims in Afghanistan do not worship a different God.
Ironically, most of those now scampering abroad were at the forefront of the campaign for a Buhari presidency in 2015 and 2019. I know a few that told me Buhari was the best thing to happen to Nigeria. Some were sold the dummy that a Buhari presidency was a plus for their religious affiliation. One such person, with whom I had a heated debate against a Buhari presidency in 2019 is now at the forefront of Oduduwa Nation agitation.
Even now, some are still naïve as to what the self-determination movement represents. Ask a “One-Nigerian” proponent why he does not support the dissolution of the Nigerian Union; you are most likely to hear justifications like: “We are better together as a big populous country” or “Our Unity is our Diversity”. But ask them, what is the population of Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Canada? Ask if they prefer to live in these countries with smaller populations or to live-in populous Nigeria? Ask them the population of Dubai, which has become the chosen vacation destination of politicians and celebrities?
When the middle belt of Plateau, Benue and Southern Kaduna was being massacred, Southern Nigeria pretended these were events happening in far-away lands. The chicken has come closer home and everyone is activating Plan B. Maybe if we heeded the Yoruba proverb: “iku to n’pa ojugba eni, oowe lo n’pa fun ni” (the death of one’s close associate is a proverb for all his/her friends that death is a debt we all will pay someday!); perhaps we could have averted this calamity.
We all pretended it was the thing of the Middle belt, even after Dr Obadiah Mailafia warned us. It is disheartening to observe that while the Southern Nigerian Diaspora population are agitating for the emergence of more homogenous nations out of the ashes of dismembered Nigerians, those in the homeland are blindsided as to the essence. Some even berate their diaspora friends and families for “trying to incite violence in Nigeria”.
The most ludicrous argument is that those abroad are frustrated and that it is the frustration that is propelling them to agitate. How laughably absurd. The truth is Southern Nigerian ‘Diasporans’, who, by the way, are becoming weary and fatigued by what seems like a brick wall to their agitation, can better appreciate the level of “shit” in the “hole” of where they call home. Most can afford not to ever think of returning.
No matter how this agitation ends, it is a watershed moment. It is a redefinition of the relationship between the Fulani and the rest of Nigeria.
I had this exchange with a High School classmate of mine very recently. She had posted a quotation on our school chat group, which read: “In 1963 Yoruba betrayed their own son Pa Chief Obafemi Awolowo, also in another 30 years later, 1993 they betrayed Chief MKO Abiola, 2023 is another 30 years, would you betray Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to lead Yoruba 2023 mandate” (sic).
The below was my response to her post, with a slight modification:
“Much more important than the betrayal these personalities may have suffered, is the reality that the Fulani, supported by the British would never allow a smart southerner, who is independent-minded, to take over the rulership of Nigeria.
Britain has an agreement with the Fulani to help the Fulani retain control of Nigeria (just as they helped them to win the Biafran war). In return, the Fulani will grant them unfettered access to Nigerian resources. They cringe to see that stopped.
Any southern president that will break the yoke of British/Fulani suzerainty will have his aspiration truncated, because he may not serve the interest of the British nor the Fulani.
Obasanjo and Jonathan could not act against the interest of Britain nor of Fulani. I do not say this to diminish these outstanding individuals. They both have excellent credentials, some of the best academic qualifications of people that have led Nigeria. Despite these, they could not help being lackeys for the Fulani and their British enablers.
Obasanjo’s first coming as a military Head of State was thrust upon him, against his Will (which may explain why he wrote the book: “NOT MY WILL”). He took the job because T.Y. Danjuma & Shehu Musa Yar’adua promised to protect him. He feared for his life. In his second coming, he was in prison and they made him an offer. He agreed to do their bidding because he did not have much of a choice. He was a reconciliatory candidate to assuage the Yoruba for the murder of MKO Abiola, plus he was someone they knew they could use, from his antecedents.
Chief Awolowo and Chief MKO Abiola were personalities that could not be cowered by British or Fulani bravado. They were independent-minded, principled of the sort, and to borrow Chief Dele Momodu’s phrase, “they had balls”.
You see, my dear sister, it is superficial, even simplistic to think it was just the southwest that worked against the presidential ambition of MKO Abiola and Awolowo. There were unseen hands behind the scene that manipulated the political process against them. Those hands have not withered…they are still waiting in the wings.
The dismemberment of the unworkable union is what we must hope for. It is our only escape route.
Some people will argue against these positions, but when it is all said and done, the passage of time vindicates.”
One last question for Southern Nigerians leaving en-mass to seek refuge in foreign lands; a Yoruba proverb says “ile laabo simi oko” which colloquially translates to “Home is resting place after returning from farm”. The Ibos have an equivalent saying which goes: “Alusia anata ulo zuo ike” OR “Alusia abata ulo zuo ike”, (depending on which accent you are speaking with).
With Fulani having taken over your lands, where is the “ile” OR “ulo” where you hope to come and rest when you return from this long journey to the “farms”? Let’s ponder over that question.
Peter Omonua
Officer of the Canadian Armed Forces lives in Ontario Canada.