Would you be surprised and a bit skeptical about the origin of Mr. Femi Fani Kayode (FFK) of being Yoruba? When we were young, our school’s headmistress used to emphasise on this remark: “The Yoruba are the most tolerant and accommodative tribe in Nigeria”.
At that time, I always felt like disputing her. But due to English language constraints, I usually reserved my comment.
How can the Yoruba be the most tolerant and accommodative tribe in Nigeria, despite the fact that, even our school’s proprietress/headmistress was a Yoruba from the South-west, running an effective school affairs/business in the midst of the Hausa, and absolutely subscribed by them without an iota of discrimination and envy from the indigenous Kaduna people, or especially the Hausa?
My conviction was, the northerners, especially the Hausa are the most tolerant and accommodative tribe in Nigeria. That was my narrow thinking, because I had not gone to Lagos or any other state in the South-west then.
When I became an adult to put my foot far away from my domain, I travelled across four Yoruba states in the South-west, including Kwara in the North-central. I later realised that I earlier had a juvenile thought.
Alas, whenever I hear the clumsy statements ranting by FFK, mostly on religious and tribal issues, it formed the premise of my argument about his origin. This is because, the Yoruba I know, never take “religion as an issue”. That’s why religious crisis till date will never have a ‘fertile breeding ground’ there.
Dear northerners, so would you believe with someone who will ignite and instigate violence against your fellow northerners from his comfort zone in Lagos, Abuja, or Ekiti, while he will never and ever do the same in his terrain, no matter under what pretext?
Therefore, the North must come to reality. Imagine, when did FFK, from a far distance, become the spokesperson in Kaduna, trying to justify the recent issues? He even has the audacity; seem like becoming a prime witness of an ugly scenario which nearly occurred in Kaduna but the Almighty God forestalled it.
We should never allow ourselves to become credulous, unless we want to jeopardise the future of our children, taking ourselves to an unceremonial grave, and pauperise our dear loving communities. Enemies of peace shall never see the light of the day.
Jabir T. Usman,
Kaduna South, Kaduna
