By Femi Fani-Kayode
Apart from
Afenifere, the OPC and a number of noble and courageous elders and leaders
hardly anyone else from the south west has spoken up publicly for the Ifes and
the Yoruba in this matter and that is a crying shame. What happened to the
voices of the APC Governors in Yorubaland? What happened to the voice of Vice President
Yemi Osinbajo? What happened to the voices of the respected Pa Bisi Akande and
the great Jagaban of Borgu, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu? We need to hear from all of
these distinguished personalities now more than ever before. The celebrated
American spy and defector Mr. Edward Snowdon urged public figures and leaders
throughout the world to “speak NOT because it is SAFE but because it is RIGHT”.
How right he is!
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| *Femi Fani-Kayode |
The black American civil rights leader, Dr.
Martin Luther King jnr. took it a step further by saying, “in the end we will
remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends”. Finally,
in his famous poem titled ‘The Inferno”, the great poet and immortal writer
Dante Alighieri wrote “the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in
times of moral crisis preserve their neutrality”.
Those who remain silent as their compatriots
and kith and kin are butchered have much to learn from the words of these three
great and deeply profound men. When faced with the level of orchestrated
carnage and the magnitude of pure malevolence and evil that was unleashed on the
local indigenous population by the Hausa Fulani in Ile-Ife every single Yoruba
leader worth his salt has a solemn duty and obligation before God to condemn it
and speak out against it.
Honor and decency demands that much from each
and every one of us and, more importantly, we owe it to the dead and to those
that were cruelly butchered and cut short in their prime. We can appreciate the
fact that the Presidency and the Federal Government will not commiserate with
us for those that we lost in the conflict given their rabid pro-Hausa Fulani
disposition but we cannot comprehend the devastating and incomprehensible
silence that comes from our fellow Yorubas who happen to be leaders, members
and supporters of the ruling Hausa Fulani-led APC.
Instead of standing in solidarity with us and
publicly condemning those that drew first blood in the carnage, a few
identifiable individuals within their ranks who have clearly lost their way and
who ought to know better, are talking rubbish, running for cover and exhibiting
nothing but good old fashioned trepidation and fear. Worse still they hate
those of us that have the courage of our convictions and that are prepared to
stand up, pick up the gauntlet and face the challenge.
One
wonders why this is so? Could it be because, as is being speculated, they had
assured their hegemonist masters that they had Yorubaland under lock and key
and that they could go ahead and kill as many of our people as they pleased?
Could it be because they assured them that no-one would challenge them or
complain when they did so? Is it possible, as many believe, that things have
got that bad and that those from the south west that suffer from this slavish
disposition have degenerated to this level? If so then what a tragedy this is!
What a shame! What cowardice! What treachery!
